Christian Billinger: Investing a Family Fortune with the Soul in the Game

Christian and I were at the same investor event in Zurich last summer, John Mihaljevic’s MOI Global. A couple of mutual friends told me I needed to have Christian on the show, and he was kind enough to say yes, and we sat down, and chatted for over an hour. Christian Billinger has invested in European equities for close to 20 years, first as an analyst for GAM, Gartmore, and Cheyne Capital based in London and more recently for his own investment company, Billinger Forvaltning. His investment philosophy is focused on owning a small number of great businesses for the long run, and the structure of a private investment company is, in his view, the ideal environment for pursuing this style of investing. For more information: https://www.billingerforvaltning.se Today, Christian and I have a wide-ranging discussion. We obviously start with the early days and talk about the relationship with money. Christian shares his thoughts about managing family money versus other people’s money. I especially like his thoughts on the soul in the game concept. We discuss how in life and investing, we are looking for something that’s really not for sale. As a fellow patient and long-term investor, my guest shares his take on an infinite investment horizon. Stay tuned until the end, when we take on benchmarks and investing solely in publicly traded equities. There are some golden nuggets sprinkled throughout our conversation. NEVER INVESTMENT ADVICE.