On the buy side, the Global Value Fund II established a position in BASF (XTER:BAS), a company that the Worldwide High Dividend Yield Value Fund has held since last December. As explained in our recent Letter to Shareholders, BASF is a German-based global chemicals company with over 120,000 employees operating in over 80 countries around the world. It is perhaps best known for its “Verbund” business model, which combines much of the chemical value chain into a single large facility allowing for easy transportation of feedstocks and intermediate chemicals, as well as efficient power generation — all of which saves the company money. The company has stated that in roughly 75% of its businesses, it is in the first, second or third position in terms of market share. At purchase, BASF was trading at a significant discount from our estimate of intrinsic value, and paid a well-above-average annual dividend yield of 4.5%.
From Tweedy Browne (Trades, Portfolio) Fund's second-quarter 2019 shareholder letter.
