David Abrams

David Abrams graduated from University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. degree in History. Prior to forming Abrams Capital Management in 1999, Abrams worked at Seth Klarman’s Baupost Group for 10 years. In the nearly 12 years since Abrams started his fund he has achieved an annualized return of around 20 percent (net of fees).

David Abrams is a value investor just like Seth Klarman. The fund follows a fundamental, value-oriented approach and its investments are made with a focus on the long-term horizon. Abrams holds a diversified portfolio of assets, including domestic and foreign equity securities, debt, distressed securities, and private and illiquid investments. He invests only a small percentage of his assets in equities. You can check out his latest and previous portfolios below. In June 2014 WSJ published an article focusing on Abrams Capital. The article stated that David Abrams is a billionaire who earned $400 million in 2013. The article also revealed that Boston-based Abrams Capital has nearly $8 billion in AUM and returned 15% since its inception.

This is impressive especially since Abrams Capital is basically a one-man shop, which employs a small staff, including investment analysts Drew Pluhar and Travis Rhodes, COO Michael Josephson, CFO Frederic Leif, and Head of Trade Michael Piper. In addition, Mr. Abrams personally approves all trades.

Abrams Capital is also unlevered, which means that it does not invest with borrowed money and usually holds a significant amount of cash, probably taking after his mentor Seth Klarman, who prefers to hold cash rather than invest in securities with low safety margins.