During the first half of the year, Avon (NYSE:AVP) agreed to be purchased by Natura, a Brazilian cosmetics company. As a result, we sold our small position in the stock and have reduced our ownership of the debt. Although the stock investment was disappointing over the years, we did exceptionally well owning Avon’s debt, demonstrating that our flexible mandate which allows us to purchase fixed income from time-to-time can be critical to producing results. The debt offered and achieved an equity-like rate of return over the time we owned it with significantly less risk than the stock.
From Yacktman Asset Management (Trades, Portfolio)'s Yacktman Fund (Trades, Portfolio) second-quarter 2019 shareholder letter.
