Bottom-Up Investing with an Absolute-Value Focus: A Wall Street Transcript Interview with Arnold Van Den Berg, Founder, Chairman of the Board, the Chief Executive Officer, Co-Chief Investment Officer and a Portfolio Manager of Century Management

67 WALL STREET, New York - November 26, 2013 - The Wall Street Transcript has just published its current Investing Strategies Report. This special feature contains expert industry commentary through in-depth interviews with highly experienced Money Managers. The full issue is available by calling (212) 952-7433 or via The Wall Street Transcript Online.

Topics covered: Large-Cap, Deep-Value - Bottom-Up Stock Selection - Repurchase Activity - Value Oriented Strategy - Investment Risk Management Strategies - High-Quality Blue-Chip Companies - Free Cash Flow Yield - Alternative Investing, Ultimate Returns

Companies include: Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc. (JEC), CDI Corp. (CDI), Corning Inc. (GLW), Intel Corporation (INTC), International Business Machine (IBM), MDC Holdings Inc. (MDC), Toll Brothers Inc. (TOL), Layne Christensen Co. (LAYN), Alcoa, Inc. (AA) and many others.

In the following excerpt from the Investing Strategies Report, Arnold Van Den Berg discusses his investment methodology and current top picks for investors:

TWST: Please introduce our readers to the firm by telling us about Century Management's history.

Mr. Van Den Berg: I began my investment career in 1968, right at the top of the market, selling mutual funds. I had put my faith in mutual funds as the ultimate way to help people make money. Then as the stock market began what would eventually be its worst decline since the Great Depression, most mutual funds went down as much as individual stocks. This really shook my faith in the market and money management business.

I could not help thinking that maybe the best way to be successful in the investment industry would be to start my own firm, so I spent the next several years studying Wall Street, the market and various investment philosophies. I noticed there were fund managers and investment professionals who had weathered the storm fairly well, and they all came from the Benjamin Graham school of thought, which is the value-investing approach. I concluded that managers who used a value-based investment strategy protected their clients' capital better and provided more consistent investment results than managers using other investment strategies.

I started Century Management in September of 1974, because I believed I had found the investment approach that could do well even in bad market environments. At this time, the market was nearing the bottom of what would be a 45% decline in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and a 75% decline in the average stock. As a result, very few people were interested in investing. Also, there were so many articles talking about how it was the end of the world. Yet, I reasoned that either the world was going to end, or I was going to make a lot of money for my clients - here we are, almost 40 years later.

TWST: Would you give us a snapshot of the firm's business today, such as assets under management?

Mr. Van Den Berg: As of October 2013, we have approximately $2 billion in assets under management and 44 employees. We use a value-based investment discipline to manage money for individuals, families, trusts, partnerships, businesses, foundations and pensions. This is done either through our separately managed accounts or through our mutual funds.

TWST: Your focus is on value investing. Is there anything else you would add in describing your overall investment philosophy and how you apply that to your investment decisions?

Mr. Van Den Berg: First, our primary focus is on absolute value versus relative value. In other words, we invest in companies that are selling at deep discounts to our appraisals of their intrinsic values, irrespective of what's going on in the market...

For more of this interview and many others visit the Wall Street Transcript - a unique service for investors and industry researchers - providing fresh commentary and insight through verbatim interviews with CEOs, portfolio managers and research analysts. This special issue is available by calling (212) 952-7433 or via The Wall Street Transcript Online.