Behind the Balance Sheet #56 The Sculptor - Jonathan Tepper on 16 Stock Portfolios, Moats & Buying Oligopolies
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Mar 13, 2026 Jonathan Tepper, investor and author who built Variant Perception and founded Privat Capital, shares his self-taught rise from Madrid to Oxford. He discusses childhood and memoir writing. He traces a concentrated, bottom-up investing approach, why he holds ~16 stocks, capital allocation, platform vs utility businesses, antitrust and industry concentration, and risks like AI and tech valuation.
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Antitrust Changes Move Slowly
- Antitrust and merger policy move in long pendulum swings over decades, not quickly reversible with a single administration change.
- Tepper sees current policy as zigzagging with periodic enforcement and merger waves shaping concentration.
Prefer Market Share Earned By Performance
- Tepper prefers companies with high market share that earn it through superior performance rather than via mergers or regulatory barriers.
- He favors platform businesses like Booking that add clear value to both consumers and suppliers and justify concentration.
Buy Quality Low-Capex, High-Returns Businesses
- Invest in businesses with low capital intensity and high returns on capital and seek to buy them when temporarily unloved or mispriced.
- Focus obsessively on free cash flow yield and wait for periods of market dislocation to acquire bargains.
