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JEF - Jefferies Group


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I'm thinking of taking a pretty major position in LUK tomorrow (hoping it goes down some more)--if anyone feels like telling me why this is a stupid idea, I'd love to hear it!

 

I doubled my LUK position yesterday, so I certainly won't try to talk you out of it.

 

If it is a stupid idea, then I am as stupid as you are I guess.

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Just found this as a good resource to do background research for members of the National Futures Association. They keep track of regulatory proceedings with the CBOT, CME and others. I was lead to this resource as I began reading the CME group's letter to the Senate committee researching MF Global. You can find the regulatory measures against MF Global which they refer to.

 

Also Jefferies was there too.

 

http://www.nfa.futures.org/basicnet/

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jef pre-announced a decent q4 on nov 21, while the stock was trading at $10.....

 

"Our fourth quarter and fiscal year end in nine days

on November 30. Anything can happen in any nine-day period in today’s tumultuous

global financial environment, but we expect to record operating results for our fourth

quarter that, although not where we want them to be, will be profitable and stronger than

our third quarter (excluding the Bache acquisition-related items)."

 

it's tempting to lock in gains now but the valuation still looks good and the stock is still trading at 20% below leucadia's cost basis and 30% below berkowitz cost basis....

 

regards

rijk

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these web sites show that berkowitz/fairholme bought jef in q2 2011

 

http://whalewisdom.com/filer/fairholme-capital-management-llc

http://www.gurufocus.com/StockBuy.php?GuruName=Bruce+Berkowitz&p=1

 

while dataroma shows the same purchase in q3 2011

 

http://www.dataroma.com/m/hist/hist.php?f=fairx&s=JEF

 

anybody know what is happening here?

 

 

in any case, interesting to see that berkowitz abandoned jef in q4, looks like the conviction was not that high after all, i think that his former partners (goodhaven) are still holding jef.....

 

regards

rijk

 

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I'd agree that this is probably a case of selling cheap to buy (or hold) cheaper. 

 

If Bruce B wanted to keep his AIG, MBIA, BAC, SHLD, LUK, etc., he likely needed to sell off his other holdings due to redemptions.  That's probably why all the i-banks have been jettisoned from his portfolio.

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According to 8K posted today it looks like National Beef earned 221 mil + 52 mil(D&A) = 273 mil and since LUK has NOL assets they will not be paying any taxes on this earning. This seems very good deal at the price of 870 mil.

Am I miscalculating something here?

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/96223/000090951812000089/mm03-0512_8kea1991.htm

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A couple of good articles on Jefferies in the FT:

 

Jefferies to set up Europe financing arm

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/9cbafd90-7517-11e1-90d1-00144feab49a.html#ixzz1qLH01PlK

 

Jefferies puts debt debacle aside

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/ffede76e-7748-11e1-baf3-00144feab49a.html#ixzz1qLHM17kh

 

Also, Q1 earnings came out last week. The management call was pretty good. Things look to be back to normal. The company earned 77million. The two recent deals for Bache and Hoare Govett were very opportunistic and and the firm is expanding the Bache commodities platform with new hires.

 

I like what I've seen and heard so far. The investment banking business is growing and the earnings run rate is also growing with expansion abroad.

 

Q1 results:

http://www.jefco.com/pdfs/0320121Q12FinancialResults.pdf

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Back within earshot of book.

 

Ian and Joe getting little respect.

 

I might add this interesting discussion thread about LUK's NOL's / DTA.

 

http://messages.finance.yahoo.com/Stocks_%28A_to_Z%29/Stocks_L/threadview?m=te&bn=10954&tid=15725&mid=-1&tof=10&rt=2&frt=2&off=1#-1

 

<snip>....

 

LUK - Year Reported NOL's (10-K)

 

2003 ... $3,550,000,000 [approx]

2004 ... $3,900,000,000 [approx]

2005 ... $5,100,000,000 [approx]

2006 ... $5,200,000,000 [approx]

2007 ... $5,400,000,000

2008 ... $5,745,600,000

2009 ... $5,985,000,000

2010 ... $5,400,500,000

2011 ... $4,738,150,000

 

 

2010: used ~ $600m of NOLs

 

2011: used ~ $660m of NOLs

 

 

...<snip>

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Thanks berkshiremystery. The january sell of 100,000,000 FMG shares and new earnings from Nat beef should use a big chunck of the DTA again this quarter.

 

Letter should be out soon too, maybe we hear something new about the FMG note litigation. It's on the books for a fraction of what it is worth* if they rule in favor of leucadia. I have no idea about the odds tho. Anyone got an idea?

 

 

(*)LUK's 10-K mentions they earned $214m (before taxes) in interest income in 2011 alone. This was during a year of expansion in its Cloud Break and Christmas Creek operations to a production capacity of 55 million metric tons/year. They plan to expand to 90 million metric tons/year for the area. They sold 46.5 million metric tons in 2011 so if spot prices stay around the 2011 average price level, we are looking at $400m/year in intrest income until august 2019.

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I think the litigation of the FMG note is no longer an issue at this point - it may be in theory but not in practice. Consider that the reason FMG did it was because it was at a time 2 years ago when it was hard for them to raise money to finance their expansion. However, since then, they have raised money in the junk bond market and have not had to offer the sweetner of a royalty note to other investors. The more this goes on, the less likely that FMG will need to do something that dilutes LUK's interest. Given the DTA, I think the odds of a sale of this note is very low.

 

 

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Thanks scorpion.  That's the concept I was trying to wrap my head around.  Why would FMG in practice want to raise money offering royalties dilutive to the LUK note, when that would seem to be a more expensive form of financing?  Maybe if iron-ore prices collapse again, that could be an issue in the future.  I agree the odds of a sale on the note are low.  It always seemed like the idea was to hold on to the note and sell the stock if need be.  Which they have done.  I wonder if LUK would have held on to the stock if the problems with Andrew Forrest had never existed?

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Thanks for your insight scorpioncapital, makes sense.

 

Good question jjsto. I assume that the position was getting too big given the return on the note. They are plenty cyclical already, no need to keep both a $1b+ position and the note. Just a guess tho.

 

How do you guys estimate IV for LUK? I find it really hard to do and only have a vague idea which is simply related to current book value and future expected BV growth.

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