This summer, Asset Value Investors celebrates 40 years as the manager of AVI Global Trust. Over this time, we have pursued the same distinctive bottom-up approach to global equities, focused on parts of the market that are overlooked, under-researched and prone to mispricing. We aim to buy durable, growing businesses, trading at discounted valuations, where there is some form of event or catalyst to unlock and grow value.
Three durable businesses to unlock value
One such example that embodies this is Vivendi (Paris: VIV), the French holding company controlled by Vincent Bolloré, which trades at a 39% discount to our estimated net asset value (NAV). In late 2024, the historic sprawling media conglomerate was split into four separately listed businesses: Canal+, Havas, Louis Hachette and Vivendi. The last piece – Vivendi – remained home to a 10% listed stake in Universal Music Group (UMG), which is worth 144% of Vivendi’s market value and accounts for more than 90% of NAV.
In July 2025 the French regulator ruled that, following the split process, Bolloré is deemed to have effective control of Vivendi and as such, is obligated to make a mandatory offer within six months at a “fair price”. Whilst Vivendi’s discount has narrowed from close to 50% to the mid-30s, we see considerable upside from further discount narrowing. On top of this, the prospects for NAV growth are compelling, underpinned by UMG: we believe the market is underestimating the growth and durability of its earnings.
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Another company we like is D’Ieteren (Brussels: DIE), a seventh-generation holding company that trades at a 43% discount to our estimated NAV. We wrote the stock up for MoneyWeek in September 2022. At the time, the share price was €140. Today, the shares exchange hands at €188 – with the company having paid a dividend of €74 per share in the interim period, giving a total return of 87%.
Despite this strong performance, we remain optimistic about prospective future returns. The key asset – accounting for 66% of NAV – is a 50% unlisted stake in Belron, the global leader in vehicle-glass repair, replacement and recalibration, which readers might be more familiar with in the UK as Autoglass. Trends toward windshield complexity and the recalibration of ADAS cameras provide a strong structural-growth and margin tailwind in the years ahead. This value remains poorly reflected in D’Ieteren shares. A potential catalyst to change this would be a stock market listing by Belron.
A third example is Jardine Matheson (Singapore: J36), the holding company of the Keswick family, which trades at a 31% discount to NAV. Despite an illustrious history, shareholders’ returns over the last ten to 15 years have been disappointing. The company is undergoing a period of evolution and change under the fifth taipan, Ben Keswick, as it evolves into a modern-day holding company, with a greater focus on governance, capital allocation and engaged ownership.
In many ways, this mirrors what best-in-class European family-controlled holding companies did 20 years ago and has the potential to unlock value from a NAV that has underperformed. Such changes pave the way for potentially improved NAV and discount returns, with a clear alignment of interest with the family, and – increasingly, following recent changes to compensation packages – management too.
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