Undervalued Shares Reports

Hypoport - 57% profit in 4 months

2011-02-02T00:00:00 +0100

My September 2010 report about Hypoport shares came out just in time. Back then, the company was considered an exotic financial services provider with low liquidity and a niche business. Much of that perception has changed. Since October, four banks, brokerage firms and research houses have reported about the company and the share has recently been trading quite actively. The share price is now EUR 12, compared to EUR 7.50 when I first reported about it. After a 57% gain in 4 months, short-term orientated investors can consider taking some or all of their profits. Anyone investing with a longer-term view should keep in mind that Hypoport has now officially made it its goal to rise from being the 13th largest German financial services provider to being the 5th largest by 2014.

Exclusive: DNICK rumoured to have embarked on a liquidation scenario

2011-01-30T00:00:00 +0100

According to my industry sources, DNICK is testing the market for putting its blank coin subsidiary, Saxonia Eurocoin, up for sale. The combined value of the company’s various assets should amount to 2-4 times the current share price. A gradual liquidation or restructuring of the company should lead to a crystallization of the much higher intrinsic value. Such plans were what I had set out in my original DNICK report in August 2008, but they were subsequently held up by the sudden economic crisis. DNICK successfully mastered the temporary weakness of the global economy, and 2011 should offer a much more opportune timing for the sale of subsidiaries. Readers could be well advised to dig out the old report.

Billing Services Group - When life throws a (nasty) surprise at you

2011-01-25T00:00:00 +0100

The company’s earnings outlook (and share price) has recently been suffering under an FBI and Senate investigation – one where Billing Services Group isn’t legally implicated at all, but which has nonetheless damaged the prospects for 2011. The US has recently seen several high profile cases of fraud involving the sale of certain digital goods through telephone landlines (so-called “enhanced services”, e.g. wake-up calls and voicebox services). Companies such as BSG are the gateway between such service providers and landline customers, leaving them at the risk of unwittingly handling payments for a fraudulent operation. The US telecom companies, through which such enhanced services are ultimately sold, have currently put a temporary stop on allowing new business in this area until an audit has determined how to best prevent telecom customers from being defrauded in such a way. With no new business in this area coming forward (and the existing customers gradually eroding because of the inevitable client churn), one of the core divisions of BSG is currently experiencing quickly falling revenues and cashflow. BSG itself is not accused of any wrongdoing, but the company is caught up in the PR fall-out of the investigation.

Hypoport AG - A German software producer on a quest to change the landscape of European financial services distribution

2010-09-21T00:00:00 +0100

The company’s ambition is to establish a fully electronic marketplace where vendors and distributors of financial services can get together and carry out transactions in an environment that is conducive to facilitating transactions and that helps decrease transaction costs. The rapid growth of this platform is something that the market has not yet woken up to.

BSG Billing Services Group: The BILL2PHONE online payment service achieved 1,700% revenue growth last year

2010-05-25T00:00:00 +0100

The company’s management say they “are excited about the positive receptivity” of large US corporations to whom they recently pitched BILL2PHONE. This includes discussions with a potential corporate client that has 40m retail customers.Dedicated sales team for BILL2PHONE is now in place and the company is approaching virtually all well-known potential customers in the US online market, in a targeted campaign.

BCB British Caribbean Bank Holdings - the cheapest emerging markets bank you will ever find?

2010-01-26T00:00:00 +0100

At its current depressed market cap of GBP100m, the company isn’t worth much more than the value of its stake in palm oil producer, Numar. The entire banking division, with its market-leading position in Belize, is thrown-in almost for free. Shares of BCB are now either incredibly undervalued or there are major negative surprises afoot.

Is Billing Services Group about to make a quantum leap?

2010-01-20T00:00:00 +0100

This investment story has always been, and continues to be, backed by strong fundamentals. What BSG had so far lacked, was exposure to the public eye. Finally, however, it seems like the wider public is about to take notice. 2010 should be the year when BSG goes from being one of the telecom industry’s best kept secrets to reaping fame as the online payment industry’s next rising star.

BSG Billing Services Group: Onto new shores!

2009-09-28T00:00:00 +0100

Originally, BSG functioned as a clearing-house between these smaller telecoms companies; handling the billing for phone calls where a customer made a call from one telecom company’s region into another telecom company’s region. The business model evolved further and the company is now a market leader for complex billing solutions for landline telecom companies in the US. BSG controls 90% of this niche market.

DNick Holding plc: Share price has started to turn in anticipation of better than expected half-year results

2009-08-11T00:00:00 +0100

DNICK continues to be a cashcow, with 2009 cashflow estimated to come in on the same level as during the previous year (and an even better outlook for 2010).

DNick Holding plc: Share price caught up in global woes, fundamentally - cheaper than ever!

2009-01-15T00:00:00 +0100

Little-noticed press release from late December confirms 2008 projections. Projections for 2009 are likely to come out better than the market currently expects.

BSG Billing Services Group: The cash is rolling in

2009-01-12T00:00:00 +0100

It seems likely that the company will either be subject to a bid, or start an aggressive dividend payment policy to return some of the excess cash to shareholders (either every quarter or in the shape of yet another substantial special dividend).

BB Holdings: Continued insider purchases and a cunning plot

2009-01-06T00:00:00 +0100

Share consolidation should lead to the company buying back an estimated 1% of the outstanding share capital. BB Holdings remains an extremely undervalued investment

A German property blue-chip going cheap

2008-12-05T00:00:00 +0100

Poor Germany. It didn't get to join in with the fun of the property boom, and now it's suffering from the bust all the same. Is there anything still worth buying?

Billionaires in the know are piling into this stock - the brave should follow them

2008-10-02T00:00:00 +0100

Lord Ashcroft is usually written about in the politics section of Britain's newspapers. Yet the business pages should probably pay him more attention – the serial entrepreneur-turned-Tory-treasurer is involved with not just one but about half a dozen Aim-listed companies.

DNick Holding plc: Onwards and upwards!

2008-09-07T00:00:00 +0100

Interim-figures exceed my recent report’s estimates by far and signs of continued stake-building.

SBM - Société des Bains de Mer - What’s new in Monaco?

2008-09-07T00:00:00 +0100

Unless the world runs out of millionaires in need of a tax refuge, this share price probably only has one way to go in the longer-run.

DNick Holding plc: Whether the mangement likes it or not, this company is de facto up for sale

2008-08-21T00:00:00 +0100

DNICK achieved operative earnings of €1.17 per share in 2007. The company is well on track to achieving operative earnings of €1.29 per share in 2008, and €1.34 in 2009. Due to its strong position as service contractor in a high-tech niche, the company has high earnings with virtually no risk from nickel price fluctuations.

PGI Group: Waiting for Roditi to make his next move

2008-08-15T00:00:00 +0100

The EGM approved the de facto split from its Russian property fund subsidiary, following the disastrous fallout with the management in Russia. Will PGI go back to its roots? The company has confirmed that it is now looking at opportunities "in Africa, South of the equator", possibly with a keen eye on Zimbabwe.

BB Holdings Ltd. - The Billionaire, the über-banker and those record insider purchases

2008-08-14T00:00:00 +0100

Offshore banking and agricultural operations are not what you’d usually expect to find within the same company. Then again, Lord Michael Ashcroft is not your average entrepreneur. BB Holdings is the remnant of a previously even more complex and diverse operation, assembled by a man who started out with nothing and who was recently ranked no. 65 in the Sunday Times Rich List (with a personal fortune estimated at GBP1,100m).

Bougainville Copper: Roaring back into life?

2008-07-30T00:00:00 +0100

Preliminary results of a detailed study about reopening the mighty Panguna copper mine are now scheduled to be presented within the next four weeks. In November, an extended version of the study will be released. This is the first time, since the mine was shut by civil war in 1989, that concrete financial and technical parameters for reopening the mine are being set down.

PGI Group: Bon appétit, Mr. Roditi

2008-07-21T00:00:00 +0100

Cryptic announcement ahead of Extraordinary General Meeting and reshuffle of interests in fund management division.

PGI Group: George Soros' best-ever fund manager uses little-known, dormant AIM company to create his own fund management firm

2008-01-28T00:00:00 +0100

During the 1990s, South African-born Nicholas Roditi was known in the media as “Soros’ most trusted aide”, “Soros’ best fund manager” and “Soros’ secret agent”. After a GBP132m payout in the late 1990s, Roditi largely vanished from the scene.

Double your money with this metals stock

2008-01-16T00:00:00 +0100

On a global basis, fewer than 10% of investors ever consider investing money outside the boundaries of their home country. This tunnel vision is the main reason why you can currently pick up the shares of a former star performer for a bargain price.

Exclusive: An entirely new take on Bougainville Copper

2007-12-17T00:00:00 +0100

Bougainville Copper is the world’s only decent-sized opportunity to buy into proven base metal reserves at a tiny fraction of their net present value. The longer-term prospect is for a rise in share price by a factor of 20. Compared to the price of my earlier report from December 2004, Bougainville Copper can produce a return similar to that of Katanga Mining – the Toronto-listed Congolese mine that was recently rejuvenated after a civil war related closure and which rose in price 160 times over 4 years.

Exclusive: SBM plans sweeping changes at Monaco's Casino Square

2007-10-05T00:00:00 +0100

Questions at Annual Meeting led to revelations of large-scale construction plans for Monaco’s premier location. Estimated profits from the 5-year project can easily exceed the company’s entire current market cap.

The Monaco report by Swen Lorenz

2007-03-16T00:00:00 +0100

The land underneath buildings on ‘Place du Casino’ potentially worth more than the entire company, this is one of Europe’s last remaining deep-value plays.

US railroad operators are back on track

2006-06-26T00:00:00 +0100

Back in the 1890s, Charles Dow created a series of market indices designed to track the performance of the US stockmarket. The Dow Jones Industrial rose to become the world’s most widely followed index. Dow himself, however, was a great believer in watching the Dow Jones Transport Index. Originally containing nine railroad and two other transport-related companies, this index measured the state of the backbone of the American economy. If the rails were healthy, so was the rest of the economy.