value and opportunity

Litigation Finance company Burford Capital was “attacked” by Muddy Waters but tries to strike back

Italian based, AIm listed “bio plastic unicorn” Bio-on also was attacked by a short seller

Madison Square Garden Spin-off analysis

The Valuesque blog explains how companies can pump up Goodwill even after an acquisition

A detailed look into UK “quality stock” AG Barr

John Kingham (UK Value Investor) with an analysis of UK bus operator Stagecoach

Paul Singer /Elliott wants to split up Scout24. Their more detailed publication can be found here.

Great post from A16Z on “Hidden network” business models

Interesting analysis on the application and limits of Benford’s law in order to detect accounting fraud (example Steinhoff)

Q2 report from TGV Intrinsic, a new addition to the Langfrist family

Nice writup on the Juventus Turin turn-around by Greenwood

“Let my people go surfing” (Patagonia story) sounds like a must read book

“Activist” hedge funds are under increasing pressure themselves these days

The GlobalStockPicking blog has discovered an interesting Polish SaaS company called LiveChat

 

Background:

A few days ago, I posted the link to a Reddit collection of Q2 investment letters. Many of these letters plus some others in my opinion are good inspirations to lok for new ideas.  With less time available for me to create “original” ideas, I mentioned some time ago that I will use these letters much more to find interesting cases than in the past.

Inittially, I wanted to create my private “to do”list of companies that I want to look at. The criteria for selcting ideas is quite subjective.

However in order to leverage my readership, I  decided to create a post with my selected “stolen ideas” and hope for some constructive feedback from my readers. Here is the list what I found interesting and why.

Selected ideas from Q2 letters:

Choice Equities: Par Technology
Interesting case of a “sum-of parts” company with a SaaS business hidden behind other stuff

Tweedy: BASF
One of the better managed German companies. Cyclical but potentially good opportunityin a real economic downturn. Business is hard to disrupt

Alta Fox: Keyword Studios
Interesting business model (outsourcing of Video Game prodcution) and European based company. Expensive but potentially very interesting.

Read more

Softbank seems to have secured its second, 108 bn USD Venture fund

Accounting gimmicks in the leveraged loan market

Howard Marks with a new memo  on potential rate cuts

A good overview of what’s happening in the (US) spin-off scene

A list of Q2 investment letters

An interesting story how a (young) analyst spotted accounting fraud in a company

A pretty good attempt to explain Quantum Computing: