Skagen buys more Parmalat, MTN shares
COPENHAGEN, May 14 (Reuters) – Fund manager Skagen raised its Parmalat SpA <PLT.MI> stake in April, attracted by the Italian dairy group’s cash pile and a shareholder structure change expected to make it a takeover target next year.
In its latest monthly report, the Norwegian asset manager said Parmalat is Skagen’s only major stock listed in one of the so-called PIGS countries (Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain), which are burdened by sovereign debt problems.
“The fund currently has no exposure to Greece. Still, we do keep our eyes open, there may be good investment opportunities,” Skagen said, referring to its actively managed $5.0 billion flagship global equities fund.
“We have no direct exposure to banking in any of the PIGS countries and the only major position in these countries is Parmalat,” Skagen said, noting the latter sits on a substantial cash pile from lawsuit compensations linked to its collapse in 2003.
“The company represents a very attractive risk reward with almost 50 percent of the market cap in cash and a solid underlying business,” Skagen said. From 2011, Parmalat would be a “clear take-over candidate … with (an) open shareholder structure.” [ID:nL9516141]
Parmalat was the ninth biggest holding in Skagen Global, accounting for 2.8 percent of the fund’s assets by April 30.
BUYS MORE MTN
Alm Brand buys Headwaters for greentech fund
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Environment and renewable energy are themes in vogue among institutional investors, said Danish fund managers Alm Brand, who recently bought shares in the energy-efficient solutions company Headwaters Inc.
Alm Brand Invest’s Environment Technology fund has about $33 million in assets under management (AUM).
“We have seen a stable inflow over the last year and expect that to continue since we have seen positive interest from institutional investors,” Alm Brand Invest Senior Portfolio Manager, Equities, Thomas Schultz told Reuters.
U.S.-based Headwaters, whose shares have fallen more than 25 percent this year, provides products such as fly ash, an energy efficient insulation component, and services to the building and energy industries.
“We expect an increasing market for fly ash when the construction market rebounds, which will benefit the company,” Schultz said.
He has also taken advantage of the recent slide in renewable energy stocks to add to the fund’s holdings in the alternative energy and energy efficiency sector, which accounted for 38 percent of its AUM at end-February.
“We are still positive on the sector,” Schultz said.
DSV sees double-digit 2010 profit growth
COPENHAGEN, March 4 (Reuters) – Transport group DSV <DSV.CO> expects to return to growth in a difficult 2010, after a drop in world trade and weakness in freight volumes and rates pulled its 2009 figures down.
The company said it expected double-digit percentage growth in 2010, though Chief Executive Jens Bjorn Andersen said it would still be a challenging year.
“We will not see a quick return to the previous years’ growth in world trade,” he said in the 2009 annual report.
DSV, active mainly in European transport by road, rail, sea and air, proposed a dividend of 0.25 Danish crowns ($0.045) per share for 2009, inside the range of analysts’ estimates, for a payout yield of 0.3 percent, compared with an average 2.7 percent for European transport companies. [ID:nLDE6181GV]
DSV’s shares were 2.9 percent lower at 1045 GMT. The stock, down some 4 percent this year compared with a half percent drop for the MSCI Europe index <.MSCIEU>, is valued at about 17 times 2010 earnings, near the European transport sector average. [ID:nLDE61O1H4]
Swiss logistics group Kuehne & Nagel <KNIN.VX>, a DSV rival, said on March 1 it was well positioned for an upturn in economic growth, which, if it materialises, would increase demand for transport. [ID:nLDE620061] [ID:nLDE6200O4] [ID:nLDE62O]
Rating agency Standard & Poor’s said in December it expected the market environment for European transport companies to remain difficult in the first quarter of 2010. [ID:nWLA1103]
Sydinvest calm on UAE, awaits Dubai World plan
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Dubai’s debt problems need to worsen before Sydinvest fund manager Anders Ronnebaek would consider shifting to “underweight” on the United Arab Emirates in his Africa & Middle East equities mutual fund.
Ronnebaek cut his UAE exposure to “neutral” in November by reducing financial sector holdings after Dubai shocked investors by requesting a standstill on $26 billion of debts linked to state-owned holding company Dubai World <DBWLD.UL> and two of its property units.
Unfazed by the recent surge in Dubai debt default insurance costs, the Denmark-based fund manager has kept the fund’s UAE exposure at 10 percent of its $41 million assets under management.
Within the UAE allocation, Ronnebaek’s focus is more on stable, oil-rich Abu Dhabi than on Dubai, whose banking, property and tourism industries until late last year sucked up foreign capital, positioning the fast-growing, glitzy city as the Gulf region’s foremost financial hub.
Another reason for staying put was the low rate of flows in the fund, signaling investors were satisfied with its year-to-date return of 9 percent, he said.
The MSCI Emerging Markets index <.MSCIEF> is down 6.5 percent.
“If they can’t find a solution for Dubai World, if all the debt issues worsen, I could go underweight (UAE),” Ronnebaek told Reuters in a brief telephone interview.
Gold to go
Automatic teller machines (ATMs) — 500 of them — dispensing pieces of gold will be available around Germany, Switzerland and Austria by the end of this year.
That at least is the plan of German precious metals online trading company TG-Gold-Super-Markt.de. The ATMs, to be located at airports, railway stations and shopping malls, are intended to accustom ordinary people to the idea of investing in a physical asset such as gold, the thinking goes. Thomas Geissler, the company’s chief executive, said the gold ATMs might even improve relations between the sexes. “I have yet to meet a woman who does not like a gift of gold. It’s better than flowers. Flowers are more expensive. They wilt and you (as a man) don’t get as many points at home as if you bring gold,” he said. A prototype ATM on display for a one-day marketing test at the main railway station in Frankfurt, Germany’s financial capital, did indeed reward your correspondent with a 1-gramme (0.0353 ounce) piece of gold. It cost the equivalent of $42.25 — a 30 percent premium over the spot market price.
Has Bernanke got it right?
“Don’t fight the Fed” is an ingrained financial markets axiom and hence, when Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke speaks, investors, traders, analysts, economists and fund managers pay attention.
Bernanke testified in Congress on Tuesday and one key message was that the recession should end this year.
German fund managers Mack & Weise (M&W), however, were not impressed.
“That Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke once again takes a fundamentally positive view of the U.S. economy should rather be understood as a warning. Not … a single one of Bernanke’s forecasts in recent years has proven right,” M&W said in a note to investors.
Thanks to what fund managers Martin Mack and Herwig Weise describe as a very defensive positioning — almost 60 percent of assets in cash and nearly a quarter in precious metals — their M&W Privat fund with 86.3 million euros ($114.9 million) under management at end-April has delivered a positive return of 8.9 percent so far this year and 10.9 percent over the past 12 months.
“The responsible politicians stubbornly refuse to address the reasons for the crisis,” they said.
“As long as they try to solve a problem of indebtedness by taking on more debt, and with the help of state interventionism prevent the free-market system from getting rid of ramshackle banks or uncompetitive industries, we are far away from any chance of sustained economic recovery.”
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