- Age: 54
- Source: hedge funds, self-made
- Residence: Livingston, NJ
- Country of Citizenship: United States
- Education: Bachelor of Arts / Science, University of Pittsburgh; Master of Business Administration, Carnegie Mellon University
- Marital Status: Married
- Children: 3
David Alan Tepper is the successful hedge fund manager of Appaloosa Management. His investment speciality is distressed companies. In recent years he’s become known as a philanthropist, his largest gift going to Carnegie Mellon University, whose Tepper School of Business is named after him. He earned his MBA from Carnegie Mellon in 1982.
David Tepper was first introduced into the world of investing by his father. His father was a small investor who gifted him his first investments, Pennsylvania Engineering Co. and the soon to be bankrupt, Career Academies. David Tepper first got involved in the financial management business when he took a position with Keystone Mutual Funds in 1984. In 1985, he was recruited by Goldman Sachs and took a job in their high yield group. Tepper’s talents were obvious, and he became the group’s head trader within six months. Mr. Tepper worked for Goldman Sachs until late 1992, when he left after repeatedly being passed over for partnership. In early 1993, he founded the Appaloosa Management Hedge Fund, which he still runs today. He started the fund with $57 million, and now manages close to $4 billion. Tepper’s decision to leave Goldman Sachs and start Appaloosa Management was an extremely profitable one. Forbes magazine estimates his current net worth at around $5 billion.
Investment Philosophy
David Tepper is an expert in distressed equity and debt investing. He invests in all different classes and in all different countries. He has bought futures on the Korean Won, AIG Debt, Russian Debt, Bank of America equity, as a few examples.
He likes to buy into companies that are near bankruptcy. He will then sell the company’s debt when it matures or sell the stock once the company has recovered. He prefers to invest in companies that have high amounts of revenue. He also will take a chance on Utility companies because Tepper believes that government will keep these types of companies afloat, because it is usually in the public’s best interest.
In 2001 his Appaloosa fund generated a 61% return by focusing on distressed companies. In that year Tepper bought millions of shares of Pacific Gas and Electric (PCG) and Edison International (EIX). The companies were near bankruptcy, and their credit ratings were reduced to junk status. Tepper purchased shares of these companies when their stocks were in the low teens. After the state of California bailed out the two companies, he sold the shares when they had risen into the mid-twenties.
In 2002, Mr. Tepper bought an estimated $1 billion in debt from another distressed company Enron, which eventually went bankrupt. After the company reorganized, Mr. Tepper sold the debt and made a fortune.
David Tepper also profited from the bankruptcy of WorldCom. After defaulting on its debt, Mr. Tepper was quoted as saying “I’m buying a little bit today. It’s a big company with a lot of revenue so we probably will end up making money.”
Another bankruptcy that benefitted Mr. Tepper was that of Conseco Inc. Mr. Tepper purchased a large amount of Conseco’s shares for cheap when the company was near to bankruptcy. In 2003, the company emerged from bankruptcy and once again Mr. Tepper made a fortune. In 2003, the distressed debt specialist made a record high return of 148%. Mr. Tepper has also invested in other well-known distressed companies such as MCI, Mirant and Marconi.
In 2009, Mr. Tepper made large investments in some of America’s biggest banks. He believed that the government would not let these banks fail because it would not be in the public’s best interest. In early 2009, he bought 47.55 million shares of Bank of America at an average price of $6.73. Over the course of the year, the stock rallied and by the fourth quarter reached a price of $15.79 per share. In early 2009, he bought American International Group’s debt for 10 cents on the dollar. After the picture for the company’s performance improved he sold the debt at 61 cents. In the same year, he also profited after buying preferred shares of down and out bank Wachovia and the bank debt of Washington Mutual. Appaloosa Management made $4 billion dollars in 2009 and had its second highest return of 132%.
Some other early investments:
In 1995, Tepper purchased of Argentine sovereign debt, stating that “rising bank deposits portended a strengthening economy.”
In 1997, the Korean won fell 50% during the Asian Financial crisis; Tepper bought won futures and Korean government debt.
In 1998-Tepper bought Russian Government debt betting that Russia wouldn’t default on its debt. He kept buying as the bonds tanked further in value, and had a 60% return in 1999.
A few of his mistakes:
In 2000, he shorted the over-valued Nasdaq. However, due to complaints of his investors he covered his short. A few months later, the tech bubble started its collapse.
In 2002-he lost 25% due largely to a collapse in the high yield debt market.
David Tepper Quotes
David Tepper is a big baseball fan and once said “I loved baseball. I lived and died for Roberto Clemente. I knew every player in the major league. You could pull a player’s card, and I could tell you the statistics.”
“It’s our contention that equity may be in the money, depending on where the liabilities lie.”
“GM will do what’s best for GM, and Delphi should do what’s good for them.”
“This company looks cheap, that company looks cheap, but the overall economy could completely screw it up. The key is to wait. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to do nothing.”
In 2010 David Tepper said either the “economy would improve and drive a rally, or the economy would drop and the Fed would undertake another round of easing.”
“But there is no logic to QE3 now and the only result might be more food and energy inflation.”
“Basically if I know that things were coming, if I got the right things out of Europe, I would invest in different things there,” he said. “I’d really invest more in Spain, but I’ve got to have the right things because if I don’t I’m going to get killed.”
Appaloosa Management
David Tepper founded Appaloosa Management LP in 1993. The firm has been extremely successful and in June of 2011, the Institutional Hedge Fund Firm of the Year award was given to Appaloosa Management. The Hedge Fund specializes in investing in the debt and equities of distressed companies. The fund currently manages more than $4 billion in assets. Since the firm’s inception in 1993, it has averaged a phenomenal annual return of 30%. According AlphaClone’s back-test simulation, if you had “invested in Appaloosa’s 20 top holdings as they were disclosed publicly each quarter, you would have earned a total return of 745.1% between January 2000 and now, versus just 11.3% for the S&P 500.” Appaloosa Management operates four investment vehicles.
Appaloosa Fund (the flagship fund).
Palomino Offshore Fund
Palomino Onshore Fund
Thoroughbred Fund
Performance of Appaloosa Investment LP I
Year Return (%) S&P500 (%) Excess Gain (%)
2010 22 15.1 6.9
2009 132.72 26.5 106.2
2008 -26.72 -37 10.3
2007 8.88 5.61 3.3
2006 25.86 15.79 10.1
5-Year Cumulative 185.1 12.2 172.9
2005 20.55 4.91 15.6
2004 33.81 12 21.8
2003 148.82 28.7 120.1
2002 -24.8 -22.1 -2.7
2001 66.75 -11.9 78.6
10-Year Cumulative 1335 16.4 1318.6
2000 0.04 -9.1 9.1
1999 60.89 21 39.9
1998 -29.19 28.6 -57.8
1997 29.54 33.4 -3.9
1996 78.46 23 55.5
15-Year Cumulative 3680.8 170.2 3510.6
1995 42.06 37.6 4.5
1994 19.03 1.3 17.7
1993 57.62 10.1 47.5
David Tepper’s recent buys:
David Tepper, who has been known to be bullish, has been very conservative lately. However, he is still interested in the energy sector and has recently been bullish on energy companies. With the recent drop in oil prices, many energy companies have seen their stock prices tank in value. David Tepper has recently purchased the following energy stocks; Valero (VLO), CVR Energy (CVI), Western Refining (WNR), Marathon Oil (MRO), Tesoro Corporation (TSO) Walter Energy Inc. (WLT) and Alpha Natural Resources (ANR).
Another distressed industry that Mr. Tepper has recently shown interest in, is the residential construction industry. He has recently purchased stocks in the Pulte Group (PHM), Beazer Homes (BZH), Ryland Group (RYL), DH Horton (DHI) and Masco Corporation (MAS).
It is estimated that Appaloosa Management currently has 30 to 40 percent of its assets in cash.
Some of that cash is in US Treasuries. It will be interesting to see were Mr. Tepper invest next, as he had 30 to 40 percent in cash in 2009, just before making a fortune by purchasing beaten up bank stocks such as Bank of America, Citigroup and Wachovia.
David Tepper has made a fortune for himself and those who invested in Appaloosa Management. He did it by having the guts to invest in down and out companies that other investment managers would not touch. Mr. Tepper’s record has distinguished him as one of the world’s greatest investors.
