It is difficult to give a “one-size-fits-all” answer to that question, but competitiveness should be one of the desired characteristics. If a company has some asset or quality that keeps its competitors at bay (for example, a patent or high switching costs), then this can last for a very long time. This is doubly the case if the sector in which the company operates has a long future ahead of it.
Over the past few years, I’ve tried to weight my portfolio more and more aggressively toward “long-term investments.” My reasons for doing this include the fact that inactive investment strategies tend to outperform active ones over the longer term, and the fact that holding stocks long-term has lower trading costs and takes less task-related time than active trading. In keeping with that observation, here’s an unstoppable stock that I want to keep riding for decades to come.
Brookfield
Brookfield Corp (TSX:BN) is a company with so many upsides that it’s hard to imagine it wouldn’t last for decades. Its benefits include strong brand recognition (among the wealthy global investors it caters to); excellent leadership; operational synergies (different segments complement each other’s strengths); and excellent positioning.
One of Brookfield’s biggest advantages is the simple fact that it is so important to the North American economy. The company owns numerous valuable infrastructure assets across the continent, and even around the world. These include power generation facilities in Canada, artificial intelligence (AI) data centers in the US and real estate in both countries. In addition, the company owns transmission towers, wind and solar farms in various countries around the world.
Brookfield’s edge
Because the country builds and invests in ‘hard assets’ that countries need – not ‘want’ need — Brookfield has an enviable reputation with governments and organizations around the world. In October, the company’s CEO, Bruce Flatt, helped broker an $80 billion deal between the U.S. government and Westinghouse to build a fleet of nuclear reactors (Westinghouse is jointly owned by Brookfield and Cameco). Before that deal was announced, Brookfield Renewable Partners (TSX:BEP.UN) has entered into agreements to provide clean energy Alphabet And Microsoft. Additionally, the company is currently working with the Qatari government on a $20 billion AI investment fund.
The above is just a small sample of the large, prestigious entities that do business with Brookfield. Brookfield got these impressive connections largely by emphasizing hard asset building, which was unusual a few decades ago when Bruce Flatt took over as CEO. At the time, the idea was that software companies were better because they had less maintenance costs, depreciation, etc. Now, however, many of the luxury tech companies look very much looking to build ‘commodity’ AI chatbots, while Brookfield’s investments in hard assets appear increasingly important to the world’s governments, which are obsessed with overtaking China in heavy industry.
The bottom line
The bottom line is that Brookfield is a company with an extremely enviable competitive position that will last for decades. With a stellar reputation, a synergistic ecosystem and hundreds of billions in capital to invest, the country is likely to remain a major player in global finance for some time to come.
#unstoppable #stocks #ride #decades