berkshiremystery Posted November 28, 2011 Share Posted November 28, 2011 Anybody have any details on this IPIC Tender, seems like these guys are either a hoax or have seriously gone out of their way to protect their privacy... A PE Firm comes to mind, or maybe a Sovereign Wealth Fund... Surprised nobody has picked up on this. I saw this, but I have no more information than anyone else. The random Travelzoo offer a few months ago comes to mind... A Delaware entity search indicates that IPIC Group Ltd. was formed on October 4, 2011 of this year, but I must confess that my cyber-sleuthing skills end here, lol. -------------------------------------------------- A "Yellow BRK'er" is the reclusive person behind the $ 3 billion BAC tender offer Good Afternoon folks,... 8) I saw in the previous board thread "BAC Investor Pool", a question by our board member "merkhet" about who's behind the $ 3 billion BAC tender offer. I might surprise you all, if I might say it should be some "Yellow BRK'er". The guy is named "Rian Maartens", a businessman from Cape Town, South Africa. Marteens is the founder, owner and CEO of IPIC Group. He also is a Buffett devotee, studied him, and founded the Warren Buffett International Fan Club in South Africa. Rian was an attendee at Robert P. Miles "Value Investing Conference" in Omaha. He was also at a Yellow BRK'ers gathering at the BRK 2008 AGM and was at Gorat's in Omaha. I guess nobody did notice him... LOL ;D Just in case that you all need more information, I used my sleuthing skills again. ;) Here are more links about Rian Maartens and IPIC Group. Enjoy! Omaha 'Woodstock for Capitalists' 2008 @ Picasa Web Albums https://picasaweb.google.com/Shapirodaviduk/OmahaWoodstockForCapitalists2008 Tim Dean Smith, Rian Maartens and David Shapiro at Gorat's in Omaha. https://picasaweb.google.com/Shapirodaviduk/OmahaWoodstockForCapitalists2008#5199109331490415842 David Shapiro, Tim Dean Smith, Sham Gad, Rian Maartens, Marcelo Lima, Ruben Henriques and Gareth Henderson. https://picasaweb.google.com/Shapirodaviduk/OmahaWoodstockForCapitalists2008#5199109464634402034 -------------------------------------------------- IPIC Group Ltd. - Delaware - official website - about <snip>... IPIC Group Ltd. is a newly formed private investment firm organized in Delaware for the sole purpose of making the Offer. The company is privately held and not generally subject to the information filing requirements of the Exchange Act. ... </snip> Notice of Offer to Purchase for Cash Up to 500,000,000 Shares of Common Stock of BANK OF AMERICA CORPORATION at $6.00 Net Per Share by IPIC Group LTD. http://www.ipicgroupltd.com/ -------------------------------------------------- YouTube Video (1:09min) IPIC Group Offers to Purchase up to 500 Million Bank of America Shares at $6.00 (BAC) November 22, 2011 http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/3200/newpicj.jpg -------------------------------------------------- IPIC Group (Pty) Ltd - official website Cape Town, South Africa <snip>... Since 1982 Mr Maartens and his family have developed and invested in commercial property. The first developments in 1982 were the Heritage House office building in Claremont and the Kenridge Shopping Centre in Kenridge, Durbanville. In 1988 Rian bought his first property and made more money passively in one year than working 12 hours per day in his music recording studio. A love affair with property started and in 1991 he passed the Estate Agents Board Exam and founded Romprop as property agency. In 1992 Rian was awarded the “Top Student” award for the Associate in Management (AIM) Programme at the University of Cape Town (UCT). In 1998 Rian became involved with the strategic asset allocation of the family business and in 1999 he completed the Masters in Business Administration (MBA) Degree at UCT. In 2004 Romprop became Ipic and Rian founded the Ipic Group with various companies. In 2007 Ipic Properties purchased Rian’s family property portfolio. As Chairman and CEO of Ipic Group, Rian continues to expand the group’s property portfolio. His passion is teaching others what he has learnt, providing free newsletters about property, Warren Buffett and daily news and creating software to get connected, to get going and to optimize property investments. ...</snip> company profile of owners http://www.ipicgroup.com/company_profile.php company overview http://www.ipicgroup.com/company_overview.php and company contact address: http://www.ipicgroup.com/contact_us.php -------------------------------------------------- Warren Buffett International Fan Club - South Africa founded by Rian Maartens - official homepage http://www.warrenbuffett.co.za/ Rian Maartens (email) - Founder & Executive Editor Marissa Knibbs (email) - Newsletter Editor Martin Cronje (email) - Website & Technical contact emails at the following page: http://www.warrenbuffett.co.za/newsletter27_ie.htm -------------------------------------------------- Rian Maartens was also an attendee at Robert P. Miles "Value Investing Conference" in Omaha. http://www.valueinvestorconference.com/aboutVIC.html http://www.valueinvestorconference.com/about.html IPIC Media & Education has co-hosted the 2nd South African Value Investor Conference on 29 October 2008 in Johannesberg and on 31 October 2008 in Cape Town with Robert P. Miles. http://www.warrenbuffett.co.za/vic2008/index.htm -------------------------------------------------- Rian Maartens - private homepage http://www.rianmaartens.co.za/ Rian Maartens @ Linkedin http://za.linkedin.com/pub/rian-maartens/1/55/b18 http://www.rode.co.za/images/conference_2005/previews/R_Maartens_K_Scott.jpg Rian Maartens http://www.rode.co.za/images/conference_2005/previews/R_Maartens_K_Scott.jpg http://www.rode.co.za/events/gallery_conference2005.php Rian Maarten's @ SouthAfrica PropertyInvestor.co.za... http://www.sapropertyinvestor.co.za/newsletters/newsletter_050902.htm -------------------------------------------------- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ERICOPOLY Posted November 28, 2011 Share Posted November 28, 2011 I'm surprised he can't just buy it in the open market for less than $6. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rijk Posted November 28, 2011 Share Posted November 28, 2011 this smells funny..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parsad Posted November 28, 2011 Share Posted November 28, 2011 this smells funny..... I would agree. Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
berkshiremystery Posted November 28, 2011 Author Share Posted November 28, 2011 I'm surprised he can't just buy it in the open market for less than $6. Well,... it depends,... the days prior to the announcement of the tender offer on November 22, and the incorporation of the Delaware entity on October 4th, BAC traded higher, near or around $6 a share. The average daily traded float was around 250 million shares. If he buys 25 million shares a day, it would take about 20 trading days to accumulate the target amount. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enoch01 Posted November 28, 2011 Share Posted November 28, 2011 Well,... it depends,... the days prior to the announcement of the tender offer on November 22, and the incorporation of the Delaware entity on October 4th, BAC traded higher, near or around $6 a share. The average daily traded float was around 250 million shares. If he buys 25 million shares a day, it would take about 20 trading days to accumulate the target amount. Is the offer still good? Why isn't this being arbed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ragnarisapirate Posted November 28, 2011 Share Posted November 28, 2011 The longer that this goes on, the more clear it is to me: BAC is either going to be the sharpest guillotine of a falling knife in the history of value investing, or, it is going to be what proves the brilliance of many in our school of investment. I see little room for anything in between. That said, I was one of the people that voted "BAC is probably cheap, but, I am invested in other things" in the poll that moorecapital put up the other day... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
berkshiremystery Posted November 28, 2011 Author Share Posted November 28, 2011 Well,... it depends,... the days prior to the announcement of the tender offer on November 22, and the incorporation of the Delaware entity on October 4th, BAC traded higher, near or around $6 a share. The average daily traded float was around 250 million shares. If he buys 25 million shares a day, it would take about 20 trading days to accumulate the target amount. Is the offer still good? Why isn't this being arbed? If I would ask this question myself, I would probably say, it's because they buy only 5% of the outstanding float, and thus it might be too insecure for regular arbitrageurs. they might invest with higher probabilities of downside protection in full 100% takeovers, like Lubrizol. And with downside protection, I mean, arbitrageurs lust for short term downside protection. we longs rather wait for the long term exceptional rewards. Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moore_capital54 Posted November 28, 2011 Share Posted November 28, 2011 This guy is a small time real estate developer (heir) in South Africa, I doubt he has $300 million let alone $3B. Their real estate portfolio is worth no more than $100mm based on my analysis (very quick), and that does not include any debt. Not happy with this development, and worst I am worried the SEC turns this into a mess now if they investigate him for stock manipulation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parsad Posted November 28, 2011 Share Posted November 28, 2011 I would just like to add a word of caution about this offer. Unless you know of it's legitimacy, please do not subscribe to the offerring, as it asks for plenty of personal information and a direct transfer of your shares to the Computershare account. Be very, very careful! Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
berkshiremystery Posted November 28, 2011 Author Share Posted November 28, 2011 This guy is a small time real estate developer (heir) in South Africa, I doubt he has $300 million let alone $3B. Their real estate portfolio is worth no more than $100mm based on my analysis (very quick), and that does not include any debt. Not happy with this development, and worst I am worried the SEC turns this into a mess now if they investigate him for stock manipulation. well, moore_capital54,... I asked myself the same question about him, and his size of his net worth. since i came up with his name, today, for the first time, while i googled the term IPIC Group. My quick guesstimate is around $100 million more or less. He doesn't appear to be on any billionaire list yet. But he might have some other co-investors. So I would myself add some caution about this and how this story with IPIC developes. ----------- According to wikipedia, there are 6 billionaires in South Africa: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Billionaires_by_nationality http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:South_African_billionaires Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ERICOPOLY Posted November 29, 2011 Share Posted November 29, 2011 So a guy with <= $100m can't go out and buy that many shares worth of BofA acting on his own? Instead he wants to partner with others and overpay? Makes no sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
berkshiremystery Posted November 29, 2011 Author Share Posted November 29, 2011 I just googled the term: "IPIC GROUP LTD." "244 Fifth Avenue".... together and it only appears with 2 results. and if used only with the term: "244 Fith Avenue"... it appears with over 2,750,000 results.... LOL ...the 3rd result is some postal mail forwarding service,... hmmm ::) http://www.nymail.com/postalMail.html so it seems they use some mail drop there it looks not like some serious hedge fund. neither could i find anything in the SEC filings about IPIC Group Ltd or Maartens, yet.... http://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/companysearch.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enoch01 Posted November 29, 2011 Share Posted November 29, 2011 Well,... it depends,... the days prior to the announcement of the tender offer on November 22, and the incorporation of the Delaware entity on October 4th, BAC traded higher, near or around $6 a share. The average daily traded float was around 250 million shares. If he buys 25 million shares a day, it would take about 20 trading days to accumulate the target amount. Is the offer still good? Why isn't this being arbed? If I would ask this question myself, I would probably say, it's because they buy only 5% of the outstanding float, and thus it might be too insecure for regular arbitrageurs. they might invest with higher probabilities of downside protection in full 100% takeovers, like Lubrizol. And with downside protection, I mean, arbitrageurs lust for short term downside protection. we longs rather wait for the long term exceptional rewards. Cheers! Makes sense. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moore_capital54 Posted November 29, 2011 Share Posted November 29, 2011 My take is the guy is down a ton on BAC like most of us, and did this as an attempt to move the stock price, thinking that most will not respond to the tender and in the end no harm done. Unfortunately, if the SEC gets involved and proves that he has no financial wherewithal to support the tender he will be f8cked. There are legal precedents for this, a few examples come to mind. Ive seen it all lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ragnarisapirate Posted November 29, 2011 Share Posted November 29, 2011 My take is the guy is down a ton on BAC like most of us, and did this as an attempt to move the stock price, thinking that most will not respond to the tender and in the end no harm done. Unfortunately, if the SEC gets involved and proves that he has no financial wherewithal to support the tender he will be f8cked. There are legal precedents for this, a few examples come to mind. Ive seen it all lol The shear idiocy of him not being able to back up what he is claiming though... Seriously? It seems like he would know better than to screw around with something like this. I am not saying that the offer is legit, but, surely nobody is dumb enough to fake an offer like this; it isn't like this won't generate a ton of press either. No? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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