User:Clmsomers/F. Peter Cundill

F. Peter Cundill

F. Peter Cundill
F. Peter Cundill (born October 29, 1938) is a noted Canadian value investor who has spent his career refining his global deep value investment approach. With over 45 years’ experience in the investment business alongside a disciplined running regime (including over 20 marathons) Cundill is also a keen history enthusiast and has established the world’s largest history prize at his alma mater McGill University. Cundill is currently Chairman Emeritus of Mackenzie Cundill. Today, Mackenzie Cundill manages in excess of C$12 billion in assets worldwide.

Biography
F. Peter Cundill, FCA, CFA, Chairman Emeritus of Mackenzie Cundill, has been synonymous with value investing for over 35 years. A native of Montreal, Canada, now based in London, he graduated from McGill University with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in 1960, became a Chartered Accountant in 1963 and a Chartered Financial Analyst Charter Holder in 1968. Peter Cundill popularised Dr. Benjamin Graham’s characterisation of the value investor as one who buys a dollar’s worth of assets for 40 cents. Cundill is a dedicated “Graham and Dodd” value investor.

After positions at Greenshields Inc. in Montreal and the Yorkshire Group in Vancouver, Mr. Cundill became the President at AGF Vancouver Investment Management Ltd., a position he held from 1972 to 1975. In 1975, Peter Cundill took over the management of the ailing All Canadian Venture Fund which he renamed the Cundill Value Fund. In 1977, Mr. Cundill founded his own firm, Peter Cundill & Associates Ltd; which took responsibility for the management of the Cundill Value Fund and later became Cundill Investment Research Ltd. In 1998, this company entered into a strategic alliance with Mackenzie Financial Corporation to assist in the marketing of the Cundill brand. In September 2006, Mackenzie purchased the assets of Cundill Investment Research Ltd. Mackenzie Cundill’s investment team now manage over C$12 billion in assets.

The Mackenzie Cundill Value Fund has achieved a top ranked track record since inception exceeding the returns of all the relevant benchmarks by a considerable margin. Over the past 35 years Mackenzie Cundill Value Fund (Series A) has delivered an average annual compound rate of return of 13.2% since inception in 1974 with the MSCI World Index returns in Canadian dollar terms for the same period being 10.8%. Looking at this record in another way; a C$10,000 investment in the Cundill Value Fund (Series A) at inception with dividends re-invested, would have grown to C$680,945, net of fees, compared to the MSCI World Index of C$328,480, before any costs, for the same period.

Peter’s interest in sports, adventure and athletics is well known. In the 1983 Portland Marathon, he broke the three-hour mark; and once a year, he challenges himself to try something new. These challenges have included parachuting, hang-gliding, bungee jumping and trekking in Nepal with Sir Edmund Hillary (1989). With initiatives such as the annual Cundill Fitness Challenge, he encouraged the same kind of spirit in his staff.

Philanthropy
Peter Cundill is also a notable philanthropist having pledged to give away his fortune to charitable causes via The Cundill Foundation. In November 2008 The Cundill Foundation established the world's largest non-fiction historical literature prize in order to recognize and promote literary and academic achievement in history. The Cundill International Prize and Lecture in History at McGill University (Cundill Prize) is offered each year by McGill University to an individual, of any nationality and from any country, who has published a book in English or French determined to have had (or be likely to have) a profound literary, social and academic impact in the area of history.

When the Prize was announced in April 2008, Mr. Cundill noted that he had been“…surprised to learn there were no major prizes in history.” He explained his affinity to history: “I am an investment researcher in finance and I think there is an analogy between the two disciplines – both study the past to understand the present and predict the future.

Recognition
Mr. Cundill has earned many distinctions. In 1995 he was included in London’s Financial Times; ‘The Financial Times Global Guide to Investing – The Secrets of the World’s Leading Investment Gurus.’ In a chapter called ‘Learning from Living Legends’ Peter’s own nomenclature was ‘The Patient Purist’. In December 2001 Peter was awarded the Analysts’ Choice Career Achievement Award as the greatest mutual fund manager of all time by the Canadian Investment awards (CIA). In January 2004, he received the Fellowship of Chartered Accountant (FCA) designation from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of British Columbia (ICABC) for his enormous contributions to the CA profession and to his community. In 2006 Peter was elected by the Aspen Institute as a Lifetime Trustee following serving the institute for seven years as a trustee. Lifetime Trustees are a key arm of the Institute, responsible for providing advice concerning strategic issues facing the organization.