Today I thought I’d share with you a few of the ideas that were pitched at the “fireside chat” meetings that accompanied the Markel (MKL) Annual Meeting/Reunion last month.

Those pitches were largely made in two different panel discussions that were packaged as “Robotti Value Live,” (Bob Robotti, a longtime Markel shareholder, was one of the instigators of this format and participated in one of the panels). A total of eight panelists presented ideas, and I’ll list all of them and go into detail on a few:

Bob Robotti (Robotti & Co. Advisors)

He sees two big macro opportunities, the energy transition and the evolution of globalization… and he likes companies that are cyclically depressed, but have opportunities for growth from those macro shifts.

First is Arcellor Mittal (MT), the largest independent steel company in the world. It’s cheap (forward PE of 6), has good free cash flow, and is buying back stock. What’s holding them back is Chinese companies dumping steel on the world markets, but they’re positioned in the right places to benefit from current global trends. They are not an asset-heavy company, though people think they are — and they’ve paid off debt. They give good exposure to growth in India, but do it on the cheap… and they are strong in the US, where they enjoy the advantage of low-cost energy (he mentioned that the current fight over US Steel highlights the value of good US steel operations). Nobody really likes steel, which is hard and dirty and heavy to transport, but it’s not really optional — we need it for every part of infrastructure, and especially for building new factories outside China, and shifting our energy dependence. His argument is mostly that ArcellorMittal is structurally different than other steel companies, and much better than people think, but it’s being hurt by China and ignored because people lump the steel companies together. Over the next five years, they should grow earnings by at least 50%… as long as China backs off on dumping steel. “The outcome is clear, the valuation is easy, you just have to live long enough.”

Jim Tringas (Allspring Global)

J&J Snack Foods (JJSF) — this is a small cap ($3b) company, with an efficient capital structure and a competitive advantage in marketing and distributing snack foods. They consolidated the soft pretzel industry in the 1970s and 80s under the Superpretzel brand, and ...