Overview

Clarke is an investment company. Our objective is to maximize shareholder value. While not the perfect metric, we believe that Clarke’s book value per share, together with the dividends paid to shareholders, is an appropriate measure of our success in maximizing shareholder value over time. We attempt to maximize shareholder value by allocating capital to investments that we believe will generate high returns and reallocating capital over time as needed. To do this, Clarke seeks to identify investments that are undervalued, out of favour or distressed and in need of positive change. Our investment focus is on the following asset classes:

  • Engaged investments in public companies

  • Full or partial ownership of businesses

  • Value-add real estate

Clarke expects to be an active and engaged participant in the businesses and real estate in which it invests.

Operating Principles

The following are our core operating principles:

  1. We dislike dilution. We issue equity sparingly and only when we believe the benefit significantly outweighs the cost.

  2. We do not believe in growing our assets for the sake of getting bigger.

  3. We prefer reinvesting our capital than distributing it.

  4. We like to repurchase our shares when we can do so at a discount to our estimate of intrinsic value.

  5. We measure everything on a per share basis.

  6. We eat our own cooking. Management and board members own a significant amount of stock in Clarke.

Investment Tenets

The following are our key investment tenets:

We have the freedom to invest across industries and asset classes. We are generalists. We seek out value where it exists.

We are long-term investors. We have an indefinite holding period. We are willing to hold investment through cyclical downturns. Investing for the long-term allows us to compound value tax-efficiently.

We focus on the intrinsic value of an asset. We are willing to look beyond poor performance if we believe it is temporary and/or if we believe the underlying assets have significant overlooked value. We frequently buy assets with the goal of selling cash flows.

We have a desire to improve the assets in which we invest. We work with the management teams and boards of the companies in which we invest to improve their operations, capital structure, approach to capital allocation and long-term strategies. We seek to maximize value for all shareholders.

We do not invest passively.