value and opportunity

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

The hype around LK-99 was short lived. Nevertheless, the history of Superconductors is really fascinating and I think there is reason for optimism.

Some interesting thoughts on why “Generative AI” could go the same way as LK-99

Interesting long read on the concept of “Late Bloomers”, which are people that find their true calling later in life.

ANother interesting long read on everything you need to know about subsea internet communication cables

“White Hydrogen”, i.e. Hydrogen naturally trapped underground, might become a thing

Seth Klarmann has been leading the effort to update Graham& Dodd’s “Security Analysis”

Hunter Walk predicts “more pain to come” for the valuation of VC portfolios, despite the public market rebound

Half Year 2023 update from the Augustusville blog/portfolio

Maran Capital 6M report (CTT, Vistry)

Prof Damodaran covers a lot of aspects of Country risk in this post

Boyar writeup on TopGolf/Callaway

Some good news from Geothermal Energy

Rob Vinall’s Postcard from China is worth reading

Private Equity bets on Asset Manager consolidation

It’s 6M report time. Some good ones here:
– TGV Partners (Tucows, Naked Wine)
– TGV Falkenstein (Energiekontor)
– TGV Rubicon (United Internet, Ceconomy, Invision)
– Alluval Capital (Logisteq)
– East72 Dynasty Trust (Bolloré)
– TGV Compound Interest (BionTech, Siltronic, Paypal)

When Seth Klarmann is on a podcast (every 10 years or so) it is worth listening to.

A great look back to the Countrywide/Angelo Mozillo story from Marc Rubinstein

There seems to be plenty of potential for much better heatpumps

Great post on why building a durable goods company these days is quite hard

Many people want to be rich and famous. Morgan Housel is not so sure about the famous part.

Barry Ritholz with good advice on how to get rich in financial markets, sorted by diffculty and likelyhood.

The usual ecclectic list of stock write-ups from Capital Employed

If you are a CFO and you want to raise money through a share placement, you better pay attention to the weather

A fantastic “Tour de Force” ride from Prof Damodaran across Chip companies and AI

The seven page memo, that resulted in a 105 mn seed funding round for Mistral.ai (without a product)

6M Portolio Update from the Augustusville blog

A short write-up on Fox Factory, a suspension specialist from Royce

R.i.P. Harry Markovitz, the “Father of Portfolio theory”.

Great stock write up collection from Capital Employed

A new study seems to show that correctly identified sin stocks (Alcohol, Tobacco, Gambling) have positive alpha

Swen Lorenz shares some experiences from an investor trip to Turkey

An interesting deep dive into LSE after the Refinitiv take over from Marathoner

A good intro into the economics of “Big Gaming”

How will “Uncle Carl” Icahn’s endgame look like for IEP after the Hindenburg “attack” ?

Despite the “advice” of many financial pundits, writing covered calls is destroying value in the mid- and longterm

First Citizen Bank from North Carolina emerges as buyer of (most of) SVB with kind support from the FDIC. According to the FT, First Citizen has experience with buying troubled banks.

The always excellent Morgan Housel on how mass panics develop and how to insulate oneself (if possible at all)

Carsten Mueller from Augustusville has posted an interesting Portfolio review

John Hempton has a pretty clear opinion on who ist to blame for the loss on Credit Suisse AT1 bonds

Hindenburg came out with a blazing attack on Jack Dorsey’s Block (ex Square)

Swen Lorenz thinks that Dinosaur Bones could be the next exciting “alternative asset” class

An interesting interview with Sam Altman, the Mastermind behind ChatGPT