My Dirty Little Dividend Secret…

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Alternative Asset Opportunities, Anton Bilton, commercial property, credit risk, distressed investing, Event Driven, fixed income, high dividend yield, income/dividend bubble, Leverage, Net LTV, priority claims, QE, Raven Mount, Raven Russia, RUSP, Russia, Tetragon Financial Group

I’ve made no secret of my disdain for dividends, or that category of dividend/income investors who seem to be just plain mental..! Especially the US variety of the breed, it must be said. 😉 I was even moved to write a dividend series: ‘Chasing Some Dividend Tail..?’, Parts I, II & III. I recall some of you enjoying it – and believe me, it was just as much fun writing it! But as with all moral arbiters, there eventually comes a mea culpa – ‘I have sinned, oh Lord…but I was seduced in a moment of weakness!’ And here’s mine, replete with tears:

Oh Lord, I couldn’t resist – I fell for a stock flaunting a (near) 13% dividend…the damn hussy!

Let me introduce you to:   Raven Russia Limited (RUSP:LN)

Note I don’t mean their ordinary shares (RUS:LN) – I invested in their preference shares (RUSP:LN). I bought them in late 2009, so my purpose here isn’t to produce a new write-up – but rather to offer what might hopefully be a useful primer for analyzing & buying similar instruments. [Well, at some point – in the current climate, good credit opportunities are becoming increasingly rare. But see this Tetragon Financial (TFG:NA) write-up – though TFG sports a v different level of risk]. Of course, that’s really only useful if I can reproduce my original analysis & perspective – with the help of the financials & my notes from that period, I think I can do just that (hopefully eliminating the benefit of hindsight as much as possible).

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2013 – The Great Irish Share Valuation Project (Part IX)

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Allied Irish Banks, Bank of Ireland, Biogen Idec, Dalradian Resources, Datalex, Elan Corp, ELG Scheme, Fastnet Oil & Gas, FBD Holdings, IIU, Irish shares, Irish value investing, Pageant Holdings, Permanent TSB Group Holdings, Prime Active Capital, Royalty Pharma, TGISVP, The Great Irish Share Valuation Project, US Oil & Gas

Continued from here. [If you’re new to the series, I recommend you re-visit my first 2013 TGISVP post].

Company:   Elan Corp

Prior Post:   Here

Ticker:   ELN:US

Price:   $11.61

Last year, I had Elan pegged for a significant fall – which definitely appeared to be on the cards with the share price falling 25%+ to sub-$10 levels in Dec & Feb. In the past 2 months, however, they’ve certainly pulled a rabbit from the hat with their recent Biogen Idec (BIIB:US) deal. This hands full control of Tysabri back to Biogen, but in return Elan receives $3.25 billion of cash, and a 12-25% royalty on future global net sales. Post-restructuring, Elan was almost entirely dependent on Tysabri – so this deal transforms the company into a highly attractive pot of cash, and a low cost/high margin royalty stream.

Unfortunately, management didn’t quite grasp this was shareholder’s money – they acted like all their bloody Xmases had come at once! They’ve promised a share buyback, but their main plan is to use the majority of the proceeds & royalties to acquire a brand new portfolio & pipeline. This is coupled with a projected reduction in annual operating expenses to (only?) $180 million per year! This has lured Royalty Pharma out of shadows, to offer shareholders an interesting alternative: An $11.00 per share bid.

Cyprus & Argo Group

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Andreas Rialas, Argo Group, Argo Real Estate Opportunities Fund, Cyprus bail-out, EU economy, European sovereign debt crisis, Eurozone, fiat money, Greenspan/Bernanke put, intrinsic value, Kyriakos Rialas, Lehman Brothers, Price/Cash, The Argo Fund

Obviously, I’ll be returning to Argo Group (ARGO:LN) in greater detail another day, but news of a Cyprus bailout deal has prompted scads of emails & questions to me about Argo. A post is certainly justified…

OK, Cyprus – what a God-awful mess… At this point, years into the European debt crisis, it’s hard to believe EU politicians can attain new heights of stupidity. Whenever politicians: i) do something on the cheap, ii) kick the can down the road, or iii) (perhaps the worst) enforce some obscure point of principle, haven’t we learned it comes back to bite you far more savagely & expensively?

I have to concede the US is pulling ahead of Europe – they’re much quicker to recognize failure & to learn from mistakes. The collapse of Lehman can be ascribed pretty much to one man (Paulson) & his pig-headed intention to prove a point. Oh boy, and what an expensive point it was… Of course, everybody ignored it, lessons were learned & the Greenspan/Bernanke put was accordingly (and infinitely?!) strengthened.

2013 – The Great Irish Share Valuation Project (Part VIII)

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Aer Lingus Group, Anton Bilton, distressed investing, equine DNA, Greencore Group, IMC Exploration Group, Irish shares, Irish value investing, ISEQ 20 ETF, iShares MSCI Ireland ETF, New Ireland Fund, Orogen Gold, Pension Deficit, Ryanair Holdings, Smurfit Kappa Group, TGISVP, The Great Irish Share Valuation Project, Uniq plc

Continued from here.

Company:   Greencore Group

Prior Post:   Here     (valuation, see here & here for commentary!)

Ticker:   GNC:LN

Price:   GBP 95.75p

Well, I guess my perspective on Greencore last year was horribly wrong..! I’ve long considered GNC a distressed company, but the market clearly disagrees. So much so, the share price rallied almost 70% in the past year – my price target (of GBP 32.5p) was certainly left choking in the dust! But if my distressed premise is correct – and, objectively, I can’t see how you’d disagree with me – this rally isn’t so surprising. What..?! But companies like this are always a binary proposition – they simply die, or they survive & maybe even thrive eventually. And if everybody still feels blithely happy about them, they present a temptingly cheap buy. Greencore’s also a nice scary reminder of how dangerous shorting can be – poor underlying fundamentals are often ignored far longer than you can take the pain…

Argo Group – Awaiting Results

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% of AUM, alternative assets, Andreas Rialas, AREO, ARGO, Argo Group, Argo Real Estate Opportunities Fund, asset managers, distressed assets, distressed investing, emerging markets, European sovereign debt crisis, Expected Value, intrinsic value, Kyriakos Rialas, Price/Cash, share buyback, shareholder activism, tender offer, The Argo Fund

Argo Group’s (ARGO:LN) Final Results should be released shortly (I’ll try confirm the exact date). In my most recent Argo posts, I published two letters I’ve sent to Kyriakos & Andreas Rialas (CEO & CIO, respectively). I encourage you to review both letters before continuing:

Here’s the first letter (from Nov-2012)

Argo’s share price rallied +6.2% in the following week.

And the second letter (from Dec-2012)

This was sent on behalf of myself, Guy Thomas & some other (smaller) shareholders, representing an aggregate 5% shareholding in Argo. The letter focused on a single specific shareholder distribution proposal. ARGO subsequently rallied +6.5% (in the following week). [In fact, the share price is now up an impressive +36% since my November letter. Despite the rally, I believe Argo remains just as compelling an investment proposition – I currently have a 5.4% portfolio stake].

My recommendations & proposal require little (further) explanation, and I expect shareholders will enthusiastically support all efforts to realize & enhance Argo’s intrinsic value. But I will revisit them in the context of an upcoming results preview – plenty of current & prospective shareholders have emailed me about Argo, so I hope you’ll find this useful. Let’s first consider Argo’s existing funds:

2013 – The Great Irish Share Valuation Project (Part VII)

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Aryzta, Austevoll, Bank of Ireland, Bill Ackman, Continental Farmers Group, Galantas Gold, Gillian Bowler, gold, Herbalife, IMC Exploration Group, Irish shares, Irish value investing, John Teeling, Liam McGrattan, Nial Ring, Origin Enterprises, Permanent TSB Group Holdings, Petrel Resources, TGISVP, The Great Irish Share Valuation Project, Trinity Biotech, US Oil & Gas

Continued from here.

Company:   Petrel Resources

Prior Post:   Here

Ticker:   PET:LN

Price:   GBP 16.75p

We should include at least one John Teeling company in every TGISVP post, eh?! Believe it or not, Petrel’s been around (in one form, or another) for 30+ yrs now! This long-term chart covers less than half that period, but I think it neatly summarizes the company’s progress – or rather, lack of fucking progress, over its lifetime: