Hedge Fund - Echo Street Capital Management

Founded in 2002 Greg Poole's Echo Street Capital Management was a New York-based hedge fund with a little less than $1 billion in assets under management when we first started tracking it. Echo Street grew its AUM to $14.7 billion as of 2022Q1. "The firm’s culture embraces curiosity, structured thinking and diligence. Echo Street’s fundamental approach to investing is methodic and repeatable. The firm’s investment team, led by Greg Poole, Founder and CIO, and George Panos, Portfolio Manager and Partner, has consistently adapted to a changing investment environment, generating unusually strong returns."

Before founding Echo Street Capital, Greg Poole was a PM for GSAM (Goldman Sachs Asset Management). The firm employs event-driven, special situations, and traditional long/short strategies, and has a penchant for the real estate sector. Echo Street's biggest strategy is GoodCo Select Strategy which has $10.9 billion in assets under management. This strategy was launched in September 2015 and returned 18.7% annually vs. 15.6% gain for the S&P 500 Index. Here is how the fund described this strategy:

GoodCoTM Select seeks to outperform the broad US and global equity indices by owning durable companies with attractive earnings growth at reasonable prices. The strategy is managed with a long-term investment horizon and low turnover. Echo Street’s structured research process identifies companies with predictable earnings and economic moats, and classifies them as GoodCo’s. Echo Street’s favorite GoodCo’s — those with attractive earnings growth and expanding economic moats — are classified as GreatCo’s. GreatCo’s exhibit many of the following characteristics:

• Intelligent and Efficient Use of Cash

• Subscription Revenue Model

• Owner-Operated

• Controls Relationship With the Customer

• Mission-Critical

• Future-Proof

• Secular Growth Beneficiary

• Steady- State Takeout

• Well-Capitalized

• Digital-Native