During the Planet MicroCap Conference in Las Vegas, I pitched $SIF. This is very much a classic “boring but interesting” turnaround idea in the aerospace forging space. SIFCO is a 113-year-old aerospace supplier with established certifications, long-standing customer relationships, and a solid competitive position in both commercial and defense aerospace markets, but one that spent more than a decade in operational decline before recently starting to inflect. In this week’s Skull Session with Hugo Navarro, we discussed how he will balance his new career advising a hedge fund while continuing to write deep-dive research reports on his Substack, as well as four of his favorite investment pitches.
We opened this Skull Session by catching up with Hugo Navarro (@HugoNavarroPer2) after meeting him in person at Planet MicroCap Las Vegas. Hugo discussed his move into advising a fund in Spain while continuing to publish on Substack, where he focuses on undercovered small-cap ideas.
Hugo described his approach as both bottom-up and top-down, with a focus on cheap companies that often trade below five times free cash flow and still have growth optionality. He also explained how sharing research online helped him build relationships with fund managers, gain access to management teams, and eventually move into fund advising.