Gary Brode of Silver Arrow Investment Management: Long NCR

8/13/2019 Gary Brode of Silver Arrow Investment Management: Long NCR

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On Tuesday, November 12, 2013, Institutional Investor and SumZero, the world’s largest onlinemembership community of buy-side investment professionals, hosted an idea competition atColumbia University Business School’s Uris Hall Auditorium.

Nineteen emerging managers were selected from within the SumZero community on the basis ofstrong performance and high-quality peer reviews. Each manager gave a three minute pitch on theirbest idea to an audience of analysts and investors who rated their pitch for validity of the thesis,

strength of the argument, feasibility of the trade and originality.

We invite you to view these ideas and register to download each presenter’s bio and full pitch paper.If you’re a professional investment officer or analyst, we invite you to register to vote for the winningidea.



UPDATE (12/5/13) FROM GARY BRODE (SILVER ARROW):

"Since our presentation, NCR has announced a material acquisition of a Digital Insight,a privately owned company. Silver Arrow Investment Management has closed its po-sition in NCR while we are researching this new acquisition. We may re-enter it at afuture date."



Favorite Investment Book:

Margin of Safety by Seth Klarman, Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Taleb, One up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch

Favorite Quote/Author: “If you could make 100 investments like this one, you’d doit and make money overall.” —Doug Hirsch when evaluat-ing an uncertain investment with a high probability-weight-ed chance of success.

Most Attractive Area of the Market Right Now:

Economically sensitive companies and financial services.

Least Attractive Area of the Market Right Now:Defensive investments and hyper-growth companies trad-ing at triple digit valuations.

Best Past Investment Made:

Las Vegas Sands (LVS) – The company has irreplaceableassets including more than 20% market share in Macau,and one of only two casinos in Singapore. LVS produceshigh free cash flow and management is shareholder-friend-

ly. We first bought it 18 months ago in the mid-$30s andsold it in the mid-$60s increasing that profit by buying andselling multiple times during that period.

Worst Past Investment Made:

The Active Network (ACTV) – Weak financials, a stressedbalance sheet, huge management turnover, and conversa-tions with race directors, online advertising salespeople,and competitors led us to believe this was a company withlittle value. An acquirer with a lot of cash disagreed withour assessment.

Personal Investing Style:

Value / Value with a catalyst

Areas of Personal Expertise:

We primarily focus on US-based equities. We are gener-alists and have done extensive work in Media, Healthcare,Gaming, Banks, Technology, Insurance, Transportation,and restructurings and reorganizations over the past 2years.

Gary Brode Silver Arrow Investment Management, LLC

Age: 44 Title: Managing Partner Location: New York, NY

Education (Undergrad/Grad/Certifications): University of Michigan

Previous Employers/Positions: Managing Partner and Founder of Akita Capital Management, LLCSenior Analyst at John A. Levin & Co., Securities Analyst at Brahman Capital and Seneca Capital

Bio: Mr. Brode began his career in the M&A department of Morgan Stanley, and then moved to thebuy-side. He worked in Risk Arbitrage under Doug Hirsch at Smith New Court, and joined Mr. Hirsch when he startedSeneca Capital focusing on special situations investing. Mr. Brode began doing long/short equity investing over 13 yearsago. At Brahman Capital, he initiated positions across many industries, and was also responsible for Brahman’s health-care portfolio which was a significant reason for the firm’s excellent performance (up approximately 64%) during histhree years there. Mr. Brode joined John Levin & Co. where he exercised investment discretion and made the firm moneyin each of the 15 positions he initiated. He Co-Founded Akita Capital where he was a Portfolio Manager for the firm’sresearch-intensive value-oriented long/short equity strategy. The firm held up well in 2008, and put its investors in cashin September of 2008; shortly before the significant market decline. In January of 2012, Mr. Brode joined Raji Khabbaz instarting Silver Arrow. He is a Co-Portfolio Manager for the firm’s long/short equity concentrated best ideas fund. He isalso the author of TV is Next; a book on the coming decline of the television business.

AUM: $5 million Firm Strategy: Long/Short Equity Fund Disclaimer: Please see section 3 of appendix.

Fund Description:

Silver Arrow Investment Management, LLC is a New York-based investment firm that manages the investment partner-ship, Silver Arrow Partners, L.P., and selected managed accounts. The managers employ a long-biased, concentrated

portfolio strategy, relying on a rigorous and fundamentally driven value investing approach. The firm’s objective is tofocus capital in select opportunities that boast the best risk-reward tradeoff, and then achieve a knowledge “edge”.Focusing efforts on fewer and more meaningful investment opportunities has a profound and positive impact on securityselection. Limiting a portfolio to the best ideas, results in a very high research threshold. The portfolio managers eachhave over 15 years of experience in value investing, with specialization in restructurings and reorganizations, and otherspecial situations.

Firm Focus: Fundamental value and special situations.We manage a focused best ideas fund based on in-depthresearch.

Past Ideas Submitted on SumZero: Fifth & Pacific CosInc (FNP), Wellpoint (WLP), Digital Realty Trust (DLR),Metlife Inc (MET), Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC(RBS)



NCR - The Rise of The Machines

Man vs Machine vs The Future

In science fiction writer Frederick Pohl’s “The Midas Plague”, Pohl

imagines a world where robots overproduce consumer goods forcing the poor to

consume constantly while the wealthy live simple austere lives. Kurt Vonnegut’s

“Harrison Bergeron” posits a world where the government uses technology to

handicap people who are smart, attractive, or physically talented to ensure a

world of complete equality and constant discomfort. Alternatively, Star Trek

describes a much different future where access to unlimited energy and

replicators that can instantly produce any food or consumer good means that all

of humanity has unlimited material wealth. Whether the future is a utopia or a

dystopia, whether it features greater or lesser equality, or whether it promises a

higher standard of living or not, it seems that all agree that the future belongs to

machines.

While it is interesting to debate whether machines replacing human jobs is

“good’ or “bad”, these changes are taking place irrespective of our moral bias, or

feelings on the matter. NCR began as the National Manufacturing Company in

1879 and in 1884 was renamed the National Cash Register Company. Many

people view NCR as the sleepy manufacturer of ATMs which have been

ubiquitous in the United States for 30 years. In contrast, we see NCR as a

leader in producing technology that will replace human labor and reduce costs for

business owners. We believe that a misperception about NCR’s growth

opportunity as well as investor concern about a once-serious, but now-resolved

pension issue has led to a value opportunity in the stock.

1 Gary Brode|Silver Arrow Investment Management|[email protected]|(917) 546‐6821



Financial Services

NCR’s product lineup is large and diverse. The Financial Services division

sells automated equipment to banks including ATMs. This division accounts for

a little over half of NCR’s revenue and a little under half of its segment EBIT.

Financial Services had a weak third quarter this year with sales down 4% which

was a primary reason the stock sold off after the earnings announcement. Sales

to US-based financial institutions were weak and that lack of growth is acting as

a weight on the stock price. On its recent earnings call, NCR said that fourth

quarter bookings look strong.

Looking beyond the short-term quarterly noise, there are reasons to be

optimistic. At their introduction in the United States in the 1960s, ATMs were an

effective cost cutting device for banks as they enabled financial institutions to

replace expense tellers with machines. There was always a natural limit to how

far this trend could continue because ATMs were only able to handle certain

transactions. We’re now seeing an upgrade cycle in the US driven by a new

generation of ATMs that have enhanced capabilities.

The new generation of ATMs allows customers to deposit cash and

checks without envelopes. While this may sound like an insignificant change,

some bank customers didn’t like the idea of putting a bundle of checks in an

envelope, putting that envelope in a machine, and counting on someone to

properly account for it later when the customer isn’t present. The new machines

immediately confirm to the customer the dollar amount of the checks and print

out a scanned copy of the checks on the customer receipt. 80% of teller activity

relates to deposit-taking and check cashing, and the new machines should be

able to handle 90% of what tellers do now. The more transactions that can be

handled by machine, the fewer expensive tellers are required in the branch.




In the not too distant future, we’ll start to see more video teller machines

where a customer can speak to a remote bank teller who can operate the

machine. Bank tellers in high wage areas are going to be replaced by cheaper

labor in other locations. Because the tellers will be remote and required staffing

across many branches is more predictable than in individual branches, the

overall need for tellers will be reduced.

Many of us can remember the days of waiting in line at the bank to

withdraw cash. Customers prefer the speed and convenience of ATM banking.

We’re headed for a world where mobile banking directly interacts with ATMs in

many ways. Soon, you’ll be able to use your phone to program a cash

withdrawal. Then, when you get to the ATM, you’ll just enter a code and the

machine will dispense your cash. You’ll receive a receipt by email. This will

reduce the amount of time customers spend at the ATM. Even the machines are

becoming more efficient.

While the US ATM upgrade will benefit NCR, the best opportunity for

growth in this business is overseas. According to a Barron’s article last year, the

US has 1,500 ATMs per million people. That figure is just 100 in China and 50 in

India. According to RBR, the Russian ATM market is growing almost 10% a year,

China is growing between 10% and 15% a year, and India is around 20% a year.

Globally, NCR has number 1 share in ATMs.

The Financial Services division grew 6% in 2012 and is roughly flat this

year. Last year, NCR projected that this business could grow the top line 6% -

8% a year for the next couple of years and that they could increase EBIT margins

from 10% to 11% to 13% by 2015. Given the opportunity for a US upgrade cycle

and for international growth, this seems reasonable to us.




We would note that due to a deadline for the SumZero / Institutional

Investor conference where this will be presented, this report had to be

completed before the 2013 NCR Investor Day.

Retail Solutions

NCR’s Retail Solutions division is an area where we’re particularly excited

about the opportunity. NCR’s electronic point of sale (ePOS) systems can be

thought of as a modern version of the business started in the 1800’s by the

National Cash Register Company. Globally, NCR has 11% share of this

business, ranking #2 behind Toshiba. The worldwide ePOS business has been

growing around 5% - 10% a year, and there are several innovations that could

allow this growth to continue.

NCR’s Silver point of sale product is aimed at helping small businesses

connect with their customers. Armed with “Silver”, a business owner can check

on sales and inventory from their smart phone or tablet anywhere or anytime. It

also enables businesses to receive and process payment away from their main

cash register. A gardener or home fitness instructor can take payment on their

mobile phone. A business owner could go to a trade show, take payment for

orders on their tablet while keeping track of sales at their physical business. A

retail establishment could sell outdoor or impulse items in front of their store

without putting in the wiring or weather protection required for a full POS system

outside.

The area where we see the most opportunity for growth is in electronics

that allow businesses to operate with fewer employees. One example would be

a deli counter at your local supermarket. Currently, customers take a number,

and wait to tell the supermarket employee what they want to order. The

employee spends part of their time taking the order and part of their time filling it.





An NCR kiosk would allow customers to enter their order while they wait.

Employees behind the counter would then spend all of their time filling orders

and none taking them from the customer. Greater efficiency means a busy deli

counter could operate with fewer employees. This is one example, but the

general principle can be applied across many retail opportunities.

In our opinion, the next big area where retail establishments will replace

employees with machines is self-checkout. We’ve seen these machines in New

York-based drugstores for years. They are also regularly used in supermarkets.

They can be a little uncomfortable for customers who have spent a lifetime

interacting with store employees to buy a pack of gum, but technology moves on

and people always adjust.

Self-checkout is NCR’s market. The company has 70% share

worldwide up from 64% a year earlier and 79% share in the US. Bears on

the stock justifiably point to the fact that the global self-checkout market barely

grew last year, and is growing this year only due to a huge order by WalMart.

Our view is this market is growing due to a huge order by WalMart! Self-

checkout machines allow a store to use less human labor and reduce costs.

WalMart is a leader in reducing costs and passing a share of those cost savings

on to their customers.1

While WalMart focuses on labor savings, some Asian locations are

choosing self-checkout due to their small footprint. When you’re running a small

store with high rent, maximizing your available selling space can be a difference-

maker to these businesses. We expect to see continued adoption of this

technology in more retail locations. RBR projects that yearly sales and the

1 We understand that the idea of WalMart putting additional pressure on employment and wages

is upsetting to many people, and that others believe that it’s beneficial for WalMart to be asprofitable as possible. While we enjoy political and philosophical debates in our free time, as fundmanagers, our goal is to interpret the world as it exists as accurately as possible.



installed base of self-checkout machines will double between 2012 and 2018.

This strikes us as a conservative estimate.

Retail Solutions represents about one third of NCR’s revenue and a little

less than 30% of segment EBIT. At its 2012 analyst day, NCR projected that

Retail Solutions would grow 7% - 9% (excluding the Retalix acquisition) a year

and raise operating margins to 8% - 10% by 2015 from the 6% level in 2012. For

the reasons explained in the previous paragraphs, we think that those revenue

projections are not aggressive. As for the targeted 200 to 400 basis point

improvement in operating margins by 2015, NCR is already seeing that level of

improvement in 2013.

Hospitality

The Hospitality division is only 10% of NCR’s revenue, but with EBIT

margins in the mid to high teens, it has the potential to earn almost as much as

the Retail Solutions division. Hospitality has a similar business to Retail

Solutions. Hospitaility primarily provide ePOS systems to restaurants, stadiums,

and other entertainment venues.

A good POS system is crucial for any restaurant or bar. It facilitates

communication between servers and the kitchen, and enables much better

inventory and expense control than would be possible without one. NCR has #1

share in this market.

A new generation of mobile and kiosk systems will both enable future

growth and reduce employee payroll for business owners. NCR is already rolling

out new systems that allow customers to order to-go items from apps on their

phones. Earlier this year, the company announced a new system enabling

customers to place an order at select Jamba Juice locations from their phone

and pay for the order using PayPal. Instead of waiting in line to speak to an




employee at the counter and then have that employee handle payment, the

customer just walks in and receives their pre-paid and pre-ordered shake. For

the customer, it means a much shorter wait or no wait. Just like the earlier deli

counter example, the Jamba Juice employee would go from taking orders,

making shakes, and collecting money to just making shakes. Eventually,

innovations like this will lead to lower staffing levels and reduced employee

expense for business owners.

We’ll start to see the same kind of functionality in restaurants. While we

expect high-end white-tablecloth restaurants to remain full service, mid-range

restaurants will soon be taking orders from in-store seated customers using their

cell phones. These orders will go straight to the kitchen, and servers will bring

them out to the table. Customers will be able to pay from their phone using a

credit card or PayPal. Again, server responsibility will go from taking orders,

delivering food, and handling payment to just delivering food. Restaurants will

need fewer servers to handle the same number of tables.

We are surprised that there aren’t already more self-serve kiosks at quick

serve restaurants. We don’t think customers require a lot of personal interaction

to order the #1 combo meal at a Burger King of McDonalds, and we suspect that

many of them would be happy to punch in their order at a kiosk, pay there, and

go to the counter to collect their meal. By eliminating order-taking and payment

collection from counter employees’ responsibilities, these restaurants could

provide the same service with fewer staff members.

Last year, NCR projected 3 year revenue growth in Hospitality of 13% -

15% annualized. Year to date, they’re up 21% over last year. We’re a little less

confident in NCR’s margin guidance for Hospitality. NCR projects 2015 EBIT

margin of 20% - 22% which is up considerably over last year’s 16.3%. There

hasn’t been a lift in margins this year despite the revenue increase, so while the

projections are possible, we’d like to see a few quarters of improvement before




we express more confidence in NCR’s projections. It is worth noting that due to

the relatively small size of Hospitality compared to the rest of NCR’s business,

each margin point of EBIT in this division will only amount to $7MM - $8MM of

pre-tax income so a miss of a couple hundred basis points here wouldn’t have

much of an impact on 2015 results.

Emerging Industries

NCR’s Emerging Industries is executing on several opportunities to use

machines to replace jobs formerly done by humans. The most obvious example

is airline check-in kiosks. NCR provides the kiosks for 4 of the 5 largest airlines.

It was not that long ago that any trip to the airport meant waiting in a long

line to check in and receive your boarding pass. Now, you can walk into the

terminal, swipe your credit card to bring up your reservation, and the machine will

print your boarding pass. The kiosks will also allow you to see the aircraft

seating chart, change your seat, and pay for an upgrade or more desirable seat.

If you need to check a bag, you can indicate it on the screen, then just bring your

bag to a baggage specialist. The entire process is much faster for the customer,

and reduces the need for contact with a counter agent leading to lower demand

for these employees.

Similar kiosks can be used for self check-in at hotels, rental car facilities,

and to purchase bus tickets. In each of these cases, NCR technology will reduce

the demand for counter staff. While we typically find airline counter

representatives, hotel check-in personal, and rental car staff to be friendly helpful

people, it is uncommon that we have a situation where they can provide

additional value. In most situations, if using an automated kiosk gets us through

the check-in experience more quickly, that is what we’d prefer. In no case, would

we look forward to a return to waiting in long lines to check in for short domestic

flights.




In 2012, NCR’s management projected 3 year CAGR of 10% - 15% in

Emerging Industries with flat, but high operating margins of 23% - 25%. This

division is small and contracts are lumpy. Year to date in 2013, there has been a

slight decrease in revenue versus last year and a decrease in margins. We do

like the overall opportunity for NCR in this segment, but it hasn’t executed on that

growth promise yet in 2013. The good news is that with this segment

representing only 6% of NCR’s revenue, a miss in this segment this year won’t

have much impact on the bottom line.

Pension

We believe that the pension issue is one reason that NCR trades at a

discount to its peers. Back in 2008, NCR had a traditional pension system that

was heavily invested in equities. The equity portion of the pension plan had

substantial losses that year, and NCR has been climbing out of a giant pension

hole since then.

Over the next few years, NCR moved almost all of its pension assets to

fixed income. It also shut down most of its pension plans which capped the

amount of shortfall the company had to address. Then, NCR offered buyouts to

certain participants in its US pension plan. Finally, the company invested large

amounts of capital into the remaining pension system to reduce its obligations.

This issue has been an overhang on the company for the past 5 years and

has necessitated pro-forma reporting of earnings and operating income. The

good news is that the company is just about at the end of dealing with its pension

requirements. At the time of this writing, NCR’s pension shortfall is down to

$326MM which is less than $2/share. Our view is that it makes sense to use

non-pension earnings and cash flow to value the company and to subtract $2

from that valuation to account for the pension.




Management

We are focused on two things when we evaluate this management team.

First, they regularly give three year guidance, and have a habit of making those

numbers. In 2010, management gave revenue, operating income, and EPS

guidance for 2013. We still have one quarter to go, but it looks like the company

will clear each of those hurdles with room to spare. In general, it is difficult to

make 3 year predictions about the revenue and margins of a large worldwide

business. This management team has offered aggressive multi-year guidance

and made those numbers.

We’d like to see the company do a better job of converting earnings into

free cash flow. To management’s credit, they agree. On the last conference call,

the CEO noted that his top priority was being a good operator and his second

priority was improving cash flow generation. As investors, we like his priorities.

He’s executing on the operational side. We’ll be looking for the cash flow

generation to improve over the next few quarters.

Valuation

In 2012, NCR earned $2.49 before extraordinary items and pension.

Company guidance is for $2.70 - $2.80 in 2013 and $3.65 - $4.25 in 2015. (As

noted earlier, the deadline for this report was before the 2013 NCR Investor Day

where we expect the company will update guidance). We are modeling $3.13 in

EPS in 2014 and $4.01 in 2015. We expect 2015 free cash flow/share to be

approximately equal to EPS.

It’s often helpful to get a sense of how comparable public companies are

valued. We looked at Diebold and Wincor Nixdorf in the ATM market, Toshiba,

Hewlett-Packard, and MICROS Systems in ePOS, and Fujitsu and ITAB in self-




checkout. Most of these companies trade at earnings multiples in the mid-teens

to mid-twenties, but we don’t find that to be particularly influential in our view on

valuation. NCR isn’t a pure play in any specific area, and neither are most of the

comps. Several of these companies aren’t growing much, several of them only

compete with NCR in small areas of their business, and others aren’t very liquid.

We prefer to focus on NCR’s earnings growth which we expect will come

from high single digit revenue growth, and a few hundred basis points of margin

expansion. If NCR can go from $2.49 in earnings to around $4 in 3 year years,

we would expect that kind of multi-year secular growth story combined with final

resolution of any pension issues will result in at least a 15 multiple. (We reiterate

that the NCR pension shortfall is now less than $2 a share and should be under

$1.50 a share by year end). NCR currently trades at 11.5x our 2014 estimate

and 9.0x our 2015 estimate; multiples typically reserved for low-growth

companies. We think a $60 stock price 12 – 18 months from now is possible.

Summary

In NCR, we see a fundamental story highlighted by a multi-year secular

growth trend. Regardless of whether we like it or not, many of the jobs requiring

human interaction will be replaced with machines in the form of computers, smart

phones, tablets, and kiosks. This will happen because in most cases, the

machines can take orders and instructions from customers faster, more

accurately, and at any hour. Customer time spent waiting in line, explaining what

they want, and exchanging payment will be significantly reduced. More

importantly, these devices will allow both large and small businesses to cut staff

and reduce expenses. As we noted earlier in this report, once WalMart has

found a way to reduce its expense structure, others will follow, or be

uncompetitive.




We’ve seen anecdotal reports of customer discomfort with some of these

devices including self-checkout machines at drug stores and supermarkets. We

think those reports are accurate and unimportant. As we noted in a previous

piece of Silver Arrow research, there was a time when most VCRs in the country

were blinking 00:00 because no one could figure out how to program the time.

Eventually, technology becomes more familiar and easier to use. People adapt.

NCR is a leader in enabling this trend. The company is #1 in ATM market

share, #1 in hospitality, #2 in ePOS globally, has 4 of the 5 largest airlines as self

check-in customers, and has 70% of the global share of retail self-checkout

machines.

Management has a history of delivering on long-term promises, and the

2015 guidance they gave at the 2012 investor day looks reasonable. The areas

where 2013 results to date imply that management might be a little aggressive

are small, and a miss in those areas are not likely to cause the whole company to

fall short of its guidance.

We believe that the stock is inexpensive relative to its prospects due to

two reasons. First, we think the market is overly focused on recent unimpressive

results in the US ATM market. We expect that a US upgrade cycle and much

higher growth overseas will address this concern. Second, NCR’s pension issue

has been a big overhang on the stock for years. The company has now moved

its pension assets out of equities, has stopped adding most new employees to

the pension plans, and has bought out many plan participants. After spending

years making up for the pension shortfall, NCR’s pension underfunding is now

less than $2 a share. This issue is about to disappear from any list of investor

concerns.

NCR earned $2.49 in 2012 excluding pension and extraordinary items,

and has given guidance of $2.70 - $2.80 for 2013. We think $4 in EPS and free




cash flow per share in 2015 is within reasonable possibility. We expect that kind

of growth combined with a lifting of the pension overhang, and a long-term

secular growth story can get the company a 15 multiple and a $60 stock price

(versus the current $36 price) 12 to 18 months from now.





Gary Brode is a Managing Partner and Portfolio Manager for Silver Arrow InvestmentManagement, LLC. He started his career in the Mergers & Acquisitions Department atMorgan Stanley & Co. and has spent the last 20 years working for hedge funds, includingSeneca Capital, Brahman Capital, and the Event Driven Group of John A. Levin & Co.; allfunds with up to $2.5 billion in assets. He was a Founder and Managing Partner of AkitaCapital Management, LLC, a value-oriented long/short equity hedge fund.

Raji Khabbaz is a Managing Partner and Senior Portfolio Manager for Silver ArrowInvestment Management, LLC. He has spent the last 18 years working as a portfoliomanager, focused on value investing, special situations, and long/ short equity investing. Heco-founded Highline Capital Management, LLC and Pierce Street Capital Management, LLC,two value-oriented long/short equity hedge funds. He also served as a portfolio manager atIvory Capital, overseeing up to $1 billion in firm assets. In 2009, he formed Silver ArrowInvestment Management, LLC, a value investing investment partnership, focused onmanaging concentrated equity portfolios. Mr. Khabbaz began his career in the Mergers &Acquisitions Departments at Morgan Stanley & Co. and Gleacher & Co. He received at MBAfrom the Harvard Graduate School of Business and B.A. in Economics with honors from theUniversity of California at Berkeley.

Silver Arrow Investment Management, LLC is a New York-based investment firm thatmanages the investment partnership, Silver Arrow Partners, L.P., and selected managedaccounts. The managers employ a long-biased, concentrated portfolio strategy, relying on arigorous and fundamentally driven value investing approach. The firm’s objective is to focuscapital in select opportunities that boast the best risk-reward tradeoff, and then achieve aknowledge “edge”. Focusing efforts on fewer and more meaningful investment opportunitieshas a profound and positive impact on security selection. Limiting a portfolio to the bestideas, results in a very high research threshold. The portfolio managers each have over 15years of experience in value investing, with specialization in restructurings andreorganizations, and other special situations.

SumZero is the world’s largest community of investment fund professionals. SumZero’smembers-only website is designed to help fund pros identify and connect with otherprofessional investors in a compliant environment, share proprietary data and research, andidentify career opportunities within their industry. SumZero’s membership currently includesthousands of the world’s largest and most prominent hedge funds, mutual funds, and privateequity funds. Founded in 2008, SumZero is built on the belief that investing is not a zero-sum game.

Gary Brode and Raji Khabbaz are SumZero contributors.

Gary Brode of Silver Arrow Investment Management: Long NCR

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