Author Archives: memyselfandi007

My 22 (+1) investments for 2019

Posted on by 6 comments

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.

Read more

Some links

Posted on by Leave a comment

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”;

 

Ahlsell (ISIN SE0009155005) – Interesting pre-Christmas Special Situation ?

Posted on by 7 comments

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.

Read more

8 Years of Value & Opportunity: Staying alive..

Posted on by 14 comments

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:

  1. Getinge / Arjo spin-off
  2. Softbank (part 1 and part 2
  3. Landis & Gyr
  4. Boiron SA
  5. Expedia
  6. Criteo SA
  7. Saga Plc
  8. Paul Hartmann
  9. Creditshelf
  10. DormaKaba
  11. SIAS SpA (revisited)
  12. FitBit
  13. System1
  14. Listed VC funds part 1
  15. Listed VC funds part 2 – Vostok New Ventures

Read more

Some links

Posted on by Leave a comment

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 ?

 

 

Some links

Posted on by 8 comments

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

 

How to invest into Venture Capital part 2: Augmentum, Vostok & others

Posted on by 14 comments

This is the follow-up on part 1 some days ago.. These were the listed VC vehicles,I presented as the base in part 1 (in brackets my short vote for the first 4)

  • Softbank (too crazy)
  • Kinnevik (Yes)
  • Rocket Internet (bad rep)
  • German Startup Group (no thanks)
  • Vostok New Ventures
  • Vostok Emerging Finance
  • Augmentum

I have added two US vehicles to this list:

  • Firsthand Technology Value Fund (SVVC)
  • GSV Capital (GSVC)

A few thoughts on Permanent Capital vs. “classical” fund structure vs. “SPACs”

In the previous post, one commentator mentioned that he was “sceptical of permanent capital” vehicles. Personally I would not support this. Berkshire Hathaway for instance is a permanent investment vehicle with quite some success. However there are other vehicles like Greenlight Re or Bill Ackman’s Persing NV which clearly have done a lousy job for shareholders as we can see in this chart: (Greenlight in yellow, Pershing Square blue):

greenlight pershing

Read more

Some links

Posted on by 2 comments

Venture Capital seen from a Capital Markets / Hedgefunds perspective

Another reminder that BBB corporate debt could become a problem at some point in the future

Very interesting thoughts on “the curse of low hanging fruits”

10 interesting book recommendations for the upcoming holidays

Why Starbucks has been able to create the most popular payment app in the US

A good overview of recent Spin-offs

Instagramm influencer marketing is now a really big thing

Some links

Posted on by 3 comments

Prof. Damodaran thinks that GE is undervalued and 5 lessons to be learned from the GE debacle

Great profile of Shane Parish (Farnam Street Blog)

Warren Buffett has been buying JP Morgan, Oracle and other Financials.

Great CNBC interview with John Malone (h/t valueinvestingworld)

MBOs seem to be an indicator that an industry might be undervalued

GlobalStockPicking looks at the Dental industry

A great overview on where innovation will happen next from Benedict Evans (A16Z):

« Older Entries Recent Entries »