Monthly Archives: April 2024

Some links 10/2024

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An interesting collection of 3 “Oddball stock picks” form the Bargain Stock radar Substack

Interesting write-up on market research firm YouGov Plc from Robin Research

The WinterGems substack with a portfolio update and the “50% draw down” test

“Every stock has a shelf life” – very good thoughts from Ian Cassel

Very interesting FT article on the “Private Equity Winter” (search result)

Some deep thoughts from Ben Evans on why Generative AI has not produced real use cases (yet)

Michael Mauboussin dropped a great paper on how to interpret and compare valuation multiples

The German Mittelstand is maybe Down but not Out: Hermle AG – Hidden Automation Champion from the “Ländle”

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As always with my longer write-ups, I will attach the full PDF below. In the post itself I will focus on the Exec summary, Pro’s and Con’s and the conclusion. And the Bonus Track of course at the end.

Executive Summary

Hermle AG is a typical “Hidden Champion” Mittelstand company from Southwestern Germany (Baden Wuerttemberg, the “Ländle”) that managed to carve out a very nice niche in 5- Axis CNC machines and connected production automation.  The company is able to earn industry leading EBIT margins (>20%) and Returns on Capital (>30%), has a Fortress Balance sheet and trades only at a relatively modest valuation of around 7,7x EV/EBIT.

The business is exposed to the economic cycle, but a combination of competitive advantages, a flexible cost base and a structural tailwind (Automation) make the stock attractive in the mid- to long term

Full PDF can be read & downloaded here:

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Performance review Q1 2024 – Comment: “Contrarian Investing – Easier said than done”

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In the first 3 months of 2024, the Value & Opportunity portfolio gained  +3,2% (including dividends, no taxes) against a gain of +6,0% for the Benchmark (Eurostoxx50 (25%), EuroStoxx small 200 (25%), DAX (30%), MDAX (20%), all TR indices).

Links to previous Performance reviews can be found on the Performance Page of the blog. Some other funds that I follow have performed as follows in the first 3M 2024:

Partners Fund TGV: +9,0%
Profitlich/Schmidlin: +4,0%
Squad European Convictions: 3,4%
Frankfurter Aktienfonds für Stiftungen: +5,9%
Squad Aguja Special Situation: +1,2%
Paladin One: -5,9%
Alphastars Europe: +0,6%
Gehlen & Bräutigam: -1,3%

Performance review:

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All Belgian Shares part 5 – Nr. 81-100

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Back from the Easter break with 20 freshly selected random Belgian stocks. This time, four made it onto the preliminary watch list.

81. MAATSCHAPPIJ VAN DE BRUGSE ZEEHAVEN (Expert Market)

At first I got excited, as this seems to be the Port of Brugge and the port seems to have grown over the years according to Wikipedia. And I do like ports.. But this stock traded last in 2015. It seems that at a higher level, the port has already merged with Antwerpes.

Unfortunately I did not find any financial information. “Pass”.

82. Mazaro NV

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