Unlike PE or public companies, long-held private family businesses often prioritize stable, growing dividends. Executives may be rewarded on enterprise value, but must align M&A strategy with the family's goal of dividend growth, as rising enterprise value can create undesirable tax burdens for shareholders.

During diligence, discovering a target company underreports cash to evade taxes isn't just a financial issue to be fixed. It's a clear signal of the seller's character. If they are willing to lie to the government, they will likely lie to their business partners.

For 30 years, Japanese firms retained profits instead of returning capital, accumulating huge cash and asset piles on their balance sheets. Now, the Tokyo Stock Exchange is pushing for buybacks and dividends, creating a powerful catalyst for value realization that is independent of new earnings generation.

A company with a 20x P/E could acquire a firm with a 5x P/E using stock. The acquired earnings were then instantly re-rated at the parent's higher multiple, manufacturing EPS growth and creating huge paper gains without any operational improvements. This financial engineering masqueraded as business genius.

'The Assassin' Fahmi Quadir is launching her first-ever long strategy, targeting undervalued Korean companies. She believes her expertise in identifying fraud and obfuscation can be repurposed to unlock value in firms with complex, historically depressed structures amid Korea's corporate governance reforms.

Public markets punish complexity, creating opportunities. Exor's diverse portfolio of cars, tractors, luxury goods, and media is so heavily discounted that the market value of its Ferrari stake alone is greater than the entire company's market capitalization.

An acquisition target with a valuation that seems 'too good to be true' is a major red flag. The low price often conceals deep-seated issues, such as warring co-founders or founders secretly planning to compete post-acquisition. Diligence on people and their motivations is more critical than just analyzing the financials in these cases.

When investing in markets with potential governance hurdles, like regional Japan, the "deep value" principle is key. Purchasing assets at a fraction of book value creates a margin of safety. Even if activism takes longer or yields less, the low entry price can still generate an acceptable return while risking no capital.

Fahmi Quadir explains that businesses with deteriorating fundamentals will almost always resort to financial engineering to hide their problems. This creates a powerful link for short sellers: identifying a company with a broken business model is a strong indicator of potential accounting fraud.