2025 Sohn Monaco: AVI’s Nicola Trakos Wood – This Quality Japanese Stock Could 3X

At the 2025 Sohn Monaco Conference, Nicola Trakos Wood, Managing Director of Asset Value Investors (AVI) pitched his favorite idea. AVI, a boutique activist fund with 40 years of experience with a dedicated focus on the Japanese market.

The firm focused in unlocking value in under-managed, over-capitalized, and mispriced companies through strategic dialogue and engagement. Their investment thesis for a Japanese health stock highlighted both the systemic inefficiencies prevalent in the Japanese market and the significant opportunities available for active investors.

Also our coverage of the 2025 Sohn Hong Kong Conference, 2025 Forbes Iconoclast Summit and the Best Alternative Investment Fund Conferences for 2025.

2025 Sohn Monaco Conference - Asset Value Investors' Nicola Trakos Wood

The Unfolding Opportunity in Japan

Asset Value Investors, a boutique activist fund with 40 years of experience, launched its Japan-dedicated strategy in 2018, recognizing a "once in a generation shift in corporate governance" within the world's third-largest economy. Despite its size, Japan remains "under-owned globally" by investors. This undervaluation is stark:

• Widespread Undervaluation: Approximately 40% of the 4,000 listed companies in Japan trade below book value.
• Cash-Rich Companies: A significant number, around 900 companies, hold 30% or more of their market capitalization in cash on their balance sheets. This indicates inefficient capital allocation and untapped potential for shareholder returns.
• Under-covered Market: The small and mid-cap segment, where AVI primarily operates, sees 70% of its companies lacking any analyst coverage or having only a single analyst. This creates a "deliciously under-covered and inefficiently rich type of market" for identifying mispriced opportunities.

Historically, decades of inflation and corporate inertia have kept the Japanese market somewhat stagnant, but the current environment is described as "positive and constructive" for engaged investors. This favorable backdrop empowers active investors like AVI to catalyze meaningful change.