What we can learn from the strategy of Henry Singleton

When things look miserable, like they do today, it is worth remembering the old City saying that ‘you make your money in a bear market, you just don't realise it at the time'.

This point has never been made more clearly than by a man called Henry Singleton. He attempted to buy back his entire company in the torrid market of the early 1970s, to great effect for shareholders. Singleton founded his investment vehicle, Teledyne. As its share price soared over the next decade, he took advantage of Teledyne’s highly rated stock price to raise fresh equity and amass 130 acquisitions, in the process building a conglomerate ranging from electronic components to high fidelity speakers. Now, the most interesting bit of his story starts in 1972, when stock market and ...