Michael Alkin: Uranium Series Part I: Hedge Fund Manager Goes All in on Uranium
Michael has an extensive background in the Hedge Fund world where he would look for inconsistencies with companies and then study them in-depth. Company management would often say one thing, but the numbers would say something different. His job was to discover what was truly occurring. His career has always been about discovery, understanding expectations and knowing what is going on in both the buy and sell side of the market.
His first assignment in the industry was looking into the not-for-profit education space. He discovered there was a lot of shady and illegal business practices. Eventually, the government took notice, there was an investigation, and the stock of the company went to zero. This experience drove home the importance of not only listening to Wall Street but investigating in person to get the complete story.
Around 2015 he left the Hedge Fund industry for family reasons, and in his spare time, he began looking Into uranium. He quickly realized that the uranium picture was a complex one and appeared underappreciated. He details his entire journey into understanding the market and gives us a fairly in-depth overview of the uranium market.
He studied the entire mining picture including the fuel cycle, reactors, regional demands, enrichment, underfeeding, and secondary market sources of uranium like government holdings. He realized that the economics of future uranium production was mainly ignored due to long-term contracts. After carefully considering the market he realized it would almost certainly continue to grow.
He explains the reasons for the plentiful uranium supply from Kazakhstan and why it was cheaper and how that is now changing.
Talking Points From This Week’s Episode
• Michael discusses his background being a researcher and contrarian investor.
• He provides us with a broad overview of the uranium market and recent history.
• Explains the supply-demand and market fundamentals of the industry.
Michael Alkin is Chief Investment Officer and Founder of Sachem Cove Partners, LLC. He leads the entirety of the investment process. Mike has over 20 years of hedge fund experience on the long and short side with extensive short selling experience across many industries.
Prior to founding Sachem Cove Partners, he was an analyst and partner for seven years at Knott Partners. Before Knott he worked at Walker Smith Capital, Zweig-DiMenna and Windsor Partners.