Baoxiaodao

Thank you, Shai. You are always so kind. Here are a few immature interpretations on the result. I have been following the company for a few years. 50% revenue increase in the first quarter, IMHO, is highly unusual. Why? Because 1st quarter is usually the weakest quarter. In fact, in the 1st quarter of 2009, revenue increased by 25%. So the comps are quite strong actually. How can Delti possibly increase revenue by another 50 percent? A few guesses here: 1. the harsh winter lasted well into the first quarter. 2. the North America business is extremely strong, and weak euro helped the lift of revenue. While many people questioned the viability of Delti's business in NA on this board, its revenue increased by more than 50% last year. If this were to happen in any companies in US today, I guess the company will hire a bunch of PR firms to promote it and the valuation would be 6-8x revenue. Delti simply said in its annual report that it does not expect the NA business have any meaningful impact in the near future. The company is so bad at PR that every year the annual shareholder meeting lasted less than one hour, very very few questions. 3. and finally here is my speculation. Delti is experiencing an extraordinary and fundamental change of consumer demand for tires on the Internet and it has a huge advantage over any competitors on operation efficiency, business process automation, technologies and most importantly, low price. And if I am correct, the growth is set to accelerate in the next few years. But this is only my speculation. I have been thinking about the revenue growth and I could find no reason to totally justify it. I bought this stock at 13,15,20 and 26 and I wrote about it on the board when the stock price is 29. If my guess about the fundamentals are correct, Delti can have another double in two years. Hopefully I am right. Fan Our business involves direct response advertising. Our sales are directly related to the response rate to our advertising and to the attractiveness of our ads that may sometimes double the response rate when we improve the pull with better copy or after trying new things. Has Delti made changes in their advertising recently that may seem small but might have large impact? Or have they perhaps increased their ad spending that has only been less than 10% of their gross profit? ps: Shai is the kindest guy I know, but he's under a different name. :) OMG, many sorries to Shai. My apologies. The management of Delti is very shrewd. They once tried a TV campaign cancelled it very soon. Unlike household brands, advertising can increase their brand awareness, but not their goodwill. So IMHO, spending big money on TV or other types of advertising is a waste of money. Ultimately, price matters most. If I were the management of Delti, I would do anything to keep the costs low and the sales will follow. It is as simple as that. As to the limits to Delti's growth, I do not think I have any in sight. Delti is a simple business with a very clear strategy and it has been executed very well. It has only 1.5% of market share worldwide and the people will buy more tires on Internet. If it stays on its course, sooner or later someone will notice and acquire them, especially when the NA business becomes more visible to companies like Amazon. How much will Amazon pay for Delti? It will be nothing short of one billion. Hopefully kindle will get killed by iPad and other competition, then Amazon will look around for other growth opportunities. I bet Delti will be the highest quality and lowest price target for Mr. Bezos. (he must have been out of his mind to acquire Zappos by paying over 100x EBIT and this is perfect time to make up for the mistake!) Sounds like I am day dreaming...... Fan

UP, thank you for the tip! I love those E readers and 149 is quite irresistible to me. I am a bit tired of my iPod as I do have trouble finding good free books on the internet. Maybe this is the way to go. I am still happy with my RNK holdings(down 65% ATM). I read about the AR but could not pull the trigger to acquire more shares. It seems RNK's business strategy is not very clear and management overestimated their abilities to handle multiple initiatives. Any thoughts? I guess you probably the most knowledgeable person about the company on thie board! Have a nice day, Fan

Thank you, Shai. You are always so kind. Here are a few immature interpretations on the result. I have been following the company for a few years. 50% revenue increase in the first quarter, IMHO, is highly unusual. Why? Because 1st quarter is usually the weakest quarter. In fact, in the 1st quarter of 2009, revenue increased by 25%. So the comps are quite strong actually. How can Delti possibly increase revenue by another 50 percent? A few guesses here: 1. the harsh winter lasted well into the first quarter. 2. the North America business is extremely strong, and weak euro helped the lift of revenue. While many people questioned the viability of Delti's business in NA on this board, its revenue increased by more than 50% last year. If this were to happen in any companies in US today, I guess the company will hire a bunch of PR firms to promote it and the valuation would be 6-8x revenue. Delti simply said in its annual report that it does not expect the NA business have any meaningful impact in the near future. The company is so bad at PR that every year the annual shareholder meeting lasted less than one hour, very very few questions. 3. and finally here is my speculation. Delti is experiencing an extraordinary and fundamental change of consumer demand for tires on the Internet and it has a huge advantage over any competitors on operation efficiency, business process automation, technologies and most importantly, low price. And if I am correct, the growth is set to accelerate in the next few years. But this is only my speculation. I have been thinking about the revenue growth and I could find no reason to totally justify it. I bought this stock at 13,15,20 and 26 and I wrote about it on the board when the stock price is 29. If my guess about the fundamentals are correct, Delti can have another double in two years. Hopefully I am right. Fan

Delticom AG: Successful start to the current business year Preliminary revenues in the first quarter 2010 EUR 74 million (+45%) +50% revenue growth in E-Commerce division Hanover, 20 April 2010 - Delticom AG (German Securities Code (WKN) 514680, ISIN DE0005146807, stock exchange symbol DEX), Europe's leading online tyre retailer, has published preliminary figures for the first quarter of 2010. Revenues have increased by approximately 45% to EUR 74 million, compared with EUR 51.0 million for the same period in the previous year. E-Commerce revenues for the first quarter totalled EUR 70 million (Q109: EUR 46.7 million, up 50%). Traditionally, the first three months of the year are the weakest quarter in the tyre trade. The cold and snowy winter extended until well into the quarter just ended. This provided Delticom with continued good sales opportunities for winter tyres at the beginning of the year. The company is also highly satisfied with the onset of this year’s summer tyre business. With the rising temperatures and spring-like weather conditions in March, many drivers across Europe have already switched to summer tyres in the first quarter. Frank Schuhardt, CFO: “For both winter and summer tyres our revenues in the first quarter markedly exceed our expectations.” In the meantime, the majority of economic experts hold the opinion that European consumers have been less impacted by the effects of the recession than originally feared. Moreover, Delticom is benefiting from the rising trend towards E-Commerce. According to a current Forsa survey of German drivers commissioned by Delticom AG, some 40% of the respondents in the age bracket between 18 and 39 years could well envisage buying their tyres on the Internet in future. Finally the stock entered its fair value range. But we still have a long way to go!

I think one thing I learned about posting the idea is that people have different opinions. And that will lead to discussions worth taking. Thank you for the responses. SD, with all due respect, it seems we have different thoughts about this idea. But Delti is a probably more complicated case than you thought. You probably want to read the annual reports to get a better picture of the investments.

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Thanks for the input. I was curious if you are suggesting Delti is cheaper or more expensive? TireRack is a private company and it is hard to get any numbers. If you do your homework, you will find that TireRack's business model is slightly different from Delti. As you said, TireRack has 10 distribution center around the country. Delti outsourced delivery totally to 3rd party although it does have very centralized warehouses in Europe. So what model I prefer? Obviously when a company is small, it is cheaper to have company's own staff handling deliver. However, when the quantity is huge, it makes more sense just let 3rd party do it. You do not have to worry about people, about scalability and so on. It will be cheaper on the per unit basis. And that is why I like the business process automation at Delti so much. You also mentioned another part of the attractiveness of the company. There is zero loyalty for the buyers, especially when tires are big ticket items for most households. If you want a game, 5 dollars will not matter to you. You want the fastest deliver so you can just play. For tires? Ultimately, the company with the lowest cost and cheapest price will prevail. It is as simple as that. I have a very very smart friend who read about this company and could not get it. Not many people can get it in the first read. As I said, the reason I was buying at 13,15,20 and 26 is that as time goes by, I know this company better and better. Amazon has 60k people and 24b revenue. So per revenue is 400K, while Delti is 3.5mm. Numbers speak for themselves. So what exactly I expect from Delti in the long run? First, I am expecting they will pay out 100% net earnings over the next few years. Second, I am expecting revenue growth at 10-13% and EPS 15%. At that, the total return will be 20% over the next decade. Finally, the franchise value was not reflected in the stock price at the moment. I have been thinking hard if I am a buyer, how much I would like to pay for this company considering all the stuff I mentioned? My conservative estimate is that Delti is worth 20-25x earnings. You may agree with that or not. It is just my personal opinion. A final word is to those people who make comments on this post. I spent many many hours on my research and I want informative input here. If you don't have any experience with the industry or at least have read the annual reports, please keep your opinion to yourself. BXD Bao, Thanks for your thoughtful posts on Delticom. A word to the wise. Be open to feedback from those who don't agree with you, even from those who may not be as informed about a company as you are. There is little value in overwhelmingly positive feedback. This leads to herding behavior. More improvement comes from criticism than from praise. Criticism may sometimes help uncover blind spots or give us new perspectives. Even criticism that misses the mark may be beneficial if it leads to reflection that stimulates a more rigorous analysis or a broader field of view. Thanks for the words. I appreciate that. Thanks for the comments and I take my words back. BXD

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I happen to own AAB for quite a while. It is true this is a closed-end pool of investments. However, it has very little resemblance to a mutual fund. To understand AAB, you have to have an idea on the economics of their deals. A majority of AAB's investments are in the junior sector and it is out of most people's circle of competence to invest in individual names. It takes enormous knowledge and 'connections' to identify the right ones and that makes it an ideal vehicle for individual investors who are interested in this sector, although the service is not cheap. The ultimate concern of this stock is the sale of the royalty. If a asset takes 18 years to realize its full value, you can count that a lot will happen in those years and in fact, the argument between AAB and Simmers is a major below to the 'book value' of the royalty. I have never felt comfortable with the valuation of the royalty BUT the outcome can be favorable to AAB, albeit the probability is low IMHO. There are a lot of information on the Stockhouse AAB board and you can throw me a message and I will see what info I have about AAB on hand. SD, I have a high respect for your words and opinions on this board. But AAB does not fit into traditional class of investments and deserve a closer look. Best, BXD

watsa_is_a_randian_hero, thank you for this very high quality idea. Please forgive me for posting so much but I guess some background info would be helpful to everyone. Keep posting your ideas. I would be your most loyal audience! Cheers, Bao

Georgian Bank's wealthy clients speeded failure By Paul Donsky The Atlanta Journal-Constitution 6:41 p.m. Thursday, October 1, 2009 Georgian Bank’s deep pool of wealthy customers helped it grow at lightning speed in recent years. But the Atlanta bank's well-heeled clientele also turned out to be an Achilles' heel, hastening Georgian’s demise when enough depositors pulled out their money as the enormity of the bank's problems became clear last summer. While not a classic bank run, experts said, the exodus of cash was large and swift. The trend prompted regulators who were already closely watching the bank to shut it down last Friday. It’s not clear how much money left the bank. Walt Moeling, Georgian’s attorney, said the figure was in the millions, though he could not be more specific. The bank’s president, John Poelker, was traveling and could not be reached for comment. Georgian was one of the state's largest community banks when it failed, with more than $1.9 billion in deposits. What really set it apart from the state's two dozen other failed lenders, however, was the affluence of its customers. As of last June 30, about 86 percent of its deposits were held in accounts larger than $100,000. The average size of those accounts: $673,000. In good times, Georgian’s robust funding base enabled the bank to lend aggressively to builders and developers working in metro Atlanta’s then-booming real estate market. But having so much money tied up in relatively few depositors also meant that a large amount of cash could leave in a hurry should things go awry. The crisis at Georgian erupted in early July, when the board replaced founder and CEO Gordon Teel. A few weeks later, the bank’s horrid second-quarter performance became public. Losses totaled $36.7 million, while nonperforming loans soared from $24.7 million to $306 million. All of this apparently spooked Georgian’s wealthy customer base, many of whom had deposits far exceeding the federally insured limit of $250,000 -- giving them good reason to pay close attention to the bank's fortunes. Rival banks near Georgian's Buckhead branch, including Fidelity and Atlantic Capital, began seeing Georgian customers walking through the doors to open accounts. Jim Miller, CEO of Fidelity Bank, said “many millions” came in over the past month, including wealthy individuals and investment managers looking for a safe place to stash clients’ cash. The steady stream of new business became a torrent last Friday, when word began swirling that Georgian was set to fail. Last Friday and Saturday, Miller said Fidelity signed up about 75 former Georgian customers. “It was just a land rush,” he said. “These are sophisticated people. They want a community bank to bank with.” While the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. guarantees up to $250,000 per account, no depositor has lost any money during the recent spate of bank failures in Georgia and nationwide, including uninsured funds. But people still get scared when they hear their bank is having problems, said Doug Williams, president of Atlantic Capital Bank. He said the flow of customers to his bank picked up after Georgian’s leadership change and disastrous second-quarter numbers were released. “That’s when people really to get concerned and we started to see a lot more movement” of customers from Georgian, Williams said. The loss of wealthy local customers was far from Georgian’s only problem. It also relied heavily on wholesale and brokered deposits from national investors – so-called hot money that is liable to vanish quickly when problems arise. More than one-third of the bank’s funding came from these sources. Chris Marinac, a bank analyst at Atlanta-based FIG Partners, said despite Georgian’s mounting pool of bad loans, the bank probably could have survived for another six months if not for the loss of deposits. His firm is watching a number of other banks with similar loan problems that are still alive because “no one’s walking out,” he said. Georigan’s fall was dizzying. The bank reported a profit through the end of last year and few problem loans until the second quarter. Georgian’s deposit base even held steady through the second quarter, according to the FDIC records. The bank was formed in 2001, then purchased in 2003 by a group of investors led by Teel. The investors raised $50 million to recapitalize the bank and turn it into an aggressive lender. After its shutdown by the FDIC, Georgian's remaining accounts and assets were acquired by First Citizens Bank and Trust, of Columbia, S.C. WASHINGTON — Regulators closed the $2 billion-asset Georgian Bank in Atlanta on Friday, the industry's 95th failure of the year. Despite its relatively small size, regulators estimated it would take a heavy toll on the Deposit Insurance Fund, costing $892 million. The failure came less than a month after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. issued a sweeping cease-and-desist order against the bank. The Aug. 31 action cited the bank for poor board management, policies that were "detrimental to the bank," and operating with a large quantity of bad loans without an adequate supply of capital reserves. The enforcement action, among other things, ordered the board to get more involved with the bank's affairs and retain qualified management. It heavily restricted whom the bank could extend credit to and required a reduction of concentrations in risky loan types. The bank, chartered in 2001, had been profitable for most of 2008, and earned $4 million last year. But it took a nosedive in the second quarter of this year, losing $37 million. At the end of the quarter, it had $306 million of assets in nonaccrual status. The FDIC announced Friday that the bank's assets and $2 billion in deposits would be sold to First Citizens Bank and Trust Co., based in Columbia S.C. The failed bank's five branches will reopen Monday under the First Citizens name. The South Carolina bank entered into a loss sharing agreement with the FDIC to take over virtually all of the failed bank's assets. Georgian Bank's collapse was the 19th failure in the state this year, and marks another time a significantly sized institution has been taken over by the government. On six of the last seven Fridays, regulators have closed at least one institution with over $1 billion in assets. The pace of failures has slowed somewhat. Eleven institutions were closed in September, compared with 15 in the previous month.

FCBN history: In 1913, The Homestead Bank was founded in Columbia, South Carolina, and later became Commercial Bank and Trust Company of South Carolina. In 1964, the Holding brothers—Frank, Lewis and Robert, who were part owners of First Citizens Bank and Trust of North Carolina--acquired a controlling interest in Anderson Bank of Dillon, South Carolina, which had one location and sixteen employees. Over the years, Anderson Bank grew, changing its name to Citizens Bank of South Carolina in 1968. Commercial Bank and Trust merged with Citizens Bank, becoming First Citizens Bank and Trust Company of South Carolina, headquartered in Columbia. In 1995, First Citizens acquired Summerville National Bank. In 2002, First Citizens entered Georgia by buying Citizens Bank, and added other Georgia operations with First Bank and Trust and The Bank of Toccoa in 2003. In 2005, First Citizens bought Greenville-based Summit Financial Corporation and People's Community Bank in Aiken[2]. CEO is well aware of his heritage The chairman and CEO of First Citizens BancShares - the third generation of the Holding family to lead the Raleigh-based bank - says he's not forgetting the past as he leads the company into the future. "We have a long history of successfully serving lots and lots of customers," Frank Holding Jr. said. "I might be a third-generation banker. We have third-generation customers. There is a lot of satisfaction that comes with that. There is a lot of responsibility. There is a real sense with me that I desire to be a strong steward." Holding was named CEO last year - succeeding his uncle, the late Lewis R. Holding - and added the title of chairman in February. Under his leadership this year, the bank made two major acquisitions: Venture Bank, which has 18 branches in the Puget Sound region of Washington state; and Temecula Valley Bank, an 11-branch bank in Southern California. Those deals were First Citizens' first acquisitions in six years, but Holding made it clear that the bank's strategy hasn't changed. "It's really the change in opportunity," he said, referring to the sales of failed banks being brokered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The banks First Citizens acquired had been taken over by the FDIC. Analysts say the agency is offering deals that are too good for banks that are on solid financial footing to pass up. Unlike many large regional banks, First Citizens remained profitable throughout the recession, thanks in large part to its conservative lending policies, and didn't need to take federal stimulus money. Today First Citizens BancShares' two brands, First Citizens and IronStone, have 432 branches in 17 states. "Certainly our industry is going through one of its most difficult times," Holding said. "In terms of First Citizens, I think, generally, we are navigating the challenges of today better than much of our industry. A lot of it has to do with the careful and consistent business practices that we've employed over a period of years, or decades even. It's not something you can prepare for ahead of time." So is First Citizens eager for more deals? "We're continuing to look at opportunities and to talk about opportunities with the FDIC," Holding said. "They've indicated that they've got more problems that need resolving." Customer service In an interview in a ninth floor conference room at the bank's headquarters on Six Forks Road, Holding, 48, repeatedly stressed the importance of customer service. But, unlike many CEOs of publicly traded companies who talk incessantly about improving shareholder value, Holding never mentioned shareholders once. Holding also said he has no plans for regular conference calls with analysts and investors to discuss quarterly results, a common practice for publicly held companies the size of First Citizens. That's in keeping with First Citizens' status as an atypical publicly held company: The Holding family owns a controlling interest in the business. The Holding family also has been extremely private over the years, shunning press interviews. Frank Holding said he couldn't recall ever discussing First Citizens with the media. "Let's call this the exception, not the rule," he said. Holding nonetheless spent nearly an hour answering a wide range of questions about the company. More than once he responded to a question by asking a variation of: "Do you want me to do a deep dive on that?" Below are highlights of Holding's comments: On First Citizens' willingness to expand into nonadjacent markets, contrary to the industry practice of avoiding gaps on the map: "I think we realized at some point in time that geography wasn't the glue, that geography wasn't what we really needed to focus on. It was really the customer that we needed to focus on. ... So we are much more interested in customer demographics and those types of things." He added that technology, such as the ability to service all the bank's branches from its data center on Tryon Road in Raleigh, have enabled the company to leap-frog markets in a way that it couldn't have 40 years ago. First Citizens' branches, which have been said to reek of money and resemble Ethan Allen showrooms: "We feel like our branches help us develop a brand." First Citizens can't match larger competitors with advertising dollars, Holding said, "but if we build a building, side by side, I do have the ability to build a nicer building. And that will create a statement that will last for years to come. And we have the ability to expense that over a number of years." The bank's commercial real estate portfolio: Its real estate loans are heavily weighted toward owner-occupied properties, with a "very modest amount" of loans involving buildings owned by investors who lease them to others. "We consider the risk profile significantly less," he said. The reason: Loans are underwritten based on the fundamentals of the business itself. The recent accusation by the former president of Law Enforcement Associates that state Sen. Tony Rand profited on First Citizens stock using inside information Holding supplied: "There is no basis to it." The Holding family's controlling ownership stake in other banks, including the 180-branch First Citizens Bancorporation of South Carolina: "It's evolved over a long period of time. They are separate institutions with separate shareholders and separate management. It's just different stories behind each one of them, I'm sure." But Holding did identify one common thread behind the various banks: Their information technology and data processing needs are mostly handled by First Citizens' data center in Raleigh. On growing up in a banking family: "My parents never put any pressure on me to work in the bank. ... Whatever I pursued, they wanted me to pursue it wholeheartedly and be the very best that I could at it."

Friday, October 2, 2009 First Citizens behind S.C. buy Triangle Business Journal - by Lee Weisbecker RALEIGH – For the third time since July, a bank with ownership held by the Raleigh-based Holding family has snapped up a troubled institution in a government-brokered deal. This time the action came south of the border at Columbia, S.C.-based First Citizens Bank and Trust Company Inc., which agreed on Sept. 25 to acquire the faltering Georgian Bank of Atlanta, with $2 billion in assets. The deal gives First Citizens 180 offices in South Carolina and in east Georgia, along with an opening in the cherished Atlanta market. The South Carolina First Citizens is part of a $7 billion, three-bank holding company, First Citizens Bancorp. Inc., which took itself private in 2006. According to the bank’s last publicly filed proxy in December 2005, Lewis and Frank Holding of Raleigh’s First Citizens Bancshares, owned 561,124 shares, or 68 percent, of the South Carolina company. Lewis Holding’s daughter, Carmen Holding Ames, in 2005 was on the board of the South Carolina bank, which despite going private continues to be listed on the Over the Counter Bulletin Board Exchange, currently trading at $400 a share. Despite the ownership links, the North and South Carolina banking operations have always been run as separate entities, says Angela English, a spokeswoman for the South Carolina bank. The fact that the North Carolina First Citizens subsidiary IronStone Bank also operates in Atlanta led to some market speculation that the overlap there and in other areas could spark consolidation of the now-separate entities. English confirms the Holdings still own a stake in the South Carolina bank but discounts talk of any cuts. “It’s pure speculation,” he says. “It’s not a subject being discussed.” What links the two, however, is their use of so-called government loss-share agreements to propel acquisitions. North Carolina’s First Citizens, in July and September, acquired troubled banks in California and Washington under Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.-brokered deals that provided government guarantees against future losses. Loss share was a tool the government used in the 1980s to help clean up after the savings and loan meltdown. Generally under the arrangement, the acquiring bank agrees not only to pick up a failing bank’s deposits but also its commercial and even mortgage loans. FDIC estimates the potential losses the acquiring bank might face in taking on the varied assets and then agrees to cover 80 percent of the hit. If any losses exceed the estimate, the government picks up 95 percent. When First Citizens (N.C.) agreed to buy Venture Bank in Washington, for example, it took on $874 million in Venture assets; FDIC’s loss share covered $715 million, about 82 percent. First Citizens (S.C.) got even more generous terms. It’ll pick up $2 billion from Georgian Bank and the government’s loss share will cover $2 billion – 100 percent. FDIC, in a release, didn’t comment on the change in terms, remarking only that the loss-sharing arrangement was expected “to maximize returns on the assets” and keep the assets in the private sector. Agency spokeswoman LaJuan Williams-Dickerson wasn’t available for comment. Part of North Carolina banking history, according to Bill Wagner of investment bank Howe Barnes in Raleigh, is how the Holding family has timed and made acquisitions, even in difficult times, to achieve the maximum benefit. The recent trio of FDIC-brokered deals, he adds, shows they are at it again.

Friday, May 22, 2009 Holding family tightens grip on First Citizens Bank with stock buy Triangle Business Journal - by Lee Weisbecker Lewis Holding, left, and Frank Holding Jr. View Larger RALEIGH – The board of Raleigh-based First Citizens Bank has hired an investment banking firm to buy up 125,000 shares of the bank’s stock on the open market – a move that is expected to further concentrate the grip of the Holding family on the $16 billion regional lender. In a U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission filing the week of May 12, the directors authorized New York-based Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc. to buy the shares on the open market between now and the end of the year, adding that any shares repurchased in the deal “will be canceled.” With 69 percent of the bank’s outstanding voting shares already in the hands of CEO Frank Holding Jr., former chairman Lewis Holding, Executive Vice President Hope Holding Connell, Executive Vice Chairman Frank B. Holding and other relatives, the move will leave individual members of the bank’s first family with a hefty, majority slice of an even smaller pie. At a time when national, regional and community banks are selling shares either on the market or to the government, First Citizens continues to go its own way. Does the buyback signal the first step in a First Citizens’ effort to go private, or “go dark” in current terminology? Doing so would relieve the bank of having to issue quarterly and annual financial filings for public inspection. Still, University of North Carolina at Charlotte finance professor Tony Plath doubts that’s the motivation. “At $16 billion, I think they are too big to go dark,” says Plath. “My guess is that what they are doing represents an investment in a stock they believe to be undervalued … I think it’s a good deal, a smart move and it does allow them to concentrate their holdings.” First Citizens stock now trades in the $132 range, off by 16.5 percent during the past 52 weeks. That contrasts with regional competitors, including Alabama-based Regions Bank and Ohio-based Fifth Third Bank, whose 52-week share prices have eroded by 73 percent and 61 percent, respectively. First Citizens spokeswoman Barbara Thompson says the bank has no comment. In addition to the stakes held by Holding family members, some 26 percent of the bank’s 10.4 million voting shares are held by a trust controlled by the family, according to a First Citizens proxy statement filed in March. That chunk, added to the individuals’ stakes, represents a 95 percent hold on the institution’s voting shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods was brought in to conduct the buyback under an SEC rule, 10b5-1, which gives the board an automatic defense against any charges of insider trading.

Any demutulization like this will be buying oppurtunity, although the price has to be appropriate. You can search the old board for my comments on Visa IPO. Mr. Warren Buffett likes good business. That is probably why he didnt sell in the IPO. But if Mr. Warren Buffett wants to sell, he gotta pay a lot tax which he tends to avoid.