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FrankArabia

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Posts posted by FrankArabia

  1. i follow Onex.

     

    they have done fabulously over last 12 months and they were quite undervalued at $33 not too long ago.

     

    the major headwind for PE firms is that they're unable to offload some of these securities in what are still tough equity markets.

     

    though I don't think its a major issue, I think some are concerned about how they are valuing some of the assets on the book.

     

     

     

     

  2. Just a question but do any of the people who are actually criticizing Paulson have any money management experience or even experience in the money management industry?

     

    playing with petty cash in your trading account is not the same thing as managing money for third parties. Its very different once you do it for somebody else professionally and even more different once you get into the billions and billions of dollars....

  3. the wierd thing about FFH for me is, i wouldn't mind putting 100% of my net worth with the company.....out of all the stocks I have, i feel there is the most downside protection.....on the other hand, i have a downbeat assessment of their near term returns on equity....strange....

  4. i read the annual report and what berkowitz said....essentially, Sears its a cigar butt with undervalued real estate assets. they're trying to improve profits but can't really gain traction. They have a bunch of undervalued real estate that is likely worth more than stated gaap results.......at the end of the day, i still see profits from sears to be the most important driver and I have very little confidence on that front

     

  5. Ross,

     

    I'm a tech newbie so I don't have much of a sense for what they do though i'm learning...

     

    but by my math assuming declining sales for the next 3 years and lower margins, my calc still shows this company as fairly valued..in a nutshell, i'm assuming ROE of 10% which is significantly lower than their historical average....I get this by slashing margins by 50%....

     

    as they're still the dominant force in (albeit declining) PCs and data servers, they still hold the keys to a decent cash flow generator....

     

    if it goes down to 15 or even lower, i would be a even more happy buyer....

  6. the embedded value is there to account for some of the value gaap/ifrs accounting doesn't capture...however it is by no means a substitute

     

    the underlying problem with life insurance accounting is based on the fact life insurance is essentially a long tail business and therefore heavy assumptions must be made. Inherently this is unreliable and EV doesn't improve on this one bit. the issue is even more complicating when annualties and guarantees are made which brings interest rate/market risk into the fold.

     

    When someone is calculating the EV it is similar to calculating reserves. They assume a level of mortality and experience losses and the profits that come along with this. Therefore, it is also guess work but more sophisticated guesses per se. Not surprisingly, EV normally shows that a lifeco is worth more than what is stated on book because it captures profits overtime (value of in force business).

     

    life companies generally do not earn more than 10% of their capital overtime (neither does P&C). Therefore, buy one significantly under book and one where premiums written are low in relation to equity. in addition, make sure guarantees in force is low with rates that are reasonable. avoid companies that have a lot of guarantees written in bull markets. finally, you have to trust management.

     

     

  7. I doubt that Buffett would agree that a extremely high concentration in financials is a good idea even if you are right about the business in the long term. There isn't going to be a long term for financial companies if the market disagrees with you: most financial companies can't survive very long if they don't have access to debt or equity funding. So you introduce a fair amount of systematic risk in your portfolio if you own almost only financials.

     

    Buffet wagered a lot when he bought Geico when it was near bankruptcy....so no....i think he would agree.....BRK is dominated by financials from insurance to WFC/AXP in the common portfolio.....

     

    ppl who don't understand financials will inevitably say its risky (as they problably should)....but look at LUK...their biggest business is now an investment bank.....and look at Prem Watsa, he basically runs an insurance company....

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