The 2026 Value Investing Seminar returns to Italy’s Adriatic coast on Thursday and Friday, July 9–10, 2026. Now in its 22nd year, the seminar is Europe’s first event of its kind and continues to draw a global audience of family offices, foundations, wealth managers, and value-focused fund managers to the Bari area (Molfetta) for two days of ideas and networking. The conference has a warm atmosphere where people network and give over their best ideas. The founders have been kind enough to allow us to attend once again to report on the event.
Full coverage of the event can be found on this page. If you don’t see anything, please check back here because everything will be linked from this page.
Founded in 2004 and inspired by the timeless principles of Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, the event is hosted by Ciccio Azzollini, Whitney Tilson, founder of Empire Financial Research in New York City, and Il Valore Conta, an Italian independent investment advisory and e-learning platform.
Hedge Fund Alpha Coverage of the 2026 Sessions
- Florian Weidinger, SLAM. The pan-Asian value manager digs up an overcapitalized “fallen angel”: a deeply discounted microfinance bank in a disliked Asian market that almost nobody in the room owned. Read the pitch
- Norman Rentrop, TGV. The Bonn family investor and 1992-vintage Berkshire holder — who took the train down from Germany — makes the case for a mispriced micro-cap gem hidden in plain sight. Read the pitch
- Whitney Tilson, Empire Financial Research. The seminar’s co-host calls the top of the AI bubble and steers the room toward value in a handful of beaten-down names. Read the pitch
- Nicolas Chantier, N72. The semiconductor veteran turns engineering into accounting: the trillion-dollar AI buildout earns “phantom profits” on a 2.84-year asset life, and he names the tech darlings facing impairment. Read the pitch
Format
Each speaker has 20 minutes to:
- Share insights on where the best opportunities lie.
- Present their favorite investment idea(s).
- Teach lessons learned from past mistakes.
- Recommend impactful books they’ve read recently.
- Engage in Q&A with the audience.
2026 Value Investing Seminar Agenda
Thursday – July 9, 2026
08.15 – 08.45 AM Registration – Coffee and Italian Pastry
Welcoming remarks: Ciccio Azzollini, Whitney Tilson, Roberto Russo
- 09.00 – 09.30 AM Florian Weidinger (Singapore)
- 09.30 – 10.00 AM Steffen Ruhl (Germany)
- 10.00 – 10.30 AM Gustavo Pifano (UK)
- 10.30 – 11.00 AM Norman Rentrop (Germany)
- 11.00 – 11.30 AM Coffee Break
- 11.30 – 12.00 PM Glenn Tongue (USA)
- 12.00 – 12.30 PM Whitney Tilson (USA)
- 12.30 PM Lunch
- 13.30 – 14.00 PM Nicolas Chantier (France)
- 14.00 – 14.30 PM Gianfranco Rosati (Italy)
- 14.30 – 15.00 PM Blagoj Janevski (North Macedonia)
- 15.00 – 15.30 PM Ciccio Azzollini (Italy)
- 20.30 PM VIS 2026 Networking Dinner
Dinner location: Ognissanti Rooftop in Trani – Via Banchina al Porto 8/6, Trani.
Friday – July 10, 2026
- 09.00 – 09.30 AM Lukasz Thieme (USA)
- 09.30 – 10.00 AM Beile Grunbaum (Portugal)
- 10.00 – 10.30 AM Luca Pomarelli (UK)
- 10.30 – 11.00 AM Peter Krah (Germany)
- 11.00 – 11.30 AM Coffee Break
- 11.30 – 12.00 PM Aakash Vanchi Nath (UK)
- 12.00 – 12.30 PM Nicolas Van Broekhoven (Singapore)
- 12.30 – 12.45 PM Closing Remarks
- 12.45 PM Lunch
With 16 managers from a dozen countries presenting over two days, the 2026 seminar continues the tradition that has brought more than 1,000 investors to Italy since 2004. We’ll be following the event and sharing highlights and speaker notes afterward.
Last Year’s Winning Calls
Investors who acted on some of the boldest pitches from the 2025 Value Investing Seminar have been well rewarded. Seven of last year’s stock picks are up more than 60% in the year since:
| Speaker | Stock Pick | July 2025 Price | July 2026 Price | Return |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sunny Han | Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER) | $93.06 | $338.31 | +263% |
| Sunny Han | Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) | $98.81 | $355.81 | +260% |
| Norman Rentrop | Seraphim Space Investment Trust (LSE:SSIT) | 83.4p | 191.4p | +130% |
| Christoph Hilfiker | ASML (AMS:ASML) | €677.10 | €1,509.80 | +123% |
| Whitney Tilson | Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) | $179.53 | $368.75 | +105% |
| Nicolas Van Broekhoven | Queen’s Road Capital (TSX:QRC) | C$7.20 | C$13.07 | +82% |
| Daniel Bols | Valaris (NYSE:VAL) | $45.44 | $73.53 | +62% |
Prices are as of the seminar dates (around July 3, 2025) and July 7, 2026, and are approximate; figures in currencies other than USD are not FX-adjusted.
About the Value Investing Seminar Speakers
Short bios for this year’s Value Investing Seminar lineup:
Thursday, July 9
- Florian Weidinger (Singapore) – CEO of Santa Lucia Asset Management (SLAM), a pan-Asian value equity manager the firm says runs more than $1 billion in assets. He previously founded Hansabay, later merged into SLAM, and was a vice president in Lehman Brothers’ insolvency administration unit before its 2008 collapse. He also spoke at the 2025 Value Investing Seminar.
- Steffen Ruhl (Germany) – Some excerpts from Ruhl’s Linkedin bio “A value investor by heart I am always curious about learning in detail how different companies and businesses models work. Fundamental deep dives are my passion, and I am a vivid reader of 10K and 10Q filings. Work experience as a Controller, Consultant and Product Manager taught me to understand the business as a whole.”
- Gustavo Pifano (UK) – Assistant vice president of research and co-portfolio manager at Gabelli/GAMCO in London, where he has covered small-cap industrials and consumer names since 2008, including for the Gabelli Equity Trust and Gabelli International Small Cap Fund.
- Norman Rentrop (Germany) – Founder of German publishing house Rentrop Verlag and head of his own family office, which invests for his family and roughly 424 other business-owner families. A longtime Berkshire Hathaway shareholder, he has previously held stakes in Borussia Dortmund and news channel n-tv. Rentrop also spoke at the 2024 and 2025 seminars.
- Glenn Tongue (USA) – General partner of Deerhaven Capital Management and lead independent director of Nasdaq-listed MarketWise (MKTW). He co-founded T2 Partners Management with Whitney Tilson in 2004 and previously spent 17 years in investment banking, including as UBS’s head of acquisition finance and 13 years at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, where he served as president of DLJdirect.
- Whitney Tilson (USA) – Founder of Empire Financial Research and formerly of Kase Capital Management (originally T2 Partners), the hedge fund he ran with Glenn Tongue that reportedly peaked at more than $200 million in assets before winding down in 2017. Tilson also co-founded the Value Investing Congress and spoke at last year’s seminar.
- Nicolas Chantier (France) – A veteran of the semiconductor industry with a background in technical advisory and strategic marketing who has since turned to independent value investing; he presented at the 2024 Value Investing Seminar.
- Gianfranco Rosati (Italy) – An independent value and special-situations investor whose path into investing began in philosophy; he presented as part of the 2025 Value Investing Seminar lineup.
- Blagoj Janevski (North Macedonia) – According to his LinkedIn, he is self-employed, solopreneur and a value investor.
- Ciccio Azzollini (Italy) – CEO of Cattolica Partecipazioni S.p.A., an Italian investment holding company, since the early 2000s. A graduate of Columbia Business School’s Value Investing Program, Azzollini co-founded the Value Investing Seminar in 2004 alongside Whitney Tilson and has hosted every edition since, including 2024 and 2025.
Friday, July 10
- Lukasz Thieme (USA) – A CFA charterholder and partner at Waypoint Financial, Thieme holds a BA and MBA from Columbia University.
- Beile Grunbaum (Portugal) – Founder of Copenhagen-based Grunbaum Value Invest, a former financial journalist who turned to value investing after being let go during maternity leave in 2016; she also hosts the “Money and Freedom” podcast.
- Luca Pomarelli (UK) – Runs LP Capital Management, a UK-based equity research firm, and presented at the 2024 Value Investing Seminar, where he pitched PSI Software. The stock has roughly doubled since that pitch.
- Peter Krah (Germany) – Founder of the German Mining Network, a Frankfurt-based commodities- and mining-focused investment platform; he returns after speaking at last year’s seminar.
- Aakash Vanchi Nath (UK) – Co-manager alongside Matthias Riechert at P&R Investment Management, advisor to the Luxembourg-domiciled P&R Real Value Fund, and a non-executive director of London-listed Dillistone Group. He spent six years as a senior trader at Bridgewater Associates before earning his MBA at London Business School.
- Nicolas Van Broekhoven (Singapore) – Managing director of Olija Holdings, a Singapore-based private investment holding company. He previously managed money at Value Square in both Singapore and Belgium and at Luxembourg’s Le Foyer Patrimonium, and has spoken at both the 2024 and 2025 seminars.
