Extra stock bought September 2014: Tessenderlo

This investment is by the look of things very crazy. Here I decided to invest in a company that currently runs a negative P/E, ROE, revenue growth and it does not even pay a dividend. Oh, and the P/B is much higher than what I like to see.

Often my companies tend to end up in this situation either the year that I buy them or the year after. Some examples of this are my two banks: Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank. Both have been very poor performers since I started investing in them. K+S have made a large drop in earnings. Asian Bamboo has been the worst of them all with even a change of business concept on top of it all...

Since my years in the Netherlands I understand Dutch spoken as well as written (I have unfortunately forgotten how to speak it as time has passed) and I have been digging into everything I could find out about Luc Tack. In newspapers, interviews you name it and I have either read it or listened to it.

My investment into Tessenderlo was made based on two reasons:

1. Luc Tack
2. the French government is out

There is a saying which says that whenever the Queen sells something then buy it! I did not invest in the Royal Mail when that went public, not that long ago, but I still believe there to be a lot of truth to it. After living some years in France with French bureaucracy I know how they can sit and block things out of purely idiotic reasons and them gone from Tessenderlo means that they will finally be able to make the restructuring that probably has been needed for years. If the French government have really blocked things that I do not know but as I said... it would not surprise me if they have.

The downside here is that they want to quickly sort out the debt situation by bringing in more cash and selling more shares. Usually to deal with those kind of things my broker charge hefty fees so I will see what I can do there to not pay the fees and still try to expand the investment to a full one (meaning around 2,000 € for the time being).

So I bought 45 shares in Tessenderlo at a total cost of 1021.09 € including the fees. This means that each share costed me 22.69 €.

Buying stocks are a little like buying a new car. The second you drive it out of the garage the price drops. At least it is often like that for us mortals due to the fees we pay for trading.

If you want to find out more about Tessenderlo then please go to the analysis of Tessenderlo which is not really some happy reading.

If you want to see my current Stock Portfolio then click on the link but the portfolio will not be fully updated until the end of the month.

Analysis of Tessenderlo

Company: Tessenderlo

ISIN BE0003555639 | WKN 852064

Business: A Belgian chemical company. They have five business units: Fertilisers (with potassium sulphate, liquid fertilisers and crop protection), Animal Nutrition (with animal feed, feed phosphates and feed ingredients), Construction (with Plastic Pipe Systems), Water treatment and finally Industrial Chemicals.

Active: They are present in 21 countries on 100 locations and the main focus is the US and Europe.

P/E: -9.2 (P/E5: even worse...)

Comment: Tessenderlo is currently owned to almost 28% by Picanol if you want to find out it then please see analysis of Picanol 2014.

Extra stock bought September 2014: Fugro

The first extra investment for September became Fugro. This is the first Dutch company to enter my portfolio which already that on its own I find good! Due to their strong connection to the oil and gas industry they are currently having more trouble than they would have liked to have. Trouble sometimes leads to new business opportunities and I hope that Fugro will start to do that to build a broader customer base that is not within the oil and gas industry.


With this investment I decided to do something that my uncle often talk about... "always take a look at if the company is hiring or firing people". If they hire then problems are often not large and systemic enough to be of a concern. If they fire then wait to buy them until they start to hire again.


Fugro is hiring people and I even got tempted to apply for one of the jobs just for fun.


I made the classical start and bought 45 shares for a total price of 1044.02 € including the fees which means that I paid 23.20 € per share.

If you want to find out more about Fugro then please see analysis of Fugro and if you want to take a look at my current Stock Portfolio then click on that link. The portfolio will however not be fully updated until the end of the month.

Ashamed of myself...

As the title says I have to admit that last Thursday I went a bit crazy and bought too many holdings in too many companies. Yes, it was true that my cash stash had become far too large and especially considering that I have candidates of interest to buy but still... I went too far.


I hope that I over time will find a better balance and will be less insane in terms of hunting for owning more and more parts of companies. Or maybe I have finally found my call in life for hunting/gathering and it was not stamps, electric trains or coins but companies. The second hurdle will be to sell. Can I? Can a collector sell something they have "gathered"? Maybe they can for the greater good!


Next to where I previously lived there was a very nice whiskey store that opened up. I once went there for a whiskey tasting session and the man told me that he had had a huge whiskey collection and one day he decided to quit his job, he sold one third of the collection, bought more "normal" whiskey bottles and he started his shop. A collector turned passionate businessman doing what he loved each and every day. Not a bad deal!

Dividend from BP: September 2014

The all to well known oil giant BP paid out Q3 dividends to me and due to a stronger GBP to EUR as well as slightly increased dividend I received my highest contribution ever from BP!

For every share they paid out 0.059593 GBP which means that for my 354 shares I received 21.10 GBP with a conversion rate of 0.7871 and I ended up with 26.81 EUR paid out in cash to my broker account.

To get a closer look on BP then please see the analysis of BP 2014.

To see my total dividend flow then please visit the Stock Dividends page that has now been updated.

Analysis of Accell Group 2014

Company: Accell Group

ISIN NL0009767532 | WKN A1JADL

Business: A Dutch, mainly, bicycle holding company. They are active with the design, development, production, marketing and sales of bicycles, bicycle parts and accessories and fitness equipment. They are frequently buying out successful bicycle brands in various countries. They already have several well-known bicycle brands under their umbrella such as: Raleigh, Batavus, Juncker and Brasseur.

Active: Strong presence in the Netherlands and Germany. Recently bought a company in Spain and they have some presence in the US.

P/E: 17.4

Analysis of Iberdrola 2014

Company: Iberdrola

ISIN ES0144580Y14 | WKN A0M46B

Business: A Spanish energy provider. The Iberdrola Group is divided into four different business lines: Network Business (energy transmission and distribution), Wholesale & Retail Business (sale of energy to private and commercial customers), Renewable Energy Business (to over 95% wind power) and finally Other Businesses (engineering company for energy companies)

Active: Spain and to some extent also in the United Kingdom, the United States, Brazil and Mexico.

P/E: 13.5

Autumn products

Yesterday, when I wrote this, there was a light drizzle in Berlin and due to the rain heavy clouds and generally due to the arrival of autumn it is getting very dark.

Besides from being slightly melancholic it also got me thinking about the kind of products and services that are used during this period.

Are there special products being consumed that I should change my investor behaviour to follow? Should I go out and buy a chocolate producing company because I am sure that they will start to increase their sales volumes this autumn? Should I step into a movie producing company or cinema chain for that matter since their results will be better compared to last quarter?

In my opinion the answer is no. A company must have a more long term advantage and hopefully I will never start to buy companies for the expectation of quick share price increase after the next quarter report.

When I started thinking about this my thoughts also slide into that autumn comes twice per year and that the world wide companies can profit from this. Do they strategically do it? Is the same ice cream producer present in Germany and in South Africa to even out demand? I do not know.
 

Analysis of Talanx 2014

Company: Talanx

ISIN DE000TLX1005 | WKN TLX100   

Business:  A German insurance company (better put it is part of a mutual holding insurance company). It is divided into five divisions: Industrial Lines (covering all the insurance needs of industrial companies), Retail Germany (retail and commercial customers covering property/casualty), Retail International (the same as previous division but outside of Germany), Reinsurance (non-life reinsurance via especially Hannover Rückversicherung that Talanx own to 50.2%) and finally Financial Services (which is among other things an internal reinsurance part for the entire group). The Talanx group contains many companies and the full list can be found here.
Active: Talanx with daughter companies are active in over 150 countries world wide.

P/E: 8.9

Comment: I spent far longer than usual with Talanx and I even ended up calling their IR department which I found very professional yet surprised over receiving a phone call from a potential investor. Either way... Talanx is owned to 79% by HDI V.a.G. and to 6.5% by Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company which leaves 14.5% free float so fairly little. So... HDI is a mutual insurance company meaning that it is owned by the customers. That makes it difficult to bring in new money and also difficult for the management to give themselves fat bonuses which is probably why they started the Mutual Holding Insurance company that many finds an illegal form since it rarely pays anything back to the policyholders that should get the profits back in form of decreased premiums. At least that was the classical reason for the mutual insurance companies. I have problems to get my head around it in the sense of it being dangerous or beneficial to be a shareholder in the long run. Each time they want to expand (organic or take-over) I am sure they will issue new shares to support that which is why they now collect dividends into their HDI V.a.G. Still... the rules says as long as a mutual holding insurance company is traded below P/B of 1 then the shareholder are profiting and when it is traded above 1 then the policyholders are benefitting... That is what the rules says... what is your opinion?

Analysis of Deutsche Euroshop 2014

Company: Deutsche Euroshop

ISIN DE0007480204 | WKN 748020

Business:  A German purely commercial real estate investor. They invest in shopping centres on prime location. Currently they have over 99% occupied space. The rent is to a certain extent based on the consumer price index meaning that in hard times their rent goes down and on good times it increases which is a system the stores seem to be pretty content with.
Active: They have 19 shopping centers in Europe with main bulk in Germany with 16 centres and then one in Poland, one in Hungary and one in Austria.

P/E: 11.1

Analysis of Rheinmetall 2014

Company: Rheinmetall

ISIN DE0007030009 | WKN 703000

Business: A German supplier for the automotive and defence. Automotive called KSPG is divided into three segments: Hardparts (pistons and pistons systems), Mechatronics (pumps and valves) and finally Motor Services (parts for the spare part market). The Defence is also divided into three parts: Combat Systems (turret and weapon stations, self protection, armoured vehicles), Electronics Solutions (air defence systems, sensors and various simulation systems) and finally Wheeled Vehicles (logistical and tactical vehicles).

Active: They are present in over 80 countries world wide.

P/E: 57.5 (P/E5: 15.6)

Homo Sapiens Sapiens

For quite some time I have had the thoughts that there are today in the world two different human beings. One are the highly evolved Homo Sapiens, which many of us belong to me included, and the second I like to call Homo Sapiens Sapiens.

Homo Sapiens Sapiens are just like it sounds the next step in the human evolution. What is then the difference between them and me?

Personally I spend a very short time actively thinking about something. Either I find a solution to the problem I have directly or I do not come up with a solution to the problem directly but then I on the other hand also stop actively thinking about the problem. What goes on in the corners of my mind I can not give an answer to but I am very certain that my brain keeps thinking about the problem.

Analysis of Industrivärden 2014

Company: Industrivärden

ISIN SE0000190126 | WKN 886939      

Business: A Swedish investment company. Their focus is on the Nordic market. They currently have nine bigger holdings: Ericsson, Handelsbanken, ICA Gruppen, Sandvik, SCA, Skanska, SSAB, Volvo and Kone.

Active: In the Nordic countries.

P/E: 5.1

Analysis of PNE WIND 2014

Company: PNE WIND

ISIN DE000A0JBPG2 | WKN A0JBPG

Business: A German wind power company. Their focus lies in the development, realisation, financing and operation of wind farms on land and at sea, at home and abroad. They organize the construction of wind power plants and they also run them on their own to a small extent. Currently they are bringing in capital to be able to start up yield co since investors prefer to buy that.

Active: 14 countries in Europe, South Africa and North America.

P/E: 8.4

Dividend from IBM: September 2014

I did not step in as shareholder in IBM that long ago but still I was entitled to receive dividends. IBM like most US companies pay dividends each quarter.

For my 16 lonely IBM shares I received 1.1 USD per share so 17.60 USD in total. The conversion rate was 1.2981 which gave me 13.56 €. From this I paid 15% taxes in a quantity of 2.03 € and I end up with 11.53 € cash on my broker account. Nice!

If you want to know more about IBM then please visit analysis of IBM 2014.

To check out my current dividend payment history then please visit the Stock Dividends page which has now been updated.
 

Analysis of Leoni 2014

Company: Leoni

ISIN DE0005408884 | WKN 540888

Business: A Germany based supplier to the automotive industry. It is divided into two large division: Wire & Cable Solutions (develops, produces and assembles wires and strands, optical fibres as well as complete cable systems) and secondly Wiring System (develops and produces cable harnesses as well as complete wiring for the automobile industry).

Active: They are currently active in 33 countries (so +1 since last year) world wide and are pushing expansion in the BRIC countries.

P/E: 14.6

DBAG report Q3 2014

Deutsche Beteiligungs AG arrived with their third quarter report and it was happy reading. Upon the delivery of the report the market response was non existing and after some news about them maybe giving an extra dividend there was a small jump up. What was then so good in the report?

Analysis of Tesco 2014

Company: Tesco

ISIN GB0008847096 | WKN 852647   

Business: A British supermarket and retail chain. Their business units are: Tesco UK, Tesco in India, Tesco Malaysia, Homeplus (in Korea), Tesco Lotus (Thailand), Tesco Czech Republic, Tesco Hungary, Tesco Ireland, Tesco Poland, Tesco Slovakia, Tesco Kipa (Turkey), Tesco China, Tesco Bank (simple personal banking products, principally - mortgages, credit cards, personal loans, savings) and finally dunnhumby (a consultancy company working with the analysis of customers). Very frequently the business unit name is also their location and they very frequently own the land and buildings they sit in.

Active: In twelve countries with 6,784 stores. Main focus is UK and Ireland, Eastern Europe and some countries in Asia.

P/E: 19.1 (P/5: 10.5)

Analysis of Picanol 2014

Company: Picanol Group

ISIN: BE0003807246 | WKN: 546695

Business: A Belgium based company that are developing, producing and selling weaving machines as well as other high-tech industrial products, services and systems. They also hold a 27.52% investment in the chemical company Tessenderlo, which I am almost certain will become a successful investment in the future. They have two divisions: Weaving Machines (production of weaver machines based on air or rapier technology, with the sales comes service, spare parts etc.) and Industries (with Proferro: cast iron for weaving and agricultural machines, PSIControl Mechatronics: develop and manufacture various controllers, and finally Melotte using Direct Digital Manufacturing (DDM) and Near-to-Net-Shape Manufacturing (NNSM) technologies)

Active: They are active in Europe, India, Asia, US, Mexico, Brazil and Indonesia.

P/E: 6.7

Contrarian stock bought September 2014: Commerzbank

In the end it became Commerzbank after that the Russian company that I wanted to buy have increased from 5.8 € to 10.9 € during less than one weeks time. Crazy, but that is life!

So I decided to buy the boring, second biggest, German bank instead that still have not managed to turn the ship around... I bought a total of 85 shares at a price of 12.61 € per share including the trading fees. I currently hold 314 shares in Commerzbank with the average price, including fees, of 13.70 €.

If you want to find out more about Commerzbank then please see analysis of Commerzbank 2014 which is not something nice to look at but at least it shows some promises of being contrarian.

With the next update of the monthly report the new change will be brought in to the Stock Portfolio.
 

Analysis of Hannover Rückversicherung 2014

Company: Hannover Rückversicherung

ISIN DE0008402215 | WKN 840221      

Business: A German reinsurance company. Nothing much has changed since the last analysis so it is divided into two business group but this time it is: P&C Reinsurance (with a subdivision that focus strongly on North America, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and French speaking countries) and the second one is Life and Health Reinsurance. The two division have fairly equal revenue size.

Active: They claim they are one of the leading reinsurance companies in the world with world wide presence.

P/E: 8.9

Fighting the Finanzamt (the German IRS)

There is one rule in the German tax regulation that I find utterly stupid and I hope that they one day will remove such nonsense. The rule is that if you go for a job interview somewhere (and this can be to any country so no restrictions to Germany only) then part of the cost for the trip as well as your stay is deductible from your taxes. Utterly stupid!

The benefit for the German government is that few people seem to know this and therefore also do not take advantage of it. I previously did not know about it but now I do.

So these days I always make sure to book a job interview meeting so that I am able to deduct the trip from my taxes. Sure it does not always work out to get a meeting but many times it does and then I also deduct that trip from my taxes.

Analysis of Aurubis 2014

Company: Aurubis

DE0006766504 | WKN 676650

Business: A German company with main focus on the production and recycling of copper. They have three business units that are the same as before: Primary Copper (production of copper and copper cathodes from raw material meaning copper ore), Recycling/Precious Metals (are producing copper cathodes from recycled copper in electronic equipment etc. as well as precious metals are then also being recycled) and finally Copper Products (value-added chain of copper products making wires, rolls and rods).

Active: Production sites in Europe and the US and product sales besides from the two mentioned also in Asia.

P/E: -11.5 (P/E5: 11.0)

Dividend from Intel: September 2014

Always nice to get some dividends dropping in during the darkening autumn. The few euros received will almost pay for my share of the electricity bill during one month so that is great!

For each share I once again received 0.225 $ which gives me for my 100 shares 22.5 $. The conversion rate is this time in my favour and was 1.3147 which means I got 17.11 € in dividend. From that I end up paying 15% taxes so 2.57 € and I end up with 14.54 € as cash on my account.

If you want to see more about Intel then please go here for the analysis of Intel 2014.

To check out my current dividend payment history then please visit the Stock Dividends page which has now been updated.

 

Analysis of Agroton 2014

Company: Agroton

ISIN US00855P2092 | WKN A0YBZZ

Business: An Ukrainian agricultural company that is a diversified with the core business being crop production which means principally sunflower seeds (#1 in Ukraine) and wheat (#4 in Ukraine), they also have the processing, storage and sale of such crops. In addition, the Group is engaged in livestock (chicken, beef, pork) and food processing (milk, cheese, bread etc.).

Active: Eastern Ukraine currently harvesting 151,000 hectares.

P/E: -4.1 (P/E5: 4.8)