Paul Hartmann AG (DE0007474041) – Back to my (boring) roots
The company:
Paul Hartmann AG is a 200 year old German company active in the healthcare sector, This is how they describe themselves:
Some links
The Brooklyn Investor with an update on JPM (and other stuff)
Muddy Waters has found a new short target with TAL Education
Real Estate so far have not been disrupted. But that may change.
Hedge Fund’s best ideas usually are the stocks they want to sell
Tim Cook interview by David Rubinstein
Amazon might enter the Home Insurance space pretty soon
A fascinating peek into world of “Crypto Influencers”
Book review: “Bad Blood” – Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
“Bad Blood” was one of the few books that I had actually preordered as I usually prefer more “seasoned” books.
I was not disappointed. “Bad Blood” is written by WSJ journalist John Carreyrou who also broke the initial story on Theranos, the once high-flying Silicon Valley Tech startup.
Some links
A very critical post on Tripadvisor
John Kingham (UK Valueinvestor) doesn’t like British Telecom
Morgan Housel is on a roll and is writing one great piece after another: Useful hacks
So true: Life is more than compounding money
Why Microsft paid so much for GitHub
Some pitches from Whitney Tilson’s short selling conference
Paid online marketing is addictive but often not creating any real value
Some links
A fantastic post from 25q on customer acquisition & direct distribution models
Prof. Damodaran on how to reflect user economics in valuation
Is the next “AI winter” coming ?
Notes from the London Value Invetsing conference
A “short attack” on David EInhorn’s Greenlight Re
Mary Meeker on the “state of the internet”
Criteo SA (NASDAQ: Cheap AdTech Champion or evil Online Stalker ?
The company:
Criteo is one of the few Non-US success stories in the Tech sector. Criteo was founded in France in 2005 and quickly became one of the leading “Adtech” companies in the world. Criteo successfully IPOed 2013 on the NAsdaq and quickly reached a market cap of more than 3 bn USD.
The business:
Criteo is an “Adtech” company. What it does is the following: It is primarily a tech version of the classical Advertising Agencies: Clients use Criteo to maximise the value of their online ad dollars spent which should turn into as many clicks and sales dollars as possible.
Book review: Scott Wapner – When the Wolves Bite: Two Billionaires, One Company, and an Epic Wall Street Battle
“When the wolves bite” is the story about Herbalife and the fight between Bill Ackman, the Activist Hedge Fund manager who publicly shorted the company and Acitivist legend Carl Icahn who became a large shareholder mainly in order to annoy Bill Ackman.
Some links
A critical view on German Software “Unicorn” RIB Software
Some lessons learned from a life on Wall Street
A short thesis on Samsonite Intl. from Blue Orca
Another attempt to find out what actually happened at GE
Prof. Damodaran explains why Walmart paid 12 bn USD for Flipkart
Highly recommended: The Broyhill Bookclub 2017
An interesting write up on Hongkong based company Dream International
Metro update: Bad, but may be not so bad at all ?
A quick update on the Metro case. This is how I ended the Metro post from a few days ago:
For me, it is currently too early to do something. It is not clear to me if the stock price has overreacted or if more trouble is coming along especially from Russia.
Selling now would be clearly an uninformed decision as well as buying more. The next step will be the release of the 6M report next week. I think I will then still wait and see how Russia develops. If, for instance there would be a further profit warning because of Russia, then this would be a clear sell signal.
So let’s quickly check out the half-year report.
The good:
- Real, the German Supermarket chain is doing batter than last year. However the improvement in Q2 was smaller than in Q1 and might have been aided by early Easter holidays
- Delivery & Real Online do well, but are small
- Asia stable despite negative FX impact
The bad:
- Metro Germany is still losing money
- Eastern Europe less profitable despite good growth
- FCF Q2 lower by -130 mn (reason given: Store openings)
- Restructuring charges at Real of up to -40 mn EUR (over 2 years if I understood correctly)
The ugly:
- EBITDA in Russia in Q2 dropped -50%, Like for like sales by almost -9%
Some links
How and why David Einhorn is doing so badly these days
The retail industry tries to fight back with new concepts
Part of the pension cost for US companies will be booked “below the line” starting in 2018
Under Armour doesn’t look like a “buy” right now
Deep thoughts on Probabilistic Thinking by Farnam Stree blog
Wexboy with a portfolio update (Record Plc)
How to handle investment mistakes
value and opportunity 