Analysis of Gerry Weber 2015

Company: Gerry Weber

ISIN DE0003304101 | WKN 330410  

Business: A German fashion retail and accessories company. They currently have four brands for women: Gerry Weber, Taifun, Samoon and (the new addition by acquisition) Hallhuber. Underneath the Gerry Weber brand they have an additional two brands (Gerry Weber Edition and G.W.). They run their own stores but also franchise as well as online and sale of their brands in department stores. 

Active: In over 62 countries. They themselves are running 1000 stores (219 from Hallhuber)

P/E: 13.5

Analysis of Elringklinger 2015

Company: Elringklinger

ISIN DE0007856023 | WKN 785602 

Business: A German supplier to the automotive industry. They are still divided into five segments: Original Equipment (manufacture and distribution of engines) , Aftermarket (spare parts for engines etc.), Engineered Plastics (high quality PTFE plastics for vehicles), Services (engine test benching for car producers as well as other suppliers) and finally Industrial Parks (leasing of land and buildings)  

Active: Europe, North America, Brasil, South Africa, India, China, Japan and Indonesia.

P/E: 14.9

Analysis of Celesio 2014

Company: Celesio

ISIN DE000CLS1001 | WKN CLS100

Business: A German wholesale and retail company that provides logistics and services to the pharmaceutical industry. Sadly enough there are very little to change for the text concerning Celesio. They themselves own 2,200 pharmacies, have an additional 4,300 as participants in brand schemes and are in total providing 65,000 pharmacies and hospitals with medication each day.

Active: They are only active in Europe and are present in 14 countries mainly northern Europe.

P/E: 34.3

Analysis of Südzucker 2014

Company: Südzucker

ISIN DE0007297004 | WKN 729700

Business: A German agricultural company. Their main focus is like the name as well as the logo implies sugar (=zucker in German). They are divided into four segments: Sugar (the sugar is refined and sold under the names of Südzucker & Agrana), Special products (Bene which are making functional ingredients for food and Freiberger with frozen pizza and pasta dishes), CropEnergies (the production of bioethanol) and finally Fruit (once again Agrana and Austria juice). Agrana which is to around 49.6% owned by Südzucker and it has previously been analysed please see analysis of Agrana.

Active: Main market is Europe especially with their main business sugar. Via Agrana they are present on all five continents.

P/E: 8.4

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

All the companies on MDax

Here comes the entire list of the companies traded on MDax, the link to my contrarian analysis of them as well as the P/E at they had at the moment of my analysis.

This means that I am now more free to find interesting companies again so for that reason I am pretty happy but on the other hand it will take more time to find companies to analyse so we will see how frequent my publications will be. I hope to be able to keep up and make one publication per day.

Analysis of Wincor Nixdorf

Company: Wincor Nixdorf

Business: A German service company for IT solutions. They have two focus groups retail banks and retail industry. The company is divided in three groups: Technology Manufacturer (cash and check out systems), Global Solution Provider (software and hardware solutions that are "rolled" out to the clients entire network) and finally Business Transformation Partner (taking a proactive roll in changing their clients technology... so... I guess that is their sales force).

Active: They are present in around 130 countries but still half the workforce is based in Germany.

P/E: 19.5

Analysis of Wacker Chemie

Company: Wacker Chemie AG

Business: A German chemistry (polymer) company. They are divided into five divisions: Siltronic (producing hyperpure silicon for electronic devices), Wacker Silicones (producing silicon and silane), Wacker Polymers (making binders and polymer additives), Wacker Biosolutions (producing Cavasol and Cavamax as well as pharmaceutical proteins) and finally Wacker Polysilicon (making polycrystalline silicon that are used for solarcells). The big chunks of revenue sources are 22% from construction, 17% from solar and 22% from semiconductors.

Active: Production takes place in Europe, America and Asia. They are active with sales on five continents.

P/E: 38.6

Analysis of TUI

Company: TUI

Business: A German travelling group company that are divided into three sectors: TUI Travel (represented in over 30 countries and dealing with 30 million customers per year for the travelling plans, flight bookings, hotel bookings, activities etc. Here they also have 140 aircrafts for the charter trips), TUI Hotels & Resorts (They have 248 hotels in 24 countries and many travel bookings are of course going to those...) and finally Cruises (which is done via Hapag-Lloyd Cruises. Hapag-Lloyd is a large container company (150 ships) that is to 22% owned by TUI)

Active: Sales are made in 30 countries but the destinations are of course world wide.

P/E: -211.4 (the P/E6 was almost 60)

Analysis of Talanx

Company: Talanx

Business: A German mainly B2B insurance company. They are divided into five divisions: Industrial Lines (covering all the insurance needs of industrial companies. My own company are insured with HDI-Gerling that they are called and I am very happy with the premium we pay), 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: They are active all over the world. Traditionally main focus has been Germany and Europe but they are expanding strongly and are today active in more than 150 countries.

P/E: 10.0

Analysis of TAG Immobilien

Company: TAG Immobilien

Business: A German real estate company. Their main focus is with residential property in Germany and little to none commercial property.

Active: Only in Germany in the region of Hamburg, Berlin, Salzgitter, as well as the German states of Thuringia, Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia.

P/E: 6.5

Analysis of Symrise

Company: Symrise

Business: A German supplier of fragrances, flavourings, active ingredients in cosmetics and raw materials as well as functional ingredients. They have two business divisions: Flavour and Nutrition (strong focus towards the food industry to add value to the products by creating new experiences for the customers) and Scent and Care (beauty care products that besides from fragrance also includes active substances)

Active: Globally active with strong focus in Europe. Currently active in 135 countries and they have 10% of the market.

P/E: 25.6

Analysis of Stada

Company: Stada Arzneimittel

Business: A German generics company. They have mainly two units: Generics (66% of sales, producing and selling active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) of non patent protected pharmaceutical compounds) and then Branded Products (32.5% of sales, using an active substance where the patent has expired and bring that into their own mixture and sell it under their own brand. Ex. Sun Lotions etc.)

Active: Strong presence in Europe and are growing strongly in Eastern Europe and in Russia.

P/E: 26.6

Analysis of Sky

Company: Sky

Business: A German pay TV company. Their customers have access to up to 80 channels in unique HD quality including an exclusive 3D channel. The innovations Sky Go and Sky Anytime also allow the clients to receive their program on the road or on demand. They have 3.5 million customers at the moment.

Active: Only in Germany and Austria.

P/E: -33.1

Warning: Sky has for the last five years made negative results and have in the same period doubled their shares. Simply put... they are living on their poor shareholders!

Analysis of SGL Carbon

Company: SGL Carbon

Business: A German manufacturer of carbon-based products ranging from carbon and graphite products to carbon fibres and composites. They are divided into six business units: Graphite and Carbon Electrodes (used for steel production), Cathodes and Furnace Linings (for the production of aluminium and pig iron), Graphite Specialties (specialty molded graphite products), Process Technology (graphite heat exchangers) Carbon Fibers and Composite Materials (high performance products of carbon, glass and aramid fibres) and finally Aerostructures (and composites of carbon fibres).

Active: They are present with sales network in around 100 countries and production in 44 countries. Major presence is in Europe followed by the US and Asia.

P/E: 298 (P/E5 over 30)

Analysis of Salzgitter

Company: Salzgitter AG

Business: A German steel technology and plant engineering company. They are divided into five units: Strip Steel (high-grade special and branded steels), Plate/Sections (high-grade heavy plate for tubes and wind power plants), Trading (their steel trading unit creating the largest revenue), Energy (wide range of steel tubes and pipes that are focused towards the energy industry) and finally Technology (special machinery and plants for the filling and packaging of beverages).

Active: Largest business is Europe and then the US and Asia but they are present in each continent.

P/E: -17.6

Analysis of RTL group

Company: RTL Group

Business: A Luxembourg situated TV & broadcasting company that are traded on MDax in Germany. They have three legs to stand on: TV & Radio (Own today 54 TV channels and 28 Radio stations), Content Production (9,200 hours of TV programs in 62 countries, with several prime time shows) and finally Independent Rights Management (sale of over 20,000 hours of material to over 150 countries, including licensing of gaming, online, mobile and social media)

Active: All over Europe with TV and Radio and all over the world with sale of their produced products.

P/E: 25.3

Analysis of Rhön-Klinikum

Company: Rhön-Klinikum AG

Business: A German healthcare company that are currently running 48 hospitals with 43,000 employees, 17,000 beds and last year they treated 2.5 million patients (which means they received a revenue around 1,200 € per treated patient and 35 € in profit. I should try to remember to check this for other healthcare companies in the future).

Active: Only in Germany.

P/E: 33.9

Analysis of Rheinmetall

Company: Rheinmetall

Business: A German supplier for the automotive and the defence industries. The automotive 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 segments: 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: Mainly Europe and Germany (28% of sales) are expanding in North America and Asia were they are already present but less so then what they would like to be.

P/E: 9.3