Sean Peche meets Howard Marks - one of world’s top money managers shares key takeaways from his guru

Morningstar’s latest performance data puts Sean Peche’s Ranmore Fund in the top one percentile for virtually every performance period in the last five years. In this interview with BizNews editor Alec Hogg, the ace money manager shares insights from a lunchtime meeting last week with the investing guru who inspires him. The result is a treat for beginners and professionals alike..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here.The auditorium doors will open for BNIC#2 on 10 September 2025 in Hermanus. For more information and tickets, click here..Watch here.Listen here.BizNews Reporter.In an age of noise, gimmicks, and financial charlatanism, a quiet lunch in London might not sound like headline material. But when that lunch includes Howard Marks - the legendary co-founder of Oaktree Capital and the man Warren Buffett reads “first” - and South African fund manager Sean Peche, it becomes something more: a masterclass in investment clarity.BizNews founder Alec Hogg sat down with Peche to unpack what he called one of the highlights of his professional life: meeting Howard Marks, a thinker who has redefined how smart investors understand risk, cycles, and - crucially - how not to lose money.From BizNews to London via LinkedInPeche, founder of Ranmore Fund Management, didn’t just happen upon this meeting. As he tells it, a BizNews presentation he delivered in March on market cycles - where he referenced Marks extensively - sparked a connection on LinkedIn. Richard, Oaktree’s UK managing director, reached out. “You quote Howard a lot,” he said. “He’ll be in London soon. Want to meet him?”Peche’s answer was swift: yes. His admiration for Marks dates back years. “It’s like being invited to interview Warren Buffett,” Peche told Hogg. “Except I don’t think I’ll ever get Buffett. But I got Marks.”The man behind $200 billionTo understand the significance, consider this: Oaktree Capital manages over $200 billion. The firm was partially acquired by Brookfield Asset Management in 2019 in a deal worth nearly $5 billion. And yet, Howard Marks remains disarmingly humble.“He walked in, shook every hand, and said, ‘I’m Howard,’” recalls Peche. “I brought him a bottle of South African wine - from the Cape of Good Hope. Told him we could all use some hope.” A cheesy gesture, perhaps, but one Marks warmly appreciated.Second-level thinking: A philosophy, not a tacticThe meeting wasn’t just a photo opportunity - it was a whiteboard-and-Q&A session on risk, markets, and the art of not being fooled by randomness (a Taleb reference Marks himself made).Peche shared one of Oaktree’s founding principles, unchanged since 1995: Superior investment performance with less than commensurate risk. As Marks puts it, outperforming during bull markets proves little. The real test is in bad times.This dovetails with Peche’s own approach. Ranmore runs a single global equity fund. No marketing bells and whistles. No “Asian tech” fund one day and “value income” the next. Just one bus stop. “If you run between stops, you may never catch the bus,” said Peche, echoing Marks’s metaphor. “Know who you are. Know where you want to stand.”The fallacy of risk = rewardOne of Marks’s more elegant takeaways was his critique of the university-taught model that higher risk automatically delivers higher reward. “It’s not a straight line,” Peche explained. “At every point along that curve, there’s a distribution of outcomes. More risk doesn’t guarantee more return - it can mean more loss.”Volatility isn’t the enemy, Marks argues - losing money is. And volatility, when positive, is welcomed. But too often risk is mistaken for variability, rather than actual capital impairment.Forecasting? forget it.Peche lit up when recalling Marks’s scorn for macroeconomic forecasting. “Even if you knew the pandemic, the Ukraine war, and Gaza were going to happen,” said Peche, “you wouldn’t know how markets would react.” The lesson: market timing is a fool’s errand. Better to focus on risk management, fundamentals, and consistency.Marks’s key point: You don’t need to predict. You need to prepare.Humility over convictionOne moment stood out: Peche asked Marks how investors should reconcile high conviction with an unpredictable future.“If you have the skill and you’re right, conviction is powerful,” Marks said. “But if you don’t have Buffett’s skillset, be humble. Manage risk. Diversify.” It’s a refreshing contrast to the current investing culture, where bold bets and meme stocks often dominate headlines.Peche agreed. Ranmore’s top 10 holdings make up just 26% of the portfolio. “We want to play five-day cricket,” he quipped. “Not T20. We’re here to stay at the crease.”Purity over profusionPeche’s one-fund philosophy is rare in an industry built on product proliferation. “Others offer a buffet of funds: value, growth, tech, ESG. We stick to one. Same pot. No segregated accounts. No special deals for staff. We’re all in together.”That purism resonated with Hogg. “It’s like how we do media,” he said. “We don’t tell people what to think. We give them access to clarity.”Clarity is what Howard Marks offered. Not stock tips or bold predictions. Just principles: don’t chase trends, manage your downside, and above all, think differently.The Ramaphosa-Trump incident: A cautionary talePeche, based in the UK but still deeply South African, also weighed in on Donald Trump’s Oval Office ambush of President Cyril Ramaphosa. “It was disappointing for the country,” he said. “Trump came out badly. So did we. It was premeditated and poorly handled.”What does that have to do with investing? Everything. It’s a reminder that politics - like markets - is full of fat tails. Unpredictable, extreme outcomes are more likely than we think. Marks and Taleb both emphasize this: be wary of the event you didn’t see coming.Final thought: Stay at the bus stopThe heart of Marks’s message - and Peche’s takeaway - is about identity and focus. “Don’t try to be everything to everyone,” Peche said. “Pick your spot. Know your risks. Stay consistent.”And as BizNews readers, perhaps that’s the real wisdom: in a world rushing between bus stops, there’s power in standing still - if you know you’re in the right place.

Sean Peche meets Howard Marks - one of world’s top money managers shares key takeaways from his guru

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