Q:  Would you give an overview of the company and the fund? A : Wintergreen Fund, Inc. is a global open-end diversified investment management company that seeks capital appreciation. Wintergreen Advisers, LLC located at Mountain Lakes, New Jersey is the fund’s investment manager. Currently, total assets under management are approximately $1.7 billion. I have been the portfolio manager of the fund since its inception in May 2005. Prior to forming Wintergreen Advisers, I held various positions with Franklin Mutual Advisers, LLC and also led the Mutual Series group of global and domestic equity value funds. Q:  What is the investment objective of the fund? A : The objective of the fund is long-term capital appreciation with maximum investment flexibility. The fund focuses its investments in areas where it finds the most compelling opportunities and the potential for capital appreciation. Q:  How do you define your investment philosophy? A : Fundamentally, we are value investors. First, we look for solid businesses with good and improving economics. Second, we prefer to invest with good management focused on creating long-term shareholder value. Third, we believe in selecting stocks that trade for less than their intrinsic value. And finally, we maintain a global perspective. Q:  Do you believe that the future of the global economy lies beyond North America? A : : The US will continue to have a very significant role in the global economy, but we believe other parts of the world will have expanding roles.  The U.S. is a mature economy which has a lot of debt. For those two reasons, we think the growth rates that the U.S. has enjoyed since World War II are going to be harder to achieve in the future. Whereas certain other countries are starting this period of time at a lower level of current economic achievement.  At this point, our belief is that it is prudent to invest in well run companies in countries and regions other than North America. Based on this premise, we have the majority of our assets in non-U.S. companies today. Q:  Why does investing in improving economics seem to be better in your view? A : The idea is to invest in companies that are expected to have both increasing sales or distribution and as a secondary source of profit, for the companies to have the ability to create internal economic improvement as a means of strengthening the company’s financial condition  A company with improving economics has the potential for more upside and less risk. Unfortunately, sometimes as companies are going through a process of restructuring or change, it is not immediately apparent that things are getting better and the stock price may take some time to reflect the enhancements made by management. Q:  How do you convert your philosophy into the fund’s investment strategy? A : Under normal market conditions, the fund invests mainly in equity securities of companies from any nation that are available at market prices less than their intrinsic value. We seek to identify securities through extensive analysis and research, taking into account, among other factors, the relationship of book value to market value, cash flow, multiples of earnings, and the quality of management. The fund pursues a global, value-oriented strategy and is not limited to pre-set maximums governing the size of the companies in which it may invest. However, the fund invests substantially in mid- and large-cap companies with market capitalization values greater than $1.5 billion. The fund also may invest a significant portion of its assets in small-cap companies. Our investment strategy is to find very solid long-term investments that we believe have the capacity over time to produce excellent returns with lower risk. We look for the best opportunities around the world to invest our shareholders’ capital so that we can help them create greater long-term wealth. Q:  What analytical steps are involved as part of your research process? A : First and foremost, we identify interesting businesses with a bright outlook and competitive advantage that’s sustainable. We try to find companies that have the ability to capitalize on transactions that to a certain extent are inevitable. We are interested in companies that have the ability to raise their prices (often referred to as pricing power) in a world where there is tremendous uncertainty about growth or currency exchange rates. We do a lot of analysis and tremendous amount of reading and studying companies. We try to find businesses that we believe have good underlying characteristics and then evaluate who is running these companies and what motivates them. We evaluate management’s ability and incentives to deliver superior returns for shareholders. In addition, we look for securities of companies that are attractively priced relative to an economically equivalent security of the same or another company. We generally do not try to project what a company’s economic performance is going to be in the future. We would rather study the balance sheet as a means to assess whether or not they have surplus assets on the balance sheet and cash. Q:  Do you follow certain trends or themes? A : We think there are some themes that we expect to have their ups and downs along the way but they are all highly probable. A classic example of that would be human adornment. People love to look good and no matter what somebody’s earnings are, they almost always want to look sharp, so jewelry as a business is something that we become absolutely fascinated with understanding. We have invested in two companies that we think have and will continue to capitalize beautifully on this trend. There is high probability that there will be greater wealth in Southeast Asia, Greater China, India, and parts of Africa. We own shares in Compagnie Financière Richemont S.A.(CFR.VX), a Swiss luxury goods company. Richemont owns luxury jewelry chain Cartier with about a third of its activities being in Asia. Another example is a company called Swatch Group (UHR.VX), a Swiss manufacturer of finished watches and parts with a great balance sheet. They are selling more watches all over the world, especially in the Far East, and they optimistic about having a record year in 2010. We believe that the power of the underlying brands of Cartier and Swatch will prevail in fast growing markets. Q:  Would you illustrate your research process with some examples? A : One of the companies that we have been accumulating is the Swiss company called Nestlé S.A. (NESN.VX), the world’s largest nutrition and foods maker. Nestlé generates revenues in a wide range of currencies and they have a diversified stream of increasing free cash flow, which they are using for the benefit of all shareholders. The company has a series of other businesses including both pet food and infant milk formula businesses. Nestlé has worked consistently to become better. They majority owned an ophthalmic drug company called Alcon, which they recently sold at a good price. The company has bought back stock, raised the dividend, and it is also constantly working on improving the margins. Changes done by management have made the company much better. Another example would be our largest investment in Wintergreen Fund’s portfolio, a company called Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited (JM.SP). It is a multinational corporation that is incorporated in Bermuda and based in Hong Kong. Our reason for owning this stock begins with the fact that we like their underlying businesses. The company has a conservative balance sheet and it trades at a 35% to 40% discount to Net Asset Value, which has been growing over 20%. These elements have impressed us and encouraged us to invest in this stock. Q:  How do you define “value?” A : We look at value in a number of different ways. Our valuation methodology is based on trying to buy assets at a big discount to what they trade for today. Our strategy is to acquire an asset at a discount to what it’s worth today and then get tomorrow for free and certainly pay attention to the balance sheet. We firmly believe that having a good balance sheet lowers the risks in our holdings. Q:  What is your sell discipline? A : We may sell a portfolio holding if the investment criteria is no longer met, if more attractive investments are identified, or if the holding becomes overvalued relative to the long-term expectation for its price. Q:  How do you build your portfolio? A : We employ a research driven, fundamental value strategy with respect to the fund’s investments while emphasizing undervalued equities, risk arbitrage and other arbitrage transactions, and distressed companies. We examine each security separately and will not apply these factors according to any predetermined formula. To maintain investment flexibility, we consider securities for the fund without being limited by pre-established guidelines as to the size of an issuer, its earnings, or the industry in which it operates. Our portfolio is a concentrated with approximately 30 to 35 companies. We have approximately 10% to 15% turnover in our portfolio and our benchmark is the S&P 500 Index. Q:  What risks do you consider in the marketplace and how do you contain them? A : There are many risks perceived in the marketplace that are specific to any one company or sector or country and there are larger risks such as terrorism and the current financial crisis. These are, of course, factors beyond our control. Still, we do our best to mitigate risk in various ways. First, we rely on our philosophy of investing in solid business with good and improving economics, a good management working for the long-term shareholders, and security available at an attractive price.  We believe that meeting this investment trifecta is a great risk reducer. Second, we try to invest in companies that don’t have stretched balance sheets. We believe investing in businesses with sizeable free cash flow tends to low the risk in the portfolio. Our purchase price discipline also helps us to contain risks in the portfolio. Furthermore, the margin of discount that we look for in every security that we buy also helps us in limiting downside risks. In addition to those steps, we diversify across regions and across industries and markets to diversify the risks we are exposed to.