2024 reflections and portfolio review
Reading more and doing less
It's been a little over three years since I started this newsletter. I thought it would be a good time to reflect on the portfolio's performance and my current holdings. I’ve primarily written about Indian companies so far, as I felt there was less in-depth research readily available in the Indian equity space. In 2025, I plan to start writing more about international companies.
The Substack
The subscriber base has crossed 1000 (from around 200 at the start of 2024). I've enjoyed writing the newsletter so far; I've also learned a lot and connected with many investors across the globe.
I’ve done five companies deep-dives (listed below) and four other investment-related articles since December 2022.
Current India portfolio
My India portfolio returned 34% in 2024, with an annualized return since inception of 26%, compared to 16% for the NIFTY 500.
While most core holdings (listed below) appear fairly valued, some have exceeded my initial fair value estimates (e.g. Bajaj Holdings & VA Tech Wabag). However, they remain high-quality companies with sufficiently long runways for growth. Therefore, I have decided to adopt a "very lazy" approach to selling them, drawing inspiration from Nalanda Capital. This appears to have been the right approach, as the seemingly "overvalued" portfolio positions at the beginning of 2024 were also the ones that contributed most to the performance throughout the rest of the year.
Note: if you’re on mobile, click the “datawrapper” link above the table to see all the holdings (12 in total).
Performance since inception:
International portfolio
While the international portfolio performed well in 2024 with a 25% return, its long-term performance since inception has been more modest, matching the VT global index at 11%.
The top holdings (listed below) have varying valuation levels:
Most are fairly valued (BRK, DBS, Tencent)
Some seem undervalued (Kyndryl, BABA, JD.com)
Some seem overvalued (Spotify & WISE)
That being said, all of them remain “high quality” - they have strong balance sheets (mostly debt-free), good return on capital employed (ROCE), and maintained decent earnings growth in 2024.
Onwards and upwards
Hope you’ve enjoyed reading! As always, let me know your feedback and any other companies / topics that are worth a deep-dive.
Sharing some useful websites / tools I use on a regular basis:
Tijori Finance - Indian company financials, benchmarking & knowledge base
Valuepickr forums - Indian investing and company forum
Dataroma - US “super-investor” portfolios
ValueInvestorsClub - international stock deep-dives
International company financials:
Simplywall.st for a quick overview and financials
roic.ai for detailed financials
Yahoo Finance is good for a look at the balance sheet
Morningstar tracks historical efficiency metrics like ROE and ROIC
Portseido - Portfolio performance & asset allocation tracker
A custom multi-reddit for all the reddit investing communities I follow
Disclaimer: The information contained in this publication is not intended to constitute individual investment advice and is not designed to meet your personal financial situation. The opinions expressed in such publications are those of the publisher and are subject to change without notice. I may from time to time have positions in the securities covered in the articles on this website. I use company declarations and open source information sources believed to be reliable, but their accuracy cannot be guaranteed. The author, shall in no event be held liable to any party for any direct, indirect, punitive, special, incidental, or consequential damages arising directly or indirectly from the use of any of this material.
did u have a markel post somewhere?