Monthly Archives: January 2018

Landis & Gyr (ISIN CH0371153492): Potentially interesting “Forced IPO” Special Situation ?

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Background

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Landis & Gyr, the Swiss based company was on my research “to do” list for some time. Why ? Because it looked very much like a “forced IPO” special situation when in Summer 2017 then almost bankrupt Japanese Conglomerate Toshiba decided to sell Landis & Gyr which was deemed to be one of their crown jewels.

Toshiba itself had bought Landis & Gyr in 2011 for around 2 bn USD from a Private Equity Seller (Bayard) who in turn had bought Landis & Gyr from KKR (via DEMAG), another PE shop in 2004. Back then, Landis & GYr had around 390 mn EUR in sales and it was rumoured that the purchase price was quite low at around 100 mn EUR (those were the days…..).

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Softbank Part 2: Sum-of-parts Valuation and don’t forget the Taxman

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A couple of days ago, I looked at Softbank more from a strategic point of view. This time I want to focus more on the actual assets and a sum-of-parts valuation

What is Softbank ?

Essentially the company at its core is a Telco company in Japan and US plus a lot of “extra assets” like the Alibaba stake, Yahoo Japan and then all the other stuff including the vision fund. The initial Software distribution business (this is where the name Softbank comes from) doesn’t play a big role anymore.

I will now try to walk through the major Softbank Assets in more detail:

  1. The Alibaba stake

Let’s start with the largest position first, the now so famous Alibaba stake. From a technical perspective, Softbank doesn’t own the listed shares but this:

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Some links

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Fellow blogger Wexboy had a very decent year in 2017

Interesting (and funny) post of someone who founded a very unique Private Equity fund in 2017 (and met Charlie and Warren) (h/t Valueinvestingworld)

2017 Annual letter of the Fundsmith Equity fund

David Einhorn’s Q4 2017 letter

MUST READ: Some deep (and balanced) thoughts on the potential longer lasting effects of Blockchain technology (Watch out Uber, Facebook, Google…)

The UK Valueinvestor looks at UK homebuiler Galliford

Farnam Street blog explains how to use Expected Value in decision making

 

 

Softbank & Masa Son – Mad Genius pumping the Start up bubble or Visionary Capital allocator ? (Part 1)

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In the comments to my Kinnevik post some weeks ago, a reader recommended me to have a look at Softbank, the famous Tech conglomerate built by Masa Son. Well sometimes I indeed take suggestions…..

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Masa Son – Founder and “Godfather”

In Softbank’s case it makes sense to start with its founder, CEO and major shareholder (21%) Masayoshi (“Masa”) Son.

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Some links

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Prof. Damodaran analyzes the impact of the US tax code changes

Morgan Housel with some deep thoughts on financial markets and addictions

Some thoughts on the Softbank / Uber deal

Software companies usually don’t have big moats (h/t Valueinvestingworld)

The Value Investing France blog with its 2017 review

The 2020 sulfur cap on ships might  lead to profound impact on commodity trading

Forager on symptoms of a stock market mania

 

Spin off check: Getinge / Arjo AB (ISIN SE0010468116)

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One upfront comment: I promise to use the auto correct feature of  wordpress.com in 2018 as often as possible. However, as  I do not have unlimited time to “polish” my posts, there will be always bad grammar and bad spelling as I try to focus my available time on analyis and actual content.

Already some week ago, Swedish based “Med tech” company Getinge AB spun off Arjo AB.

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Some links

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Mark Zuckerberg wants to look at Crypto Currencies in 2018

Prof. Damodaran has released his annual data update on > 40k companies

Jeremy Grantham sees the “risk” of a near term market “melt up”

UK Value Investor with an in-depth review on why he sold BP

Bloomberg article describing Masa Son’s (Softbank) unorthodox VC investment style

December Issue of Value Investor Insight (h/t Valueinvestingworld)

Plus a selection of the Top 10 Videos of a16z (Andreessen & Horowitz)

Performance review 2017 – Comment: “Keep an Eye on Interest Rates and Credit Spreads”

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Performance 2017:

In 2017, the Value & Opportunity portfolio gained +21,7%* (including dividends, no taxes) against 15.6 % for the Benchmark (Eurostoxx50 (Perf.Ind) (25%), Eurostoxx small 200 (25%), DAX (30%), MDAX (20%)).

Some other funds that I follow have performed as follows in 2017:

Partners Fund TGV: +19,97% 
Profitlich/Schmidlin: +8,07%
Squad European Convictions +29.72%
Ennismore European Smaller Cos +9,32% (in EUR)
Frankfurter Aktienfonds für Stiftungen +13,7%%
Evermore Global Value +4.6%
Greiff Special Situation +11,1%
Squad Aguja Special Situation +14,2%

Since inception (01.01.2011), this translates into +186,7% or +16,2% p.a. vs. 95,3% or 10,1% p.a. for the benchmark. Graphically this looks like this:

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