Tiger Global discloses updated portfolio positions in 13F filing: New stake in ZG; Boosted stake in EHIC; Trimmed Stake in AAPL; Liquidated stake in VIPS, ATHM
Highlights from 2016 Q1 filing as compared to 2015 Q4 filing:
- New positions in: ZG (~1 mln shares)
- Increased positions in: CHTR (to ~2 mln shares from ~0.7 mln shares), EHIC (to ~8.3 mln from ~4.7 mln)
- Decreased positions in: AMZN (to ~1 mln shares from ~3.2 mln shares), AAPL (to ~5.7 mln from ~10.6 mln)
- Closed positions in: BUD (from ~1.9 mln shares), ATHM (from ~5 mln), PPC (from ~2 mln), RH (from ~3.2 mln), SPLK (from ~2.1 mln), VIPS (from ~49.5 mln)
Starboard Value discloses updated portfolio positions in 13F filing: Boosts stake in YHOO; Cuts stake in DRI, FCPT; Closes stake in NYRT, ODP
Highlights from 2016 Q1 filing as compared to 2015 Q4 filing:
* New positions in: DEPO (Prev. known) (~3 mln shares), MRVL (Prev. known) (~20.4 mln), NXST (~0.3 mln)
* Increased positions in: YHOO (to ~12.3 mln shares from ~7.1 mln shares)
* Decreased positions in: DRI (to ~6.6 mln shares from ~11.6 mln shares), FCPT (to ~2.5 mln from ~3.9 mln)
* Closed positions in: NYRT (from ~1.4 mln), ODP (from ~4.5 mln)
Baupost Group discloses updated portfolio positions in 13F filing; new positions in VMW and GNW; closed positions in KOS
Highlights from 2016 Q1 filing as compared to 2015 Q4 filing:
* New positions in: AGN (~1.7 mln shares), GNW (~1.7 mln), LQ (~1.1 mln), VMW (~2.3 mln), INVA (~19.8 mln)
* Increased positions in: OLN (to ~10.7 mln from ~7 mln), FOXA (to ~15 mln from ~10.6 mln), OREX (to ~22.3 mln from ~2.3 mln), EMC (to ~51.9 mln from ~29.2 mln)
* Decreased positions in: PYPL (to ~7.1 mln shares from ~11.1 mln shares), BXE (to ~8.7 mln from ~24 mln)
* Closed positions in: KOS (from ~4.6 mln shares), OCN (from ~5.2 mln), SN (from ~2 mln), MU (from ~1 mln)
Why Savings Alone Won’t Save Telecom Italia
Cutting costs may buy Telecom Italia time, but don’t address the company’s core problem: new competitors
Telecom Italia wants growth by a thousand cuts. The approach may buy Italy’s largest telecom group time. But to stabilize its shrinking domestic business in the longer term, the company needs political support that is by no means assured.
Investors didn’t react well to a strategic plan unveiled in February by then-Chief Executive Marco Patuano that upped the three-year capital budget by €2 billion ($2.3 billion) to €14 billion.
New boss Flavio Cattaneo has therefore chosen to focus on savings, increasing targeted cost reductions by €1 billion. The market cheered the announcement Monday, even though it accompanied weak first-quarter results.
By 2018, Mr. Cattaneo wants to take €800 million out of operating spending and the same amount out of capital spending, all without sacrificing the company’s rollout of fiber broadband and 4G mobile infrastructure.
He will have to act quickly, having retained his predecessor’s expectation for flat earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in Italy this year. In the first quarter this key profit measure fell 5.2% year over year, as growth in broadband and mobile revenues failed to make up for the continuing decline of the landline business.
Just how achievable the targeted savings are can be debated. They are more plausible for not relying on fresh job cuts, Telecom Italia having struck a downsizing deal with the unions only last year. Management is instead focusing on sourcing. The purchase of goods and services cost the company €8.5 billion last year—43% of revenues—so negotiations here could yield fruit.
But costs aren’t Telecom Italia’s core problem. Even after recent declines, the company makes higher Ebitda margins than most of its European peers.
For years the company’s fixed-line network faced no real competition, but this is now changing. The emergence of better 4G networks has encouraged many Italians to ditch Telecom Italia’s copper landlines in favor of mobile broadband. And two companies now pose a threat in the fixed sector: Metroweb, which has built a fiber-optic network in Milan, and energy provider Enel, which plans to install fiber access in homes at the same time as smart electricity meters.
Telecom Italia this month made a €820 million all-cash bid for Metroweb, even though its net debt, at €27.1 billion, amounts to almost four times last year’s Ebitda. The move is defensive: Enel is also in talks to buy the company.
Much hinges on the outcome of this deal. Metroweb is owned by the Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, a state fund, so the decision is as much political as financial. Enel is part-owned by the Italian finance ministry, and its broadband plans have the explicit backing of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi .
If Telecom Italia succeeds in buying Metroweb, it would signal a new era of political support for the former state monopoly. But the signs aren’t promising.
CNBC's Kelly: sources say Cooperman's Omega has already sold the new stake in Apple that was disclosed in 13F filing; it was mere a trade not a long term position
Blue Ridge Capital discloses updated portfolio positions in 13F filing
Highlights from 2016 Q1 filing as compared to 2015 Q4 filing:
- New positions in: CHK (~7.1 mln shares), COMM (~3.8 mln), CNX (~3.4 mln), ECA (~4.3 mln), OAS (~4.6 mln), SWN (~8.2 mln)
- Increased positions in: AMBA (to ~1 mln shares from ~0.4 mln shares), CP (to ~1.5 mln from ~1.2 mln)
- Decreased positions in: ALLE (to ~2.3 mln shares from ~3.4 mln shares), BMRN (to ~1 mln from ~1.5 mln), PBF (to ~1.1 mln from ~2.4 mln), PCLN (to ~0.2 mln from ~0.3 mln)
- Closed positions in: ENDP (from ~2.1 mln shares), ETFC (from ~4.4 mln), LC (from ~0.8 mln), MPC (from ~3.5 mln), MTG (from ~2.9 mln), SIRI (from ~30.7 mln
TPG-Axon discloses updated portfolio positions in 13F filing: Adds GOOG, AMZN; Closes DFS, SC, CRC, KAR, RACE
Highlights from 2016 Q1 filing as compared to 2015 Q4 filing:
- New positions in: GOOG (~0.1 mln shares), AMZN (~39K)
- Decreased positions in: SYF (to ~2.1 mln shares from ~4.5 mln shares), DOOR (to ~0.5 mln from ~0.7 mln), HCA (to ~1 mln from ~1.5 mln), AXTA (to ~0.7 mln from ~2.3 mln), TSN (to ~0.9 mln from ~2 mln)
- Closed positions in: DFS (from ~0.7 mln shares), SC (from ~3.6 mln), CRC (from ~2.7 mln), KAR (from ~1.1 mln), RACE (from ~0.4 mln)
Broadfin Capital discloses updated portfolio positions in 13F filing: New stakes in ARLZ, CSII; Closes positions in AMAG, AMPH, BLRX, ATRC, BIOD, GNCA
Highlights from 2016 Q1 filing as compared to 2015 Q4 filing:
- New positions in: ARLZ (~3.8 mln shares) CSII (~1.5 mln)
- Increased positions in: RPTP (to ~7 mln shares from ~2.4 mln shares) CPRX (to ~8.2 mln from ~4.2 mln)
- Decreased positions in: CRDC (to ~0.9 mln shares from ~8.9 mln shares)
- Closed positions in: AMAG (from ~0.3 mln shares), AMPH (from ~1 mln), ATRC (from ~0.8 mln), BLRX (from ~3.5 mln), BIOD (from ~2 mln), GNCA (from ~0.8 mln)
Leon Cooperman's Omega Advisors discloses updated portfolio positions in 13F filing
Highlights from 2016 Q1 filing as compared to 2015 Q4 filing:
- New positions in: AAPL (~0.2 mln shares), BLL (~0.6 mln), ETP (~1.4 mln), PYPL (~1.3 mln), WPZ (~1.2 mln)
- Increased positions in: MSFT (to ~1.8 mln shares from ~0.8 mln shares), SYF (to ~2.1 mln from ~0.9 mln), TRGP (to ~2.7 mln from ~1.3 mln)
- Decreased positions in: DISH (to ~1.1 mln shares from ~1.8 mln shares), FB (to ~0.5 mln from ~1 mln), GPOR (to ~0.2 mln from ~0.6 mln), NAO (to ~1.6 mln from ~3.7 mln), SIRI (to ~21.1 mln from ~32.2 mln)
- Closed positions in: ATLS (from ~3.9 mln shares), GLBL (from ~6 mln), JPM (from ~1.1 mln), PFE (from ~1.3 mln), RIGP (from ~1.1 mln), C (from ~3 mln)
Yadkin sale may be on 2017 horizon, bankers say
* Possible asking price is USD 30 a share
* Numerous potential buyers
Yadkin Financial (NYSE:YDKN), North Carolina’s largest community bank, may be in a position to sell once it integrates its recent acquisition of NewBridge Bancorp, said two industry bankers and an analyst.
Among reasons they cited are the bank's attractive North Carolina footprint, a shrinking number of area targets and a possible exit by its private equity investors.
The Raleigh-based institution reached USD 7.4bn of assets when its USD 450m stock deal with NewBridge closed on 1 March.
An industry banker noted Yadkin has now reached critical mass with its acquisitions and has been cutting costs. CEO Scott Custer, who has rolled up six banks during his tenure, is good at buying companies but may want to sell as those opportunities dry up, this banker said. Yadkin is also approaching USD 10bn in assets, where higher regulatory costs kick in, the banker added.
Stephen Scouten, an analyst with Sandler O’Neill, said he thinks Yadkin would sell if a suitor offered at least USD 30 a share. That price would reflect more than 2.2x times tangible book, a level recently seen in only a few Florida deals.
“Maybe they have to integrate NewBridge first and clean it up for someone to want to offer them the right price in their mind,” Scouten said. “It could be a 2017 event. But I also wouldn’t be surprised if you saw something between now and September before they do the (systems) conversion with NewBridge.“
Scouten noted that Yadkin has two private equity investors, Stone Point Capital and Lightyear Capital, who may be interested in an exit. Both invested in Piedmont Community Bank Holdings in September 2009 and received Yadkin shares in July 2014 when the two banks combined in a merger of equals, according to SEC filings.
Both firms have representatives on Yadkin’s board although each now has less than a 5% stake.
Yadkin’s top executives would see a large payday from a rabbi trust in the event of a “change in control.” The trust, set up in connection with the Piedmont deal, will otherwise vest at the end of 2018.
A second industry banker said it would be highly unusual for Yadkin to sell so soon after the NewBridge deal, which almost doubled the institution’s size.
Such a deal would raise red flags and most buyers would prefer to see Yadkin extract the synergies promised when the deal was announced, this banker said. A sale might eventually happen as Yadkin contemplates the USD 10bn asset mark, he said.
Jeff Davis, a managing director with Mercer Capital, agreed. While North Carolina’s thriving markets make Yadkin an appealing target, he said it’s more likely that Yadkin “let’s the dust settle” for a year with the NewBridge acquisition and then makes one more acquisition before selling itself.
Yadkin is an “acquirer of choice” for many community banks, who would take Yadkin stock in the hope of getting a “double dip” when Yadkin eventually sells, Davis said.
With top positions in North Carolina's top four metro markets, Custer recently said Yadkin is happy with its current situation. “I don’t know that we have to go do a lot more acquiring to realize the benefits of scale that we have today,” he said at the Gulf South Bank Conference in New Orleans on 3 May. He said Yadkin will probably spend the rest of 2016 “getting NewBridge right.”
Yadkin did not respond to subsequent requests for comment on the possibility of a sale.
The first banker said there are only a handful of buyers that would be able to pay the price Yadkin probably wants and have a multiple that would not be dilutive to their own shares. Bank of the Ozarks (NASDAQ:OZRK), United Community Banks (NASDAQ:UCBI) and IberiaBank (NASDAQ:IBKC) are potential contenders, the first banker said.
United has been actively acquiring in South Carolina and has a small North Carolina presence, and Yadkin would fit the focus outside of its home state of Georgia, the first banker said. Iberia, he added, has traditionally been a deep South bank and may want to increase its limited presence in the Carolinas.
In January, BNC Bancorp (NASDAQ:BNCN) CEO Rick Callicutt said he looked at a deal with Yadkin, which was slightly smaller than it at the time, but decided it was not the right transaction.
Scouten said he thinks buyers could include South Carolina-based South State (NASDAQ:SSB) and Memphis-based First Horizon National (NYSE:FHN), with Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) a possibility as well.
Davis agreed that South State is a good candidate. He also said a possible merger with Charlotte, North Carolina-based Park Sterling (NASDAQ:PSTB), which is smaller than Yadkin, would be interesting. Such a combination would beef up the bank’s presence in Charlotte and add Richmond to the mix.
Yadkin used Keefe Bruyette & Woods as its financial advisor on NewBridge, while Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom served as its lawyers.