Durch einen Kollegen habe ich am Mittwoch die Nachricht eines Fondmanagers erhalten, der einen gewissen Teil eines small cap funds in Aurelius investiert hatte. Auch wenn einige der Informationen bereits einige Male angesprochen worden sind, so sind dennoch ein paar Punkte zu nennen, auf die bisher noch nicht eingegangen worden ist.
Also, Infostand Mittwoch: - We have been invested in Aurelius since early 2013: avg acquisition price = below 30 EUR (first acquisition price below 20 EUR). We sold our total position (50% of the positon 2 days ago (at 55.4 EUR) and the remainder yesterday) -à avg selling price of 49.6 EUR for the total sale; We received 5.5 EUR in dividends since 2013. - Gotham has a questionable business model (by upfront going short a stock, make a lot of fuzz that a publication will come and then publishing a big negative note and make it widely available) - We do know though they were spot on in at least 2 cases in the past (Quindell and Gowex), so they definitely have to be taken seriously and often do have a significant impact in the market. - We explained you during the presentation last week that we are slow to buy, but quick to sell (when a stock doesnt meet our quality criteria anymore). - Given: o valuation was already quite rich (some sell side analysts valued the recently acquired (3-4months ago) company Office Depot Europe at 350+ mio EUR, while they acquired it for a symbolic price but with 100 mio badwill to restructure the business/Most of the analysts incorporating a lot of value creation in the cash on hand and the stock trading at a 15-20% premium vs our analysts calculated NAV,etc). ( We therefore started to reduce the weighting from 3.5% to 3% in the portfolio ( a few days before the Gotham publication) as we didnt invest in the name, while getting inflows. (The reason we still kept the stake was because 2017 was supposed to be a year of major exits. Some of their major portfolio holdings are likely disposal candidates. Aurelius typically shares 50% of the profits made on their exits as extra dividends with their shareholders) o The reputation of Gotham
We decided to liquidate half of our position on that day when they announced their short position (= 2 days ago) We sold the remainder yesterday as we were not at all convinced by the answers given by management (neither in their press release, nor during the conference call).
A few of the most important issues:
a/The CEO/founder declined to disclose his remaining stake. We raised this question already in December and they replied to us his shares were transferred for tax optimization reasons into different structures, while his economic interests did not change. He did not come with enough evidence though after these accusations to be able to assess his current real economic exposure. (=NO on the question: are management interests aligned with minority interests) b/Disclosure levels on individual portfolio holdings has been reduced in their annual report published yesterday (not disclosing any more their NAV per company) (=NO on the red flag question do you know how they make money) c/(Variable) compensation levels (disclosed in the annual report published yesterday) for the 3 founders have gone up a lot vs last year and are now extremely high when compared with the exits that have been realized. (=NO on the red flag question: Are management or owners honest)
We expected management to address all the major issues during the conf. call, but this was a big disappointment. They hide themselves behind legal reasons, which we deem suspicious and unprofessional, given what is at stake. |