Eddie Elfenbein’s Buy list 2019 has been released last week
The Bull, Bear and Value blog with a 2018 portfolio recap
Nope, US Steel stocks did not benefit from the steel tarifs
Some notes from a Value Investing Conference in NYC (h/t Valueinvestingworld)
Cautious remarks from Fred Wilson on the cash burn of VC backed companies
An interesting book list from A16Z
Great advice from Ryan Holiday on how to create better habits
Bill Gates explains what he has learned in 2018
Edit: I actually forgot to include Expedia…..
This post has become now a small tradition at the end of December and is also very helpful for me to review my holdings.
The summaries of the previous years can be found here:
My 21 investments for 2018
My 27 investments for 2017
My 27 investments for 2016
My 28 investments for 2015
My 24 investments for 2014
My 22 investments for 2013
From the 21 stocks of last year, 4 have left the portfolio:
Silver Chef and Metro were clear mistakes from my side and I exited them as discussed with significant losses. IGE & XAO was a much more positive case. The company received a buy-out offer from Schneider SA and I exited at 138 EUR per share. DOM Security finally was merged into the main shareholder company SFPI. Luckily, I could sell 40% of my holdings at 75 EUR/ share.
Don’t miss: Stratechery 2018 review
Some very insightful investing lessons from Morgan Housel
GlobalStockPicking with a nice write-up on HK based Modern Dental Group
A quick look at the upcoming United Technologies Spin-off
Great collection of 50 reasons why most of “us” are not thinking long term enough
Farnam’s Street 2018 letter to its readers
A quick look at offshore drillers (Rowan, Diamond)
Plus a Christmas Bonus: Eric Clapton performing “White Christmas”;
Disclaimer: This is not investment advice, only the personal opinion of an anonymous blogger. PLEASE DO YOU OWN RESEARCH !!!!
Background:
Ahlsell is a Swedish company that distributes building / renovation related products mainly to craftsmen in the Nordic Region. In 2012, the company was taken private by private equity house CVC.
In 2016, Ahlsell was IPOed again by CVC at SEK 46 per share. They sold 1/3 of their shares in the IPO and then down to 25,1% just some weeks ago.
Then more or less out of the blue a few days ago, CVC offered again to take Ahlsell private at 55 SEk/share which translates into a valuation slightly north of 2 bn EUR for the equity.
Once a year in mid-December I always realize quite suddenly that another year has passed and Value and Opportunity is now 8 years old since the first post in 2010.
As I mentioned earlier this year, for very positive reasons, both private and professional, activity in the blog did not reach the standards of the previous years.
Looking back, I still managed to look a these companies in more detail:
A great deep dive on how to measure network effects from A16Z
Ben from Wertart with some general thoughts and reflections on investing
A good overview on how Buffett’s investment focus changed over his carreer
Ben Thompson’s “State of the technology” is a very good read on Google & Co
AMD has benefited form the Crypto craze. Is it now a short candidate ?
“Big Beer” AB Inbev is facing headwinds
Manning & Napier: Cheap active asset manager or gone for good ?
Madison Square Garden (MSG) looks like a very interesting Spin-off situation
OTC Adventure blog has a few stock ideas around the world
A great report on a crazy 4 day “Crypto Cruise”
John Huber thinks Facebook is undervalued
Part 2 of a dental industry series from the GlobalStockpicking blog
Ben Thompson on aggregators and jobs to be done
A cool list of 52 things learned in 2018
One hedge fund thinks that MicroFocus should be worth twice its current share price
In contrast, UK Construction Group Kier looks like a short
Interesting story about the founder of Panera Bread and shareholder short-termism
WIll Amazon go for Health Care next ?
Investments based on demographic trends are very difficult (funeral services edition)
Barry Ritholz is angry about Buy backs of the wrong kind
Interesting deep dive into the world of Lithium-Ion batteries
value and opportunity 