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Archive for December, 2012

Markel to acquire Alterra!

December 19th, 2012 Comments off

Markel Corp. (NYSE: MKL) announced today that it acquires Alterra Capital Holdings Limited (Nasdaq: ALTE) for $31 per share in stock and cash.

Alterra is a speciality and reinsurance company based in Hamilton Bermuda.

Markel is able to acquire this company which they consider highly complementary to Markel only at a very slight premium to its book value!

This certainly means a big step forward for Markel: with its market cap of $4.68 bil it is able to aquire a rival company with a market cap  of $2.22 bil!

They will held a Conference Call later in the day!

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Colfax and Markel outperform the S&P 500 index!

December 19th, 2012 Comments off

How performed the 2 stocks this blog follows regularly this year?

Colfax Corp. stock (NYSE:CFX) is up 37% as we are less than 2 weeks away from year end and is by far outperforming the 15% gain of the S&P 500 Index as of this writing.

Markel Corp. stock (NYSE:MKL) is up 17% year-to-date and is slightly outperforming the S&P 500 index, too.

In the case of Colfax it’s particularly impressive how patient buy and hold investing can be rewarding over the years:

This blog follows Colfax since May 2009 when the stock stood at $7.27.

This translates into a performance of 436% until now! Not bad for 3 1/2 years isn’t it? Capitalism at work!

To all our readers a Merry Christmas and a happy new year 2013! Stay the course!

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The transcript of Colfax annual analyst meeting is a must read!

December 7th, 2012 Comments off

The transcript of the Colfax Corp. (NYSE: CFX) annual analyst meeting reveils some interesting insights how this conglomerate works and thinks and therefore it’s a must read for every shareholder!

Once a year management takes a lot of time to explain how every sector of the group works and operates within its specific market, how they will improve overall efficiency applying their „CBS – Colfax Business System” and how they will grow over the long term.

As CEO Steven E. Simms puts it: „We believe we can become a premier global industrial enterprise. To us, that means outperforming GDP growth by 1 or 2 points. It means delivering operating income margins that are in the mid-teens, and certainly delivering free cash flow that is in excess of net income.”

And he adds: „We’ve got an outstanding portfolio where we’re the #1 manufacturer in most of the markets that we compete in. We’ve got a great geographic mix where nearly over 50% of our sales are driven by those markets, which are growing in terms of GDP in the mid to high single digits.”

Simms also confirmed that the Charter Acquisition was a tremendous opportunity for Colfax and that they will aggressively go after another strategic platform to add to the 2 that they have today.

Colfax share price is up 36% year to date clearly outperforming the S&P 500 which is up 12%.

So if everything goes as planned we are only at the beginning of a long term growth story!

Cheers!

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