Preferring listed equities, we keep a short list and a long horizon.

Software

Vertical Markets

Based in the Netherlands and partially spun out from Constellation Software, which retains oversight and a controlling stake, Topicus intends to replicate its parent holding company’s extraordinarily successful approach to M&A within the European vertical market software sector—a fragmented landscape with scores of hidden champions and less private equity money chasing acquisitions. Built from the same proven foundation and headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, Lumine Group brings this same strategic approach across multiple verticals within the media and communications industries.

Information Services

Consulting

France

Founded and led by industry veteran Simon Azoulay, French engineering group Alten has tripled its earnings and revenue over the past decade, passing €4bn in sales. Despite a resilient business model, a fortress-like balance sheet and a compelling record of acquisitions, its shares fell to less than six times operating earnings in the downturn that began in Europe in late 2023. The same applied to Neurones, the IT services group chaired and controlled by Luc de Chammard, with revenue nearing €900m. Both companies have navigated comparable downturns before, only to emerge stronger.

Ireland

Construction

France

Based in Grenoble, building materials distributor Groupe Samse is a century-old company with a pristine M&A record, unusually high employee shareholding and a thoughtful, value-driven expansion strategy guided by its superb leadership and controlling families. Despite remarkable resilience through past downturns, it traded at a single-digit earnings multiple at the time of our investment. Property developer Kaufman & Broad is also caught in the construction downturn—the worst in four decades, surpassing even the subprime crisis. Yet well run and safely capitalised, it was valued in autumn 2026 at less than the dividends it paid over the past decade.

United Kingdom

Financial & Consumer Services

Investment Management

Controlled by the Decaux and David-Weill families, Eurazeo has grown steadily into a major private equity and asset management platform, now overseeing €39 billion in assets—of which €30 billion managed on behalf of third parties, four times the figure of a decade ago. In March 2026, concerns over private credit and its software portfolio weighed on sentiment, pushing the discount to net asset value toward 60%—levels unseen since 2008-2009 and the great financial crisis. The company has raised its dividend without interruption for many years and is now aggressively reducing its share count at accretive valuations.

Regulated Gaming

Industrials

Packaging

A key player in complex supply chains across the distribution and F&B sectors, family-controlled Groupe Guillin is a steadily growing food safety and packaging company. In the wake of the energy crisis in early 2022, it got tarred with the wrong brush as it faced a terrifying but temporary rise of input costs, triggering our first involvement with the company.

Healthcare

Pharmaceuticals

Animal Health

Valued for over a decade at lofty multiples, world leader in animal health Zoetis commands an enviable growth record and a superb return on equity earned without leverage, buttressed by sizable competitive advantages in R&D and distribution. Shares were recently beaten down to eleven times earnings on criticism surrounding Librela, its flagship treatment for canine arthritis, offering what Standard regards as a compelling entry point to fundamentals-minded, long term oriented investors.

Consumer Brands

Beverages

Sportswear

In October 2026, Standard bought shares in sportswear giant Nike, perhaps the most reviled stock in the S&P 500 at the time, on the premise that much of its debacle was self-inflicted, and therefore fixable. None of its rivals can match the Swoosh’s ubiquity, marketing firepower and breadth of offering. If margins recover to their historical averages, even on conservative assumptions, shareholders stand to be rewarded with substantial capital appreciation and generous dividends.