The not-so Thrifty
In practice:
Not like the good old days
Sadly my plan to create a model portfolio of good companies at cheap prices, the Thrifty 30, by going back through the companies I’d profiled in the last year-or-so and including those that still fit the template, is snagged on the rusty nail of exuberance.
Since investors have enjoyed [...]
ITE: Reasons to be cheerful
I see rubles, up ahead
Looking at my recent posts, you’d think I’m obsessed with ITE.
It’s a very interesting stock. Top-down the case looks ropey. Financial crises are worse in emerging markets (see here, and here) so any company doing business in, say Russia, or Kazakhstan, faces an even more uncertain environment than, say, a domestic [...]
ITE: The other side of the ruble
From Russia with fear
Since yesterday, a report from Moody’s and a video from the BBC have unsettled me even more about Eastern Europe. Ignorance was bliss. A little information is terrifying. The truth is probably somewhere in between.
The gist of the report is that the credit crunch and collapsing oil price are costing Russian companies. [...]
Fear of the unknown driving ITE’s price down
The sum of all fears
Maybe it’s because I watched the The Sum of all Fears on telly last night, but my febrile emotional state is resisting ITE (ITE).
ITE, which organises trade shows, does a lot of its business in Russia, £66m in 2008 or about 60% of its sales. The Sum of All Fears, a [...]
Innovation doesn’t inspire
Uncertainty abounds
After reading Alphaville’s alarmist appeal to readers to SELL: Insurers because of now widely reported fears for their solvency, I tweeted :
Right, that’s it. As of now, I have a strict policy, not to invest in any entity that invests…
A little dramatic perhaps. I’ve avoided insurance companies and banks for nearly a decade, not [...]
ITE exhibits value potential
News of Global recession reaches Urumqi
Investors have been reappraising ITE’s growth prospects by the look of its chart, which isn’t surprising since it’s about as dependent on the global economy as a business could be.
ITE (ITE) organises international trade exhibitions and conferences in Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia, although it has outposts from Huddersfield [...]
