Value Partners’s co-founder and co-CIO Cheah Cheng Hye credits his success as a hedge fund manager in part to his years as a journalist. Cheah began his professional career three decades ago as a crime reporter for a Malaysian newspaper and later became a financial journalist for the Asian Wall Street Journal. “Being an ex-journalist helps,” he told Alpha in a 2012 interview. “The raw material of our work is information, and based on synthesizing information we formulate investment strategies and the best stock picking.” The sleuthing skills he honed as a reporter have served him well in digging up information on companies and using it to make profitable investments. His business savvy, combined with that of co-founder V-Nee Yeh, helped Value Partners rack up 63 percent gains in its first year. That success has been fairly consistent: The firm began with just $5 million and last year became...