We have been long SDSD for about 6 months. We are 25% up. We have bought more recently. The story is good and it is getting better. See below their latest presentation :
http://www.newsweb.no/newsweb/search.do?messageId=445256&siteLanguage=en
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Madalena – an interesting oil play
Presentation on the opportunity is enclosed
Chart of the day
For how long more?
My favorite Argentine play
I have invested into MDLNF a few months ago. The below article well summarizes why:
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4126330-madalena-energy-window-create-virtuous-cycle
GOPRO down 20% after great quarter and 30 mln decrease in Q4 guidance
The stock will come back. Opportunity to gain at least 20%
I am increasing my position in Senomyx
After a long time I saw an interesting idea on Seekingalpha that made me to increase my position in Senomyx by 50%
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4125405-senomyx-christmas-present-investors
Bear case for the dollar
What will drive the US currency? Three events will influence the USD faith:
- Rotation out of Treasuries. Us treasuries are 14 trillion USD market. The single largest owner is the FED with 4.5 trillion. Foreigners own around 65% of the residual paper, with Japanese and Chinese investors leading the rankings. The trade has been great for them. The US deficit has been shrinking (mainly due to US oil production increases) and therefore treasury issuance has been decreasing. At the same time, FED was buying up most of the new issuance. There were very little treasuries left for investors. All this drove the rates down. Long treasuries was a trade of the past decade. This is now reversing. US tax reform, if approved, will drive the deficit up which will increase the supply of treasuries. At the same time, FED will start to reduce it 4.5 trillion pile of treasuries by 300 bln of treasuries per year. So the treasuries will face a double pressure on rates: due to increasing inflation (driven by imported inflation from EM) and due to an increase of supply of treasuries. Buying treasuries at the time of increasing rates is an unattractive proposition. Foreigners will be most likely selling their Treasuries holdings putting up pressure on USD. As they hold now more than 65% of the treasuries not owned by FED, the wave could be very significant. Both for the yields and for the USD.
- US tax reform. US companies have substantial cash holdings abroad. If the tax reform is enacted, the investors will repatriate their offshore capital holdings back to the US. This will most likely strengthen USD.
- Increase in US interest rates – traditionally, the most important driver for FX is an expectation of interest rates differentials. The most important are 2-year interest rate differentials. If one believes that inflation is starting to emerge, than interest rates will be affected. That would be putting an upward preassure on USD.
The question is which one of the above will prevail. Naturally, it should be the one with the biggest numbers. This means significantly weaker USD due to rotation out of treasuries. I believe that it is already happening. The evidence is in the interest rates. As mentioned it is mainly two years interest rate differentials that drive the rates. The US, two-year rates, are highest levels for the last eight years. Despite that, the USD has been weakening. It might be an indication that the importance of this driving force is lower than the force of the above. Get ready for a rollercoaster ride.
What could save the USD? Only FED. Hawkish FED. Significant increase in USD interest rates would save the USD. I would not be my money on Hawkish FED.
Short term play on OMV Petrom
OMV Petrom is more than 10% down in the last two weeks despite the oil price increasing over that period. The reason is the mishandled SPO by second largest shareholder Fondul Proprietatea. The sale of 2.5% at 0275 draw the price down.
This already happened once in October. At that time the announcement of the sale drove the price down and after the SPO the share price rebounded. See http://www.seekingalpha.com/article/4034808-omv-petrom-special-situation-oil-play-due-mishandled-spo-major-shareholder
The current SPO was three times oversubscribed with allocations at 36%. Rebound expected.
Interesting oil play in Argentina
I have recently increased my position in Madalena Energy. Their latest presentation published today is worth the read:
Additional information, including analysts reports, can be found in the link below.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1570162963237126/?ref=bookmarks
Time to get back to Fondul Proprietatea
Fondul Proprietatea, one of the largest closed end funds in the world, is becoming interesting. In the last few days Romanian index and Fondul are down 5%.
The reason for the sell off is Romanian bank shares. The sell off was caused by speculations of new asset tax on banks to be imposed by Romanian government. It may be a buying opportunity to get back/increase exposure in Fondul.
Fondul trades at 31% discount to its NAV. The reason for such steep discount is in high proportion of unlisted assets in its portfolio.
Over the last years FP was selling one non-listed asset per year. This year they may be selling half of unlised NAV:
– sale process for the two electricity distribution companies is under way (19% of NAV)
– Salt mine is in sale process (2% of NAV)
– Fondu appointed advisors for the disposal of Hidroelectrica stake (33% of NAV)
– Salt mine is in sale process (2% of NAV)
– Fondu appointed advisors for the disposal of Hidroelectrica stake (33% of NAV)
Unlisted assets now represent 69% of total assets. If the disposals would materialize, unlisted assets would decrease to 15% only while cash would represent over 55% of total assets. The price would sky rocket.
For more information on the opportunity pls go to:
