The Biltmore View

It's Summer! Time to head to your favorite beach or mountain vacation destination. For many, the dream is to own a vacation getaway.  Following a liquidity event, many entrepreneurs buy that dream. They envision ultimately leaving that property to their children to enjoy for years to come. Unbeknownst to them, if not handled properly, these properties can sow the seeds of future family confli...

My guest today is Richard Patton. For me, this conversation is a real treat. I’ve known Richard from early in my investment career – over 20 years ago. At that time, Richard was the founder and Portfolio Manager of a Nashville-based event driven hedge fund called Courage Capital. He was then and still remains one of the most interesting and singular investors I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. Whil...

My guest today is Bill Barton. Bill is a Founding Partner of Colrain Capital – overseeing all elements of the firm’s portfolio management. Founded in 2001, Colrain specializes in fundamental stock picking. They run one concentrated portfolio of best ideas.  The team initially met at legendary value equity firm GMO – and left in 2001 to form Mayo Capital with Richard Mayo. That firm is now known as...

My guest today is Greg Reid, President and Senior Portfolio Manager of Real Assets at Westwood Holdings, a publicly held investment firm with over $18b in assets under management. For most of his thirty year career, Greg has led energy infrastructure businesses. And as you’ll hear from his accent and style, Greg is the consummate Texas oil and gas man.  This is a fascinating time for traditional e...

If there’s any single word to sum up the current investment landscape, it’s got to be “uncertainty.” My guest for this episode of the Biltmore View is perfect for this environment. Jon Duensing is Sr. Managing Director, Portfolio Manager and Head of US  Fixed Income at Amundi US. Amundi is the largest asset manager in Europe and one of the 10 biggest investment managers in the world. As I’ve gotte...

I’m delighted to kick off 2025 with a conversation with Warren Fisher. We last spoke to Warren during the SVB banking crisis. He’s the founder and CEO at Manole Captial Management, a FinTech focused asset manager. With the election promising to usher in regulatory changes across finance and technology, once again, we go to Warren Fisher. In this episode, we have a broad ranging conversation on ban...

As capital markets shuddered, following the interest rate increases of 2022, the research team at Biltmore geared up to find opportunity. One area that stood out was venture capital. Clearly in a liquidity driven bubble for the prior several years, venture capital had quickly shifted from hot to not. It was during this search that I first met Itamar Har-Even of Ion Pacific. Itamar comes from an in...

Over past few years of Covid, inflation and interest rate increases, the investment sector most impacted has got to be real estate. Office vacancies have spiked as the way we work has transformed central business districts all over the country. Interest rates have increased the most in decades, shocking the capital structures of apartments, shopping centers, and hotels. Home prices have spiked nea...

I recorded this conversation with Scott Wallace, CIO and Founder of Shorepath Capital on July 12th.  As I write this today on August 5th, stocks are in full correction with the Magnificent 7 stocks shedding nearly $1t in market value. While we talk a lot about the Mag 7, this is broad ranging discussion, as Scott addresses the upcoming election, the dispersion between growth tech and the rest of t...

On today’s Biltmore View we’re going to mix it up a bit. Rather than another discussion about niche investments such as music royalties or mortgage derivatives, we’re going to dig into a different sort of niche investment subject – prenuptial agreements. Many are taken aback or even repelled by the mention of a prenup. Like many topics on the Biltmore View, we’re going to challenge these generally...

Following the mortgage market meltdown of 2008, a whole new group of investment companies arose from the wreckage of investment banks. I was among the few people at the time running into the fire and actively investing with these startup mortgage investment firms. Amongst those building new mortgage investment businesses was a particularly bright, energetic guy named Skylar Weinand from Texas. Sky...

One area that seems to be overlooked in the energy transition is nuclear energy. This is an existing zero-emission technology that currently provides over 18% of electrical capacity in the US. At the most recent COP 28 gathering of nations to address global climate change, a declaration was signed to triple nuclear capacity by 2050.  This is a really big deal. We’ve invited Jay Surina, Managing Pa...

My guest today is Darryl Dewberry, Executive Chariman of The Spectrum Companies. Founded in 1982, Spectrum is a Southeastern-focused commercial real estate development and management company, with responsibility for over $2b in properties. There is so much going on in commercial real estate – near Armageddon in the office sector, the rapid rise of interest rates repricing everything, disruption in...

Our guest today is Jonathan Litt, Founder and CIO at Land & Buildings. Jon is a prominent activist investor, focused on public real estate companies. Since founding Land & Buildings in 2008, Jon has waged 36 public activist campaigns frequently resulting in corporate actions to the benefit of shareholders. This is a particularly interesting time in commercial real estate - full of changes....

If you ever want to cause a debate with any of your investment friends, a good starter subject is BioTech. People either love it or hate it. Biotech stocks are particularly volatile. The day trial results are released can see a stock falling 50% or gaining 100%. In addition, it takes a high level of scientific and medical expertise to even understand the drugs.  At the same time, we are living thr...

That’s right, helicopters. At Biltmore we believe a reliable way to produce outsized returns is through purchasing assets and securities below their fundamental value. In efficient markets, that’s a very difficult thing to do. But if you look hard enough, you can find areas that markets overlook, fear or misunderstand. It is this great search that takes us to some unexpected corners of the investm...

Our guest, Nick Renwick, is Senior Portfolio Manager and Head of Research at Cross Ocean Partners. Cross Ocean invests globally in a broad range of credit and hard assets. They specialize in sourcing assets directly from banks. This provides the firm a distinctive sourcing advantage as well as an inside view on the health and future of global banks. Cross Ocean was formed as the European Special S...

In the Summer of 2018, I had the privilege of spending a week with Cesar Collier in Sao Paolo on a due diligence trip. In his life, Cesar has become close personal friends with every one of the city’s 12 million residents. Through that networking as well as a great deal of investment acumen, he has built Siguler Guff into the dominant player in a unique asset class - Brazilian legal claims against...

The failure of Silicon Valley Bank, left many wondering about the safety of their savings. As we record this, the government’s actions appear to have won a reprieve in the banking panic. Is the government fix a finger in the dam holding back a flood of public mistrust of banks or will events spread across the financial industry to include other regional banks and even traditional custodians such a...

The words “private equity” bring forward images of Wall Street Titans drunk on power and leverage, sucking out profits from middle market businesses and leaving behind empty shells in their wake. While that makes a great narrative, it’s not always true. Standing firmly on the other side of that narrative is Halle Capital. In today’s conversation, I speak with both Jay Abramson, Senior Partner, and...

The slow rolling legalization of cannabis in the United States is providing an interesting investment opportunity. Since Covid, cannabis sales are up tremendously. The legal industry is growing as more states legalize medicinal and/or recreational use. As large, licensed multiple state cannabis operations grow, they are increasingly cashflow positive. All of this despite having no access to the US...

Like many of our favorite investment managers, Chris Tokarski was originally introduced to us by a client who built his fortune in the same industry – in this case real estate.  Chris was a founder of Acore Capital in 2015. Since that time it has grown to be one of the premier commercial real estate lenders with over 100 professionals and over $20b in assets under management. Chris built this busi...

Scott Wallace was the very first guest on the Biltmore View Podcast. And now he’s our first guest to be on the podcast three times. There’s good reason for that. Scott is not only a great stock picker, he’s also an insightful thinker. On this podcast, we talk about why history is not necessary an accurate measure for our current situation: while we had inflation in the 70’s, they may not be the ri...

As founder of Traveller Capital Advisors, a boutique investment firm focused on purchasing LP interests of private funds in the secondary market, Drew Crichton has a great perch from which to view changes in the world of private investing. On this episode of the Biltmore View, Drew and I will speculate on the future for valuations in private assets, including leveraged buyouts, venture capital and...

Given the massive run up in home prices over the past two years and the ensuing spike in interest rates, the future value of our homes is a complex question. The US housing market is one of the largest asset classes in the world. In 2008, it nearly led to the fall of the global financial order. Needless to say, we need to pay close attention to home values, mortgages, and interest rates.  Our gues...