Joho Capital is a New York based hedge fund established by Robert Karr in 1996. Robert Karr is one of Julian Robertson’s disciples, commonly known as the Tiger cubs. We recently wrote an article regarding our study which determined the alpha of Julian Robertson’s Tiger Cubs. Robert Karr at Joho Capital adopts a long-term strategy. Joho Capital invests mostly in companies of Asian markets like Japan and China.
During the second quarter, Joho Capital sold off Baidu Inc (BIDU), China Kanghui Holdings (KH), and NVIDIA Corp (NVDA). The timing was perfect as these companies failed to realize positive returns since the end of June. China Kanghui Holdings (KH) lost 20% and NVIDIA Corp (NVDA) lost 19%. Moreover, in the second quarter, Joho Capital reduced Mindray Medical Intl Ltd (MR) by 50% and RDA Mircoelectronics Inc (RDA) by 56%. Since the end of June, Mindray lost 11% while RDA gained 6%.
Joho Capital: Portfolio and Returns
New Oriental Educ & Tech Gp Inc (EDU) makes up 24.87% of Joho Capital’s equity portfolio. Joho Capital profited from its $159 million investment in the company as EDU returned 6% since the end of June. Robert Karr has the second largest position in the company preceded by Stephen Mandel (see Stephen Mandel’s latest stock picks).
Estee Lauder Companies Inc (EL) is the second largest holding of Joho Capital’s equity portfolio. Since the end of June, Estee Lauder lost 9%. In the second quarter, Joho Capital reduced Estee Lauder by 9%. Robert Karr’s Joho Capital has the third highest position in the company. The highest position is again held by fellow tiger cubs Stephen Mandel and Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global (check out other holdings of Andreas Halvorsen). Both reduced stake in the company in the second quarter.
Google Inc (GOOG) gained 4% since the end of June. During the second quarter Joho Capital increased its stake in the company by 7%. Karr is not the only investor bullish about Google. Famous investors like Jim Simons, Ken Griffin, Stephen Mandel, John Griffin, and Ken Fisher also have stakes in the company. Ken Fisher increased Google by 5057% during the second quarter (see Ken Fisher’s portfolio).
Joho Capital also profited from its investment in Tal Education Group (XRS). Since the end of June, Tal has gained 15%. Joho Capital has $19.7 million invested in the company. Robert Karr has the highest stake in Tal followed by another Tiger cub, Chase Coleman. Chase Coleman’s Tiger Global Management has $8.68 million invested in Tal. (See Chase Coleman’s latest stock holdings)
Joho Capital: Overall Return
Joho Capital’s top stock picks lost 4.2% since the end of June, vs. 10.7% decline in the SPY. Robert Karr managed to beat the market by 6.5 percentage points in two months. That’s one of the reasons why we track Joho Capital.
