Algorithms - how it affects our markets - Kevin Slavin

Kevin talks about algorithms and how it effects our entire world including the equity markets. There are 2,000 physicists on Wall Street now involved in quant/algo/black-box funds. 70% of trades are currently conducted by quants. It can go deadly wrong like the flash crash.

See the full video at

http://www.valuewalk.com/videos-with-text-summary/kevin-slavin-algorithms-shape-world-equity-markets/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+valuewalk%2FtNbc+%28Value+Walk%29

Buffett and Bank of America: Playing Poker with Patsies...it turns out he is making 15% RETURN by Damodaron

Via Musings on Markets by Aswath Damodaran on 8/25/11
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Warren Buffet is famously quoted as saying, "If you have been playing poker for half an hour and you still don't know who the patsy is, you're the patsy". Today, we got a glimpse of Buffett playing poker with Bank of America, and at least from my perspective, it seems clear who the patsy in this game is... it is either Bank of America's stockholders or the rest of us who attribute mystical properties (and uncommon ethics) to the Oracle from Omaha...

Read the full article at
http://aswathdamodaran.blogspot.com/2011/08/buffett-and-bank-of-america-poker-and.html

So, let's recap what happened. It has been a rough few months for Bank of America stock, prior to today. The stock price had halved between November and yesterday:

Macro factors (the Euro crisis and the S&P downgrade) did play a role in the price decline but the company had itself to blame as well.  It reported a loss of $8.8 billion for the second quarter of 2011, reflecting payments to settle legal claims related to troubled mortgages.While the stock price decline suggested that the market was increasingly pessimistic about the company's future profitability, the company itself indicated that it was
sufficiently capitalized to make it through these travails. Earlier this month, the company announced that it would lay off 3500 employees and cut costs, but evoked little positive response from the market.

Today, we woke up to the news story that Warren Buffett, white knight extraordinaire, had ridden to the rescue of Bank of America. 
http://on.wsj.com/nUOWBSHere were the terms of the deal:
- Buffett invests $ 5 billion in preferred stock, with a 6% cumulative dividend, redeemable by the company at a 5% premium on face value.
- If Bank of America is unable to pay the preferred dividend, not only do the dividends cumulate but they do so at 8% per annum and the bank is restricted from paying dividends or buying back stock, in the meantime.
- Buffett get options to buy 700 million shares in BofA at $7.14/share, exercisable any time over the next 10 years.
Let's see what Buffett gets out of the deal. Valuing the options with a strike price of $7.14, even using yesterday's low price of $6.40/share, an annualized standard deviation of 50% in the stock price (significantly lower than the 3-year historical standard deviation of 79% and the implied standard deviation in excess of 100% from the option market)  and a ten-year maturity, I estimate a
value of $4.30/option or an overall value of approximately $ 3 billion (700*4.30) for the options. (I know.. I know..  Buffett does not like using the Black-Scholes model for long term options...Perhaps, he sold Bank of America's managers on the idea of using the famous Buffett-Munger long term option value model to derive a value of zero for these options...) Netting the $ 3 billion value of the options out of the $ 5 billion investment in the preferred stock makes it a $ 2 billion investment, on which $ 300 million is being paid in dividends. That works out to an effective dividend yield of 15% on the investment. By exercising his veto power over dividends and stock buybacks, Buffett can ensure that he is always the first person to be paid after debt holders in the firm. To cap it off, Berkshire Hathaway will be able to exclude 70% of the dividends received from Bank of America in computing taxable income (this is the rule with inter-company dividends), when paying taxes next year.   That is an incredibly sweet deal! 
What did Bank of America get out of this deal? Let's look at what it did not get first:
1. It did not get Tier 1 capital (the most stringent measure of bank capital), which includes only common equity, and thus does not get any stronger on that dimension. 2. It gets no tax deductions, since preferred dividends are not tax deductible. So, the $ 300 million in dividends will have to be paid out of after-tax income.3. It risks losing flexibility on dividend policy and stock buybacks, as a consequence of the restrictions imposed on this deal. The only conceivable benefit I see accruing from this transaction to the company is that Buffett has provided some cover for the managers of Bank of America to make two arguments: that the bank is not in immediate financial trouble and that it is, in fact, a well managed bank. I, for one, am not willing to accept Buffett's investment (or his words) as proof of either, and the way the deal is structured is not consistent with any of the arguments I have been hearing all day (from those who think it is good for Bank of America stockholders).
• First, let us assume that the bank is not in financial trouble and that the market has run away with its fears over the last few months. But, why would a bank that is not on the verge of collapse agree to raising capital at an after-tax rate of 15% and give up power over its dividend and buyback policy? And given the extremely generous terms offered to Buffett on this deal, how can this action be viewed as an indicator of good management? • Playing devil's advocate, let's look at the other possibility, which is that the bank has been hiding its problems and is in far worse shape than the rest of us think. If so, perhaps the terms of the deal make sense to Buffett (high risk/high return), but the deal still does not make sense to Bank of America. If the bank is in that much trouble, it should be raising tier 1 capital, and adding $ 300 million in preferred dividends to its required payments each year makes no sense. And, if it is in fact the case that the bank is in a lot more trouble that we thought, how can Buffett in good conscience then claim that BofA is a "strong, well-led company"? Either the terms of deal are way too favorable to Mr. Buffett or he is not being forthright in his description of the company... In either case, this does not pass the smell test.
I know that there are some who are comparing Buffett's deal with Bank of America to his earlier deal with Goldman Sachs. But there is a key difference. The Goldman deal was entered into at the depths of the banking crisis, and in a period where liquidity had dried up, Buffett was providing capital. Even in that case, you could argue that Goldman Sachs paid a hefty price for taking money from Buffett to shore up their standing... Perhaps, this has become Buffett's competitive advantage. Rather than buy and hold under valued companies, which is what he used to do, he focuses on companies that have lost credibility and he sells them his credibility at a hefty price.  I know that Buffett has accumulated a great deal of trust with investors over the decades, but even his stock will run dry at some point in time, especially if he keeps dissembling after each intervention about the company, its management and his own motives.
In summary, is this deal good for Buffett? Absolutely, and I don't begrudge him any money he makes on this deal or the fact that the tax law may work in his favor. Does the deal make sense to Bank of America's stockholders? I don't think so, notwithstanding some of the cheerleading you are hearing from some equity research analysts and the market's positive reaction. Is Bank of America a "strong, well-led" company? Only if you have a very perverse definition of strong and well-led...

Valuation and Recommendation - Paper Products Ltd

For comments/feedback on the model , please email the author at kumar.saraogi@gmail.com

Paper Products Limited (PPL / The Company) - Recommend BUY
At current levels of Rs.77.40 per share, Paper Products Limited seems like a good buy to me. According to my model (attached), the DCF valuation ranges between Rs.91 and Rs.100 depending upon assumptions we make primarily about (a) Working Capital - Inventory, DPO, DSO, (2) CAPEX in FY2014 and 2015.

Since PPL is a dividend paying company, one may consider using DDM - Gordon Growth too but I find it unfair to value the company using this method as the company does not pay out a large part of its earnings as dividends. Further, the retained part of earnings are not all used to make investments in order to support on going activities or expansion to support the growth in revenue and sales. The company regularly invests in financial instruments like Mutual Funds and other schemes as well. I believe the DDM/Gordon Growth model should apply to those companies which have a long history of dividend pay outs, and the amount of dividend would be that part of earnings which is not used or retained to make investments for expansion or continuing operations to support revenue stream. In this case, PPL's valuation is at approximately Rs.27 per share which in my opinion is far below the fair value.

The company's shares may seem overvalued compared to its domestic peers but what we need to consider is that PPL has very little debt in its capital while all the other domestic players are highly leveraged with Essel Propack's Debt-to-Equity being above 1. PPL's EBITDA is a mammoth 171 times Interest Expenses as compared to Indian peers' and AMCOR's at below 8 times the same. Clearly there is less risk associated with PPL than there is with its Indian and international competitors.

RISKS:

Input Costs Escalation: In FY2010, input costs rose sharply due to hike in price of raw materials. Although most of the other materials were volatile within a narrow band, PET Films prices rose by more than 150% due to global shortage of supply following shut-down of few major suppliers' units, delay in capacity additions and diversion of thin films to higher value added thick films for electronics industry. Other key raw materials that saw sharp rise in price were inks, adhesives and solvents. 

Competition, Margins and Pricing power: In absence of long-term contracts with buyers, PPL seems to be on the disadvantageous side of the negotiation table. Adding to that, competition has been increasing with new players entering and capacity additions with existing ones. In such environment, escalation in raw materials prices and other inputs like fuel and energy costs may undermine margins and cash flows. 

Inflation: PPL primarily serves the food processing industry. Due to recent inflation especially in food prices, PPL's customers have become price conscious and initiated cost cuts in their packaging expenses by compromising on packaging quality as well as by putting pressures on packaging suppliers' margins. Additionally they had resorted to reverse auctions, hard negotiations using consultants. 

Regulatory risk / Plastic ban on Food Processing Industry

 

OPPORTUNITIES

India – Economy, infrastructure & Rise in organized retail:  Having been partially insulated from global meltdown, India saw a robust GDP growth of near 8% and is expected to see the same in the coming year. Economic Times - "When larger wheels in a machine start rotating, the smaller ones automatically gain momentum. The same is true of the Indian packaging sector too. Strong growth in sectors like fast moving consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, liquor, cosmetics etc. has had a positive rub off on the packaging industry. Growth in consumer goods and organized retailing mainly drives demand for packaging." -

  Growing in size of middle class population means shifting form traditional grocery shopping and buying habits at the corner grocery store to supermarkets and organized retail outlets. This adds potential to flexible packaging industry as packaging is and will be an important strategy of product placement on the shelves of such supermarkets and stores where customers walk around and try to judge the contents/product by their packaging and/or brand. It is the least we should remember that PPL's customers are some of the leading FMCG brands who occupy shelves at such supermarkets and stores. The FMCG brands are in general bullish on the scope India offers further through infrastructure development in rural areas and underdeveloped towns which means establishment and growth of organized retail in those areas in the coming decade.Government of India - Ministry of Food Processing's Vision 2015: Although we need to discuss the quantifiable benefits of this plan for PPL, at the first thought PPL should directly and indirectly benefit from this initiative subject to GOI's proper execution of this plan.  Under this scheme the Ministry aims to (a) Become the Food Factory of the World, (b) Triple the growth of Food processing industries, (c) Increase the value addition from 20% to 35%, (d) Increase contribution to the world's agri-business from 1.5% to 3%. Further research on the Vision-2015 plan and discussions with the IR/Management of such companies would give us insights into the quantifiable benefits to PPL which may be in the face of Tax exemptions, subsidies, export incentives (kick-backs), minimum pricing power/protection, raw material quotas and rebates, etc. 

STRATEGY AND OPERATIONS:

NASP (New Applications, Structures, Products and Processes): In the long run, moving more business to value added segments, Innovation and new products, exploring new markets are seen as critical to profitable growth. The company's endeavor to renew innovation program will continue to be the cornerstone of PPL's strategy. NASP initiatives which contributed to 27.2% of total 2010 sales would get added thrust in the current year and years to come. Organizational measures to further accelerate the NASP efforts are in place with the CEO directly overseeing the company's innovation programs and strategy. PPL has been expanding its supplier base for critical raw materials and introducing alternative materials for its products as part of the innovation drive. 

Operations: The Company is making efforts to optimize existing capacity utilization and add units to plants that expect growth in their products. They have seen success in measures to cut operating costs and overhead expenses. To enhance capacity utilization, they initiated de-bottlenecking in supply chain and inventory controls. However, efficient management of Working Capital (Inventory, Receivables and Payables) is critical for favorable valuation in the light of rising materials prices. The DCF Model seems highly sensitive to these assumptions/inputs and further discussion with management regarding this would be vital to arriving at the valuation with more accuracy. Further, the valuation is also highly dependent on the company's ability to preserve or dictate sales margins (Cost + Input or Fixed Price) and Raw materials purchase price in the short and medium terms via contracts or expanding supplier base

Charting The Biggest Structural Problem For US Banks, And What TheMarket Expects...

by Tyler Durden on 8/24/11


Sometimes the general public can get confused in attempting to explain the complexities and the inefficiency of the banking sector when one simple chart brings the message home. A chart like that comes from the latest "Eye on the Market" from JPM's Michael Cembalest, who compares total bank deposits ($8.4 trillion), or bank liabilities, and total bank loan (about $2 trillion less) assets, or sources of cash flows that are supposed to fund bank liabilities and generate retained earnings, while the bank performs credit, maturity and risk transformation: a bank's three key functions. As the chart below shows, perhaps the primary reason why the economy is in its current deplorable state, is that instead of lending dollar for dollar to catch up with deposit growth, banks now rely on roughly $1.7 trillion in excess reserves with the Fed, an amount roughly equal to the difference between total deposits and loans, to plug the credibility gap. This also explains why according to Cembalest one of the expectations by the market from Jackson Hole is that IOER will be cut to 0% to promote bank lending, and thus the conversion of reserves into loans (something which the inflationistas out there will tell you is a big risk to a sudden surge in out of control inflation). So how does the Fed's direct intervention in bank balance sheets look like? Here it is

Full article at

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/charting-biggest-structural-problem-us-banks-and-what-market-expects-jackson-hole-version-n1