joepublic

I found this video of Seth Klarman. http://institutionalmemory.hbs.edu/leadership/interview_with_seth_klarman_mba_1982.html Enjoy!!

I find it amazing that Loews has such an outstanding record despite the poor performance of CNA over the years. Loews has always suffered from the "conglomerate discount". Every couple of years, Barrons publishes an article about Loews showing the market value of Loews being less than the sum of the publicly traded pieces. I do not think that this discount is going to disappear or even reduce, but I do think that the stock price of Loews will rise steadily as the value of the pieces rise. For years Loews owned Lorillard tobacco and the valuation suffered as a result of the tobacco risk. Once the tobacco lawsuit risk went away and the price of Lorillard rose, they were able to spin out Lorillard in a tax efficient manner. There have been a number of insider buys for CNA Financial recently, and Loews itself had made some smart purchases in March. In my opinion, these insider buys, the discount to book, the new CEO that has been recently hired bode well for the stock price.

I would like to add another idea to the list. I read about this one a few weeks ago in Forbes magazine: Retail Opportunity Investments Corp (ROIC) They raised money a few month ago. Right now, they are trading at a slight premium to cash on the balance sheet. Their goal is to purchase high quality shopping centers in densely, populated neighborhoods. The CEO, Stuart Tanz, has an outstanding track record. They completed their first deal last week. I am willing to pay a slight premium to cash for his expertise. Disclosure: Long 1,000 shares.