TIVP052: CHAPTERS GROUP: 100-BAGGER IN THE MAKING?

W/ DANIEL MAHNCKE & SHAWN O’MALLEY

TIVP052: CHAPTERS GROUP: 100-BAGGER IN THE MAKING? W/ DANIEL MAHNCKE & SHAWN O’MALLEY

28 December 2025

Daniel Mahncke and Shawn O’Malley take a deep dive into Chapters Group — one of Europe’s most rapidly evolving serial acquirers of mission-critical software and services. Over the past years, Chapters has transformed from a small holding company into a multi-platform organization spanning public-sector software, enterprise digital tools, and financial technologies.

Chapters Group is backed by some of the most famous capital allocators in the world and draws on many tricks from the playbooks of the great serial acquirers: a decentralized operating model, the Manuscript Method, and investing in high-margin businesses with high barriers to entry. They explore where the group’s growth is coming from, how the company allocates capital, and whether Chapters Group’s valuation is justifiable.

Join Daniel Mahncke and Shawn O’Malley as they try to figure out whether Chapters Group can be “the next big thing.”

SUBSCRIBE

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN:

  • How Chapters Group was founded
  • Why elite investors invest in it
  • How their playbook for M&A works
  • About the major long-term tailwinds behind their businesses
  • How M&A is financed
  • Why dilution is justified at this stage
  • How the financials look
  • Whether Shawn and Daniel add CHG to the portfolio
  • And much, much more!

Disclosure: This episode and the resources on this page are for informational and educational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, tax, or legal advice. For full disclosures, see link.

TRANSCRIPT

Disclaimer: The transcript that follows has been generated using artificial intelligence. We strive to be as accurate as possible, but minor errors and slightly off timestamps may be present due to platform differences.

[00:00:00] Daniel Mahncke: What if I told you that you get another shot at investing in Constellation Software before the stock went up a hundred times? Chapters Group has a market cap of $1 billion and is backed by some of the most famous investors and capital allocators in the world.

[00:00:16] Shawn O’Malley: Well, the shareholder structure just looks insane.

[00:00:18] Shawn O’Malley: 15% of the shares are owned by Mitchel Rales, the founder of Danaher, one of the most successful serial acquirers of all time. Another 5% comes from a famous author, one of our favorites, William Thorndyke. Daniel Ek, the founder of Spotify. It has an 11% stake, and even MIT is invested in this thing too.

[00:00:36] Daniel Mahncke: And the founder is a highly intelligent young man, has attended dozens of Berkshire shareholder meetings since he was 17.

[00:00:43] Daniel Mahncke: So there are many, many promising signs.

[00:00:51] Intro: You are listening to The Intrinsic Value Podcast by The Investor’s Podcast Network. Since 2014, with over 180 million downloads, we’ve learned directly from the world’s best investors. Now we are applying those lessons to analyze businesses and investment opportunities every week, helping you uncover intrinsic value. And now here are your hosts, Shawn O’Malley and Daniel Mahncke.

[00:01:23] Shawn O’Malley: We’ve repeatedly heard from listeners that they would like us to cover smaller companies as well as the larger companies that we typically do on the show, and people like to say we should try to use our skills to find the next big thing. And honestly, I I get that feedback. I, I totally understand why investors have that urge.

[00:01:40] Shawn O’Malley: It’s much more exciting to look for the next big thing. And so hearing about all of these compounders that we normally cover from the past is great, but it does often feel like maybe the train has already left the station. Those are opportunities where most of the returns that’ll be generated maybe have been missed.

[00:01:56] Shawn O’Malley: And so Daniel knows that I, I don’t necessarily entirely think that to be true, but still, you probably could have thought the same. When looking at Apple in 2016, iPhones were already ubiquitous and Buffett’s had just started investing in it, and it might’ve looked like there were no returns really left to be had.

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