Author Archives: memyselfandi007

Short cuts: Provident Financial, Topdanmark

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Provident Financial

Wow, that was fast. In November I looked at the stock but luckily dismissed it. This is what I wrote back then:

However for me, despite I do like financial companies, I don’t want to invest into a company which in my opinion runs an ethical questionable business. Some might argue that Lloyds Banking is not much different but I think that there is still a big difference between a well run main street bank and an aggressive subprime lender.

I do belive that in the long run, a company which takes advantage of clients has a higher probability to get into troubles than one which actually benefits the customer.

Although the “Crook” is out, the stock tanked an incredible -70% alone on Tuesday

So what happened ?

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Travel Series 8: GDS (Sabre, Amadeus, Travelport) – Ultimate travel platforms or Dinosaurs waiting for extinction ?

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Time to do another “travel series” post after the last Tripadvisor post a few months ago.

GDS – The business

The so-called “GDS” (short form of Global Distribution System) is one of the oldest “platform business” I know about.

Basically (and as far as I understand it), it is a real-time repository of available airplane seats, hotel rooms and rental cars from different suppliers (airlines, Hotels etc.). This repository can then be accessed by travel agents, OTAs etc. in order to book these offers for their ultimate clients. The GDS charge money both for access to the system and transactions.  The added value comes clearly from the fact that they act as a single interface to many different back-end systems on the supplier side.

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ALD SA (ISIN FR0013258662) – Cheap growth stock or potential Diesel road kill ?

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Background:

As mentioned a few days ago, ALD SA has been IPOed by parent SocGen on June 16th. SocGen sold ~23% of the stock and remains majority shareholder. The first question of course is: why did they do this ?

The official reason was the following:

The IPO confirms the strategic nature of ALD within Societe Generale group. It will allow ALD to accelerate its development and become a leader in a rapidly changing mobility space.

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