The value philosophy has its roots in the writing of Benjamin Graham, an American who developed his theories during the 1930s, having witnessed the stock market boom, the Wall Street Crash, and the Great Depression. Graham introduced the concept of fundamental analysis of stocks and the companies behind them as we know it today. We have always been inspired by, and faithful to, Graham’s most central idea: that investing should be about buying solid companies that are undervalued in terms of their asset value or earnings power.

Over the years, our belief in that basic concept has not changed. You might say it is almost sacred to us that our investment process is based on sound and reasonable principles, where the core is to generate value by analyzing and picking the right companies. Nevertheless, we like to think that some elements of our investment process have improved over the years. Just consider the tools at the heart of our day-to-day work. In the late 1990s, we were using fax machines and snail mail to correspond with companies, whose websites – if they existed – carried hardly any information. On our desks were paperclips, and old school calculators and Bloomberg terminals. Since then, technological development has transformed our working day, with digital tools and access to vast amounts of information. Our team has also grown, and Sparinvest currently has one of the most experienced teams in Europe in terms of value investment, with more than 100 years of combined investment experience. But our philosophy is that there is no final version of our investment process: we must, and we will, always challenge ourselves, disrupt ourselves, as we look for ways to improve it further.

Today Sparinvest has built a history of more than 20 years as value investors since we introduced the investment style to Denmark in the late 1990s. Of course, that was not ideal timing: right in the middle of the dot-com bubble, with the stock market in love with internet stocks. Despite high valuations, many investors took heavy exposure to tech, and value investors were left out in the cold – until, of course, the markets turned. In our 20 years managing value funds, value investing has probably been declared dead twice, but then returned to life. In many ways, it is about time horizons. The stock market has always shown a remarkable ability to chase short-term trends, and over the last decade or so, it feels as though the world has become even more short-term in its focus – but as value investors, we aim to see beyond short-term noise, and focus on long-term value. Therefore, value investing requires patience. We have not drifted, but stayed true to the core concept of investing in undervalued stocks. We remain convinced that value will continue to perform well in the long run, offering investors a compelling option in their asset allocation toolbox.

	Name Position Funds Sector Background Experience	Jens Moestrup Rasmussen Head of Value Equities team Global and European Energy & Materials M.Sc. Ecomomics, University of Copenhagen Industry 27, Sparinvest 21
	Name Position Funds Sector Background Experience	Kasper Billy Jacobsen Chief Portfolio Manager Global and EM IT, Telecom & EM Financials B.Sc. Ecomomics, Copenhagen Business School Industry 24, Sparinvest 16
	Name Position Funds Sector Background Experience	Per Kronborg Jensen Senior Portfolio Manager Global and European Industrials, Consumer Discretionary & DM Financials M.Sc. Ecomomics, Aarhus University Industry 13, Sparinvest 13
	Name Position Funds Sector Background Experience	David Orr Senior Portfolio Manager Global and EM Health Care, Consumer Stables, Utilities & EM Financials BA Law, Oxford, MA Advanced Japanese, Sheffield Industry 14, Sparinvest 10
	Name Position Sector Background Experience	Jeroen Bresser Portfolio Manager Health Care, Consumer Stables, Utilities & DM + EM Financials CFA, Japanese Language & Culture, Leiden University Industry 18, Sparinvest 10
	Name Position Sector Background Experience	Lisbeth Søgaard Nielsen Portfolio Manager Industrials & Consumer Discretionary M.Sc. Ecomomics, Copenhagen Business School Industry 13, Sparinvest 7
	Name Position Sector Background Experience	Morten Rønnow Tandrup Senior Analyst IT & Telecom M.Sc. Ecomomics, Aarhus University Industry 12, Sparinvest 10
	Name Position Sector Background Experience	Mark Feasey Senior Analyst Energy, Materials & DM Fianancials CFA, MBA, UCLA Anderson School of Management Industry 23, Sparinvest 1
	Name Position Sector Background Experience	Marco Schwennesen Orland Analyst Industrials & Consumer Discretionary M.Sc. Finance, Copenhagen Business School Industry 3, Sparinvest 3
	Name Position Background Experience	Martin Stoltenberg Strøh Student Analyst Student, International Business, Copenhagen Business School Industry 1, Sparinvest 1