Month: August 2014

Key overview: Merger arbitrage and the Covidien-Medtronic deal – Market Realist

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Spread analysis: Does the Covidien-Medtronic merger make sense? This one bears looking into.  I’m not an arbitrageur but this one is interesting since the head of investor relations for Covidien has bought nearly $1 million worth of COV stock after the deal was announced.     The following analysis is about as good as I’ve ever seen. Kudos to Market Realist and Mr. Nyitray   By Brent Nyitray, CFA, MBA – Disclosure  • Jun 24, 2014 1:38 pm EDT Merger spread analysis To perform merger arbitrage, the investor will generally buy the stock of the company being acquired and sell … Read more

Hezbollah sees ISIS as threat to Gulf, Jordan – Al Arabiya News

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Perhaps the best hope is that Hezbollah, ISIS, Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and all the extremist kill one another.  Maybe we should give them more time.  Until then, don’t short oil.   Reuters, Beirut Friday, 15 August 2014 The leader of Lebanese group Hezbollah described the radical Islamist movement that has seized territory in Iraq and Syria as a growing “monster” that could threaten Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other Gulf states. via Hezbollah sees ISIS as threat to Gulf, Jordan – Al Arabiya News.

‘s Attorney General

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This looks very bad for oracle.  Is this a common occurrence or is this a harbinger of a scorched earth approach to technology rollouts?  Does this portend similar things to what happened to the banks?  Will Oracle and companies like it start being sued under racketeering laws for complex technological solutions that may not work to the customer’s satisfaction?  Of course there are always customer disputes but  I haven’t heard of anything this high profile before. Oregon Attorney General Rosenblum Sues Oracle August 22, 2014 Salem–Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum today sued Oracle America, Inc., and a number of its high-level … Read more

Highlights from EnerCom

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Crude Oil Inventory Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. August 20, 2014 CRUDE OIL INVENTORY/’000 bbls (Week Ended 8/15/14) Current: 362,545 Actual Build/(Withdrawal): (4,474) Economist Average Estimate: (1,140) Previous: 367,019 Click here for the chart with five year averages. CRUDE OIL IN THE MEDIA *Colorado Governor Addresses EnerCom’s The Oil & Gas Conference 19® – Oil & Gas 360® After a full morning of investor presentations by leading oil and gas companies including Range Resources (ticker: RRC), Core Laboratories (ticker: CLB) and Whiting Petroleum (ticker: WLL), Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper took the stage during a … Read more

We will be at Enercom next week visiting three of our investments

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We are making the annual pilgrimage to Denver’s Enercom next week.   Dozens of CEOS and top management from mid to small market oil and gas companies pitch the investment merits of their companies to the buy side.  There is also a lot of commerce between buyers and suppliers of oil and gas services.  This year there are three companies we are particularly interested in hearing from and talking to in the break out sessions.  We have big investments in two of them and just lightened up in a third but are interested in trading back  to a full position.  Timing … Read more

A number of interesting 10% plus yields

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One we have a sizable position is ARRC ARES Capital Corporation, is one of if not the largest of these BDC companies that basically are mezzanine lenders to midtier companies.  It’s a good business today as the larger banks are leaving the lending business in taters due to their Fed regulated Tier 1 Capital ratio obsessions.  Take at look at this good report from JP Morgan on the group.  Note that those companies have to pay out 90% of their earnings in dividend income so you can do the math.  JP doesn’t break out yields which I think is a … Read more

Stocks suffer worst week in two years

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You will hear a lot of explanations of why stocks had their worst week in two years.  The truth of the matter is no one knows.  Sure there are a lot of explanations and perhaps its just the sum of those explanations that adds up to the best explanation. 1. Ukraine crisis.  Obama and the EU have been ratcheting up pressure since the Malaysian airliner was shot down over eastern Ukraine by the separatists.  Obama claims its not a new cold war but Putin shows no signs of backing down. Sanctions now targeting the Russian oil industry.  Counterintuitively the price of … Read more

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