Baron Funds Comments on Forum Energy Technologies

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Aug 23, 2012
From Baron Funds' second quarter commentary:

Forum Energy Technologies, Inc. (FET, Financial) is a global oilfield products company that recently went public. It operates a diversified group of businesses focused on several secular growth sectors (subsea, non-traditional drilling) with emphasis on consumables and aftermarket products. We believe the management team is top notch, with significant experience in building and growing successful oilfield companies in the past.We think that the existing business can grow double digits organically, benefitting from positive trends in its niche markets and through international expansion of its product lines. Additionally, we expect the management to augment growth through strategic and accretive acquisitions. Forum is trading at an attractive valuation both absolutely and relative to its larger competitors since it is not yet well known.We believe it could ultimately trade at a premium.