Today we’re joined by legendary value investor Piet Viljoen, the founder of Regarding Capital Management (RECM) and and co-founder of RECM & Calibre (RACP, a JSE listed entity). Piet Viljoen recently merged RECM with Counterpoint, a business that founded by his former Allan Gray & Investec colleague Sam Houlie.

Piet started out as a lecturer at the University of Pretoria, and then joined the Reserve Bank as an economic analyst. He became a portfolio manager at Allan Gray Investment Counsel in 1991 and in 1995 he moved to Investec Asset Management.

On this podcasts he discusses the ups and downs of being a value investor and going against the crowd, and the kind of temperament needed in order to succeed in that calling. He walks us through the journey of how his business partner Theunis de Bruyn (not the cricketer, but the investor) nudged him to start his own shop and hang out his shingle.

He’s described the journey as “life changing” as he had to sell his house and rent in order to achieve his goals. He also shares some of his early investments in businesses like Dischem and Goldrush and some of his biggest failures both in investing and in life. We hope you enjoy this podcast as much as we did!