2016 – The Great Irish Share Valuation Project (Part IV)

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Botswana Diamonds, Brexit, Connemara Mining Company, Dalata Hotel Group, GAN, Green REIT, Irish shares, Irish Stock Exchange, Irish value investing, ISEQ, Mincon Group, New Ireland Fund, TGISVP, The Great Irish Share Valuation Project, UDG Healthcare

Continued from here.

Apologies, I abandoned TGISVP for a few months there…dealing with a mild case of PBSD. Yes, I mean Post-Brexit Stress Disorder, which I suspect the entire island’s been experiencing too! Dare I say it, Ireland’s officially the kids in this bloody divorce – did Brexiteers ever stop & consider them when they were voting? Which begs the question:

What did they really think they were voting for..?!

Noting the 51.9% final tally for the Leave vote, we can presume a distinct minority of the population specifically voted for Hard Brexit. And yet, that’s what the UK now seems to be getting. [Again, when the Tories voted for Theresa May, what did they really think they were voting for..?!] But maybe it was inevitable…by default, Remainers now favour a Soft Brexit, which unfortunately seems to have persuaded the entire Leave campaign they believed in Hard Brexit from day one. And that’s what we’re seeing reflected in May’s government, which on occasion appears to have swung even to the right of Enoch Powell, and where Hammond & Carney were even branded traitors for simply highlighting some of the inevitable fiscal/economic consequences of a (Hard) Brexit. And anyway, the Soft Brexit peddled by the Leave campaign was sheer fantasy – no open borders (except the Irish border!?), no nasty EU-type regulations, free trade into the EU, jobs for all, etc. – basically, you can have your cake & eat it too (ooh la la, that’s a bit French!). In the end, it’s hard to know which was worse – the cynicism of the Leave campaign, or the gullibility of millions of Brexit voters who swallowed it hook, line & sinker…

But anyway, despite May’s current stance, we’re really no better informed than we were in the aftermath of the referendum, and it will be a few years down the road (possibly with an additional transition period) before a new Brexit reality’s nailed down properly. [And never under-estimate the possibility of another referendum!] Which means it’s still nigh on impossible to evaluate the potential future impact on Irish companies & the economy – overall, my (generally positive) perspective on Brexit hasn’t changed much since July, with the EUR/GBP rate still presenting the primary medium-term challenge. [Fortunately, the rate’s back within a percent of July levels, after hitting 0.9100+ in October]. But as I’ve highlighted before, Irish companies have actually proven themselves time & again over decades of Irish-UK exchange rate volatility. And looking at a longer term chart, today’s rate isn’t all that extraordinary anyway:

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2014 – The Great Irish Share Valuation Project (Part VI)

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Aryzta, GameAccount Network, Green REIT, Irish shares, Irish Stock Exchange, Irish value investing, ISEQ, iShares MSCI Ireland Capped ETF, Kentz Corp, New Ireland Fund, Origin Enterprises, Permanent TSB Group Holdings, TGISVP, The Great Irish Share Valuation Project

Continued from here:

[NB: Worth revisiting Part I if you’re a new reader, or you’d like a refresher on TGISVP & my approach to the whole project.]

Company:   Green REIT

Prior Post(s):   2013

Ticker:  GRN:ID

Price:   EUR 1.20

Since I first wrote about Green in August, not a lot’s changed fundamentally. But boy, it’s been a fun ride! The share price actually traded up to a EUR 1.479 high since then, an astonishing 53% premium to NAV. In fact, I’m bemused to see GRN’s all-time closing high (of EUR 1.442) was set on December 31st. [And has suffered a steady decline since. Same for Hibernia REIT (HBRN:ID)]. It’s so obvious, it’s laughable… Hmmm, if you already owned a decent slug of shares, wouldn’t it be sooo tempting to spend just a little more driving the price higher? Sure, it would raise your average entry price marginally, but also do wonders for your year-end mark-to-market! 😉 Unfortunately (or fortunately!), the Irish market’s a good venue for this type of fun & games – prices can sometimes be pushed around with surprising ease. It’s not like anybody expects the Irish exchange will ever bother doing anything about it…

Then there’s the problem of over-enthusiastic & naive investors. God forbid I compare property & junior resource stock investors, but sometimes I wonder… When it comes to real assets, too many investors seem to think something magical happens when they’re acquired by listed companies. A resource CEO throws together a rag-bag of exploration licences (acquired for a few million), IPOs the company, and minutes later the same assets are worth 50 million plus! As for property, there’s the old joke: ‘Yeah, they just bought it for X million. Wow, that’s an amazing property, you won’t see another like it…I wonder how much it’s worth?!’ Yes, I actually get emails like this: ‘The Green REIT portfolio’s on a tasty 8.7% yield – what do you think it’s worth?’ Er, pretty much what they fucking paid for it three months ago, I would think!

[I’m really not trying to mock Irish/UK investors here. The real lunatics are in the US, of course – where investors are willingly sucked into that other great blood funnel, the REIT/MLP machine. All too often, valuations bear little relationship to actual asset values, but nobody cares… Kennedy-Wilson Holdings (KW:US) is a great example – now a much-vaunted name on the European side of the pond, but how many investors have actually checked out the parent company listing? It trades on an astonishing 2.3 times book!]

The Great Irish Share Valuation Project – Some New Arrivals

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Ardmore Shipping, ASC, Baltic Dry Index, Green REIT, GRN, IPO, Irish shares, Irish value investing, Keywords Studios, KWS, shipping sector, TGISVP, The Great Irish Share Valuation Project, US Oil & Gas, video game sector

I finished the valuation phase of The Great Irish Share Valuation Project in May, but we’ve actually seen a grand total of three Irish companies IPO since then. Seriously, that’s a bit of a bloody record – one of them even listed on the ISE! I’ll be taking a closer look at each company in this post, and including them in TGISVP for the rest of the year.

[btw I can’t help but remember it was about this time last year I first sat down, took a look at US Oil & Gas (USOP:G4), and promptly fell off my chair. It was a bit like meeting Paul Calf for the first time – I laughed, I cried, I was horrified… I ended up predicting an ultimate TGISVP price target of 3.5p (a 99% price decline). Not surprisingly, this was greeted with outrage  – with multiple muppets going out of their way to explain, in great detail, why I didn’t have a f***ing clue! Oh, how right they were, and how wrong I was – USOP’s now trading at 32p, a share price decline of only 95%..! Clearly an apology is warranted – perhaps I should suck up my pride & make it?! ;-)]

Well, maybe I can’t promise you anything as exciting as USOP, but let’s see if we have any bargains or disasters on our hands:

Red or Green REIT?!

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blind pool, commercial property, Franklin Templeton, Green Property, Green Property Ventures, Green REIT, GRN, IPO, Ireland, Irish property, Irish shares, Irish value investing, NAMA, NAV premium, Pat Gunne, Paulson & Co, Pimco, Stephen Vernon, The Great Irish Share Valuation Project

Green REIT (GRN:ID) is Ireland’s first real estate investment trust. And the first ISE main market listing in over 5 years (a shock for the somnolent exchange staff, I’m sure). In fact, the IPO was so unprecedented, even the Minister for Finance turned up – here’s his speech! Not to mention the press, who fell on the story like a pack of dogs. But really, what do you expect? If there’s one thing that unites people, it’s a fervent desire for property to increase in value. Which is particularly true of Ireland, especially now – we blew the bubble we had, and Lord we so desperately want it back…

Yes, bored real estate agents want to treat buyers like scum & regain the respect they deserve. Mortgage holders just want to return to break-even, so they can finally relax & enjoy those gigantic monthly mortgage payments for the next 20 years. Old tyme reporters are sick of being forced to write real (i.e. non-property & interior design) stories, while their ad departments are tired of calling ’round begging for business. The banks dread visiting their own bank manager (NAMA & the Dept. of Finance) – while acting the gombeen with recalcitrant borrowers is somewhat problematic when they were reduced to beggary themselves not so long ago. As for the politicians, they just want to close their eyes & wake up when everything’s alright again…and then take all the credit! Finally, we have the poor old taxpayer…he just dreams of getting back to the good old days.

Because property solves all problems – doesn’t it?!

But I have to confess, I’m more than a little fascinated by the Green REIT IPO. Is it me, or did we just hit an inflection point? Could this be a new zeitgeist we’re witnessing? Well, if the collective national psyche could will it, Ireland’s certainly right about bloody due now… Oh boy, that’s a huge subject to tackle – for the moment, why don’t we take a closer look at: