2017 Letter to shareholders for the TGV Partners Fund
2017 Letter to shareholders from Rob Vinall (RV Capital)
2017 Letter to shareholders from TGV Rubicon Stockpicker
Oaktree’s Howard Marks with his latest memo
John Kingham (UK Value Investor) with his leesons learned in 2017
The 5 levels of investor evolution
And a Jack Ma (Alibaba) interview from the World economic Forum
A couple of days ago, I looked at Softbank more from a strategic point of view. This time I want to focus more on the actual assets and a sum-of-parts valuation
What is Softbank ?
Essentially the company at its core is a Telco company in Japan and US plus a lot of “extra assets” like the Alibaba stake, Yahoo Japan and then all the other stuff including the vision fund. The initial Software distribution business (this is where the name Softbank comes from) doesn’t play a big role anymore.
I will now try to walk through the major Softbank Assets in more detail:
Let’s start with the largest position first, the now so famous Alibaba stake. From a technical perspective, Softbank doesn’t own the listed shares but this:
Fellow blogger Wexboy had a very decent year in 2017
Interesting (and funny) post of someone who founded a very unique Private Equity fund in 2017 (and met Charlie and Warren) (h/t Valueinvestingworld)
2017 Annual letter of the Fundsmith Equity fund
David Einhorn’s Q4 2017 letter
MUST READ: Some deep (and balanced) thoughts on the potential longer lasting effects of Blockchain technology (Watch out Uber, Facebook, Google…)
The UK Valueinvestor looks at UK homebuiler Galliford
Farnam Street blog explains how to use Expected Value in decision making
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.
value and opportunity 