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CKI - Clarke Inc.


jm25

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Guest Dazel

SD,

 

You are correct Clarke is event driven...and the largest event in their history is the sale of their trucking unit as it is the largest capital gain in their history. The sale went through January 1 so it has not been reflected in the financial statements. Because of this event they are cleaning up the capital structure...which is another event...which will lead to special dividend or the redemption of all the convertible bonds..either way we shareholders will benefit from the recent huge wins at Clarke. It might be dead money at $12...but until then they are  paying us to wait.

 

Dazel.

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Guys ,

 

Do you all put this in your rothIRA ? I really hate the idea of a "special" dividend...

 

 

SD,

 

You are correct Clarke is event driven...and the largest event in their history is the sale of their trucking unit as it is the largest capital gain in their history. The sale went through January 1 so it has not been reflected in the financial statements. Because of this event they are cleaning up the capital structure...which is another event...which will lead to special dividend or the redemption of all the convertible bonds..either way we shareholders will benefit from the recent huge wins at Clarke. It might be dead money at $12...but until then they are  paying us to wait.

 

Dazel.

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SD and Dazel I agree.

I dont see it as a long term holding, just a nice play from $8 to $12.

 

I do think they will squeeze some value out of Spyglass via an asset or company sale. I also think they will take over Royal Host or push it to a sister entity. Terravest is cheap as well trading at less than 7x Ebitda vs EV, there will also be synergies via the new acquisition there. The other stock holdings are cheap, and I believe they may continue to sell down RE and the shipping businesses. We also have buybacks going on daily, and the push to retire the DBs. Clarke can continue to buyback until June and will make a decent return on those purchases.

 

I also agree its worth while to go where Clarke related entities go. Did quite a bit of reading last night and it looks like the private entities are moving out of Terravest and into Holloway which has a BV of 85, trading for 70 mill, and throws off $11 million in cash. Seems like that is where you want to be. I am starting to understand the shady part a bit. There are perhaps 6 entities which are all related which all have various stakes in all of these companies. I wonder how much total capital they have.

 

 

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You might want to keep in mind that CKI is a fairly well known value-trap. The man is good at what he does, but as an investor in CKI over the long term, you will make little more than you would on a Canada.

 

If you do go with him, match his trades; you will eventually get a liquidity event.

 

SD

 

Why is it a value trap? People keep saying "watch out" without any real backup or substance.

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Does anyone have an estimation if Armoyan has majority of his net worth in CKI common ?

Just want to make sure he is aligned with shareholders

 

This one does look very interesting now - undervalued corp with enough cash

 

You might want to keep in mind that CKI is a fairly well known value-trap. The man is good at what he does, but as an investor in CKI over the long term, you will make little more than you would on a Canada.

 

If you do go with him, match his trades; you will eventually get a liquidity event.

 

SD

 

Why is it a value trap? People keep saying "watch out" without any real backup or substance.

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I found an interesting blog post from Feb, 2008 :

 

http://victoriacontrarianinvesting.blogspot.com/2008/02/clarke-inc-and-ceo-george-armoyan.html

 

So back then:

"

P/E of 4 (!!)

P/B 0.93 (!)

ROE of 36% (!!)

Current ratio of 6.6 (lots of cash to service debt, pay wages etc)

Debt:Equity 0.6 (double what I'd like to see)

Major insider ownership 42% ... 17% being the CEO's family

insider buying last 4 months

share buy back December ?amount

dividend 2% yield (not bad for a small cap company!)

"

 

Arguably we are even less leveraged now, with a bigger discount to the book value.

 

Does anyone have an estimation if Armoyan has majority of his net worth in CKI common ?

Just want to make sure he is aligned with shareholders

 

This one does look very interesting now - undervalued corp with enough cash

 

You might want to keep in mind that CKI is a fairly well known value-trap. The man is good at what he does, but as an investor in CKI over the long term, you will make little more than you would on a Canada.

 

If you do go with him, match his trades; you will eventually get a liquidity event.

 

SD

 

Why is it a value trap? People keep saying "watch out" without any real backup or substance.

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I think Clarke is like FFH.

To get comfortable with it you have to be comfortable with the holdings.

 

I like what they hold, and like buying their portfolio at a discount. I also like the tangled web of related party companies which ensnare customers.

Would be interesting to know their full capital base between all public and private companies.

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Circular from Sherritt against Armoyan:

http://www.sherritt.com/getattachment/5c9c2ffb-3f8a-43b1-b43b-b3b4b3af2e41/2014-Proxy-Circular

 

The insider trading settlement is somewhat troublesome.  Also, it does seem that his board nominees are not all that appropriate, other than being a proxy for him.  The 40% representation with 5% of shares is a bit of a reach.

 

Comments?

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Circular from Sherritt against Armoyan:

http://www.sherritt.com/getattachment/5c9c2ffb-3f8a-43b1-b43b-b3b4b3af2e41/2014-Proxy-Circular

 

The insider trading settlement is somewhat troublesome.  Also, it does seem that his board nominees are not all that appropriate, other than being a proxy for him.  The 40% representation with 5% of shares is a bit of a reach.

 

Comments?

 

Response from Armoyan:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/concerned-shareholders-correct-sherritts-misleading-214400708.html

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Circular from Sherritt against Armoyan:

http://www.sherritt.com/getattachment/5c9c2ffb-3f8a-43b1-b43b-b3b4b3af2e41/2014-Proxy-Circular

 

The insider trading settlement is somewhat troublesome.  Also, it does seem that his board nominees are not all that appropriate, other than being a proxy for him.  The 40% representation with 5% of shares is a bit of a reach.

 

Comments?

 

I really don't know how that can be overlooked. As I mentioned early in the thread, Armoyan has made some questionable moves in his career and his reputation is well known in eastern Canada (in my opinion). If you're comfortable sleeping at night with your money in his hands, all the power to you. I'm not...

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Circular from Sherritt against Armoyan:

http://www.sherritt.com/getattachment/5c9c2ffb-3f8a-43b1-b43b-b3b4b3af2e41/2014-Proxy-Circular

 

The insider trading settlement is somewhat troublesome.  Also, it does seem that his board nominees are not all that appropriate, other than being a proxy for him.  The 40% representation with 5% of shares is a bit of a reach.

 

Comments?

 

I really don't know how that can be overlooked. As I mentioned early in the thread, Armoyan has made some questionable moves in his career and his reputation is well known in eastern Canada (in my opinion). If you're comfortable sleeping at night with your money in his hands, all the power to you. I'm not...

 

What is his reputation?  I've not found much online other than this insider trading bit and some related party transactions.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Great deal.

I think we will see the stock move up to $11 in June when we get an updated BV number, with probably $10 when Q1 numbers are released.

Its a very simple story, and the dividends coming in should cover the Dividend out. Sherritt is up 30% YTD and is our largest holdings.

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Yes I thought it was a silly agrument. 30% on our biggest holding isnt too bad.

Also did these guys really not convert?

 

Did someone really leave a 35% gain on the table because they were too lazy to convert their sales.

http://canadianinsider.com/node/7?ticker=CKI

 

If Clarke got $12 million during the redemption then thats great for BV, no dilution. Just seems odd....

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