special situations investing

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Bowlin Travel Half Year Results.

all that matters is that they are positive.

Book value. 12.423 million dollars
shares out. 4.583 million

Book Value per share is 2.71 bucks

The stock has a bid ask price of 1.58 and 1.70....

is it possible that in this day and age a companz with a market cap of 7.8 million and a working capital surplus of 4.7 millon and 2.9 million in cash hoard has a 12.4 millino book value. .all tangiblee.

its a nano cap stock for sure and who knows what will happen to this puppy in say the next 10 years. but it seems like it is rather undervalued.

of course the bowlin family own 60% or so. something like that..

have fun researchign this further.

lodgian (LGN).. i just like them.. cauz

they are so f...... good. and if someone is good there are lots of jealous people as my friend would say..

well they are not that great. or not that people have recognized but they have a darn bunch of cheap hotel properties. 13x earnings multiple .. not too far away trading from book value.. whatcha need more to like this. .

good enough for me. .now you lazy people will tell me that the content on this blog is weak but you really got to do the homework yourself. i pinpoint you to one idea you do the walking and talking if you wanna go as deep as commenting on stuff.

lodgian has been coverd for almost 2 years taking up earlier comments from the yahoo special situations profits blog. and giving myself full credit for thsoe comments. as usual. the bad stuff usually goes on the account of that assistant who doesnt exist. teh good stuff, is all my merit.. that,s the way it should be. .

well. i just PINPOINT you in capital letters to lodgian. which is kind of a household seal of approval equivalent. suffice to read 2, 3 quarterly reports in press release format and the momentum of this turnaround should become palpable even to the laymen..

how this lodgian story all compares to comparable valuation and absolute metrics is beyond the scope of this blog. but certainly researchable for the avdvanced followers of the story. the name had quite a bit momentum of late. which must be in recognition to its cheapness as a story. its evidently a seasonal name but so much properties of underperforming characteristics have beenn disposed that they could be up for a surprise or two in the upcoming seasonally weaker quarters.

stay tuned for more special situations profits. i think lodgian has the potential to be a killer post bankruptcy. it has tons of cash flow or the potential to have it and even more of it. and limeted quantities to debt to apply that cash flow towards.

my type of story if you have a 2, 4 year time horizon. obviously who has that type of time horizon. not many. i try to have. and certainly for my more stable clients. they must own this.

so peace out again. z

converium gaining more momentum again

some minor outlook improvements from ratings agencies.. just notional stuff the ratings have not been notched up yet. but the sentiment is improving. Q2 results looked acceptable. even though speacialty insurance lines were weak and investment results rather weak too. at this point i guess it is an overcapitalized company with mediocre returns. the bet here is that new managemetn can improve things ehre over the medium to long term for the better. cannot be that difficult to do. can it?

the ratings improvement is evidently jsut part of teh story here. i guess there is an element of adverse selectio here. BBB somethign rating attracts clients that will be tough on pricing. hence sucky combined ration. the only good thing is that combined ratio has been improving. so let give them a little bet more time. and with a ratings kick aroudn year end, maybe they make a quantum leap here in absorbing the high fixed costs and attractive more generous client base.

this company has elements of a liquidation and is priced as such.. but also has elements of turnaround.. you have to believe somehow that the biz can be turned around in non life and specialty lines to acceptable combined ratio levels. you algo got to believe that investment results are improvable. a lot of believing some would say, but then again this is not a fly by night startup but rather a 20 to 25 year old company with client relationship inherited from zurich financial. not of bad pedigree... so why not give it the benefit of doubt and believe that it can be more than a liquidation.

at this point this puppy is priced like a liquidation. so the upside optionality is priced close to zero. and we like these freaking zero cost options or free lottery tickets. dont we?...

free money anyone. yep. bring it on with truckloads.

peace out. Z

bio-lok (blli) covering after buyout.. at 2.15

this is just wrap up news from the old special situations profits blog on yahoo.. where this idea was talked about at lenght. i guess it qualifies as a double. went from 1 buck to over 2.. mostly small allocations to this name with a few folks i know. we take the small profits too.