Peak SPAC ? A non-revenue healthcare litigation company wants to be valued at 32,6 bn USD.
Half year fund letters:
Fascinating paper on the massive Albanian Ponzi system of 1996-1997
Nice pitch for European stocks vs American stocks
Very interesting deep dive into Roku
And a pitch for Imperial Brands
To make it three: Write-up on Brook Compton
This time, only one out of the ten randomly selected stocks made it onto my watch list.
61. Alpine Select AG
Alpine Select select is 129 mn CHF market cap listed investment company. The name rang a bell and when I searched my own blog, I found them as one of the “co-investors” in the AIRE KgAA special situation in 2012.
Including their significant distributions, Alpine Select has an Ok track record over the last years. The stock trades very close to NAV. Their portfolio these days seems to consist mostly out of hedge funds and even a crypto fund more recently.
This is not exactly my cup of tea, so I’ll “pass”.
62. Elma Electronics AG
Elma is a 146 mn CHF market cap company that manufactures electronic components. The stock chart looks strange: After effectively flat-lining for around 12 years before increasing by ~+50% in 2021:
A lot has been written already about the Euro Finals two days ago with England losing (again) the final penalty shoot out. To be honest, I was supporting Italy in the finals because I think the showed the best performance in the tournament overall, with a refreshingly “un-Italian” way of playing attractive offensive football.
I don’t want to repeat what has been written in the English press on who and why has to take the blame for missing the penalties. However I want to focus on what the coach, Gareth Southgate said when he explained the choice and the fact that two of the penalty shooters were just brought into the game at the very last minute.
Personally, I thought at first that it was a pretty bad idea to let players shoot that did not really play in the match but this is what Southgate said:
A banking stock that los -93% without any (obvious) fraud
Very good post on “playing the losers game” by avoiding “unforced errors” (h/t S4V)
Why keeping cool despite meme stonks and crypto might be a good idea
Investing into Carbon Prices looks almost like a no-brainer
Short write-up on EV charging stock Chargepoint
Great write-up on Total Produce (Merger, De-Listing, Re-Listing)
Another 10 randomly selected Swiss shares with very short “High level” analysis. This time, I actually identified three companies that are worth watching. Enjoy !!!
51. Sika AG
Sika is a 43 bn CHF market cap specialty chemical company that produces material for the building sector. What makes the company especially interesting is the fact that despite being very dull at the surface, the stock went up by 10x over ther last 8-9 years. Even Covid-19 could not stop Sika:
In the first 6 months of 2021, the Value & Opportunity portfolio gained +14,7% (including dividends, no taxes) against a gain of +13.8% 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 6M 2021:
Partners Fund TGV: +22,1%
Profitlich/Schmidlin: 13,3 %
Squad European Convictions +18,54%
Ennismore European Smaller Cos +16,01% (in EUR)
Frankfurter Aktienfonds für Stiftungen 12,35%
Greiff Special Situation 3,45%
Squad Aguja Special Situation 10,37%
Paladin One 5,94%
Another outstanding post from Net Interest (Marc Rubinstein) on the long decline of Western Union
Joachim Klement makes an interesting case for “Green Tech Royalty Companies”
A good reminder how outstanding Phil Fishers Book “Common stocks, uncommon profits” really was/is
June 2021 Spin-off links
A big pitch for Angel VC investing by Meb Faber
Some reflections on holding stocks for 10 years
Great reminder that thematic funds are usually not good investments
On the difficult relationship between Restaurants and Delivery Apps
The founders of a South African Crypto platform disappeared with a few billions of Bitcon
Zero Knowledge Proof (ZKP) technology could solve a lot of issues with data privacy
John Kingham with an in-depth look into QinetiQ
Swen Lorenz on SBM (Société des Bains de Mer et du Cercle des Etrangers à Monaco S.A)
Noah Smith interviews Marc Andreessen
Investors are maybe too optimistic about stock market returns
And a special link: Anyone who registers on Swen Lorenz Undervalued Shares website, get his new Ebook with the best Finance blogs of the world for free (incl. V&O)
Another 10 randomly selected Swiss shares. This time, two share made it into the watch list.
41. WISeKey AG
WISekey is a 102 mn CHF market cap Cybersecurity firm that went public in 2016. The company made some headlines pre IPO as Kevin Spacey was one of the investors. The first quoted price has been 12 CHF/share, in the meantime, the stock lost -90%. The company investor presentation manages to have 27 pages without a single hard number.
The company claims to be in the midst of Blockchain, IOT and AI. However Sales have been shrinking and losses are at a level of 2x sales. “Pass”.
42. Banque Cantonal de Jura SA
Useful vocabulary if you want to follow r/wsb
A super helpful list for “sniff tests” on company management
Great profile on Australian Private Equity investor William Dingby
Podcast with great insights on Moderna and mRNA technology
Winners and Losers of a “Work from Home” world
The delivery model is a big differentiator for E-Commerce business models
Good write-up on how Nintendo seems to better monetize their IP
value and opportunity 