As reported by the Financial Times (and by the several articles that followed trying to investigate the matter), Quintessential Capital Management put Folli Follie, a Greek jewerly and watches manufacturer, under the spotlight for misleadingly reporting store count. The effects on the market were pretty drastic.
A case of fact-checking
QMC in-depth investigation was based on double checking statements and pointing out discrepancies between official statements and alternative sources.
Namely (and most interestingly in our case), they pointed out, among other findings:
Store count officially reported didn’t match with official store locator POS count (which included stores that in Google Maps were marked as permanently closed o were missing): 630 POS claimed as of end 2016 but only 289 were found operational.
On-site checks confirmed the open maps research conducted.
A web traffic audit suggested that “FF digital presence, especially in Asia, may be indicative of a far smaller company”
The age of continuous due diligence
The digitalization of the world brought not only advantages to the customer, but to all investors and stakeholders.
Quoting Quinlan Associates report on Alternative Data, investors have a fiduciary duty to use all data available, “[they] are in charge of making optimal decisions for clients, and hence should incorporate as much data and analysis as possible into the investment process.”
The digital age took such a big step into investigation-related costs reduction, that today’s tools allow not only at on-demand investigation but most importantly for a continuous due diligence on companies in the FLG sector.
We at RE Analytics work continuously for providing independent metrics for management evaluation (store presence, web traffic, product offering, price architecture, channel and distribution mix and more). Situations like Folli Follie could (and should) have been signaled long before this incidental discovery by this one investor.