One
day when I was in the medical center in Houston and I looked outside and noticed a building
that was called the Fayez Sarofim Research Building. I thought there must be
some capitalist behind it. I did some research and found it was donated by
billionaire investor Fayez Sarofirm. What interest me was that Fayez made a
name for himself buying high quality stocks and has been investing since 1958
which is pretty long term in the investment world. Sarofim’s motto is to never
sell. However, as I did more digging I found a very different side of the Sarofim
family such as $250 million divorces, having children with between different
people, an ex-wife who climbed a mountain and then died, estate battles, and
even drug use. Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction.
Fayez
actually came from a wealthy Egyptian family and came to the United States in
the 1940’s and earned his degree from University of California at Berkeley and
an MBA from Harvard. His firm was founded August 1958.
What
is interesting is the number of clients that Fayez seems to have lost over the
years. According to data from his website. According to this
performance posted on the website it seems as if the number of portfolios
decreased from 270 in 1998 to just 95 as of 2012. The assets have also
decreased from $57 billion in 1998 to just $22 billion as of 2012. The firm use
to (not sure if they still do) manage the pension funds of companies like General
Electric and Ford along with the endowments of Rice University and the
University of Houston). There was this
story last year from the Houston Chronicle that the firm might
lay off people. This
ADV form discloses biographical information of many of the employees who work
at Fayez Sarofim (educational background, prior work experience, etc). Many of the employees have been with the firm
for many decades which is rare these days. What is also interesting is the
company has many entities like Sarofim Trust, Sarofim International Management
Company, Sarofim Advisors Group, Sarofim Realty Advisors, and The Sarofim
Group. The company according to this
Morgan Stanley statement has 21 employees. According to the same document Sarofirm after
fees over the past 10 years has under performed the market 4.67% (versus 8.01%
in S&P 500). This
Fortune magazine story from 1992 discusses how “Successful investing is the result
of judgment and discipline”. During the
early 1990’s he had outperformed the market. In 1993 he was worth $300 million according to
this article.
From 1983-1992 Sarofim outperformed
94% of all money fund managers. In 1993
however he moved into the bottom 20% because of Phillip Morris. Sarofim got a
personal phone call from the treasurer of Phillip Morris to say everything was
okay and the company could still pay out its dividend. Fayez likes stocks with
low price to earnings ratio, high return on equity, and decent dividend yields.
NASDAQ actually has a website that discloses all of the firm’s holdings here.
The biggest holdings are in Phillip
Morris, ExxonMobil, and Coca Cola. Fayez even helped an artist invest according
to this
1999 story from the New York Times.
Sarofim
owns multiple properties in Houston. According to property records he owns a
14,700 square foot home in River Oaks worth around $11.4 million. Also he owns
a 8,700 square foot house in Houston that is worth $5.4 million. However, it
seems like all this wealth comes at a price. (Part II Keeping up With theSarofims: Divorce, Drugs, and Lawsuits)
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