One of Alexandre Behring’s favorite pastimes, often alongside the three other billionaire co-founders of 3G Capital, is to go spearfishing in locales like the Bahamas or Frying Pan Shoals on the North Carolina coast, where large species of grouper, snapper and mackerel are plentiful.

It’s a primal hobby. Spearfishers dive into the sea armed with spearguns to hunt their prey and have to use their ammunition wisely. Pulling the trigger sends a spear shooting out of the barrel for a lethal strike, if it’s done correctly.

“You have to be calm and resilient to look at a lot of small fish that are not special, and then recognize when there's a really special fish that swims by,” says Behring, who once held the world record for Mahi-Mahi by spearing a 62-pound fish in Brazil in 2007. “It's not going to hang around for a long time, so you have to be able to make a decision and shoot quickly.”

That’s the philosophy Behring, 3G’s 57-year-old co-managing partner, has carried into his investing career, too. 3G, with $14 billion in assets under management as of the end of 2023 according to an SEC filing, is unlike most private equity peers in that it has only made a small handful of investments in its 20-year history. The majority of 3G’s assets are its partners’ own capital, stemming from a fortune in investment banking in Brazil, and its funds are open to only a select few external wealthy families including the likes of Warren Buffett and Bill Ackman. There’s no hurry to exit a business, or to make a new acquisition, even as dividends pile up from its current holdings.

The firm’s first and most successful platform investment was an acquisition of Burger King for a little more than $1 billion in equity in 2010. 3G’s Burger King investment has turned into a 28-fold return including dividends, and has amounted to $20 billion in gains for the firm after accounting for some realized gains over the years. The company is now called Restaurant Brands International, and 3G’s remaining 27% stake is worth about $9 billion. 3G’s acquisitions and subsequent $45 billion merger of Heinz and Kraft in partnership with Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway were less successful, though it still earned a positive return by the time 3G fully exited Kraft Heinz........

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