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LAACZ - LA Athletic Co


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Apologies--meant as a joke, but inelegant phrasing given existence of exchange-set actual position limits on certain contracts. I'm putting in my notes for future reference:

Good: Use emojis to clarify joke status of comment

Better: Just don't post that!

 

Sorry for the confusion.

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  • 1 month later...

Kind of insane how well they did despite COVID this quarter. I was getting ready for a blood bath. It's amazing how much they can cut in costs. I bought a few more units last week and feel pretty comfortable continuing to build up my position over time.

 

Does anyone have any idea who would take over after Karen Hathaway retires? I'm wondering if that could be a catalyst for them to sell their SS portfolio. Don't think they'll ever sell the club for personal reasons for the family but I could see there being a shot of them selling the SS portfolio when Karen retires.

 

Thoughts or pushback welcome.

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Kind of insane how well they did despite COVID this quarter. I was getting ready for a blood bath. It's amazing how much they can cut in costs. I bought a few more units last week and feel pretty comfortable continuing to build up my position over time.

 

Does anyone have any idea who would take over after Karen Hathaway retires? I'm wondering if that could be a catalyst for them to sell their SS portfolio. Don't think they'll ever sell the club for personal reasons for the family but I could see there being a shot of them selling the SS portfolio when Karen retires.

 

Thoughts or pushback welcome.

 

Agreed.  I thought that the club closure may burn $2-4mm a quarter.  I figured that they may still have to pay employees despite furloughs and the club operations doesn't seem like a business that can be turned off.  I was very surprised by the results.  Seems like the self storage business barely had a blip.  1% revenue decrease.  I was a bit annoyed that these guys aren't as good operators as the big operators like Public Storage, Extra Space etc.  But this past quarter has surprised me at how well they have handled the whole situation. 

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Kind of insane how well they did despite COVID this quarter. I was getting ready for a blood bath. It's amazing how much they can cut in costs. I bought a few more units last week and feel pretty comfortable continuing to build up my position over time.

 

Does anyone have any idea who would take over after Karen Hathaway retires? I'm wondering if that could be a catalyst for them to sell their SS portfolio. Don't think they'll ever sell the club for personal reasons for the family but I could see there being a shot of them selling the SS portfolio when Karen retires.

 

Thoughts or pushback welcome.

 

Agreed.  I thought that the club closure may burn $2-4mm a quarter.  I figured that they may still have to pay employees despite furloughs and the club operations doesn't seem like a business that can be turned off.  I was very surprised by the results.  Seems like the self storage business barely had a blip.  1% revenue decrease.  I was a bit annoyed that these guys aren't as good operators as the big operators like Public Storage, Extra Space etc.  But this past quarter has surprised me at how well they have handled the whole situation.

 

Any thoughts about what happens to the company post- Karen Hathaway retirement? Do you think they'd sell off the SS portfolio?

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Kind of insane how well they did despite COVID this quarter. I was getting ready for a blood bath. It's amazing how much they can cut in costs. I bought a few more units last week and feel pretty comfortable continuing to build up my position over time.

 

Does anyone have any idea who would take over after Karen Hathaway retires? I'm wondering if that could be a catalyst for them to sell their SS portfolio. Don't think they'll ever sell the club for personal reasons for the family but I could see there being a shot of them selling the SS portfolio when Karen retires.

 

Thoughts or pushback welcome.

 

Agreed.  I thought that the club closure may burn $2-4mm a quarter.  I figured that they may still have to pay employees despite furloughs and the club operations doesn't seem like a business that can be turned off.  I was very surprised by the results.  Seems like the self storage business barely had a blip.  1% revenue decrease.  I was a bit annoyed that these guys aren't as good operators as the big operators like Public Storage, Extra Space etc.  But this past quarter has surprised me at how well they have handled the whole situation.

 

I bet they did something along the lines of PPP loans to reduce cash burn. The club business has low margins and I think it mainly serves as a rent slave for the real estate operations.

 

The self storage ops seems to be dong just fine. That said, they increased the distribution for the first quarter to $25 (from $23 last year) and then reduced it back to $23 for the second quarter. It’s not the end of the world, but COVID-19 does have some impact.

 

FWIW, I operate under the assumption that Karen Hathaways retirement will have little impact and the family will continue to operate this.

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Anyone noticed that LAACZ has gone from “limited info” to “dark” status again on OTCMarkets. No idea why, as they published a quarterly report on 6/30.

 

I noticed this when Fidelity pulled my GTC order a while ago. LAACZ flip flops from limited info to dark from time to time and Fidelity (and likely other brokers) will just pull any outstanding buy Order if they happens.

https://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/LAACZ/profile

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Perhaps I'm reading into this but wanted to hear some thoughts.

 

First, there was this news release where the guy who helped bring LAACO into the self-storage business retired. The current CEO is pretty old and her husband also recently retired. I believe the rest of the family is on the Athletic Club side of the business and not the SS side (unless I'm wrong here). I think it is likely that after the CEO retires, they would sell the SS business. I have spoken to someone high up at the company saying that they hoped the SS business eventually gets sold as they believe it is worth significantly more than the stock price. Not going to go into the whole valuation thesis here

 

Here's the link to the PRE: https://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/LAACZ/news/Stability-LLC-Announces-Retirement-of-Vice-Chairman-Frank-G-Hathaway?id=281045

 

However, tonight this was released: https://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/LAACZ/news/Stability-LLC-Announces-Election-of-Taylor-Hathaway-Zepeda-to-the-Board?id=282538

 

What stood out was this line: 

"Taylor Hathaway-Zepeda is a corporate attorney at a major Los Angeles law firm, where her legal practice focuses on public and private company transactions and corporate governance."

 

Wondering if this is indicative of a possible sale of the company or the SS business here since I believe this is where the company eventually ends up regardless.

 

Thoughts?

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I suppose Taylor Hathaway-Zepeda is related to the Hathaway clan, but I am not sure. I little bit of googling shows that she in the LA chamber of commerce to get her with Karen Hathaway and there are a lot of inter generational members in this institution. Taylor is 35 and will be around for a while, I think and so will be LAACZ.

 

If they sell the self storage business they either take a huge tax hit or do a 1031 exchange which means they own a probably worse business without controlling it. If I were them, I wouldn’t sell. This business is as good and safe as it can get.

 

The important part is that the year end distribution has been raised to $25 so things are going OK, it seems.

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  • 3 months later...
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Y2020 10K is out. Earnings pretty much flat despite carnage with the clubs. Their Capex is now lower than depreciation so they delever the balance sheet even though leverage was small to begin with.

https://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/LAACZ/disclosure

 

FWIW, the supplemental filing is also interesting as it shows the controlling unit holders.

Edited by Spekulatius
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^ I missed the annual meeting. The result speak for themselves:

https://backend.otcmarkets.com/otcapi/company/financial-report/282848/content

Earnings ~$40/quarter (almost $50 with tax basis adjustments), $26 distribution. Their leverage is getting lower with depreciation > Capex now after the buildout of the self storage units is mostly done.

This is now worth almost 18% of my taxable portfolio (my IRA's are much larger than taxable portfolio and unfortunately, I can't hold it in those any more). It is not my best performing stock, but it's the one that made me the most in absolute $  with very low risk.

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Nice 11% of taxable here. Berkshire is 40%. 
as long as I have a w2 job, think my taxable will trend toward berkshire, #neversell Limited partnerships like LAACZ, some FAANG, and eventually...indices. Taxes and all that.

 

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3 hours ago, thepupil said:

Nice 11% of taxable here. Berkshire is 40%. 
as long as I have a w2 job, think my taxable will trend toward berkshire, #neversell Limited partnerships like LAACZ, some FAANG, and eventually...indices. Taxes and all that.

 

What happened to your REIT exposure?

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