value and opportunity

More year end letters:
– East 72 Dynasty Trust (E-L Financial, PSH)
– UK Dividend Investor

Carsten from Augustusville with a great write-up on Delek, a US Energy downstream player

The One-foot Bars substack has a very nice write-up on Champagne house Laurent Perrier

I can’t repeat it often enough: Prof. Damodaran is offering the upcoming Valuation class at Columbia for free. There is no better deal in financial education, guaranteed.

Twitter Thread from Dalius with 10 recommended investment blogs

12 pretty good lessons from the stock market in 2023

PE Fund investors really do want their money back

Some good year end reviews:
– Bruce Packard with a 2023 revew, some UK ideas and a stock write-up all in one
– Another, UK small cap focused year end review from Maynard Payton
– Very reflected Year end review from the Treasure Hunting substack
– Altay Capital with a year end review of its Japanese stock basket

Ian Cassel with an article that I also wanted to write but now don’t have to: The virtue of Active Patience

Undervalued Shares with a great post on Hilton

52 irrelevant but highly interesting things Kent Hendricks learned in 2023

Veteran VC Fred Wilson with a very positive outlook on 2024 (AI, Web3, Climate)

Interesting deep dive into US Steel, which once was the largest company of the world

The annual presentation of Ben Evans is always worth reading – “AI and everything else”

A great write-up on Japanese Pump manufacturer Yamada from the always excellent Wintergem Blog

Interesting write-up on Kistos PLc, a UK Energy company from Moram

An interesting (follow up) write-up on Nintendo and progress made over 24 months

The Fundoo professor with an interesting case study on IFRC, an Indian specialty lender

A good reminder that successful long term investing is not easy, quite the contrary

Kikkoman Soy Sauce bottles have become collector’s items in the US

The Spanish Olive harvest has been pretty bad again, making olive oil (much) more expensive

A great manifesto for the “slow and boring” way of investing

Staying Rational on glass packaging companies Vidrala and Veralia

Moram pitches “The One Group Hospitality”, a US small cap restaurant operator

The Brooklyn Investor with some good thoughts on interest rates, stock valuation and some interesting book reviews

In interesting overview on Japanese Coporate profits and debt from James Montier

“Space Solar” sounds crazy but could be a thing in the nearer future (Google search result)

Josh Barro thinks that Ozempic/Wegovy is a bigger deal than AI

Q3 Report from Gehlen Bräutigam with some interesting small cap profiles

Everything you ever wanted to know about the stock market in Bhutan (!!)

Howard Marks thinks that Corporate Credit is the place to be

A very critical review of Impact Investing by Prof. Damodaran

A very deep dive into electricity markets and why there is the chance that things are improving (US based, but applicable elsewhere)

Emerging Value likes German beverage small cap Berentzen

Jeremy from Foxcastle Holdings on French Small Cap Boa Concept

Prof. Damodaran with an epic post on valuaing intangibles and the Birkenstock IPO

FTAlphaville with some interesting details on the Metro Bank recapitalization plan (search result)

A good reminder from Wolfgang Klement: Admitting mistakes is hard, but the most constructive option

A funny Twitter thread showing that “investing” into random Lego sets outperfoms most VCs

A very interesting deep dive into the Spirits industry

Lots of action in the Spin-off Universe

A very interesting deep dive into the science of plastics eating Bacteria

Once again an outstanding analysis from the Wintergem Blog. This time on Ilpra SPA from Italy.

Great write-up on Lindbergh SPA from Italy from Underfollowed stocks.

Flyover stocks with a list of 15 really good questions to ask management teams of companies

“The Big Short” author Michael Lewis thinks that Sam Bankman-Fried is very much missunderstood in public

The Eastern part of France might have large underground deposits of natural or “white” hydrogen

Podcasts (so far) are not the game changer for Spotify’s profitability

AirBnB got effectively banned in New York

Great deep dive on French Microcap Clasquin from the Wintergem blog

Epic post on the global wristwatch market from Michael Fritzell

No one beats Prof. Damodaran on analyzing Tech IPO’s. This time he looks at Instacart.

Flyover stock on the difficulties of selling a position

The debt fueled buying spree of Music back-catalogues seems to be over (for now)

Interesting article on activist short seller “Jehoshopath” and how life is getting (even) more difficult for the shorties

A very realistic look at the current state of Geothermal energy

Prof. Damodaran throws in the towel for the rational valuation of Sports Franchises

The Wintergem Blog has an excellent introduction into the payments industry in its part 1 post on Adyen

Nice Write-up on Ashmore Plc, a stock I also owned in the past

Interesting Forbes Feature on TransDigm and its CEO

Todd Wennings new “Flyover Stocks” blog starts with an interesting Spin-off story (Worthington Industries)

A very interesting look at how net interest margins at banks behave during and after increases in overall interest rates

A great reminder why Insurance Loss Reserves are crucial for understanding Insurance companies