Thanks in part to my special report on Benitec the BTEBY share is now showing a gain. The Down Under management is a bit overwhelmed by the trigger-happy US market but they are quick learners. They set up three investor days, in San Francisco, Boston, and New York in order to get their message to shareholders. I attended the NYC session and learned heaps.
Note that a 50% rise in a share price after a 50% fall, still leaves us behind, for example with Abengoa, ABGB. So the sequels to an investor relations disaster can persist even if the mistakes have been cleared up. We are dealing with a “green” Spanish company, green in all senses meaning also inexperienced. I think this makes the share a better buy than stocks which massage their shareholders and analysts more actively. This share was picked by Frida Ghitis, who covers Latin America and sometimes Europe or the Middle East when she is travelling.
Things are a bit better with Allianz Versicherung, which also had an IR disaster over the exit from its Pimco sub of rainmaker Bill Gross, timed for late enough on a Fridaythat the Germans had all left for the weekend. Gross was due to be sacked on Monday and jumped the gun to wreak havoc. AZSEF has now recovered its aplomb, but it took a while. I jumped on board too soon.
Still to come, I hope, is the recuperation of Portugal Telecom which crashed after it lost $1bn placed with an offshore Luxembourg parent and sub of Portugal’s bankrupt Banco Espirito Santo, called Rioforte. There are now 3 bidders for PT, from the US, Angola, and Luxembourg-France. I expect that a higher offer is coming this week perhaps in time for me to give thanks on Thanksgiving, Thursday, a USUS public holiday among other things commemorating the start of Christmas shopping.
Only one of our Hong Kong stocks rose seriously after the link between the former Crown Colony stock exchange and that of Shanghai was activated, thanks in part to one of our former contributors in China. However she did not recommend the share, AIA, the spinoff of its Asia holdings by from the troubled US insurance firm AIG. The main reason it soared is that Chinese insurance firms and other financial stocks are mostly from rent-seeking dinosaurs of the state sector rather than truly enterpreneurial in their operations. So AIA was appealing. Less so but also benefiting from the link is another share that our former contributor also did not select, Tencent Holdings, TCTZF for us. I wrote both of these shares up myself, despite being a round eye.
