2025 Semi-Annual Review
I am pleased to present the semi-annual review of the Platz Family Office. This letter highlights the investments and growth prospects of the key components in our portfolio. My philosophy is to seek undervalued growth opportunities across businesses, assets, and markets that I believe the broader market has mispriced.
I am optimistic that strong fundamentals and unique advantages will yield substantial long-term returns.
Bitcoin
Bitcoin remains the dominant position in the portfolio. Unlike the operating businesses we invest in, Bitcoin is a monetary asset - scarce, decentralized, and increasingly recognized as a reserve asset by both institutions and nation-states. Its fixed supply of 21 million coins and growing adoption make it, in my view, the purest long-term hedge against monetary debasement.
While short-term price movements can be volatile, the structural trend is clear: more investors, companies, and governments are integrating Bitcoin into their balance sheets and financial systems. For me, Bitcoin functions as portfolio insurance and an asymmetric growth bet at the same time. Its return profile has historically outpaced every other asset class, and I believe that dynamic will persist as adoption broadens.
American Coastal Insurance Corporation
American Coastal Insurance is a niche provider of commercial residential property insurance in Florida, specializing in condominium associations. In an environment where many insurers have pulled back from high-risk coastal markets, ACIC has emerged as a leading Florida wind-catastrophe insurer with a focused expertise in hurricane-exposed properties. Its partnership with AmRisc (a top catastrophe underwriting agency) and disciplined underwriting are key moats. ACIC has a current combined ratio of ~60%, indicating exceptionally profitable underwriting. This operational excellence reflects a deep understanding of Florida’s regulatory environment and risk pricing, allowing it to take market share from less specialized competitors.
Net written premiums grew about 48% year-over-year in the latest quarter, as the company capitalized on surging demand and higher premium rates statewide.
Management and insiders own roughly 50% of the company. With a 17% ROCE and a forward PEG of 0.62, I believe the stock remains undervalued.
I have confidence there is significant upside as the company continues to cautiously expand its offering.
Azeus Systems (BBW)
Headquartered in Hong Kong and listed in Singapore, Azeus provides software products to governments and enterprises worldwide. Its flagship product, Convene, is a secure digital platform for board meetings and document management, now used in over 100 countries. Azeus’s moat lies in its reputation for quality, deep expertise in public-sector IT, and high switching costs once clients adopt its solutions. Over three decades, it has built a strong track record delivering complex projects, winning long-term contracts with government agencies and large institutions.
What sets Azeus apart is its exceptional efficiency and profitability. With a ROCE of 84%, the company generates strong cash flows from an asset-light model, funds growth without debt, and still pays dividends while investing in operations. The business is shifting toward recurring SaaS and support contracts, adding resilience and high-margin income.
Despite these strengths, Azeus trades at a PEG of 0.43, reflecting its small-cap status and limited analyst coverage. I see this as an opportunity: a business with high margins, a global customer base, and strong growth drivers, yet priced at a steep discount. I’m content to keep building our position while the market overlooks its quality.
Birkenstock
Birkenstock is an iconic footwear company with a history dating back to 1774 (the year King Louis XVI ascended to the French throne). The company is known for its cork-soled sandals that blend comfort and durability. The company has a loyal customer base of over 10 million members worldwide (a 25% YOY increase), who associate the brand with quality and foot health. The average Birkenstock customer has 3.6 pairs.
Birkenstock runs a luxury-style model: all production stays in Europe, supply of popular styles like the “Boston” is deliberately capped to create scarcity, discounts are rare, and direct-to-consumer sales are steadily expanding through online and own stores. This approach has paid off: gross margins have expanded to ~60% and EBITDA margins to ~34% in 2025, reflecting both pricing power and cost control.
Despite its long heritage, Birkenstock is very much a growth story. The company reported 17% year-over-year revenue growth, with especially strong momentum in international markets. In particular, Asia-Pacific sales are surging - revenue in China doubled in constant currency terms, leading Asia-Pacific to a 24% increase.
Another promising avenue is Birkenstock’s product line extension. While famous for sandals, the company is successfully expanding into closed-toe footwear and boots, which carry higher average selling prices and growth. Anecdotally, Birkenstock shoes have often been considered comfortable, but unfashionable - this encourages me as there is really only one direction to go in fashion stakes from this reputation.
Birkenstock’s forward PEG of 0.80 suggests the market remains cautious about the growth story, however, the company’s pricing power and global expansion give me confidence there is a long runway ahead. Management is guiding for 15–17% annual revenue growth in constant currency and continues to invest in capacity (with new production facilities) and brand elevation (through collaborations and marketing).
Birkenstock offers a compelling valuation for a business of its quality and growth prospects. I view it as a misunderstood growth story where improving margins and worldwide demand for its products can drive outsized shareholder returns.
Core Natural Resources
Core Natural Resources (CNR) is a producer of thermal and metallurgical coal. While coal is often dismissed as a “sunset” industry, demand remains durable: emerging economies like China and India continue building coal-fired plants, and metallurgical coal has no large-scale substitute in steel production.
CNR benefits from scale and operates as a lowest-quartile cost producer, able to profit where higher-cost peers cannot. With little new mine investment in the West, supply is constrained, giving incumbents like CNR stronger long-term positioning.
Even at current depressed coal prices, the company generates significant free cash flow. Management is returning this aggressively to shareholders through dividends, debt reduction, and buybacks that will reach over 10% of its market cap this year alone. At a valuation of ~$3.7B and expected FCF of $500M, I see CNR as an undervalued cash generator with a wide margin of safety.
When the coal price rises in the years ahead, CNR will be one of the largest beneficiaries with lean, low-cost operations and a continually shrinking share count.
dLocal
dLocal runs a payment platform that connects global merchants to emerging market consumers. Its single-API solution lets companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Uber, and Spotify accept dozens of local payment methods across 40+ countries. This solves the complexity of fragmented banking and regulation, making dLocal a one-stop financial bridge for merchants.
The moat comes from local expertise and network effects: each new merchant strengthens the platform, and each added payment method makes it more indispensable. That reinforcing cycle is hard for both global competitors and local upstarts to replicate.
The results speak for themselves. In Q2 2025, payment volume rose 53% YoY to $9.2B, revenue grew 50% to $256M, and adjusted EBITDA climbed 64%, with margins consistently 35-40%. ROCE stands at ~39%. The merchant base is diversifying, with the top three markets now accounting for less than half of revenue, down from 58% two years ago.
With e-commerce in emerging markets growing at double-digit rates, dLocal is positioned as the toll booth on that growth, regardless of which businesses experience ultimate local success. While I expect margin compression over time, dLocal will continue to grab an increasing share of a rapidly growing pie.
At a PEG of 0.74, the stock looks cautiously priced, yet I see strong fundamentals and high returns as big tech and global retailers expand into these regions.
Dadelo S.A.
Dadelo's CentrumRowerowe.pl is the dominant online platform for the cycling market in Poland. Recently, Dadelo has begun opening large format brick-and-mortar stores (to allow test rides and pickup service). Our investment in Dadelo represents my enthusiasm for niche e-commerce leaders that can ride secular trends - in this case, the cycling boom in Eastern Europe.
Dadelo’s moat is two-fold: first-mover advantage in Polish online bicycle retail, and strong backing from a larger e-commerce parent. Dadelo is majority-owned by Oponeo.pl, a successful Polish online auto parts and tire retailer. Under Oponeo’s umbrella, Dadelo benefits from shared warehousing, logistics expertise, and e-commerce know-how. This support has enabled Dadelo to scale quickly and offer a wide product selection with reliable fulfillment, earning it a trusted reputation among Polish cyclists. Meanwhile, smaller bike shops and new entrants lack the infrastructure and brand recognition to compete effectively online, and global players have not deeply penetrated this category in Poland.
Dadelo’s growth has been exceptional. For the full year 2024, Dadelo’s revenue was PLN 309 million, up approximately 48% year-on-year (following 61% growth in 2023). The company has been capturing market share from traditional bike shops on a lasting basis. ROCE stands at a healthy 18%.
For now management focus remains on Poland, but they have stated they will expand into neighbouring countries in the years ahead.
Dadelo’s forward PEG of 0.47 stands out as extremely low. Essentially, the market is pricing Dadelo like a low-growth retailer, in part no doubt due to its small size and low liquidity on the Warsaw exchange. Management’s stock incentives are tied to revenue growth targets of 30%+ annually over the coming years. In recent months, the CEO has also been continually buying shares in the open market.
Dadelo’s presents a large margin of safety at current levels, essentially getting a high-growth business for the price of a value stock.
Duolingo
Duolingo is the world’s most popular language-learning platform with 128 million monthly active users as of mid-2025. I initiated a starter position because I believe its future growth prospects are phenomenal.
Duolingo’s revenue grew 41% year-over-year in Q2 2025, reaching $252 million for the quarter and the company achieved record profitability. After years of reinvestment, Duolingo is now generating positive operating income and expanding margins. The key driver is the rapid growth in paid subscribers, which surpassed 10.9 million by the end of Q2 2025, but is still only a fraction of Duolingo’s total active user base - implying a long runway for converting more free users to paid. Subscription revenue in Q2 2025 was up 46%.
The company’s vision is to be a broad-based learning platform, now expanding its offering to courses in math, music and chess. The company’s vast user base allows the company to cross-promote these new verticals easily. This multi-subject expansion significantly enlarges Duolingo’s addressable market beyond the ~$60 billion language learning market into the even larger domains of K-12 education, test prep, and personal development hobbies.
The recent Q2 numbers came out with a drop in MAU, which I believe will prove to be a temporary blip, in part due to the very high jump in number in Q1 as a result of a successful Duo ad campaign. The company is currently trading at the lowest forward multiples in its history. Current PEG is ~1.4. Strong, quality growth is seldom cheap. At current levels I have opened a small position and will look to accumulate further on market fears and price weakness.
Fannie Mae (FNMA)
Fannie Mae is a special situation in the portfolio - a deeply undervalued asset with a catalyst-driven thesis. Fannie Mae (the Federal National Mortgage Association) is a linchpin of the U.S. housing finance system, guaranteeing and purchasing mortgages so that banks can keep issuing home loans. Together with Freddie Mac, the two companies currently support about 70% of all U.S. mortgages, effectively operating as a duopoly in the conventional mortgage market. This core business is enormously profitable and stable; under normal circumstances, a company with Fannie’s market position and performance (27% ROCE, USD 16 billion in annual earnings) would command a high market valuation. However, since the 2008 crisis, Fannie Mae has been under federal conservatorship, with the U.S. Treasury holding a senior claim on its profits. This means common shareholders have not had access to Fannie’s earnings for over a decade, keeping the stock price suppressed.
But Trump is very keen on releasing Fannie and Freddie from conservatorship and bringing to market one of the largest IPOs in history. All the pieces are falling into place and it would seem an IPO could be mere months away.
The stock has been running up since early 2025 in anticipation. But even after the rally, the company trades at a steep discount to its potential value if freed. To put things in perspective, under Bill Ackman’s proposal which includes lowering Fannie’s required capital buffer to 2.5% of assets, analysts estimated Fannie’s common stock could be worth around $34 per share.
The current stock price reflects market concern that the commons could get wiped out in a potential deal, but I consider this unlikely as Trump and the Treasuries commentary in recent weeks all point to them wanting a successful IPO. Decimating common stock holders would destroy the prospects of the IPO and doesn't make sense. Upon finalisation of a deal, Fannie should rerate dramatically toward the valuation of a healthy, privatized financial institution.
Freetrailer Group A/S
Headquartered in Denmark, Freetrailer runs Europe’s largest self-service, free trailer rental platform. Its unique model offers consumers free short-term rentals via an app, supported by retail partners like IKEA and Silvan. This “win-win” setup drives store traffic, provides advertisers with mobile billboards, and gives customers a free service. Freetrailer earns revenue from partner fees, optional consumer services (insurance, forward booking, extended hire etc), and trailer ads. Its moat stems from 15+ years as first mover, deep retail relationships, and a model incumbents can’t replicate without cannibalising legacy profits.
The company operates ~5,900 trailers and cargo bikes across 1,600+ locations in five countries, with over 800,000 app users. In FY2024/25 revenue grew 22% to DKK 129.5m and EBIT rose sharply, with rentals up 21% year-over-year to 1.54m. Q4 revenue increased 25% and EBIT 126%, showing strong operating leverage. Current expansion is focused on The Netherlands and Germany, where the presence will double in FY2025/26, with further runway across Europe. The addition of cargo bikes positions the company for urban transport trends.
With a ROCE of 31%, a stock buyback and expanding margins, I see Freetrailer as an underappreciated growth company with a durable moat. I have added a small position to the portfolio and will look to increase this allocation on price weakness.
InPost A.S.
InPost is revolutionizing parcel delivery in Europe through its network of automated parcel lockers. Founded in Poland, InPost has developed an out-of-home delivery system that is difficult for competitors to replicate, forming the core of its moat. By allowing consumers to send and receive packages via self-service lockers (and pick-up/drop-off points) instead of doorstep delivery, InPost offers faster and cheaper delivery options - roughly 20–50% shorter delivery times at ~30–40% lower cost compared to traditional couriers. Incumbent carriers find themselves unable to compete with InPost without cannibalizing their legacy, high-margin, to-door businesses.
InPost’s network is vast: as of this year it operates around 49,800 parcel lockers and 33,000 partner pick-up points across Europe, serving ~19 million users. These lockers are strategically placed in dense urban areas where leaving packages unattended is not viable, especially in Europe’s apartment-heavy cities. InPost’s first-mover advantage has secured the #1 or #2 positions in Poland, France, UK and beyond. This installed infrastructure acts as a high barrier to entry; any new entrant would need years of investment to approach InPost’s coverage.
Since acquiring France’s Mondial Relay in 2021, InPost has rapidly grown in France, Spain, and the Benelux region, now commanding about 20% of out-of-home delivery in those markets. In Q2 2025, group parcel volumes rose 24% year-on-year to 324 million, while revenue jumped 35% and EBITDA 13%. These gains reflect both organic growth and acquisition of Yodel in the UK. The recent downturn in the stock price has been in part caused by the drop in margins as InPost digests and integrates Yodel’s UK operations.
I initiated our position in InPost during recent price weakness. The company is scaling profitably, with a long runway for European expansion and a model that legacy couriers struggle to compete with. While acquisitions like Yodel will pressure margins until 2026, a FWD PEG of 0.53 suggests the market is valuing InPost like a utility. I see it instead as a logistics disruptor with a defensible network, capable of sustaining double-digit growth and rising returns on capital.
Uber Technologies
Uber operates the world’s leading on-demand mobility and delivery platform, facilitating billions of rides and deliveries annually. After years of heavy investment and expansion, Uber has now reached consistent profitability and cash flow generation.
As evidence of Uber’s platform strength, consider that over the last twelve months Uber delivered a record $8.5 billion in free cash flow, up 80% year-on-year. This astonishing figure illustrates the earnings power embedded in Uber’s network now that the business has reached scale.
Looking ahead, Uber is investing in future growth drivers that could further widen its moat. While the broader market is concerned about the threat to Uber's business model of autonomous vehicles (AV) and robotaxis, I see it as a positive. Uber has partnered with companies like Waymo and Motional to deploy self-driving cars on the Uber network. If and when autonomous ride-hailing reaches scale, Uber’s platform is well-positioned to be the marketplace for connecting riders with driverless cars.
At a FWD PEG around 0.9, Uber’s stock doesn’t reflect the company’s 30%+ expected EPS growth and the platform’s operating leverage potential. Admittedly, Uber’s ROCE of 8% is currently on the low side – a legacy of heavy past investments – but I anticipate ROCE will rise as the business continues to scale profitably.
I added Uber to our portfolio, confident that fears around autonomous vehicles are overblown and the growth ahead in delivery and advertising are underrated.
Closing Thoughts
In summary, this update reinforces my confidence that our strategy – investing in undervalued and misunderstood growth - is well-founded. The low valuation relative to expected growth across our portfolio suggests there is still significant upside as the broader investment community comes to appreciate these stories.
As always, I remain optimistic about the future. My focus is not on quarter-to-quarter stock movements, but on business fundamentals, mispriced growth, and long-term value creation.
I am excited about the road ahead for each of these positions and for the portfolio as a whole.