News and Commentary

Billion Dollar Investment Firm Fed-Up With Seattle Moving to Phoenix

   DailyWire.com
bye bye
Photo by Carol Yepes/Gettyimages

A billion-dollar investment advisory company, fed-up with the instability of the city of Seattle, has decided to leave Seattle and move to Phoenix, Arizona.

Cole Smead, the president and CEO of Smead Capital Management, which manages roughly $1.58 billion, told KTAR News 92.3 FM, “The unrest that has taken place in the city of Seattle … there is really is not a downtown business community today.”

Smead continued, “We’re hearing rumors of 40-story buildings that will be only 20-percent occupied by October … My biggest concern for Seattle was what the business community is going to come back to, and what kind of businesses are going to come back for customers.”

Smead asserted, “My colleagues can pick the socio-economic rung of life that they want … live their lives, build their households and have a family if they’d like. Where we’re coming from just wasn’t like that.”

“We are playing the long game for our company, colleagues, clients and shareholders with this transition to our new location. As we plan for the next chapter of our organization, we believe that we gain tangible and intangible benefits through Greater Phoenix and its surrounding communities,” Smead added, according to businesswire.

Chris Camacho, President & CEO at Greater Phoenix Economic Council, was delighted at Smead moving to Phoenix, saying, “Smead Capital Management’s headquarters relocation to Greater Phoenix is indicative of the value investment firms find in the region’s ability to help companies grow, deliver top talent, provide impactful connections and infrastructure needed for a global financial services firm to thrive. Smead’s entry into Greater Phoenix will bring a number of high-wage jobs at a critical time. We welcome them to the region.”

Earlier this month, Cole Smead wrote:

The oddity of today’s stock market is exactly what any God-fearing value manager should pray for. There are very few scenarios in the last 50 years that can be used to model or forecast what is currently going on. We are strong believers in Mark Twain’s saying that, “History never repeats itself, but it rhymes.” While you can’t precisely forecast the future, the rhymes of past eras can help provide a mental model to produce potential outcomes to help us as stock pickers. Our model for thinking about today’s circumstances is the inversion of what took place in 1972, matched against the opportunities available in 1974.

He added, “Today’s bravado in stocks comes as a uniquely American experience like 1972. The U.S. is the only stock market that is waving its mega-cap tech flag in celebration. The rest of the world hasn’t produced this result. Further, add in American companies like Costco and Coca Cola to see this growth stock scenario as a summer barbeque with the red, white and blue flag waving in the background.”

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