Would you listen to a CEO?
So often we observe sell-side analysts and external investors basing a large part of their investment theses on the sentiment and intentions offered by the senior management team of the companies in which they are investing. We caution such an approach. All too often, CEOs of publicly listed companies are communicating a well-crafted, well-intended message […]
Dissecting our returns
At Montaka, we are delighted to have delivered our early investors a great start. Since we launched on July 1, 2015, Montaka has delivered substantial positive returns against a global market which turned negative over the same period. This is illustrated in the chart below which shows Montaka’s returns over the six month period to December […]
Navistar: struggling to keep on trucking
The analysis of candidates for Montaka’s short portfolio follows a rigorous process that requires stocks to exhibit at least one characteristic of our four-point framework: (i) thematic/structural changes; (ii) divergent expectations; (iii) asymmetries; and (iv) misperceptions. Navistar International (NYSE: NAV), a US-based manufacturer of International brand commercial and military trucks, buses, and engines, filled the […]
Does anyone still buy DVDs from kiosks?
Would you like to own a business that owns little else but 41,000 kiosks that distribute rental DVDs from over 33,000 locations across the United States? While this business model may have made sense in the past, it makes little sense these days. It is so cheap and convenient these days for consumers to stream […]
Scientific Games finally succumbs to the laws of economic gravity
Many readers will by now be aware of Montaka’s short portfolio research framework that was developed over the years by your author. (For a detailed introduction to our research process, click here). There are four specific characteristics of a short that we seek to identify in our research of new potential ideas. These are: (i) […]
Lufthansa: short-haul profits, long-haul problems
On 29th October Lufthansa (Xetra: LHA GR) reported the results of its fiscal third quarter. A strong summer travel season and low oil price helped Europe’s largest airline achieve underlying earnings of €1.7 billion for the first 9 months of 2015, an astounding 70% increase on the prior year, and management upgraded its full-year earnings […]
What is “selective diversification”?
Readers of this blog will already be aware that we like to keep an eye on credit markets to help inform our views on equity markets, business qualities and prospects. Credit markets often provide leading indicators to impending changes in equity markets. The Wall Street Journal recently noted some deterioration in the credit quality of […]
Montaka’s objective
With so many weird and wonderful equity offerings out there, it is sometimes difficult to make sense of what you are buying. And comparing between offerings can feel near impossible sometimes. A sensible starting point in assessing any equity offering is the target return profile. What is a target return profile? It is not a […]
Welcome George
Last month the Montaka team welcomed a new Research Analyst by the name of George Hadjia. George is an outstandingly gifted financial analyst with previous experience at Sydney-based equities shop, Private Portfolio Managers. George’s background is in global equities and he joins with a deep understanding of the principles of value investing. His formal education […]
Getting to know the Montaka portfolio – Part II
We last wrote about the Montaka portfolio from the perspective of geographical exposures. We now turn to the industries to which our clients’ capital is exposed. The most commonly used industry classifications are known as GICS sectors. GICS stands for Global Industry Classification Standard and was developed and agreed upon by MSCI and S&P in […]
