Author Archives: memyselfandi007

“Gone Siwmming” & Short comment: “Feeling (too) smug”

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First things first:

I wish all my readers a nice summer break. For the rest of August, posting will be very light, I have lined up further posts of my “all Swiss Shares” series but that will be it…..

 

Beach

Short comment: “Feeling (too) smug”

I just completed my monthly performance review and I couldn’t help myself to think: “Wow, you have been really smart lately”. Out of the last 17 months, 16 months have shown a positive performance and the Portfolio is up more than +50% vs year end 2019. 

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All Swiss Shares Part 9 – Nr. 81-90

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Another week, another 10 randomly selected Swiss stocks. This time, 2 stocks might be worth watching.

One quick comment on why I continue to go through all Swiss stocks despite many of the good ones being very expensive: First, I like to finish projects that I started. Second, I think there is always a lot to learn to look at any company, even if it is expensive. And third, there might be a time when stocks become cheaper again and then having a list of great companies might be very practical.

81. SoftwareOne AG

SoftwareOne is a 3,6 bn CHF market cap company that was IPOed in October 2019 at a share price of 18 CHF. Since then, the share price has made little progress at currently 22,50 CHF, considering the run in other software related stocks.

SoftwareOne seems to allow companies to manage their various software applications via some sort of cloud environment. The majority of revenues seems to come direct or indirectly via Microsoft products, their main business seems to be reselling Microsoft licenses which is actually a pretty crowded market.

KKR seems to have been involved only for 4 years or so.

Looking at the P&L reveals that their margins are not very Software like, but rather look like a wholesale business: 7,9 bn CHF in sales only result in ~190 mn EBITDA.

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Some Links

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A good reminder that the “cash on the sidelines” argument is nonsense

9 very good questions that every investor should ask himself after the recent bull run

Great Profile of iconic VC firm Bessemer Venture Partners

AI company DeepMind has found out how to model the folding of Proteins. This could be big. More here.

David Einhorn’s  Q2 letter. As always, good comments but awful performance.

Nice write up on DNA sequencing pioneer Illumina

For finance nerds: Special report on Credit Suisse’s 5,5 bn Archegos loss (and I learned a new word: lackadaisical)

 

All Swiss Shares Part 8 – Nr. 71-80

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And another 10 randomly selected Swiss stocks. Again, I found a couple of high quality businesses that are unfortunately very expensive. However, I did find one candidate to “watch” and actually bought one 1% position in one stock that I liked.

71. Klingelnberg AG

Klingelnberg is a 180 mn CHF market cap company that manufactures machinery for the Automobile and Mining industry. The company was IPOed in 2018 at CHF 53/share. As the chart shows, the IPO was not a big success ,losing more than -50%.

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Some Links

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Prof. Damodaran looks at Zomato, the Indian Food Delivery market leader

An interesting analysis on (abnormal) returns of SPACs

A good reminder how bad behavior can prevent success in investing

The story of (soon to be public) Chobani Greek Yoghurt

Form Energy (backed by Bezos and Gates) has developed a new (and cheap) powerful Iron based battery 

Nice pitch for European Stocks in general

Fred Wilson on how the VC process and landscape has changed since the start of the pandemic

Back to boring: Meier & Tobler (ISIN CH0208062627) – Boring enough to invest ?

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Background/ The company

During part 6 of my “All Swiss Series” I mentioned that Maier Tobler looks interesting, at least if one likes “boring” stocks which I do.

Meier_Tobler_logo

Meier & Tobler these days is a Swiss focused company that is active in heating, cooling and ventilating homes and buildings. They are both, distributing appliances and spare parts as well as offering direct maintenance services.

Until 2013, the predecessor company Walter Maier was a pretty diversified company, with the main areas of cooling/climate (DACH) , tools (Us) and machinery (among others wood working machines). In 2013/2014, they completely changed their strategy: They sold the tools division and the German climate business and spun-off all manufacturing activities that they had bundled under the name WM Technology.

In 2017 they took over/merged with Swiss competitor Tobler, creating the clear market leader in Switzerland.

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Some Links

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Peak SPAC ? A non-revenue healthcare litigation company wants to be valued at 32,6 bn USD.

Half year fund letters:

Fascinating paper on the massive Albanian Ponzi system of 1996-1997

Nice pitch for European stocks vs American stocks

Very interesting deep dive into Roku

And a pitch for Imperial Brands

To make it three: Write-up on Brook Compton 

All Swiss Stocks Part 7 – Nr. 61-70

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This time, only one out of the ten randomly selected stocks made it onto my watch list.

61. Alpine Select AG

Alpine Select select is 129 mn CHF market cap listed investment company. The name rang a bell and when I searched my own blog, I found them as one of the “co-investors” in the AIRE KgAA special situation in 2012.

Including their significant distributions, Alpine Select has an Ok track record over the last years. The stock trades very close to NAV. Their portfolio these days seems to consist mostly out of hedge funds and even a crypto fund more recently.

This is not exactly my cup of tea, so I’ll “pass”.

62. Elma Electronics AG

Elma is a 146 mn CHF market cap company that manufactures electronic components. The stock chart looks strange: After effectively flat-lining for around 12 years before increasing by ~+50% in 2021: 

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SkilL vs. Luck: Euro Final Penalty shoot-out Edition

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A lot has been written already about the Euro Finals two days ago with England losing (again) the final penalty shoot out. To be honest, I was supporting Italy in the finals because I think the showed the best performance in the tournament overall, with a refreshingly “un-Italian” way of playing attractive offensive football.

I don’t want to repeat what has been written in the English press on who and why has to take the blame for missing the penalties. However I want to focus on what the coach, Gareth Southgate said when he explained the choice and the fact that two of the penalty shooters were just brought into the game at the very last minute.

Personally, I thought at first that it was a pretty bad idea to let players shoot that did not really play in the match but this is what Southgate said:

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Some links

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A banking stock that los -93% without any (obvious) fraud

Very good post on “playing the losers game” by avoiding “unforced errors” (h/t S4V)

Why keeping cool despite meme stonks and crypto might be a good idea

Investing into Carbon Prices looks almost like a no-brainer

Short write-up on EV charging stock Chargepoint

Great write-up on Total Produce (Merger, De-Listing, Re-Listing)

Good long read on the “Invisible caffeine addiction”

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