A Legend Is Back! And You Can Invest With Him
By Dr. Steve Sjuggerud
June 28, 2007
When I was a stockbroker in the early '90s, we spoke about one man in the same breath as investors John Templeton and Warren Buffett. If any of these guys were buying into something, you at least had to check out his reasons…
That man was legendary global value investor Jean-Marie Eveillard…
Unfortunately, Jean-Marie retired just a couple years ago. But now he's back, having recently agreed to a five-year commitment to manage money.
Jean-Marie's track record is incredible… he managed the internationally focused First Eagle Global Fund (SGENX) for more than a quarter century… from the 1970s up until just a couple years ago.
U.S. stocks have generally beaten international stocks for the past few decades. But that didn't stop Jean-Marie from piling up extraordinary numbers… the fund's annualized return has been an exceptional 16% since starting in 1970.
Yes, he put up extraordinary numbers. But even more extraordinary was that he put up those numbers with very little risk. According to the June 25 issue of Fortune, his fund "lost money only twice during his tenure: a trifling 1.3% in 1990 and 0.3% in 1998." It's simply astounding that Jean-Marie avoided big losses in international stocks during that time.
Fortune asked Jean-Marie (a native European) why he came out of retirement. He said he came back to protect funds that "were a little bit my babies."
He also said: "One thing about Americans – something I think is very positive – is there's this idea that God did not put us on this earth to do nothing. No matter your age. Whereas Europeans believe that once you retire, there is nothing wrong with doing nothing."
Jean-Marie said he's not buying homebuilding stocks yet. He thinks the "private equity boom" will end badly. He likes gold as portfolio insurance. He's been going to auctions to buy collectibles (like me), and he's playing it safe right now in the stock market… as he thinks stocks are somewhat expensive.
A few cheap stock markets he likes right now include South Korea and Japan.
The easiest way to buy into these two foreign markets is through iShares, which are exchange-traded funds. EWK is the symbol for the Korea and EWJ is the symbol for Japan.
Mr. Eveillard, we're glad you're back. Wall Street has so few original thinkers, it's nice to see one return.
You can learn more about Mr. Eveillard's funds at First Eagle's website here (His U.S. Value Fund is currently open to new investors). You can read the interview with him in the "Retire Rich" issue of Fortune, or online here.
| 
