Studesy Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 Fortress International Group builds server farms/data centres. They are basically an IT construction company. Have had this one on my watchlist since 2009 when I read a Paul Sonkin interview which mentioned it as one of his favourite holdings. Sonkin owns about 10% of the company. His purchase was at some point prior to 2008 when figi was a blank cheque co (and significantly above todays price of $0.50. Fortress originally raised in the neighbourhood of $48mm vs the current market cap of $6.9mm I noticed this morning that FIGI got hammered...down almost 50%. Quarterly and year end conference call was this morning at 9AM. I listened in and the only questions during the call where from who else...Paul Sonkin. FIGI is in the midst of restructuring and are definitely having issues. Here are a couple articles where Sonkin discusses FIGI: http://www.gurufocus.com/news/79495/paul-sonkin-on-finding-microcap-value-steinway-musical-instruments-inc-fortress-international-group-inc-and-rand-logistics-inc http://www.gurufocus.com/news/86988/interview-with-micro-cap-value-guru-paul-sonkin http://variantperceptions.wordpress.com/2010/04/02/fortress-investment-group-fortitude-is-a-virtue/ Does anyone else follow this company? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Studesy Posted March 28, 2012 Author Share Posted March 28, 2012 Conference call can be accessed here: http://ir.thefigi.com/events.cfm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlanMaestro Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 Revenues, where are the revenues. That is a big worry because they should have picked up by now. They are managing expenses and they are being responsible, http://variantperceptions.wordpress.com/2010/04/18/fortress-investment-group-virtue-sometimes-is-rewarded/ But this might be a sign of deeper LT problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Studesy Posted March 28, 2012 Author Share Posted March 28, 2012 Revenues, where are the revenues. That is a big worry because they should have picked up by now. They are managing expenses and they are being responsible, http://variantperceptions.wordpress.com/2010/04/18/fortress-investment-group-virtue-sometimes-is-rewarded/ But this might be a sign of deeper LT problems. Nice job on the FIGI.pk write-up Plan! I agree with you on the revenues. With that in mind ...the margins seem to have improved significantly yoy. The question is ...have revenues bottomed? Is the decline due to industry wide economics or is it a company issue? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alertmeipp Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 What are their competitive advantages? Like if I want a data centre, I would look into the biggies? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlanMaestro Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 What are their competitive advantages? Like if I want a data centre, I would look into the biggies? There are no real biggies. They are one of the biggies thanks to their roots in government. It is basically consulting so it is a fragmented industry. But it is still not that easy for a completely new entrant because relationships are built over time. FIGI is a cyclical company with cost flexibility and a management that seams to be honest and aligned with shareholders. It is not really a quality business but if it survives it is ridiculously cheap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlanMaestro Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 Is the decline due to industry wide economics or is it a company issue? The datacenter industry continues to grow, so I am worried that this is becoming a company issue. The pipeline should have recovered by now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theantilibrary Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 Studesy, can you summarize the Sonkin Q&A on the call (if you remember it)? Damn flip4mac isn't working for me and I haven't been able to find a transcript of the call yet... Many thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlanMaestro Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 Studesy, can you summarize the Sonkin Q&A on the call (if you remember it)? Damn flip4mac isn't working for me and I haven't been able to find a transcript of the call yet... Many thanks! Basically he asked when they were going to be consistently profitable and he did not get a commitment. You can use RealPlayer for Mac. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theantilibrary Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 Thanks Plan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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