jch548

Yesterday I talked to a Seeking Alpha rep. I told him I had $1 to $2mm to invest in common stocks and wanted to know the cost for the "Pro" service. He quoted me $8200 annually. That seems pretty expensive. Told him I wasn't interested. Has anyone joined or received a better price? Thanks.

Conduril has been moving up though volume is always thin on this stock. I glanced at a couple of Italian engineering and construction shares. Some 100 to 200% gainers over the last six months or year. Money has moved into the space in hopes that the euro governments might have some money to spend instead of the past years of austerity. Conduril remains way under priced relative to others. You would think the insiders would do something to get the stock closer to fair value.

Conduril has moved up 10% recently. Glad to see some movement in the shares which remain way undervalued. I read an article recently about FCC the over leveraged Spanish construction company that Gates and Soros have bought into. The gist is that project expenditures by Spain have essentially dropped off the map due to austerity. If and when the situation changes you could see tens of billions in new project awards by the state. I would assume the same goes for Portugal.

Just to add a couple of comments related to Conduril. A couple of months ago I saw what was either a Spanish or Portuguese engineering company get bought out at a nice premium. Also, Abengoa is now listed here in the U.S.

Regarding Conduril I noticed they haven't posted their 2012 Annual Report on their web site yet. I sure like the stock and have a position but can't find any timely news on them. Have you found any news on them?

Anyone have a clue as to what is happening at Conduril? No 2012 Annual Report up at their site yet. I checked the Lisbon Exchange and couldn't find any info. Not many shares changing hands at the current price. Still very cheap.

Looks like many of you are doing quite well. I didn't really go heavily into the distressed financials though I do have positions in the Hartford warrants and Woori Finance. Up around 12% ytd but thats with a base that includes alot of bonds and cash so I can't complain. My largest positions IMOS and AFR.L have done very well. Lately I have been buying some french reits along with RSE and some Renault.

I had originally posted this on the General Discussion Board but I'll follow up here on the Investment Idea Board. CC announced an 8.8 Euro dividend on May 24. This is more than double the dividend paid for the prior year. CC pays a single dividend annually. The 8.8 euro dividend provides a 6% yield at the current price. I don't speak french so I can't gleen much info from their web site. They do provide some financial info in english but not the annual reports. I was trying to figure what their exposure to risky soverien debts were. From what I have found they have 1.4 billion invested in the PIIGS and 5.7 billion in Italy. Equity is roughly 10 billion. Without reading their annual report I don't know how accurate this info is. Anyhow The big dividend increase was a pleasant surprise. Here is my original post from a couple of months ago. "I was looking at some french banks via the Euronext web site and noticed quite a few well below book value. Credit Industrial is a plain vanilla home and small to medium enterprise lender. They are trading at around 60% of BV and five times 2010 earnings. Credit Industrial is the fourth largest bank in France. The bank is setup as a mutual or cooperative type bank. Only about 7% of the shares trade as a holding company controls the rest. What I liked about them is they managed to turn a profit throughout the financial melt down. The shares traded at 1.2 times BV at 12-31-07. Looking at their long-term chart I don't think the shares have ever traded at such a discount to BV. They have a market cap of 5.6B euro and BV of 9.6B. I picked up a few shares. Could be a value trap. They pay around a 3% dividend but due to their structure the dividend might be capped to 10% of net income though it appears they have exceeded this level. Their equity has nearly doubled but the divi hasn't really been upped that much. They have financials in english you can access at their web site."

I was looking at some french banks via the Euronext web site and noticed quite a few well below book value. Credit Industrial is a plain vanilla home and small to medium enterprise lender. They are trading at around 60% of BV and five times 2010 earnings. Credit Industrial is the fourth largest bank in France. The bank is setup as a mutual or cooperative type bank. Only about 7% of the shares trade as a holding company controls the rest. What I liked about them is they managed to turn a profit throughout the financial melt down. The shares traded at 1.2 times BV at 12-31-07. Looking at their long-term chart I don't think the shares have ever traded at such a discount to BV. They have a market cap of 5.6B euro and BV of 9.6B. I picked up a few shares. Could be a value trap. They pay around a 3% dividend but due to their structure the dividend might be capped to 10% of net income though it appears they have exceeded this level. Their equity has nearly doubled but the divi hasn't really been upped that much. They have financials in english you can access at their web site. I looked at some other small cap banks but being unable to read french I passed on them. According to google finance some of the stocks listed below are selling at a third of BV. I figure there must be some french speaking canadians around here so I'll let you take a shot at them. CAT31 CRCAM CRAP CRCAM Alpes Provence CRSU CRCAM Sud Rhone Alpes CRBP2 CRCAM Brie Picardie CCN CRCAM Normandie-Seine CNF CRCAM Nord de France CRCAM du Languedoc

I know Berkowitz likes a couple of health insurers. Coventry Health Care, CVH is one he doesn't own or at least hasn't mentioned. I have been buying shares and added after their earnings release. The ended the year with over $400mm in excess cash and a net unrealized gain position in their portfolio. They hit a rough spot with thier Medical Loss Ratio creeped up a couple of qtrs ago. Still very profitable and working on increasing margins. Estimates are $2.60 for 2010. Put a twelve multiple on them and you get roughly a double. No balance sheet risk so I think its a pretty good value.