TWST: Please start with a history and overview of the firm.
Mr. Ruopp: Chelsea Management has been in business for 39 years. We are investment counselors - that's all we do. We don't sell real estate or insurance. We are owned entirely by our active Principals. We manage over $1 billion, which is both fixed income and equity, and 30% of our clients are high net worth individuals and 70% are institutional. On the institutional side, we have a number of insurance companies as clients. We have 30-some charitable foundations and trusts for charities in this area, and we have a number of corporate retirement accounts. It's a diversified business, which we like.
We are essentially in the business of buying high-quality stocks, high-quality fixed income, and looking for companies that are very well managed, that have strong balance sheets and a good record of rising earnings, dividends and good industry position - hopefully number one, two or three in their industry. And with all that, we like companies that are selling at or below market multiples so we can see the best of all possible worlds, which would be improvement in earnings, and at the same time, an improvement in price multiple.
TWST: How would you describe the firm's overall investment strategy or philosophy?
