Catalysts – A Summary (Part I of II)

Tags

Alternative Asset Opportunities, asset allocation, catalyst, correlation, dividend tax treatment, Event Driven, Expected Value, fighting the Fed, Investegate, IRR, Liquidations, Margin of Safety, offer premium, portfolio allocation, QE, Recommended Cash Offer, Risk Arbitrage, risk-on risk-off, takeover offers, Takeover Panel, VIX, volatility, wind-down

My 10-part series on catalysts last year (stretching from Jan to Dec!) was well received, judging by the readership & links. I vaguely promised a summary to wrap up the series – as we’re well into the new year (already?!), it now seems appropriate to deliver that post (& hopefully it proves useful).

By the end of last summer, I concluded there’s little point fighting the Fed… A fortunate decision, as the market’s been decidedly risk-on since then! Though I must say, the power of central bank liquidity still surprises me. If you recall, last summer, we appeared to face a pretty bleak outlook both sides of the Atlantic: The fiscal cliff in the US & the sovereign debt crisis in Europe. [Hmmph, different stories…same destination!] Personally, I considered the cliff to be just like those periodic kerfuffles over the US debt ceiling – no genuine threat, but divisive political rhetoric could certainly roil the markets (& perhaps prompt a rating-agency response). On the other hand, the European crisis…er, what happened, where the hell did that go..?!

This risk-on attitude’s left my portfolio light on investments with shorter-term/lower-risk catalysts (i.e. event-driven investments). However, I still strive to pick new investments which (ideally) possess at least one longer-term/higher-risk catalyst. That type of catalyst doesn’t necessarily mean you avoid downside risk, but hopefully it stacks the deck in your favour vs. what the average value investment (complete with margin of safety) might offer. It may also accelerate the time-line for a stock’s realization of its intrinsic value/upside potential. Anyway, much of my event-driven exposure was ultimately re-invested in Alternative Asset Opportunities (TLI:LN) – so I simply exchanged a low return/relatively uncorrelated risk for a cheap/high return/totally uncorrelated risk! Go on, you might want to give it a try..! 🙂

Advertisement

Correlation…Schmorrelation!

Tags

activist investors, agri-business, Asta Funding, beta, catalyst, Colony Financial, correlation, distressed assets, Europe, Event Driven, favourite stock, Fortress Investment Group, litigation funding, Margin of Safety, reading, Risk Arbitrage, risk management, stock ideas, umbrellas & ice cream, value investing, wind-down

Monday, I re-posted my appeal for your fave stock ideas, which was originally prompted by the dog days of summer. Those months when trading volume & news slows down, and you’re off for a relaxing holiday, are a perfect time to open your mind & embrace new ideas. Take along some good books for their historical perspective, magazines to dip into the current market/economy buzz, and (most importantly) stacks & stacks of annual reports. And just read, read, read..!

Personally, my focus over the summer’s been on correlation. Some investors are great at stock-picking, risk management & portfolio construction, while others are abysmal..! But, all too often, there’s precious little difference in respective performance. Because we’re all terribly correlated with the market, and with the economy – yep, we’re all making pretty much the same big bet! A preference for discounted assets, special situations & stocks with specific catalysts is my attempt to escape this correlation risk. Medium-longer term, I think this approach offers a genuine ‘edge‘ via lower beta stocks. Trouble is, shorter term, market correlation (especially in market setbacks) can simply trounce all other factors…

Chasing Some Dividend Tail (III)..?

Tags

Autozone, Bernie Madoff, Big Ang, Character Group, dividend coverage, dividend yield, enhanced EPS/NAV, gold, income/dividend bubble, investment companies, JAKKS Pacific, Liquidations, Livermore Investments, M&A, share buyback, tender offer, trading sardines, wind-down

Continued from here. OK, so dividends kinda suck…but what’s the alternative? Well, let’s tackle that from the corporate perspective first:

– Obviously, share buybacks (and/or tenders & capital returns) are generally a far more tax-efficient means of distribution to shareholders. They enhance earnings, or significantly increase NAV/book value. [Just look at the amazing run on Autozone (AZO:US) – yes, they’ve had great execution, but much of its performance is down to aggressive/sustained stock buybacks]. It also permits management to be far smarter & more opportunistic in their distributions, and their response to share price volatility.

– Just as important, it frees management of the potentially absurd strait-jacket of maintaining an inappropriate dividend – which, in extremis, leads to management idiotically borrowing just to fund a (tax-inefficient) dividend. On occasion, this is exactly the point where management tips over from ‘gently deceiving‘ shareholders into downright criminal/accounting fraud…

How About Another Catalyst? (Part IX)

Tags

Anhui Chaodong Cement, catalyst, David Wong, Dhir India, FBD Holdings, German bunds, intrinsic value, major sale, NAV discount, Ovoca Gold, Polymetal, Prosperity Minerals Holdings, Sirius Real Estate, takeover offers, Tim McCutcheon, Trinity Biotech, wind-down

Continued from here. We were looking at a major sale as another catalyst.

Recently, I confess I’ve been less focused on this (and my next) catalyst. No bad reflection, it simply reflects my ‘bar-bell‘ approach – investing in lower-risk catalyst situations nicely balances out higher risk positions (like emerging & frontier market equities, as most would characterize them). This can mean higher risk catalyst stocks get crowded out of my portfolio… But if I want to shift overall risk lower, as I suspect I’ll continue to do, this catalyst category should make a nice comeback in my riskier portfolio allocation. Let’s illustrate with some examples:

i) I did a Dhir India (DHIR:LN, delisted) writeup last November. An initial catalyst attracted my attention in September – in their Final Results they stated: ‘…The Board has decided to seek to accelerate the process of returning value to shareholders through a review of the investment and realisation strategy and over the next twelve months steps will be taken to try and achieve this aim‘. Not quite definitive, but this obviously offered a wind-down strategy as a catalyst.

Seduction…and Neglect?! How About a Catalyst? (Part III)

Tags

Avanti Capital, delisting risk, Dhir India, Eurovestech, GPG, Gresham House, IRR, JSM Indochina, Liquidations, LMS Capital, Mazars, Ottoman Fund, Private Equity Investor, Siteserv, South African Property Opps, Spark Ventures, Trading Emissions, Trinity Capital, Veris plc, wind-down

Continued from here:

i) Liquidations are top of the heap for catalysts! They’re usually only announced after a company has sold all/the majority of its assets (or occasionally its business(es)). They offer the best prospect of a highly certain final asset value, to be realized within a reasonably short/well-defined timeline. They’re usually concluded within 6 months to 2 years, and any decent BoD/management will provide an estimated total distribution amount (net of all expected liquidation expenses) and schedule.

Of course, if they’ve an ounce of sense, they’ll be as conservative/pessimistic as possible with their forecasts, so any surprises should hopefully be positive… (In fact, they should recast the B/S with all future expected liquidation expenses included as a provision – i.e. accounting on a liquidation basis, not a going concern basis). In aggregate, these features mean that liquidations have v attractive IRRs and Expected Value Returns!

Duh, Duh, Dhir…

Tags

Adjusted NAV, Aurora Russia, Dhir India, distressed assets, market-makers, message boards, Price/Book, Price/Cash, wind-down

Dhir India Investments (DHIR:LN)

• Mkt Price:  GBP 16p
• Mkt Cap:  GBP 2.67 mio
• P/C:  0.36  (adjusted)
• P/B:  0.12

Just because I’m a value investor, doesn’t mean I won’t make speculative bets, it just means I like to use value investing to determine that bet..! Here’s one I’ve finally jumped into:

Dhir India’s the only UK-listed investment vehicle offering fund managers/investors exposure to distressed assets and companies in India. The fund invests in 4 types of transactions: Turnaround of companies, re-sale of companies/assets, break-up and sale of assets and bridge financing. Charlie Hambro is the Chairman, while the Investment Manager Shiva is headed by Alok Dhir. Dhir’s been practicing insolvency law for over 20 years, and is a successful investor in Indian non-performing assets. The company was launched in mid-2007, and promptly completed 6 investment projects (1 listed) by year-end.