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BH - Biglari Holdings


accutronman

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I bought a bunch back in March in the low 50's.  Even with a SNS bankruptcy, the stock is worth at least $200 just with the other investments.  I'm a value investor...if it's cheap, I will buy...even if it's Sardar.  I'm just not going to be a long-term partner.  When it hits $125-150 or so, I'm out.  Cheers!

 

It might be a cold day in hell before that happens.  Sardar has consistently acted in a non shareholder friendly fashion.  He pays himself handsomely and over the past 5 years the stock is down ~80%.  Investing with/in Sardar is a bit risky imo. 

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I bought a bunch back in March in the low 50's.  Even with a SNS bankruptcy, the stock is worth at least $200 just with the other investments.  I'm a value investor...if it's cheap, I will buy...even if it's Sardar.  I'm just not going to be a long-term partner.  When it hits $125-150 or so, I'm out.  Cheers!

 

It might be a cold day in hell before that happens.  Sardar has consistently acted in a non shareholder friendly fashion.  He pays himself handsomely and over the past 5 years the stock is down ~80%.  Investing with/in Sardar is a bit risky imo.

 

Well said!!  With that said - this could be an interesting valuation exercise to really see the Sardar discount...It's worth watching from afar. 

 

BTW Parsad: How do you even come up with $200 -- even with SNS bankruptcy?  Also - I dont think I've said this here before - but thank you for everything that you do re: CoBF !!!!  Looking forward to the new site.

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Well said!!  With that said - this could be an interesting valuation exercise to really see the Sardar discount...It's worth watching from afar. 

 

BTW Parsad: How do you even come up with $200 -- even with SNS bankruptcy?  Also - I dont think I've said this here before - but thank you for everything that you do re: CoBF !!!!  Looking forward to the new site.

 

Take the market value of the Lion Fund stake and add in a reasonable price for the two insurance companies. Do you get something far off from $200/share?

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So the investment case here is simply "its cheap" but there is no way to harness that except through "hoping" that Mr. Market does it for you?

 

This company, in a nutshell...

 

Quite possibly THE WORST management Ive ever come across.

 

Business definitely doesnt fall into the categories of "quality", or "good" let alone a "great" business

 

Outrageous compensation, which from my experience with these situations, is where the discount to NAV typically gets closed over time.

 

 

I just think theres better bucks elsewhere, even with simply less scummy people and perhaps more mediocre businesses.

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Someone call me tone deaf for suggesting the hashtag of #ME_TOO when Brookfield screwed us on Teekay Offshore 

 

Can we come up with a clever hashtag on Twitter to really shame Biglari.  I mean this is like Harvey Weinstein level of screwing minority shareholders.  Okay, he can have his wealth, but I would like to statistically increase the odds of random waiters in France spitting in his food because he's such a douche.  Maybe we need a top 10 worst Governance offenders.  Someone in social media marketing needs to make this go viral. 

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Once you determined that the CEO is a crook, nothing else matters.

 

Well said.  I have learned the hard way that you want to get in bed with good people.  I have this rule about dating that "a girlfriend who cheats on you will cheat again."  I apply the same rule to investing. 

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I bought a bunch back in March in the low 50's.  Even with a SNS bankruptcy, the stock is worth at least $200 just with the other investments.  I'm a value investor...if it's cheap, I will buy...even if it's Sardar.  I'm just not going to be a long-term partner.  When it hits $125-150 or so, I'm out.  Cheers!

 

And here we have the answer.

 

Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.

 

Greed IS good, but I wouldn't call investing in a company that you know the CEO is a crook "greedy", I think "risky" is the word you are looking for.  I am way too greedy to risk my money with BH.

 

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Once you determined that the CEO is a crook, nothing else matters.

 

Well said.  I have learned the hard way that you want to get in bed with good people.  I have this rule about dating that "a girlfriend who cheats on you will cheat again."  I apply the same rule to investing.

 

Not really.  It's more like one last booty call.  Cheers!

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I bought a bunch back in March in the low 50's.  Even with a SNS bankruptcy, the stock is worth at least $200 just with the other investments.  I'm a value investor...if it's cheap, I will buy...even if it's Sardar.  I'm just not going to be a long-term partner.  When it hits $125-150 or so, I'm out.  Cheers!

 

And here we have the answer.

 

Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.

 

Greed IS good, but I wouldn't call investing in a company that you know the CEO is a crook "greedy", I think "risky" is the word you are looking for.  I am way too greedy to risk my money with BH.

 

Oh for sure there's risk.  But at some point there is an inflection point where the risk is reasonably valued. 

 

You don't bet the farm on this, but you can allocate a portion...and that's what I did, only in my personal portfolios.  Cheers!

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I bought a bunch back in March in the low 50's.  Even with a SNS bankruptcy, the stock is worth at least $200 just with the other investments.  I'm a value investor...if it's cheap, I will buy...even if it's Sardar.  I'm just not going to be a long-term partner.  When it hits $125-150 or so, I'm out.  Cheers!

 

And here we have the answer.

 

Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.

 

Greed IS good, but I wouldn't call investing in a company that you know the CEO is a crook "greedy", I think "risky" is the word you are looking for.  I am way too greedy to risk my money with BH.

 

Oh for sure there's risk.  But at some point there is an inflection point where the risk is reasonably valued. 

 

You don't bet the farm on this, but you can allocate a portion...and that's what I did, only in my personal portfolios.  Cheers!

 

I can see the case for it, but in general I don't like to put my money where a crook can reach it.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 5 months later...

Everyone’s favorite bag holding company:)

 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/steak-n-shake-taps-adviser-for-possible-debt-restructuring-11611072327?page=1

 

“Biglari Holdings said in November in its third-quarter earnings report that after having had to close many of its Steak ‘n Shake dining rooms as Covid-19 began spreading, the company is aiming to shift from a full-service model to a self-service model when reopening them, to save costs. But the company said it needs to make capital investments to complete these conversions, while lenders are blocking it from accessing the needed funding.”

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Everyone’s favorite bag holding company:)

 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/steak-n-shake-taps-adviser-for-possible-debt-restructuring-11611072327?page=1

 

“Biglari Holdings said in November in its third-quarter earnings report that after having had to close many of its Steak ‘n Shake dining rooms as Covid-19 began spreading, the company is aiming to shift from a full-service model to a self-service model when reopening them, to save costs. But the company said it needs to make capital investments to complete these conversions, while lenders are blocking it from accessing the needed funding.”

 

I'll be shocked if this works. Service was terrible when they had employees. Probably will be more so now that they're going to do without 1/2 of them.

 

The food is good. Raise prices and make a better environment to eat it in so people are willing to spend it. That's what would get me back.

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I agree TwoCities, that's why the quote jumped out to me.  Not only would the retrofitting be costly and complicated, the added "benefits" could be detrimental to the customer experience.  Does anyone know if they still have table service/servers?  If so, they should dump the whole table service concept and operate it more like a Five Guys.  It's almost as if Five Guys studied their model and came to same conclusion.

 

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Everyone’s favorite bag holding company:)

 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/steak-n-shake-taps-adviser-for-possible-debt-restructuring-11611072327?page=1

 

“Biglari Holdings said in November in its third-quarter earnings report that after having had to close many of its Steak ‘n Shake dining rooms as Covid-19 began spreading, the company is aiming to shift from a full-service model to a self-service model when reopening them, to save costs. But the company said it needs to make capital investments to complete these conversions, while lenders are blocking it from accessing the needed funding.”

 

I'll be shocked if this works. Service was terrible when they had employees. Probably will be more so now that they're going to do without 1/2 of them.

 

The food is good. Raise prices and make a better environment to eat it in so people are willing to spend it. That's what would get me back.

 

McDonalds has shifted to this model.  With self-service kiosks and their mobile ordering app, they've cut significant costs.  It's the direction of the future. 

 

It's also pandemic proof, because you remove the cost of having a full-service restaurant with a lot of inside seating.  You can fit smaller restaurants into small sites as well at reduced build-out costs. 

 

I never go into McDonalds anymore.  I drive up to their mobile app pickup spot, order on my phone, and the food comes out in 7-10 minutes...fresher than the drive-thru, customized, and they get the order correct more often. 

 

I think it's the right idea, but they've put themselves in a tough position financially to move forward with it.  Anyway, I sold my shares back in December at $120.  Cheers! 

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I don't see a bankruptcy filing in March when the loan comes due. Assuming BH doesn't own any of the debt, that effectively means no matter how profitable Steak N Shake might become in the future all of the cash flows would go to the creditor and not BH, right?

 

Maybe I'm missing something but a bk filing won't happen in March.

 

One scenario we might see is BH pays off the loan in full then quickly finds another lender and you see more friendly terms to upstream cash to the parent (once certain milestones are hit)

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I don't see a bankruptcy filing in March when the loan comes due. Assuming BH doesn't own any of the debt, that effectively means no matter how profitable Steak N Shake might become in the future all of the cash flows would go to the creditor and not BH, right?

 

Maybe I'm missing something but a bk filing won't happen in March.

 

One scenario we might see is BH pays off the loan in full then quickly finds another lender and you see more friendly terms to upstream cash to the parent (once certain milestones are hit)

 

it's non-recourse to BH, so I could see them filing BK at some point if need be.  They've already pulled alot of cash out of the business years ago and put it into other things like Cracker Barrel. 

 

There are other options.  They could sell part of SNS...and retain some of the stores, as well as the new self-service express locations they want to build out going forward.  Cheers!

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Steak ’n Shake Inc. purchased and retired the remaining balance of its $220 million loan due next month, according to people with knowledge of the payment, averting a potential bankruptcy filing.

 

The company completed its repurchase from lenders on Feb. 19, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing private transactions.

 

Steak ’n Shake and advisers including FTI Consulting Inc. and the law firm Latham & Watkins were preparing for a potential Chapter 11 filing earlier this month while the company negotiated with holders of the debt, Bloomberg previously reported. Those investors included Fortress Investment Group. Steak ’n Shake and its advisers declined to comment.

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