Seth Klarman Is Following in David Einhorn’s Footsteps

Seth Klarman’s Baupost Group is the world’s 11th largest hedge fund. Seth Klarman is also the writer of a $1500 book, Margin of Safety, which reflects his views on investing. Klarman was fresh off of graduating from Harvard Business School when one of his professors, Bill Poorvu, asked him to help manage money. Poorvu and his partners, Howard Stevenson, Jordan Baruch and Isaac Auerbach, used their names to create the acronym, Baupost, that became the name of the company. Klarman’s name wasn’t included. Clearly when they hired Seth Klarman, they didn’t want to change the name of the fund to Baupostkl.

Seth Klarman is a very conservative investors. During the second quarter Klarman made four new stock picks: Microsoft (MSFT), BP Plc (BP), Central Pac Financial (CPF), and Idenix Pharmaceuticals (IDIX). His two largest new stock picks are in David Einhorn’s portfolio. Einhorn talked about his investment thesis in Microsoft at the Ira Sohn Investment Conference (read Einhorn’s speech here). Einhorn also has a large position in BP.

Here is Seth Klarman’s portfolio activity during the second quarter: