12. Dom St George of Cayucos Capital on Valterra Platinum

On this episode of the Stock Spin-off Investing Podcast, I interview Dom St. George of Cayucos Capital. Dom has 15 years of experience investing in emerging markets. Today he shares his investment case on recent spin-off, Valterra Platinum. You can follow Dom on ⁠X (https://x.com/CayucosCapital) ⁠and subscribe to his ⁠substack (https://cayucoscapital.substack.com/). Here's what we covered: 0:00 Introduction 1:05 Dom’s Background 2:05 How Dom decided on the name Cayucos Capital 3:05 How Dom finds his investment ideas 7:00 How Dom approaches investing in spin-offs 9:30 The opportunity in emerging market stocks vs. developed markets 11:59 Why is Valterra Platinum an interesting opportunity 14:55 Why do mining companies have a poor track record of timing their own cycles? 16:05 Why have platinum prices been strong recently? 20:15 What is the main use for platinum? 21:20 Why Dom is confident in the long-term outlook for platinum despite the rise of EVs 25:45 The use of catalytic converters in hybrids 27:15 The competitive landscape for platinum group metals 30:45 Why has Valterra’s stock price lagged its public competitors in the last 6 months 33:05 Timing of when Anglo America could sell its remaining 19.9% stake in Valterra 33:20 How Dom thinks about Valterra’s valuation 36:00 Capital allocation for Valterra 38:45 Valterra’s hedging policy 40:10 How to get in touch with Dom