Eurokai 2024 Shareholder Meeting & a short look at Hutchison Ports Holdings Trust

Posted on by One comment

Eurokai Shareholder Meeting in Hamburg

    This week I did something I didn’t do for some time: I visited an annual shareholder meeting, in this case that of Eurokai in Hamburg. The main reason was to get a better impression of Tom Eckelmann, the 6th gneration family CEO who took over last summer.

    Apart from the venue (Hotel Hafen Hamburg) with great views over the harbour in Hamburg, these were my main take aways (AGM presentation in German can be found here) :

    • Business in the first 5 months is doing (much) better than expected. This is the chart from the AGM showing the amount of containers:

    Read more

    EVS Broadcast SA – A Hidden Global Champion “Breaking free from the Van” with Software & AI at a Bargain Price

    Posted on by 10 comments

    Disclaimer: This is not investment advice. PLEASE DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH !!!

    As always with my more detailed writeups, I will focus on the gernal section in the post and attach the full pdf for anyone interested in the details.

    1. Elevator pitch:

    EVS Broadcast is a 400 mn EUR market cap Belgian technology firm that is the global leader in Live sports broadcasting/production technology that once earned margins higher than Nvidia does today.

    After a relatively long phase of stagnation from 2008-2019, EVS seems to have found its path to decent growth again under new management. The main driver is a new technology cycle that will shift the product offerings from hardware focused solutions to more Software/Saas products and a move into adjacent markets (Studio production).

    For a company with EBIT margins > 20%, capital return >20%, net cash and a targeted growth rate of 10% p.a. (which they have achieved since 2019), the current valuation of ~9x EV EBIT or 10-11x P/E is dirt cheap and offers considerable upside for the patient investor.

    As EVS has been working on AI solutions since at least 2017 and has already functioning products to show, one gets any potential “AI upside optionality” for absolutely free. 

    Read more

    Some links 11/2024

    Posted on by One comment

    A nice deep dive into Agfa-Gevaert from the “Healthy Stock Picks” Substack

    And another analysis of a Belgian stalwart, Bekaert from Alex Sweet

    The WinterGems substack with a write-up on Monarch Cement plus an extra North America “Cement deep dive”

    A good reminder: You probably don’t need Alternative Inevstments to become rich

    Another good reminder that high concentration in portfolios is not always beneficial

    The (container) shipping industry once again is looking strained due to bottlenecks (FT, search result)

    MIT Superstar Economist Daren Acemoglu is vey sceptical on any major benefits from AI (FT, search result)

    All Belgian Shares part 8 – Nr. 141-160

    Posted on by 5 comments

    After a short vacatation break, I am back with the next “All Belgian shares” post. Besides the usual Real Estate and non-traded Expert market stuff, this time three stocks made it onto the watch list. For one of them I even started a 1% position in order to motivate myself for a deep dive rather sooner than later. Enjoy !!

    141. EVS Broadcast Equipment SA

    EVS is a 411 mn EUR market cap stock that I analyzed almost 10 years ago as a potential “high quality compounder”. This was my summary back then:

    Looking at the chart, this is also one of the stocks where the “shiny new HQ curse” fully hit:

    Read more

    All Belgian Shares part 7 – Nr. 121-140

    Posted on by 16 comments

    It’s Belgian Power Week on the blog this week with a second post in the “All Belgian Shares” series. From these 20, randomly selected shares, 7 made it onto the preliminary watch list, including some really interesting companies. Let’s go !!

    121. Galapagos

    Galapagos has nothing to do with the Islands in the Pacific but is a Biotech company that has spiked during Covid and lost -90% since then. They do have sales and even some earnings and according to TIKR, they have a negative EV of -1,8 bn.

    Read more

    All Belgian Shares part 6 – Nr. 101-120

    Posted on by 3 comments

    With this post, we crossed the “half-time” mark for the Belgian Stock Market. Among these 20, in random order selected stocks, 6 made it onto the watch list, among them a former holding of mine. Let’s go:

    101. Newtree

    According to TIKR, this 17 mn EUR market cap company “provides chocolates, spreads, snacks, gifts, and coffee products. It also offers products through online”. On their investor website, annual accounts are only available to 2018. “Pass”.

    102. Elia Group

    Elia is th 6,6 bn EUR market cap operator of the Belgian Electricity transmission network. They also own and run 50 Hertz, one of the larger German transmission network operators. Electricity transmission networks are fully regulated assets, i.e. if the network is working, the owner gets a guaranteed return based on the “Regulated Asset Base (RAB)”.

    Read more

    Some links 10/2024

    Posted on by Leave a comment

    An interesting collection of 3 “Oddball stock picks” form the Bargain Stock radar Substack

    Interesting write-up on market research firm YouGov Plc from Robin Research

    The WinterGems substack with a portfolio update and the “50% draw down” test

    “Every stock has a shelf life” – very good thoughts from Ian Cassel

    Very interesting FT article on the “Private Equity Winter” (search result)

    Some deep thoughts from Ben Evans on why Generative AI has not produced real use cases (yet)

    Michael Mauboussin dropped a great paper on how to interpret and compare valuation multiples

    The German Mittelstand is maybe Down but not Out: Hermle AG – Hidden Automation Champion from the “Ländle”

    Posted on by 14 comments

    As always with my longer write-ups, I will attach the full PDF below. In the post itself I will focus on the Exec summary, Pro’s and Con’s and the conclusion. And the Bonus Track of course at the end.

    Executive Summary

    Hermle AG is a typical “Hidden Champion” Mittelstand company from Southwestern Germany (Baden Wuerttemberg, the “Ländle”) that managed to carve out a very nice niche in 5- Axis CNC machines and connected production automation.  The company is able to earn industry leading EBIT margins (>20%) and Returns on Capital (>30%), has a Fortress Balance sheet and trades only at a relatively modest valuation of around 7,7x EV/EBIT.

    The business is exposed to the economic cycle, but a combination of competitive advantages, a flexible cost base and a structural tailwind (Automation) make the stock attractive in the mid- to long term

    Full PDF can be read & downloaded here:

    Read more

    Performance review Q1 2024 – Comment: “Contrarian Investing – Easier said than done”

    Posted on by 7 comments

    In the first 3 months of 2024, the Value & Opportunity portfolio gained  +3,2% (including dividends, no taxes) against a gain of +6,0% for the Benchmark (Eurostoxx50 (25%), EuroStoxx small 200 (25%), DAX (30%), MDAX (20%), all TR indices).

    Links to previous Performance reviews can be found on the Performance Page of the blog. Some other funds that I follow have performed as follows in the first 3M 2024:

    Partners Fund TGV: +9,0%
    Profitlich/Schmidlin: +4,0%
    Squad European Convictions: 3,4%
    Frankfurter Aktienfonds für Stiftungen: +5,9%
    Squad Aguja Special Situation: +1,2%
    Paladin One: -5,9%
    Alphastars Europe: +0,6%
    Gehlen & Bräutigam: -1,3%

    Performance review:

    Read more

    All Belgian Shares part 5 – Nr. 81-100

    Posted on by 8 comments

    Back from the Easter break with 20 freshly selected random Belgian stocks. This time, four made it onto the preliminary watch list.

    81. MAATSCHAPPIJ VAN DE BRUGSE ZEEHAVEN (Expert Market)

    At first I got excited, as this seems to be the Port of Brugge and the port seems to have grown over the years according to Wikipedia. And I do like ports.. But this stock traded last in 2015. It seems that at a higher level, the port has already merged with Antwerpes.

    Unfortunately I did not find any financial information. “Pass”.

    82. Mazaro NV

    Read more

    « Older Entries Recent Entries »