In short: His prime owner-operator alignment in offshore energy services: controlled by Christian Siem, who "had already had a record" of buying depressed assets at the opportune time, recapitalizing, and merging them — a capital allocator who owns a lot of stock himself. (Cited alongside TechnipFMC as illustrations of his offshore energy book.)
Subsea 7 builds and installs the underwater pipelines and equipment that connect offshore oil-and-gas fields — a classic "picks and shovels" supplier to offshore energy. Robotti's reason to own it is the man in charge: Christian Siem, an "owner-operator" who already has a long record of buying beaten-down assets cheaply, fixing the balance sheet, and merging them well.
Robotti's broader lesson is that it's far safer to invest alongside a smart controlling owner who has his own money on the line and understands both the business and how to deploy capital — especially in a cyclical, out-of-favor industry. (He named it next to TechnipFMC as part of his offshore-energy book.)
28:08transferred to. This stock's cheap, and in Leucadia I just saw what they were doing, I saw the opportune situations and the discounts. So I lived through Leucadia; I didn't know Leucadia and have the history of it — as opposed to Christian Siem, when I came across him he had already had a record of being successful in acquiring assets in depressed businesses at an opportune time, capitalizing that, converting the company, merging it into someone. So he had already — other
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