Friday 3 March 2017

Warren Buffett teaches on Share Repurchases

Share Repurchases
In the investment world, discussions about share repurchases often become heated. But I'd suggest that participants in this debate take a deep breath: Assessing the desirability of repurchases isn't that complicated.
From the standpoint of exiting shareholders, repurchases are always a plus. Though the day-to-day impact of these purchases is usually minuscule, it's always better for a seller to have an additional buyer in the market.
For continuing shareholders, however, repurchases only make sense if the shares are bought at a price below intrinsic value. When that rule is followed, the remaining shares experience an immediate gain in intrinsic value. Consider a simple analogy: If there are three equal partners in a business worth $3,000 and one is bought out by the partnership for $900, each of the remaining partners realizes an immediate gain of $50. If the exiting partner is paid $1,100, however, the continuing partners each suffer a loss of $50. The same math applies with corporations and their shareholders. Ergo, the question of whether a repurchase action is value-enhancing or value-destroying for continuing shareholders is entirely purchase-price dependent.
It is puzzling, therefore, that corporate repurchase announcements almost never refer to a price above which repurchases will be eschewed. That certainly wouldn't be the case if a management was buying an outside business. There, price would always factor into a buy-or-pass decision.
When CEOs or boards are buying a small part of their own company, though, they all too often seem oblivious to price. Would they behave similarly if they were managing a private company with just a few owners and were evaluating the wisdom of buying out one of them? Of course not.
It is important to remember that there are two occasions in which repurchases should not take place, even if the company's shares are underpriced. One is when a business both needs all its available money to protect or expand its own operations and is also uncomfortable adding further debt. Here, the internal need for funds should take priority. This exception assumes, of course, that the business has a decent future awaiting it after the needed expenditures are made.
The second exception, less common, materializes when a business acquisition (or some other investment opportunity) offers far greater value than do the undervalued shares of the potential repurchaser. Long ago, Berkshire itself often had to choose between these alternatives. At our present size, the issue is far less likely to arise.
My suggestion: Before even discussing repurchases, a CEO and his or her Board should stand, join hands and in unison declare, 'What is smart at one price is stupid at another.'
* * * * * * * * * * * *
To recap Berkshire's own repurchase policy: I am authorized to buy large amounts of Berkshire shares at 120% or less of book value because our Board has concluded that purchases at that level clearly bring an instant and material benefit to continuing shareholders. By our estimate, a 120%-of-book price is a significant discount to Berkshire's intrinsic value, a spread that is appropriate because calculations of intrinsic value can't be precise.
The authorization given me does not mean that we will 'prop' our stock's price at the 120% ratio. If that level is reached, we will instead attempt to blend a desire to make meaningful purchases at a value-creating price with a related goal of not over-influencing the market.
To date, repurchasing our shares has proved hard to do. That may well be because we have been clear in describing our repurchase policy and thereby have signaled our view that Berkshire's intrinsic value is significantly higher than 120% of book value. If so, that's fine. Charlie and I prefer to see Berkshire shares sell in a fairly narrow range around intrinsic value, neither wishing them to sell at an unwarranted high price ' it's no fun having owners who are disappointed with their purchases ' nor one too low. Furthermore, our buying out 'partners' at a discount is not a particularly gratifying way of making money. Still, market circumstances could create a situation in which repurchases would benefit both continuing and exiting shareholders. If so, we will be ready to act.
One final observation for this section: As the subject of repurchases has come to a boil, some people have come close to calling them un-American ' characterizing them as corporate misdeeds that divert funds needed for productive endeavors. That simply isn't the case: Both American corporations and private investors are today awash in funds looking to be sensibly deployed. I'm not aware of any enticing project that in recent years has died for lack of capital. (Call us if you have a candidate.)


https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-02-25/lessons-from-the-oracle-warren-buffett-s-shareholder-letter-annotated?cmpid=socialflow-facebook-business&utm_content=business&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social

Thursday 2 March 2017

Why anyone would buy a 30-year bond 'absolutely baffles me,' Warren Buffett says

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett told CNBC he can't see any reason for investors to buy 30-year bonds right now.
"It absolutely baffles me who buys a 30-year bond, the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway said on "Squawk Box" on Monday. "I just don't understand it."
"The idea of committing your money at roughly 3 percent for 30 years ... doesn't make any sense to me," he added.
Buffett said he wants his money in companies, not Treasurys — making the case throughout CNBC's three-hour interview that he sees stocks outperforming fixed income.


Click here for the video

Buffett: Measured against interest rates, stocks are actually on the cheap side compared to historic valuations.

BUFFETT ON BONDS
WHEN RATES HAVE BEEN WHERE THEY HAVE BEEN THE LAST FIVE OR SIX YEARS OR EVEN LONGER, SELLING VERY LONG BONDS MAKES SENSE FOR THE SAME REASON I THINK IT'S DUMB TO BUY THEM. I WOULDN'T BUY 50 YEAR BOND IN A MILLION YEARS AT THESE RATES IF IT'S THAT DUMB FOR ME TO BUY IT, ITS PROBABLY PRETTY SMART FOR THE ENTITY TO SELL THEM. IF I AM RIGHT. SO I WOULD SAY THE TREASURY – THERE'S A LOT OF CONSIDERATIONS THEY HAVE, BUT I WOULD BE SHOVING OUT LONG BONDS.
BUFFETT ON BUYING CONSISTENTLY
THE BEST THING WITH STOCKS ACTUALLY IS TO BUY THEM CONSISTENTLY OVER TIME. YOU WANT TO SPREAD THE RISK AS FAR AS THE SPECIFIC COMPANIES YOU'RE IN BY OWNING A DIVERSIFIED GROUP AND YOU DIVERSIFY OVER TIME. BY BUYING THIS MONTH, NEXT MONTH, THE YEAR AFTER, THE YEAR AFTER, THE YEAR AFTER. YOU'RE MAKING A TERRIBLE MISTAKE IF YOU STAY OUT OF A GAME YOU THINK IS GOING TO BE VERY GOOD OVER TIME BECAUSE YOU THINK YOU CAN PICK A BETTER TIME TO ENTER IT.
BUFFETT ON NO BUBBLE
AND WE ARE NOT IN A BUBBLE TERRITORY. OR ANYTHING OF THE SORT. IF INTEREST RATES WERE 7 OR 8%, THEN THESE PRICES WOULD LOOK EXCEPTIONALLY HIGH. BUT YOU HAVE TO MEASURE – YOU MEASURE EVERYTHING AGAINST INTEREST RATES BASICALLY. AND INTEREST RATES ACT LIKE GRAVITY ON VALUATION.
BUFFETT ON STOCKS CHEAP
MEASURED AGAINST INTEREST RATES, STOCKS ACTUALLY ARE ON THE CHEAP SIDE COMPARED TO HISTORIC VALUATIONS. BUT THE RISK ALWAYS IS THAT INTEREST RATES GO UP A LOT AND THAT BRINGS STOCKS DOWN. BUT I WOULD SAY THIS, IF THE TEN YEAR STAYS AT 230 AND WOULD STAY THERE FOR 10 YEARS, YOU WOULD REGRET VERY MUCH NOT HAVING BOUGHT STOCKS NOW.


http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/27/cnbc-excerpts-billionaire-investor-warren-buffett-speaks-with-cnbcs-becky-quick-on-squawk-box-today.html

Warren Buffett is a closet dividend investor.

How Warren Buffett earns $1,140 in dividend income per minute


On April 3rd, 2017, Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) will receive $148 million dollars in dividend income from their 400 million shares of Coca-Cola (KO). This comes out to roughly $1.644 million in dividend income per day, $68,500 dollars in dividend income per hour, $1142 dollars in dividend income for Berkshire Hathaway every minute, or almost $19.03 every single second. Those shares have a cost basis of $1.29 billion dollars, and were acquired between 1988 – 1994. This comes out to $3.25/share. The annual dividend payment produces an yield on cost of over 45.60%. This doesn’t assume dividend reinvestment and is 4 – 5 times higher than what investors in 30 year US Treasuries would be earning today. This is why I believe that Warren Buffett is a closet dividend investor.



This is a testament to the power of long-term dividend investing, where time in market is the investors best ally, not timing the market. If you can select a business which is run by able and honest management, which has solid competitive advantages, and which is available at a good price today, one needs to only sit and let the power of compounding do the heavy lifting for them. As Buffett likes to say, time is a great ally for the good business. In the case of Coca-Cola, the past 29 years have been a great time to buy and hold the stock. The company has been able to tap emerging markets in Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America like never before. As a result, it has been able to receive a higher share of the worldwide drinks market, which has also been expanding as well. If you add in strategic acquisitions, new product development, cost containment initiatives and streamlining of operations, you have a very powerful force for delivering solid shareholder returns. With dividend investing your are rewarded for smart decisions you have made years before.



If they closed the stock market for a period of 10 years, Coca-Cola would be one of the companies I would be willing to hold on to. This is because ten years from now, the company would likely be earning double what it is earning today, and would likely be distributing twice as much in dividend income than it is paying to shareholders today. Check my analysis of Coca-Cola for more information.

At the end of the day, if you identify a solid business, that has lasting power for the next 20 – 30 years, the job of the investor is to purchase shares at attractive values, and hold on to it. This slow and steady approach might seem unexciting initially, but just like with the story of the slow-moving tortoise beating the fast moving hare, the power of compounding would work miracles for the patient dividend investor.

In the case of Warren Buffett's investment in Coca-Cola, he is able to recover his original purchase price in dividends alone, every two years. Even if Coca-Cola goes to zero tomorrow, he has generates a substantial returns from dividends alone, which have flown to Berkshire's coffers, and have been invested in a variety of businesses that will benefit Berkshire Hathaway's shareholders for generations to come.

Currently, Coca-Cola is selling for 21.10 times forward earnings and yields 3.60%. This dividend king has managed to increase dividends for 55 years in a row. There are only twenty companies in the entire world which have gained membership into the exclusive list of dividend kings. Over the past decade, Coca-Cola has managed to increase dividends by 8.50%/year, equivalent to dividend payments doubling every eight and a half years. This is much better than the raises I have received at work over the past decade, despite the fact that I have routinely spent 55 - 60 hour weeks at the office.


http://www.valuewalk.com/2017/03/warren-buffett-earns-1140-dividend-income-per-minute/


Tuesday 21 February 2017

Padini 2Q net profit up 64.7%, pays 2.5 sen dividend




Author: moneyKing | Publish Date: 20 Feb 2017, 8:00 PM

By Chester Tay / theedgemarkets.com | February 20, 2017 : 6:33 PM MYT

KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 20): Padini Holdings Bhd's net profit jumped 64.7% to RM54.47 million or 8.28 sen a share in its second financial quarter ended Dec 31, 2016 (2QFY17) from RM33.07 million or 5.03 sen a share a year ago, on improved gross profit margins as there were less markdowns during the quarter under review.

Revenue for 2QFY17 grew 25.4% to RM426.65 million from RM340.38 million in 2QFY16.

The group also declared a third interim dividend of 2.5 sen per share for the financial year ending June 30, 2017 (FY17), payable on March 27.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia today, Padini attributed the increased revenue to positive same store sales growth achieved, coupled with the eight Brands Outlet stores and five Padini Concept Stores that were opened after 2QFY16.

"Although there was also a 20% (RM18.3 million) increase in operating expenses that was mainly contributed by the increase from rentals and staff salaries for the new stores, the increase in revenue and the improvement in gross margins sufficiently covered for it," said Padini.

"For the quarter under review, the group had managed to improve its efficiencies, having achieved a higher growth in revenues as compared to the growth in operating expenses in spite of the many challenges faced. That said, we note that it was also a historically good quarter with the month long year-end school holidays and the cheer of the Christmas festivities," it added.

For the first half of FY17 (1HFY17), the group's net profit increased by 28% to RM83.09 million or 12.63 sen a share from RM64.9 million or 9.86 sen a share a year ago, while revenue rose 20.8% to RM736.68 million in 1HFY17 from RM609.95 million in 1HFY16.

"The group has concluded the first half of the financial year with a good set of results despite the prevailing challenges of unstable ringgit, rising costs of goods and operations coupled with the current economic situation.

"As the group perseveres on with its stance in continuing to provide value for money, the second half of the financial year will continue to be very challenging but the group is confident in turning in another profitable financial year," said Padini.

Padini's share price closed unchanged at RM2.58 today, giving it a market capitalisation of RM1.7 billion.



http://www.theedgemarkets.com/my/article/padini-2q-net-profit-647-pays-25-sen-dividend

Friday 10 February 2017

An academic professor who made millions from investing.

Horsky spent almost four decades at the University of Rochester’s Simon Business School, where he became a renowned scholar in quantitative marketing. He researched Internet startup companies, particularly in Israel, where he once lived. He lost money in 17 companies he invested in, running up credit-card debt and taking a second mortgage, according to the memo from his lawyers. In 2000, he invested in a British company through a Swiss account, sticking with the firm even as he ran up $350,000 in debts, often using margin loans.
In 2005, shares in the company began to take off, and by 2008, his holdings were worth $80 million after a second firm bought the company. He then reinvested in the second company, and his assets grew to $200 million by 2014. Even as he hid those assets, “he lived his modest life as a university professor,” according to his attorneys.

Saturday 4 February 2017

Quantitative versus Qualitative Analysis. Lessons from Isaac Newton's South Sea's debacle.

Isaac Newton’s South Seas debacle is typically told as a parable of the dangers of market manias, which can consume even the brightest of investors. 

That is true. However, Newton’s South Seas adventure also illustrates another, less commonly acknowledged point: 

1.  Many critical investment questions cannot be solved by math. 

2.  And devoting too much attention to matters quantitative, while giving insufficient attention to issues such as judgment and data quality, can be outright harmful to portfolio results.


Thursday 19 January 2017

Dividend Yield Investing


As deposit accounts pay very low interests or next to nothing, dividends on shares seem attractive. But you'll need to choose carefully.

Many large companies pay decent dividends once, twice or even four times a year. The yield – the dividend expressed as a percentage of the share price – is often attractive by comparison with interest rates on savings. There are now a wide range of blue chip companies yielding 4pc.



Warnings for those seeking Dividend Yield in their investing

When comparing a dividend yield with the interest rate on a savings account, however, certain warnings should be borne in mind.

1. The first point is that your capital is not guaranteed; share prices can and do fall.

2. Secondly, dividends can be cut drastically or axed altogether with little or no notice – and this can lead to a fall in the share price as well.


So just buying the shares with the highest dividend, without researching how safe that dividend is, can be a mistake.

There are now a huge range of high yielding blue chips but it is best to look for a dividend that is less likely to be cut even if that company's profits fall.

A high yield alone is not synonymous with a decent dividend.

If you carry out thorough research and pick the right shares, you will get better value for your cash than by leaving it in a savings account.



Measure of a dividend's reliability is Dividend Cover

The long-established measure of a dividend's reliability is dividend cover: the ratio of net profits to the size of the dividend payout.

Generally, a cover ratio of at least two – meaning that the company has twice as much net earnings as the amount earmarked for dividend payments – is considered a strong indicator.

Once again, for those who invest for yield or income - either Dividend Yield Investing or Dividend Growth Investing - STOCK SELECTION is still the key.

Search out for those companies that have a good chance of sustaining or even increasing their dividends.

If you are knowledgeable, you can even anticipate and avoid those companies that may skip or reduce their dividends in the future.




Stock selection is the key to dividend yield investing.

Some investors look at historic yields; some at forecast (or "prospective") yields.

But either way, those yields can be unexploded mines, lurking for the unwary.

Looking at yield on its own, in short, can quickly introduce you -- painfully -- to the meaning of the term "yield trap".



Yield Trap

The yield trap is simply explained.

You buy a share, attracted by the high yield. But the dividend is then cut, or cancelled -- leaving you without the anticipated income. Worse, unsupported by the payout, the share price usually falls as well, leaving you also nursing a capital loss.


Let's see it in action.

Company A pays out 9 pence a share, with shares changing hands for 100 pence per share. So the dividend yield -- which is the dividend per share, divided by the share price, and multiplied by a hundred to turn it into a percentage -- is 9%.

But that 9 pence is unsustainable. Company A then halves its dividend, slashing investors' income. What happens to the yield? If the share drops to -- say -- 80 pence, the historic yield the becomes 5.6%. The "yield on cost" figure, of course, is 4.5%.



How, then, should investors spot potential yield traps?  Answer:  Dividend cover

The most obvious reason for slashing the dividend is that the business simply hasn't got the money to pay it.

The business's earnings, in short, aren't large enough to support a distribution to shareholders at historic levels.

Put another way, actual earnings per share aren't sufficiently large when compared to the anticipated dividend per share.

Which is where the notion of 'dividend cover' comes in: earnings per share divided by dividend per share.



Interpret Dividend Cover with care

Now, dividend cover shouldn't be followed blindly.

Some businesses -- such as utilities, for instance -- can quite happily operate with lower levels of dividend cover than more cyclical businesses.

Other businesses -- such as REITs -- must pay out a fixed proportion of earnings as dividends, so again a low level of dividend cover is the norm.

Still other businesses have very high levels of dividend cover, because they are growing -- and therefore retaining earnings for future investment -- rather than paying them out as dividends.

But as a broad brush generalisation,

- A ratio of close to one is definitely the danger zone.
- A ratio much bigger than two indicates a certain parsimony.
- A ratio of 1.5-2.5 is usually what I'm looking for.



Stock Performance Guide on Dividends (by Neoh Soon Kean)

He considers dividend per share (DPS) as the most important factor when evaluating the worth of a share.

The ideal situation is for the DPS of a company to grow smoothly and rapidly over the years. (This is the Dividend Growth Investing I mentioned).

The DPS track record should be unbroken for many years.

One important caveat: you must compare the amount of dividend paid with the amount of earnings per share (EPS). (This is the dividend payout ratio).

- The growth of DPS must be proportionate to the growth of EPS.

- A company cannot sustain year after year of higher DPS thanEPS.

- On the other hand, the DPS should not be too small compared with the EPS unless the EPS is growing rapidly.

He advises, under normal circumstances, the DPS should be between 30% to 70% of the EPS.



Happy Investing

Sunday 15 January 2017

Key Investment Principles of Charlie Munger

What Are The Eight Key Investment Principles of Charlie Munger?





As we all know, Charlie Munger uses mental models to look at issues and problems. He’s got hundred of them but the selected core models handle most of the freight.
What then are Charlie Munger’s Keys Investment Principles?
  • Take Into Account Your Personality and Own Psychology.

CM: Each person has to play the game given his own marginal utility considerations and in a way that takes into account his own psychology. If losses are going to make you miserable – and some losses are inevitable – you might be wise to utilize a very conservative patterns of investment and saving all your life.
  1. If You Can Find Three Good and Super Investments, That Can Be Good Enough. (Caveat Emptor: Are you and me who are mere mortals as good as Charlie Munger? If not, we may need more than three.)
CM: My own inquiries on that subject were just to assume that I could find a few things, say three, each which had a substantial statistical expectancy of outperforming averages without creating catastrophe. If I could find three of those, what were the chances my pending record wouldn’t be pretty damn good. I just sort of worked that out by iteration. That was my academic study—high school algebra and common sense.
  • Odds Must Be In Your Favor And You Are Not Risking Everything On A Penalty Shoot-Out

CM: This great emphasis on volatility in corporate finance we regard as nonsense. Let me put it this way; as long as the odds are in our favor and we’re not risking the whole company on one throw of the dice or anything close to it, we don’t mind volatility in results.
  • Go For An Index Fund If You Are Average Investor

CM: Does that mean you should be in an index fund? Well, that depends on whether or not you can invest money way better than average or you can find someone who almost surely will invest money way better than average.
  • Achieve The Optimal Position Of A Few Great Investments and Sit Back

CM: There are huge advantages for an individual to get into position where you make a few great investments and just sit back. You’re paying less to brokers. You’re listening to less nonsense. If it works, the governmental tax system gives you an extra one, two, or three percentage points per annum with compound effects.
  • Read, Not Just A Little, But A Lot

CM: I don’t think you can get to be a really good investor over a broad range without doing a massive amount of reading.
  • Invest In A Way That Does Not Require Continuing Intelligence

CM: Berkshire’s assets have been lovingly put together so as not to require continuing intelligence at headquarters.
CM: Invest in a business any fool can run, because someday a fool will. If it won’t stand a little mismanagement, it’s not much of a business. We’re not looking for mismanagement, even if we can withstand it.
  • For Companies ([Sic] And In Many Things In Life), There Is No One Size Fits All

CM: You need a different checklist and different mental models for different companies. I can never make it easy by saying, ‘Here are three things.’ You have to derive it yourself to ingrain it in your head for the rest of your life.


https://www.facebook.com/groups/charliemungersays/

Your investments using Mutual Funds or Money Managers

There are various avenues individual investors may exercise in managing their investments. 

Investing properly is a full-time job, and that it would be very difficult for individual investors to manage their own money if they have other employment. 

This leaves them two options:

1) Mutual Funds
2) Money Managers



Open-end mutual funds

Open-end mutual funds offer the investor access to both liquidity and the ability to sell for net asset value. 

On the other hand, many funds are driven by relative performance and often grow to sizes where market-beating returns are not possible. 

Since managers are compensated by assets under management, they are also prone to follow short-term trends in order to avoid falling behind their peers in the near-term which could trigger a mass exodus of investors.



Closed-end funds

Closed-end funds do not offer investors ready liquidity at net asset value.

However, they may be prudent investments when they trade at substantial discounts to their net asset values. 



Money Managers

In evaluating money managers, individual investors should raise the following questions which will help select a manager:
  • Do they manage their own money in parallel with their clients'?
  • Has the size of the portfolio grown exceedingly large?
  • What is the investment philosophy of the manager? Does it make long-term sense?

In evaluating investment results, investors must look deeper than a manager's historical investment returns. 
  • For example, any manager can generate phenomenal returns within a certain period of time. 
  • Are the returns described over at least one full business cycle
  • Also, were the returns generated using leverage?
  • Or were they generated despite the portfolio holding large amounts of cash (in which case risk is much lower)?


Take Home Message

Investors who adopt a value-oriented investment approach should be able to invest safely with promise of a satisfactory return. 

If they do not have the time to manage their money full-time, find a trustworthy manager who employs this value investing philosophy.


Read also:


Trading and portfolio management from a value investing point of view.


Portfolio Management

Portfolio management is described as an on-going process that is never complete. 

While certain businesses may be fairly stable, its prices will fluctuate over time, and so the investor must constantly monitor the situation. 

Value investors are not into buying certain industries or business ideas without regard to price, and so price changes are a fundamental factor that drive portfolio decisions.

The portfolios need to be somewhat liquid. 

Investors are advised not to purchase their entire positions at one go, but rather to leave room to buy in at cheaper prices should the stock go down. 

A good test for an investor is to consider whether he would indeed buy more of the stock were it to drop; if he is not, he is probably speculating and should not be buying in the first place!



The Decision of When to Sell 

Determining when to buy a stock is usually a much easier decision for a value investor, since the stock at that time is trading below what the investor considers an adequate margin of safety. 

But when the stock is trading within the range of values the investor believes it to be worth, what is the investor to do? 

We can argue against selling after percentage gain thresholds or price targets have been reached.   

Instead, the investor should compare the investment to available alternative investments:

  • It would be foolish to sell if there were no better investments and the stock was still undervalued, but 
  • it would be foolish not to sell if there are better bargains around!



Read also:

Value Investor's Opportunities in Distressed Securities

Some of the risks and opportunities associated with investing in distressed securities. 


While regular value investing involves dealing with a wide number of unknowns, distressed securities represent particularly complex situations. 

Because most investors are unwilling to put in the time and effort involved with analysing such securities; for some, the opportunities are plentiful in this realm.



Three Reasons for financial distress

There are three reasons a company might run into financial distress: 
  • operating issues, 
  • legal issues, and/or 
  • financial issues



Responses to financial distress and the implications to the investment

Issuers can respond to such situations in one of three ways: 
  • continue to pay obligations, 
  • attempt to convert obligations into less stringent obligations (e.g. get debt holders to accept preferred stock), or 
  • default and declare bankruptcy. 


Investors must understand the implications to their investments as the above scenarios play out. 

Investors must also: 
  • understand how other stakeholders will react to such situations, and 
  • understand the power that various stakeholders have (for example, one third of a stakeholder groups constitutes a blocking group, and can use this to further that stakeholder group's interests).


Investing Opportunities in Bankruptcies

While bankruptcies are often complex and difficult to analyse.

Investors who know what they are doing usually have tremendous opportunities for returns with very little risk. 

At the same time, someone who doesn't know what he's doing risks losing his entire investment.

The process of analysing financially distressed securities starts at the balance sheet. 
  • Assets should be valued so that the size of the pie can be estimated. 
  • Obligations should then be subtracted from this amount. 
  • This task is much more difficult than it appears, however. 
  • For a distressed company, asset values are usually a moving target, and getting a handle on their value can be difficult. 
  • Furthermore, off-balance sheet liabilities must also be considered.

In bankruptcies, mis-pricing can occur which allow the enterprising value investors the opportunity for excellent returns.





Read also: