August 2025 Recap

Brazil managers had the strongest performance in August, followed by Energy & Cyclicals and another strong month for Biotech (after a very strong July). All of our manager groups had positive returns in August, other than India, which was down 5% for the month. India is also the only manager group that is down YTD.

As a reminder, the table below is based on our “OWL Groups” – curated lists of over 500 managers frequently found in leading allocators’ portfolios. These lists are categorized by geography, sector, and style, enabling our users to easily monitor groups of managers and their underlying disclosed holdings. All returns shown are estimates based on publicly disclosed holdings.

For our users, last Friday’s newsletter included a list of managers that had the best and worst performance in August.

Kaname Capital

Kaname Capital, which was up 15% in August according to our estimates, is a Japan-focused manager with ~$200 million in AUM. The Boston-based firm was founded by Eric Ikauniks and Toby Rodes in 2018 after more than a decade at GMO. Nao Makino, who serves as a Partner and Head of Research, was the first employee at Misaki Capital and joined Kaname in 2022. The firm was founded with the following premise:

“Because we are not trying to beat a benchmark, we do not define our test for Quality or Value in a relative sense, but apply it using absolute thresholds.  Out of 15,000 listed stocks in developed markets, only about 500 companies presently pass our quantitative screen, of which 50% are in Japan.”

From regulatory filings, we know that Sequoia Heritage was an early investor with Kaname, with ~$100 million invested in 2019. The Heinz Family Foundation is a more recent disclosed LP in Kaname. Sequoia Heritage also recently disclosed relationships with Bergen Park and Lynx1, and historical disclosures have linked the firm to 3D Investment Partners, Kingsford Capital, Nucleo Capital, and Sarissa Capital.

Kaname’s strong performance in 2025 is driven primarily by its stake in Daihatsu Infinearth, an internal combustion engine manufacturer whose stock is up 77% YTD. The Daihatsu position comprises 50% of Kaname’s disclosed portfolio, and they own 14% of the company.

Daihatsu Infinearth Stock Price

Kaname first disclosed a position in Daihatsu in September of 2023, continued to buy shares through November 2024, and has held the position since. Kaname’s position in Daihatsu is a great example of the timeliness of Japanese ownership filings. For activist firms like Kaname that buy large positions in small companies, their transactions are reported within a few days, with detailed information about the timing and cost of purchases (example of raw filing data below). Of course the filings are in Japanese, but OWL is able to automatically process, summarize, and translate for our users!

For more about Japanese activism, we encourage you to read Shinya Deguchi from Star Magnolia’s recent post, where he provides a thorough history of Japanese activism and uses OWL data to analyze its efficacy. We found his work to be thoughtful and an interesting use case for OWL’s data.

Other News/Events

• How Hedge Funds Won Big on an Obscure Drugmaker (includes OWL data)

• Is Venture Capital Finally Starting to Come Back?

• Accel, Bessemer Vy Capital, and Tiger Global set to gain from Urban Company's IPO

• Bridgewater funds sees surging demand in China

• Demand for Data Centers, Energy Creates a Gold Rush for Infrastructure Investors

• CalSTRS spies opportunities in real estate as market stabilizes

• Ohio State Hiring Investment Analyst

• CZI Hiring Investment Analyst

• Kamehameha Schools Hiring Investment Analyst

   

About Old Well Labs

OWL is an intelligence platform built for allocators, by allocators. Leading endowments, foundations, and family offices use the system to find, monitor, and connect with thousands of fund managers globally. OWL's analytics engine has collected over one billion data points from 65 countries. We make it easy for allocators to find and track information about the managers they care about – not just positions but also performance analytics, people data, business information, and details about the manager investments of other allocators.

Disclaimers

Returns represent the return on invested capital of publicly disclosed long positions, as calculated by OWL. Actual returns may vary based on a number of factors, including (but not limited to) undisclosed positions, short exposure, non-equity holdings, cash holdings, and lagged disclosure of positions.

This newsletter and the material on the Old Well Labs platform are for informational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice or a recommendation of any particular security, manager, or strategy. Old Well Labs shall not be liable for any investment gain or loss that may occur from the use of this material. No part of this material may be reproduced in any form or used in any publication without express written permission from Old Well Labs.