"The less prudence with which others conduct their affairs, the greater the prudence with which we should conduct our own." – Warren Buffett
In the time of covid-19, paying in cash definitely seems like an anachronism. This is an investing post, however, and I’m not writing about buying items with paper money. Rather, I’m thinking about companies that do not pay their execs and boards by issuing stock.
This is probably even more rare than cash payments during covid. It could also be a telling signal about the culture of a company and its people.
ContinueMartin Franklin is an interesting investor. He has a fantastic track record, including returns in Jarden, which has to be among the best performing investments of all time. I think he was probably a prime candidate for the next cut of the Outsiders (the one about capital allocation, not pony boy).
He also might be credited, at least partially, with popularizing the Special Acquisition Company (“SPAC”) structure. Basically, a SPAC is formed to acquire a business via a “blank check” and often will acquire private businesses, bringing them to the public markets via a sort of “reverse i.p.o.” This structure is hot right now with a lot of the S.V. set.
In my opinion, SPACs are usually not a great deal for investors because of the incentives paid to the promoters. They often have an incentive to get a deal done and they then recognize a big windfall. For example, a common structure results in the pormoters owning 20% of the post-SPAC enterprise (though the incentives may not be that much worse than a normal IPO, when you think about who is selling and why). Yet, the arrangement has worked pretty well for Franklin’s investors.
Continue reading “The SPAC Daddy: Sir Martin Franklin”Is it too late to write down (type up?) some of my observations from the Berkshire annual meeting? It has only been about a week, but it seems like it has been analyzed to death (probably because of the lack of other usual distractions). Well I have a kid and real job, so I am just now getting to put together a (short) post on some of my observations, including the fact that Buffett pretty much laid out the Berkshire succession plan (for now) in about as much detail as I can recall.
Continue reading “Greg is Able”This will be a quick portfolio update/investing log post updating my thoughts on my Avon position given last week’s announcement that Natura & Co. will acquire Avon.
click here if you careDavid Einhorn recently issued his investor letter for the third quarter, generating media reports concerning the contents. He reportedly compared Tesla to Lehman Brothers (I recently discussed Tesla here). He also went on to discuss his decision to liquidate his Apple (“AAPL”) position. See CNBC story reporting on letter.
Einhorn’s stated reasons for this move, the process and circumstances surrounding this action, as contrasted with those of Buffett’s AAPL investment, led to a couple of observations. Continue reading “Einhorn Versus Buffett: a Great and the GOAT on AAPL”
