沙的时间

直到最近，金沙资本管理公司（sandscapitalmanagement）总裁弗兰克•桑兹（franksandsjr.）的业绩还令人羡慕。他不仅在科技股暴跌和随后的熊市中成功地引导了父亲创建的精品基金经理，而且资产增长了大约20倍，从2000年的9.46亿美元增长到2005年底的190亿美元。自1992年公司成立以来，金沙资本（sandscapital）每年都在罗素1000增长指数（Russell 1000 growth index）榜首，但1993年和1997年除外，当时该指数仅略低于基准水平。

Lately, though, the Arlington, Virginia–based firm’s reputation has suffered. Like many boutiques, Sands Capital grew in part by undercutting its competitors with low fees. But last year the firm raised prices on two large pension fund clients, The Florida State Board of Administration and the Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Illinois. Both terminated Sands Capital, withdrawing a total of $1.5 billion. Then performance slumped. During the first six months of this year, Sands lost 9.1 percent net of fees, falling 8.2 percentage points below the Russell 1000 growth index. Clients closed 73 more accounts and withdrew some $300 million in additional assets. “This year’s performance has been the most difficult year-to-date relative results we have ever had in our history,” admits the firm’s president. Still, the 39-year-old money manager says he doesn’t regret raising fees.

These setbacks come at an awkward time for Sands Capital. A critical succession strategy is unfolding that will have taken five years to execute when Frank Sands Sr. retires as the firm’s chief executive and chief investment officer on September 5, 2008, his 70th birthday, and passes those titles to his son. During this transition large money managers are eyeing the 46-person firm as an acquisition target. “We have been approached by all sorts of groups,” says the younger Sands, who declines to name his would-be suitors.

Nonetheless, Frank Sands Jr. is determined to keep the family firm independent. His immediate priorities are to land new accounts and to regain Sands Capital’s once-stellar performance edge without diluting the investment approach that has served the firm so well until now. If successful, not only will Sands Jr. be well positioned to continue going it alone, he may also reach the firm’s goal of $25 billion in assets by the time his father retires, at which point Sands Capital plans to close to new investors. That milestone would mark a level of success and generational continuity that boutique money management firms rarely achieve.

金沙资本的投资组合中只有27只股票，是中国最纯粹的自下而上、集中增长型投资形式之一。每天，由11名成员组成的投资团队就投资组合开会数小时，讨论几个月甚至几年来一直在考虑买入或卖出的股票。该公司的所有控股公司都符合六个松散定义的标准：可持续的高于平均水平的收益；在有前途的业务中的领导地位；显著的竞争优势；明确的使命和增值重点；财务实力；以及相对于市场的合理估值。目前持有的股票包括零售巨头Lowe's Cos。和沃尔格林公司，互联网扮演谷歌和雅虎！生物技术的领导者基因泰克和基因酶公司以及医疗技术公司瓦里安医疗系统公司和齐默控股公司。

投资公司研究所（Investment Company Institute）的数据显示，由于该团队采用滚动五年的方式评估业绩，因此年换手率仅为16%，而成长型股票基金的平均换手率为65%。尽管如此，低营业额并不会减少思想的流动。“我们辩论并采取行动，但有时行动是无所作为，”年轻的桑兹说。

该公司的集中增长风格反映了老弗兰克•桑兹（Frank Sands Sr.）的投资教育，他在弗吉尼亚大学达顿商学院（University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business）获得工商管理硕士学位后，于1969年开始了在Loomis，Sayles&Co.（现隶属于CDC IXIS Asset Management North America）担任石油行业分析师的职业生涯。1972年，他搬到了David L.Babson&Co.（现为Babson Capital Management，马萨诸塞州斯普林菲尔德万通金融集团的一部分），在该公司同名人士、传奇成长股投资者的指导下，他在11年的职业生涯中形成了自己的方法。福音很简单：“以高于平均水平的速度增长的公司是你想长期持有的公司，”老桑兹说。当巴布森的负责人开始购买价值股——本质上是追逐业绩——他就辞职了。

上世纪80年代中期，老桑兹在卖方短暂而不愉快地逗留了一段时间后，于1986年成为总部设在华盛顿的资金管理公司Folger Nolan Fleming Douglas的首席投资官，Folger Nolan Fleming Douglas隶属于Capital Group Cos。六年后，他独自一人回到家乡弗吉尼亚州阿灵顿，创办了金沙资本管理公司（sandscapitalmanagement），拥有来自前Folger Nolan机构和高净值客户的6000万美元资产。

At his own firm Sands Sr. added the adjective “concentrated” to his growth-stock credentials. “We improved upon it in the margins,” he says. “We went from having 75 stocks to 25 to 30 stocks. Once you get up into the high 20s, it’s ‘deworsification.’”

尽管表现良好，但到了20世纪90年代末，金沙资本仍在努力吸引大型养老基金和家族理财办公室。金沙集团聘请了一家名为alpinepartners的营销公司，该公司制定了一项战略，并开始将公司介绍给投资顾问，寻找增长经理。尽管正在兴起的网络热适合公司的发展方向，但顾问们拒绝接受，因为当时60出头的老桑兹没有接班计划。他说，人们担心的是“创始人留下来直到他辞职，然后公司关门。”2000年7月，他雇佣了儿子，并开始介绍他为金沙资本的继承人。

弗兰克·桑兹（FRANK SANDS JR.）在加入该组织时33岁

公司担任研究总监。作为三个孩子中的一个，他早就有了进入理财行业的愿望。1994年，在他父亲的母校达顿（Darden）获得工商管理硕士学位后，他加入了休斯顿的精品基金经理Fayez Sarofim&Co.，在那里他表现出了作为一名专注增长经理的希望。在那里的六年里，他迅速成长，从科技股票研究分析师到投资组合经理再到负责人，然后辞职回到他父亲在阿灵顿的公司。萨罗菲姆的一位不愿透露姓名的前同事记得，他“精力充沛、充满灵感”，而且雄心勃勃。

事实上，桑兹雄心勃勃：至少在他正式加入公司一年前，他就开始为父亲兼职，并对关键决策施加控制。例如，1999年7月，年轻的桑兹采访了斯科特·奥戈曼（Scott O'Gorman Jr.），他将在未来6年内聘用7位忠诚的投资组合经理中的第一位。

一旦正式上任，儿子就不失时机地扩大业务规模，期待着他决心引进的新资产。在他的指导下，该公司投资于新的信息技术并简化了营销流程，收购了阿尔卑斯山的收入分成合同部分，并组建了一个新的内部营销部门。

Like all growth investors, Sands Capital lost money from 2000 to 2002. Nonetheless, the firm beat its benchmark in all three years thanks to its focus on resilient growth stocks viewed by the market as good long-term bets. Sands Capital also added to its appeal by pegging its fees “a basis point or two below” the competition, recalls Stan Rupnik, chief investment officer of the Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System.

In 2001, Sands Capital hooked its first substantial account: Florida’s State Board of Administration, which invested $517 million. It was a watershed event. “People decided, ‘This is a big enough firm,’” says the younger Sands. Other big clients followed, including Ikano Funds of Luxembourg and a few family offices, all of which opened accounts in excess of $200 million.

第二年,带着那时是什么ten-year track record of beating the Russell 1000 growth index net of fees nearly every year, the firm won mandates from pension funds such as General Motors Asset Management and the Public Employees’ Retirement Fund of Indiana. To publicize the firm’s name, Sands Capital began to subadvise the Constellation Sands Capital Select Growth Fund, a retail mutual fund that now offers two share classes, for Constellation Funds Group of Cincinnati, part of Touchstone Advisors. (In 2005, Sands Capital would also begin subadvising the Constellation Sands Capital Institutional Growth Fund.) From the end of 2001 to the close of 2003, Sands Capital’s total assets nearly quadrupled from $1.45 billion to $5.46 billion despite the bear market.

2003年股市反弹returned 36.26 percent net of fees, beating its benchmark by 6.51 percentage points. Frank Sands Sr. seized on his firm’s positive performance to substantiate his succession plan. On October 24, 2004, he sent a letter to clients and consultants announcing that his son had been promoted to president of the firm and would take over as CEO and CIO in 2008. Sands Capital more than doubled its assets, to $11.42 billion, by the end of 2004, then nearly doubled them again, to $19.26 billion, by the end of 2005.

With assets pouring in, the CEO and the president moved to cement employee loyalty with an equity compensation plan. In 2005 they changed the firm from a Subchapter S corporation to a limited-liability company, enabling them to sell employees about 15 percent of the stock. “If anything, they have overengineered this thing,” says consultant Michael Rosen of Angeles Investment Advisors, a Santa Monica, California, firm that has steered clients to Sands Capital. “It’s clearly working.” To date, not a single member of the investment team has left Sands Capital since the firm was founded.

去年，随着资产不断流入，该公司又到了一个关键时刻。一些顾问质疑，一个由11人组成的投资团队能否胜任管理接近200亿美元的资产。但小金沙没有扩张公司的打算。他推断，保持对父亲集中增长理念的忠诚——保持敏捷——意味着将投资组合限制在目前27只股票的数量上。这就是为什么他和他的父亲计划在资产达到220亿美元时关闭公司，让新客户进入公司，并在资产达到250亿美元时限制新的资金，即使是来自现有客户的资金。

这项计划有助于解释最近佛罗里达州行政委员会和伊利诺伊州教师退休制度的损失。一位公共养老基金的官员说，年轻的桑兹知道公司即将接近新资金，于是开始“挑选客户”，并致信佛罗里达州和伊利诺伊州的基金，威胁如果他们不支付更高的费用，就终止他们的账户。这两只基金以低于市价的价格签约，现在却举步维艰。伊利诺伊州教师协会的首席信息官鲁普尼克说：“你不会为了击败竞争对手而出价，然后在未来两年提高学费。”。“这从来没有发生在我们身上。”

恶意来得正是时候。2006年上半年，该公司持有的32个总头寸中，有25个表现逊于罗素1000增长指数。成长股的糟糕环境是部分原因。但金沙资本（sandscapital）也陷入了自下而上方法的一个常见陷阱，顾问Rosen表示：其投资团队成员对投资组合中的股票产生了情感上的依恋，该公司宽松的选股标准可能加剧了这一错误。

例如，今年1月，该团队最终分两批出售戴尔，每股29.89美元和28.41美元，此前戴尔股价从2004年底的42美元左右大幅下滑。“今年我们犯了几个错误，”资深分析师、投资团队成员大卫•莱文森（davidlevanson）承认。“我们的公司投资巨大，而且停滞不前的时间有点太长。他们刚刚成熟。随着业绩下滑，该公司又看到了3亿美元的客户资产走出家门，不过年轻的金沙将这些客户的流失视为“正常营业额”

小金沙并不打算对其投资流程进行重大调整。正如金沙资本（sandscapital）副董事长兼董事罗伯特帕夫（robertpuff）所言：“这相当于吃了某种毒药。罗森同意这种说法。他说：“你想在改变和改进之间取得平衡。”。

And that’s what the young president intends to do. His investment team is “looking for ways to innovate and improve” how it applies its investment criteria and is considering some changes to the portfolio, such as selling Wal-Mart Stores and Microsoft Corp. and buying organic grocer Whole Foods Market.

For now, Sands Capital’s solid longer-term record has bought it some breathing room. Rosen, for one, is telling the investors he advises to stay the course. And the younger Sands is landing new clients. North Carolina Retirement Systems opened a $750 million account in September, and the firm plans to announce that it has signed up a university endowment and two pension funds that collectively have more than $250 million to invest.

随着更多的胜利和业绩的好转，金沙资本的继承人显然应该能够很好地重演他在过去六年取得的胜利，并撰写一本关于保持独立的艺术的权威著作。