In the comments to my Kinnevik post some weeks ago, a reader recommended me to have a look at Softbank, the famous Tech conglomerate built by Masa Son. Well sometimes I indeed take suggestions…..
Masa Son – Founder and “Godfather”
In Softbank’s case it makes sense to start with its founder, CEO and major shareholder (21%) Masayoshi (“Masa”) Son.
Prof. Damodaran analyzes the impact of the US tax code changes
Morgan Housel with some deep thoughts on financial markets and addictions
Some thoughts on the Softbank / Uber deal
Software companies usually don’t have big moats (h/t Valueinvestingworld)
The Value Investing France blog with its 2017 review
The 2020 sulfur cap on ships might lead to profound impact on commodity trading
Forager on symptoms of a stock market mania
One upfront comment: I promise to use the auto correct feature of wordpress.com in 2018 as often as possible. However, as I do not have unlimited time to “polish” my posts, there will be always bad grammar and bad spelling as I try to focus my available time on analyis and actual content.
Already some week ago, Swedish based “Med tech” company Getinge AB spun off Arjo AB.
Mark Zuckerberg wants to look at Crypto Currencies in 2018
Prof. Damodaran has released his annual data update on > 40k companies
Jeremy Grantham sees the “risk” of a near term market “melt up”
UK Value Investor with an in-depth review on why he sold BP
Bloomberg article describing Masa Son’s (Softbank) unorthodox VC investment style
December Issue of Value Investor Insight (h/t Valueinvestingworld)
Plus a selection of the Top 10 Videos of a16z (Andreessen & Horowitz)
Performance 2017:
In 2017, the Value & Opportunity portfolio gained +21,7%* (including dividends, no taxes) against 15.6 % for the Benchmark (Eurostoxx50 (Perf.Ind) (25%), Eurostoxx small 200 (25%), DAX (30%), MDAX (20%)).
Some other funds that I follow have performed as follows in 2017:
Partners Fund TGV: +19,97%
Profitlich/Schmidlin: +8,07%
Squad European Convictions +29.72%
Ennismore European Smaller Cos +9,32% (in EUR)
Frankfurter Aktienfonds für Stiftungen +13,7%%
Evermore Global Value +4.6%
Greiff Special Situation +11,1%
Squad Aguja Special Situation +14,2%
Since inception (01.01.2011), this translates into +186,7% or +16,2% p.a. vs. 95,3% or 10,1% p.a. for the benchmark. Graphically this looks like this:
Michael Mauboussin on how to compare alternatives
Year end portfolio review of Clark Street Value
Eddy Elfenbein has released his 2018 buy list
A good write up on Dairy Farm from the Globalstockpicking blog
Digital advertising is a massive duopoly
Why Bitocin took so long to succeed
Estonia seems to be the first E-Country
Again the promise: This will not become a Crypto Currency blog. On the other hand I really find the topic fascinating and maybe one or the other reader finds it interesting too.
After looking at rather non-exciting ICOs like Naga Coin and Whysker, I decided to have a quick look at IOTA.
Why IOTA ?
First of all, IOTA is also based in Germany and I want to know what is going on in my home country. Secondly, I was surprised that Robert Bosch AG, the very conservative privately hold German auto supplier invested in IOTA coins a few weeks ago. Although Bosch did some stupid things in the past (like buying Ersol and Aleo Solar), it is nevertheless an interesting move.
Another part of my annual blog rituals is a short overview of all the positions I own at the end of each year with a short review of why I (still) own them.
The summaries of the previous years can be found here:
My 27 investments for 2017
My 27 investments for 2016
My 28 investments for 2015
My 24 investments for 2014
My 22 investments for 2013
Interestingly, the list for 2018 contains the lowest number of stocks so far as I tried to concentrate my portfolio a little more into my “best” ideas and kicked out a few positions where I wasn’t fully convinced anymore (Aggreko, Ashmore, Pfandbriefbank, Coface, Romgaz, Kuka, Lloyds Banking) or where the catalyst actually took place (Gagfah, Sapec, Kuka). In general, I would feel comfortable in owning up to 25 positions.
But now let’s look at the 21 stocks I own as of year end:
What a story: Sam Antar vs. Overstock.com vs. Marc Cohodes
2017 review of the highly recommended Stratechery blog
Nate from Oddbal thinks that no one in investing has an edge
Franam Street blog’s 2017 annual letter
Interesting interview with David Einhorn
Another bites the dust: John Griffin closes down Blue Ridge Capital
Some interesting thoughts on Goodwill
and of course:
I’ll promise my readers that this will not turn into an Crypto/ICO blog, but I also must confess that I am absolutely fascinated by what is happening right now with Bitcoin & Co. After briefly looking at the “Nagacoin Doublepump” a few weeks ago I can not withstand to look at the second German based ICO called Wysker / Wys (the coin).
What is Wys / Wysker
As any good ICO these days they have a 19 page whitepaper which looks quite modest compared to the Naga pamphlet.
In short, Wysker aims to be the “Tinder for shopping” (funnily enough, Naga wanted to be the “tinder for stocks”). In order to make this thing more sexy, there is also a block chain aspect and, of course machine learning involved.
How it is supposed to work:
value and opportunity 