Welcome to the first msr. letter.
msr. started around a kitchen table on the West Coast, between three friends with very different backgrounds. One of us studies financial economics and has spent years building valuation models. One is training to become a master mariner and has spent long stretches at sea. One studies mathematics and thinks in distributions and risk. What we share is a conviction that shipping is one of the most interesting, and most misunderstood, sectors in public markets.
What moves the world
More than 80 percent of world trade by volume travels by sea. Grain, crude oil, cars, chemicals and the containers behind almost everything in a shop pass through a fleet of ships that most investors never look at closely. Listed shipping is cyclical, global and thinly covered by research. That combination makes it hard to own, and it is exactly why we think patient, specialist work can make a difference.
How we invest
Our portfolio has two parts. The core is a long-term portfolio of quality companies, about half Swedish and half global, owned in the spirit of the great Nordic holding companies. It gives the portfolio its ballast. The maritime satellite is where our specialist research goes: shipowners across tankers, containers, car carriers and gas, as well as marine equipment, technology and services.
Every idea is pitched with a thesis, a valuation and a clear answer to one question: what would prove us wrong? Every trade is logged, and nothing in the log is ever changed after the fact.
Our own money, first
msr. invests only its partners' own capital. We do not take outside money. That keeps our incentives simple: when we are wrong, we pay for it.
What this letter will cover
Once a month we will write about what we see in shipping and maritime markets, what we are researching and what we have learned. After each quarter we will publish a report on the portfolio. The first one covers Q1 2027, when we move from our paper portfolio to live capital.
Thank you for reading. If you work in or around shipping in Gothenburg, we would like to hear from you.
Joel, Linus and Simon
