Posts

Vetropack Holding AG (SWX: VETN)

Intro Vetropack is a Swiss manufacturer of glass packaging – bottles and jars primarily for the food and beverage industries. Founded in 1911 and headquartered in Bülach, it operates glassworks across Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, Italy, Moldova and Ukraine. The company remains firmly in family hands. The Cornaz family controls 72% of the voting rights, a structure that has kept the business long-term oriented – for better and, some would argue during the current downturn, for worse. What makes Vetropack interesting now is that almost everything that could go wrong for a glass maker has gone wrong at once, and the shares have been punished accordingly. Valuation The shares trade around CHF 18.74, giving a market capitalisation of roughly CHF 370 million. On trailing earnings the stock looks expensive – 2025 was barely profitable – but trailing earnings are exactly the trap here. Two things are depressing the reported numbers. First, a wave of one-off charg...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sika AG (SWX:SIKA)

Intro Sika is a Swiss specialty chemicals company founded in 1910 – originally to sell a waterproofing admixture for mortar. That product, Sika-1, is still sold today. Over the past 115 years, the company has expanded into a global leader in construction chemicals and industrial adhesives, operating more than 400 factories across over 100 countries with roughly 34,000 employees. For decades, Sika was controlled by the founding Burkard family through a dual-class share structure. That changed after a dramatic – and very public – takeover battle. In late 2014, the Burkard heirs attempted to sell their 16% capital stake (carrying 53% of voting rights) to France's Saint-Gobain for CHF 2.75 billion. Sika's board and management fought the deal tooth and nail, arguing it undervalued the company and disadvantaged minority shareholders. What followed was the longest takeover battle in Swiss corporate history – 41 months of litigation, boardroom tension, and shareholder activism. The...
Post a Comment
Read more

B&M European Value Retail (LSE:BME)

Intro B&M started life in 1978 as a single discount store. The business pottered along as a small regional operation until 2004, when brothers Simon and Bobby Arora acquired it. At the time, B&M had just 21 stores. Under the Aroras, it became one of the great British retail growth stories, listing on the London Stock Exchange in 2014 and briefly reaching the FTSE 100. Today the group operates around 780 B&M stores in the UK, over 130 in France, and roughly 340 Heron Foods convenience outlets. The Arora family has gradually reduced its stake, making B&M a widely held institutional stock. A domicile migration from Luxembourg to Jersey – completed in early 2026 – has simplified the corporate structure and, crucially, given the board greater flexibility to return capital via share buybacks. Valuation The share price has roughly halved over the past year, falling from above GBP3.5 to around GBP1.6. At that level, the market capitalisation sits near £1.6 billion. On...
Post a Comment
Read more

Universal Music Group NV (AMS:UMG)

Intro Universal Music Group (UMG) is the world's largest music company, home to labels like Interscope, Capitol, Motown, Def Jam, and EMI, and to artists ranging from Taylor Swift and Drake to The Beatles and Bob Marley. The business operates in three segments – Recorded Music, Music Publishing, and Merchandising – across more than 60 countries. Its publishing arm alone administers nearly 4.5 million titles. UMG was spun out of French conglomerate Vivendi and listed on Amsterdam's Euronext exchange in September 2021. Valuation At €15.66, UMG trades near its all-time low and roughly 47% below its May 2024 peak. The market cap sits at approximately €29 billion. On adjusted 2025 earnings per share of €1.03, the stock trades at a trailing P/E of around 15x – the lowest valuation the company has ever carried as a public entity. The dividend for 2025 totals €0.52 per share, translating into a yield of about 3.3%. Full-year 2025 revenue came in at €12.5 billion, up 8.7% in c...
Post a Comment
Read more

Domino's Pizza Group plc (LSE:DOM)

Intro Domino's Pizza Group is the exclusive master franchise holder for Domino's Pizza in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The company doesn't own the Domino's brand itself – it licenses it from the US-based Domino's Pizza Inc – but it does control the entire UK and Irish operation: the supply chain, the digital platform, and the franchise relationships with the local operators who run about 1,400 stores. The UK franchise dates back to 1985, when the first store opened in Luton. The master franchise was acquired in 1993. For a while, management tried to replicate the model abroad – Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Switzerland – but those ventures proved costly and distracting. Between 2019 and 2021, the company exited all its directly operated international markets and refocused entirely on the UK and Ireland. It was the right call. 2025 brought more disruption at the top. CEO Andrew Rennie departed by mutual agreement in November after just two years in the role, repo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Rotation Time

Some of the companies discussed on this blog over the years have reached – or come close to – their estimated intrinsic value. With the current market offering a number of compelling new opportunities (more on that soon), it makes sense to rotate out of the winners and redeploy the capital. Two positions to write about: Basler Kantonalbank was first discussed in April 2021. The participation certificates have performed very well since then, reaching the price target. Excluding dividends, the capital gain amounts to roughly 67%. Including the steady dividend payments over the holding period, the total return is even higher. A nice outcome for a quiet, under-the-radar Swiss cantonal bank.   Fresenius SE was highlighted in October 2020 at €34.06. The new management's strategic overhaul – simplifying the group structure, sharpening the focus on Kabi and Helios, and restoring margin discipline – has started to bear fruit, and the market has taken notice. The stock has gained more th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Why now?

Some readers have reached out and asked why I am currently posting so many new blog entries (spoiler alert: there is more in the pipeline). The answer is simple. Since I started this blog roughly six years ago, the goal was always to look for cheap, out-of-favour companies trading at low valuations. Benjamin Graham famously said that the market is a voting machine in the short run but a weighing machine in the long run. Following that logic, there are times when attractively priced shares are plentiful – and other times when they are much harder to find. As a consequence of geopolitical disruptions, an ever-changing tariff situation, and heightened uncertainty, some well-run and solid businesses – especially industrial companies – have been on sale. Adding to this, capital has been flowing heavily into US tech and growth stocks for years, leaving many solid European industrials trading at historically wide valuation discounts to their American peers. The recent turmoil has only wid...
Post a Comment
Read more