ARTISAN GLOBAL SMALL CAP FUND (ARTWX), AND THE CHANGES IN ARTHX

andrei

So far the only info I was able to find on it is here:

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/935015/000119312513010325/d465324d485apos.htm

The managers are Mark L. Yockey, Charles-Henri Hamker and David Geisler.

Interestingly, the date of this document (January 11, 2013) coincides with the date of another Artisan document announcing the departure of Barry Dargan from ARTHX, one of the best performing artisan fund of 2012. Another great performing fund was ARTJX, managed by Yokey and Hamker.

http://www.artisanpdfcentral.com/data/newspage/2013.01.11_PMChange.PR.vR.pdf

It would be nice to learn a bit more about the unexplained departure of Barry Dargan. The situation resembles what happened when Eric Bokota suddenly left the young and very promising FPA fund FPIVX. We still do not know why did it happen, which makes some of us reluctant to invest in FPIVX...

Andrei

David_Snowball

My best sense is that Erik left for personal reasons, entirely unrelated to the fund or the fund company. It's clear that FPA would gladly welcome him back.

My best sense is that Barry and Artisan came to a rather more strained parting. I don't have any details at all, just a sense from conversations that perhaps Barry pushed, the others pushed back and separation seemed desirable.

Global Small Cap has been in the works for a while. The planning there predates whatever issue arose with Dargan. The argument is that Yockey heads a fully functional team, of which Dargan was a part. The team remains fully functional with his departure, especially given the movement of another analyst into the management ranks. Artisan has had considerable success evolving away from the "great man" or "great woman" model toward one in which the original star has the responsibility for fostering a functional team in which bright young people learn the system and those who excel are given greater and greater autonomy and stature. That's the path that Andy Stephens' team at Midcap Growth followed and it's why David Geisler got the chance to go from star analyst to co-manager.

For what it's worth,

David

andrei

Dear David,

Thank you so much for your incredibly useful work and comments.

Concerning FPIVX, the main question is not why Eric left. The question is that the fund was supposed to have two managers covering different areas of the world, so will it be successful with just one of them? Until Eric left, FPIVX performed much better than other similar funds (maybe a beginner's luck, not falling in the beginning because of being not fully invested?). Since the moment Eric left, FPIVX slightly underperforms other funds (but it is less volatile). Shall we invest in this fund now?

Similarly, in your comments on ARTHX you emphasized previous success of Barry Dargan. Now the fund is going to be managed by people who did not have prior experience with purely domestic funds. Hopefully, this is not a problem, and if this fund will emphasize international stocks it may be even good since the recent performance of ARTJX, managed by Yokey and Hamker was wonderful.

Andrei

mnzdedwards

Regarding FPA International (FPIVX):

It appears that FPIVX received an extremely large and share significant subscription (purchase) as the end of 2012 that doubled the fund's assets. The increase was so great as to completely skew the asset allocation. Click on the link below and check out it's asset allocation and explanation on page 2:

http://www.fpafunds.com/docs/fund-fact-sheets/fpa-international-q4-2012.pdf?sfvrsn=2

Just curious, but has anyone ever witnessed something like this happening to a fund? I wonder where the last-minute $20.8M came from. David, what do you think?

Mike_E

David_Snowball

Reply to @mnzdedwards: I'll try to give Ryan Leggio a call next week and ask. On the road for a few days,visiting NYC for the fun of it.

Certainly other funds have found the arrival, and departure, of large accounts a mixed blessing.

More soon, David

David_Snowball

Reply to @andrei: Barry was an international manager. Mike Roos at Artisan argues that in a global market, all managers have a global competence. The "international" manager can't say whether Fiat is a "buy" without knowing if Ford is a better buy. So all the Artisan guys are intimately aware of US options.

Davidforce

scott

Reply to @David_Snowball: Go to the Intrepid Museum! That still stands out as the most memorable stop of my last visit. That's not a far walk from Times Square.

http://www.intrepidmuseum.org/The-Intrepid-Experience/Exhibits.aspx

Investor

Reply to @scott: Not Interpid, but I stayed at USS Lexington (a WWII era Aircraft Carrier) at Corpus Christi, TX one night along with Boy/Cub Scout Troop when my kids were younger.

It was an interesting experience. If you visit Corpus Christi, take a tour even if staying is now possible without special arrangements.

http://usslexington.com/

One of 20 aircraft on board is a Skyhawk plane with John McCain written on it:



Here is a list of preserved naval vessels in the US:

http://www.hazegray.org/navhist/preserve.htm

MourningStars

Thanks for your follow up David and enjoy the vaca

Old_Joe

I can't believe that the above list doesn't include the aircraft carrier Midway, lovingly preserved in San Diego harbor by some 14,000 volunteers. On our last visit we encountered a volunteer (retired navy) who was patiently chipping the paint from a passageway door so that it could be repainted. He'd been chipping away for over six weeks, and still had at least a few weeks work left.

We've visited this ship twice now, the last time just a few months ago. As we found out, you can easily spend an entire day exploring the innards of this fantastic monument to American WWII industrial, manufacturing and military power .

On the flight and hanger decks there are at least thirty or forty beautifully restored aircraft of WWI, WWII and Korean war vintage.

I highly recommend this excursion to anyone visiting San Diego.

Link: The Midway

philpill

David, as a new yorker, let me urge you to take the staten island ferry round trip (free) from south street. nothing can equal this panorama of NY. Allow 2 hrs round trip and also after trip walk up Broadway to wall street, explore the caverns, and then dine in chinatown. next day you MUST go to top of empire state building(fee). These two trips will highlite your gotham experience. Personally I am negative on military/naval activities as this is not hallmark of our great city.
philpill

AndyJ

FYI, the next guest on WealthTrack is going to be Mark Yockey:

http://wealthtrack.com/upcoming.php

Sven

Reply to @AndyJ: Thanks for the reminder. I used to invest with Artisan International up till the tech bubbles. Until more recently with the new addition of co-manager and risk management, the fund has performed better. There are, however, better foreign fund managers in Artisan than Yockey.