In short: Q2 flat at Cortland International; Bozzetto divestiture closed for $270M to fund an acquisition — "on hold while we wait and see what management buys." The multibagger case restated: a perpetual-capital vehicle whose goal is growing net book value per share, buying back stock while below NAV, ~$1bn of NOLs to shield earnings, and CEO Rhys Simmerton with a record of buying undervalued companies. "The bet is on the management… This could be a similar type of story" to Teledyne.
Aimia is not really an operating business — it is a pot of money with a stock listing. The idea is to buy whole or partial stakes in ordinary businesses that throw off cash, then use that cash to buy more of them, compounding the value per share over years. Investors call this a "perpetual capital vehicle"; the famous example is Teledyne, which Polomny says he wrote up in an earlier issue.
Two extra levers make the maths friendlier here. First, the shares trade below the value of what the company owns, so management buying back its own stock instantly increases every remaining shareholder's slice — and they are already doing it. Second, the company carries about $1 billion of past losses it can legally offset against future profits, meaning the first chunk of everything it earns arrives tax-free.
This quarter is a waiting quarter. The Bozzetto business was sold for $270 million and the cash is sitting there until CEO Rhys Simmerton finds something to buy — "on hold while we wait and see what management buys." That is also the risk: there is no product or factory to judge, only a person. Polomny is explicit that this is a bet on the jockey, not the horse.
In short: The named example of "jockey" investing — "I like a company. It trades in Canada. I owned it many times throughout the history because I like jockeys. I like to attach myself to people. There's a guy I think he's South African but I like his method, Rhys Simmerton, and he runs Aimia in Canada." The setup as he states it: "they got Saudi money in there"; the previous management "tried to do this before he got there. They screwed it all up… bought a bunch of companies they shouldn't have. He came in, sold a bunch of stuff"; and the balance sheet is now "$280 million in cash, over a billion dollars in net operating loss carry forward." The mandate is the UK: "Look at the UK. You've got all these companies that have a ton of cash… the valuations are at generational lows… we're going to start acquiring these companies, take their cash, take their cash generating ability, rinse and repeat." Note this is also how he gets UK exposure without owning the UK, which he calls uninvestable right now.
Aimia is a Canadian-listed shell of a former loyalty-points company that now exists to buy other businesses. It has roughly $280 million of cash and, crucially, more than a billion dollars of accumulated tax losses — meaning any profits it earns from here can be shielded from tax for a very long time. That makes cash inside Aimia worth more than the same cash inside a normal buyer.
Polomny is not buying the assets; he is buying the person. "I like jockeys" — the horse-racing metaphor for backing the manager rather than the business. The jockey is Rhys Simmerton, who arrived after a previous management "bought a bunch of companies they shouldn't have," sold the mistakes, and now wants to buy cash-rich UK companies at what he calls generational-low valuations, use their cash flow to buy the next one, and repeat.
Notice how this squares a circle he set up earlier: he thinks the UK is "tremendously cheap but uninvestable right now" because of policy. Owning a Canadian vehicle run by someone who will buy UK cash flows gets him the cheapness without owning the country. The obvious risk is that everything depends on one person continuing to allocate well — jockey bets fail when the jockey leaves or loses his touch.
26:57I like to wed myself to or attach myself to people. There's a guy I think he's South African but I like his method, Rhys Simmerton, and he runs Aimia in Canada. And so what are they doing? They got Saudi money in there. — Yeah. — What's he focusing on? The whole UK. He can see it.
In short: Named only in the host's introduction (auto-captioned "Amia"): he "today serves as CEO and chairman of Aimia, driving the group toward becoming a serial acquirer" — i.e. the framework in this talk is the playbook he is now running at Aimia. He says nothing further about it on stage.
0:03[music] [music] — 2024 he joined the board of EOH and helped steer its turnaround into Ayoko and today serves as CEO and chairman of Amia driving the group toward becoming a serial acquirer. Welcome, Rhys. — This BizNews production is brought to you by Brenthurst Wealth. South Africa's leading boutique wealth manager trusted to guide families for over 22 years. Invest better with Brenthurst.
In short: New AIA Portfolio addition and a Singleton-style "cannibal": the Air Canada loyalty cash-out (~C$450M) turned permanent-capital vehicle, now run by Exec Chairman Rhys Simmerton (Milkwood) with Mithaq — insiders/board control ~42.6% (12% Milkwood, 30% Mithaq). It sold Bozzetto (closed 5/29/26), repurchased $131M of its 9.75% notes (saving ~$45M interest), holds ~C$150M cash, a remaining rope business (Cortland) and ~$1B of tax-loss carryforwards; shares $2.88 vs $3.66 book. "The bet is on the jockey, Rhys Simmerton. He has done this before." A multi-year buyback / NAV-gap-closing hold.
Aimia used to run Air Canada's frequent-flyer program; it sold that back to Air Canada in 2019 for about C$450 million and became a cash-rich shell. Early management wasted the windfall on a string of bad deals. Then a Saudi family office (Mithaq) and a UK value investor, Rhys Simmerton of Milkwood Capital, took control — together they own about 42.6% of the company — and turned it into a disciplined "permanent-capital vehicle": a holding company whose only job is to compound the value of each remaining share.
The playbook is Henry Singleton's "cannibal" one: sell the weak businesses (it just sold its Bozzetto chemicals arm), pay down expensive debt (it bought back $131M of its 9.75% notes, saving ~$45M of interest), then buy back the company's own cheap stock. The shares trade at $2.88 against a book value of $3.66, so every buyback below book instantly makes the remaining owners richer; there's also ~C$150M of cash and ~$1B of tax losses to shelter future profits. Polomny is "betting on the jockey" — Simmerton has done exactly this before (his Argent International retired ~43% of its shares and compounded earnings ~30% a year) — and expects it to play out over several years. A patient hold, not a quick trade.
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Verbatim excerpts from the public transcripts (auto-pulled at each mention's timestamp, lightly cleaned). Timestamps link into the video; "source page" opens that commentator's full analysis at this row. Click a mention's header line to expand it (one open at a time). For personal study — not investment advice.