Hi all – welcome to Raper Capital and thank you for reading. My name is Jeremy Raper (hence the unfortunately-titled name of this blog), and I run a small long/short equity portfolio from Singapore. I grew up in Australia, went to college in the US, and have since lived in Japan as well, working both at buy-side and sell-side firms for 6-7 years before striking out on my own over the past year or so.
Since starting to actively manage my own money full-time, I have also developed an interest in financial writing and sharing my thoughts on companies on the internet – both to force me to cogently and coherently outline my investment views as well as to solicit feedback from other investors. So, for more formal investment theses/company analysis, please follow me on Seeking Alpha at the following link: http://seekingalpha.com/author/jeremy-raper
The purpose of this blog is slightly different: I am starting it at the urging of some friend and former colleagues, who I guess are interested in reading my views on a wide miscellanea of finance-related topics. As such, posts will be sporadic and potentially rambling, but hopefully of some interest to those who follow financial markets.
Feedback – positive or negative, just not personal – is always welcome, so feel free to comment away and suggest this to interested friends 🙂
Thanks for reading!
Jeremy:
I enjoyed your AER analysis on SA. It is our largest holding in KCM Global Alpha, though we own it in low $40’s. Jan/Feb were heart-stopping. We just find it remarkable that a fairly simple, well-run business has experienced a 40%+ peak/trough/back drawdown over 4 months.
We still like it.
Hi Matt – thanks for commenting. Glad you liked the piece. I agree – the volatility of the equity relative to the underlying business (and indeed how the credit has traded) has been fairly mind-blowing. Like you I am maintaining my (substantial) long position. Agree that a business of this quality and consistency should not trade at a discount to book, nor at ~6x EPS. I still envisage $50+ by year end and a solid multi-year mid double-digit IRR from here given the pace of book appreciation, organic growth from the order book, incremental EPS growth from repurchases, and – hopefully – a couple of turns of EPS multiple expansion given excellent multi-year execution.
Hey Jeremy,
I found your blog through your interviews with Bill Brewster. It was mind-boggling how knowledgeable you are in the airlines space. All of it went over my head, but I wanted to give you an idea to shoot down in less than thirty minutes, as I heard you talking about iGaming on the Yet Another Value Podcast.
There is a company called American Affiliate, who is the leader in on-site customer acquisition in America. They were acquired by a pump-and-dump r/WSB publicly traded company called Fans Unite OTC FUNFF.
Where it gets interesting is I don’t see anyone talking about how much the contractors make for American Affiliate, nor is anyone pricing in how good of a job Fans Unite did with acquiring a business generating $10,000,000+ a year with 60% margins, while selling off the less profitable parts of the business.
It appears to be a longer-term play, but I don’t see how the company can continue to burn more capital than it’s making as the cost of customer acquisition is so high ($200-$400 per customer, depending on the operator), while only paying the sales representatives $20 an hour and $20 for the acquisition. The workers make a good living, and the management team has consistently moved in the right direction with paying down debt. Let me know if you’d like to chat more about it!
Regardless, thanks for all the information you’ve provided over the past few weeks where I have been listening to you.
hey bud, i see you never responded, but my hypothesis was right. stock is up 40% today. the owners of betting hero, jeremy jakary and jai maw just bought all of the outstanding shares of fans unite. it is still a screaming buy at 4¢ a share.
congrats! i missed your first comment. sorry but this stock is far too small and illiquid for me. all the best!
Dear Jeremy,
I wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude for your blog. Your free posts have been an incredible resource for learning and gaining insights. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experiences. Your work has made a significant impact on me and many others.
Best regards,
Andrea
Dear Andrea – that is exceedingly kind of you. Thank you so much for mentioning and also I do hope you continue to learn, and get lots of value, out of my available content.
best,
Jeremy