Svenska Handelsbanken
I mentioned it in the comments, that I sold my Svenska Handelsbanken a few days ago. This was not an easy decision as I still like the company due to its unique culture. However I see the following short- mid- and long term issues:
The Brooklyn Investor on Buffett, Markel, Airlines, Banks, Insurance companies and more
A deep look into Netflix accounting practices
An interesting piece on the dire situation in Brazil
Great application of a 1940s stock book (Where are the customers’ yachts ?) on today’s markets
Bill Gates’summer book list
Video interview with 3G mastermind Jorge Paolo Lemann (scroll to 00:58 hours for the most interesting part)
An interesting article on private company Epic Games which seems to become a dominating digital player
We are getting close to having covered 2/3 of the German stock universe. Among these 25 randomly selected stocks, I have identified 7 which are at least worth watching, although none with high priority.
476. E.On AG
E.on has changed a lot over the last years.I had written about the company in 2013 and luckily I never invested.
This is actually the second autobiography of a founder with the surname Schwab that I review. After tire trader Les Schwab, this book is written by the founder and name giver Charles “Chuck” Schwab who founded the financial services company with the same name.
Disclaimer: This is not investment advice. PLEASE DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH !!!
Intro
Agfa-Gevaert was on my research list for some time now. Fellow blogger Undervalued Shares than triggered my renewed interest with their post from a few days ago and one of my best “Special situations” ideas ever was a Belgian company (Sapec).
I’ll try to summarize the part of the post that deals with Agfa:
John Hempton is frustrated that he didn’t outperform more in March
A sobering look at the future of the restaurant industry (US)
Mark Cuban funded at Covid-19 compliance test of reopened restaurants in Dallas. The results are not good.
Some interesting thoughts from Prof. Galloway on “unusual” business strategies and their long term impacts (Apple, Amazon, Walmart etc.)
Disney will be the bellwether to see if and when things in tourism go back to normal
The Graham & Doddsville Spring 2020 issue is out
According to Glassdoor, the companies with the best Glassdoor employer ratings outperform indices significantly over time
Another batch of 25 randomly selected German stocks. This time I identified 5 candidates for my watch list amongst them.
451. Biofrontera AG
BioFrontera is a 151 mn EUR market cap specialty pharma company in the field of dermatology (skin cancer). The company actually has a product in the market and shows decent grows, especially in Germany and the US. The company is still loss making in the first 9M 2019, but the loss narrowed significantly. The “Corona Crash” pushed the stock price back to before sales went up:
My last “panic Journal” post is now 3 weeks old. What has changed ? If I look at my learnings, not much. We still don’t really know how many people have been infected, how it transmits, what is the actual cause of the deaths, if there are treatments and when we will have a vaccine. The only major difference is that toilet paper now is available in my local drug store every day and and stocks are even higher than back then.
It took me so long to write this, because every time I start to write something, I discover that someone else has already written about it, so I try to focus on stuff I haven’t seen elsewhere.
Where is my bailout (Leoni, Adidas, Start ups, Car purchase incentives)
Two links to Q1 fund letters: Link 1 & Link 2 (h/t Valueinvesting World)
A great story about the Luckin Coffee fraud
Great long read on Exxon and their current issues
Some deep thoughts on (US ) airlines (fuel hedging, network effects, Southwest)
The Undervalued Shares blog on activist investing in Germany/Europe (Agfa Gevaert)
The currently very productive Profit Hunting blog looks at Brookfield Infrastructure Partners
It might still take a while before “Value stocks” come back
Disclaimer: This is not investment advise. Please do your own research !!!
Background:
FBD is a local Irish Insurance company that I first wrote about in early 2015 when the stock look cheap. Luckily I didn’t invest back then as 7 months later FBD got already in trouble mainly due to under reserving plus another few skeletons in the closet. A month later, Prem Watsa came to the rescue with a slightly unusual deal structure.
What caught my eye now again (thanks to a friend mentioning the stock) is the relatively weak share price combined with super strong 2019 results and no bounce back from the Covid-19 crisis levels:
value and opportunity 