A net return of 7.6% was delivered by the fund for the Q1 of 2021, above the S&P 500 and MSCI All World Index that delivered a 5.8% and 4.8% returns respectively, but below its Russell 2000 benchmark, that had a 12.9% gain for the same period.
Steel City Capital, in their Q1 2021 investor letter, mentioned News Corporation , and shared their insights on the company.
NWSA’s assets include a ~62% interest in Australia’s REA Group which is publicly traded on the Australian Stock Exchange; an 80% interest in Realtor.com, the second largest online real estate portal in the U.S.; the Dow Jones Group which holds several financial media properties including The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, and MarketWatch; HarperCollins, the second largest consumer book publisher in the world; a 65% interest in Foxtel, the largest pay-TV provider in Australia; and a collection of other print and online media properties in the U.S., U.K.
At the time, NWSA was widely regarded as “CrapCo” because of its focus on legacy media like newspapers and book publishing, not to mention the overhang from lawsuits related to the company’s phone hacking scandal in the UK.
The company’s interest in REA Group was worth $10.1 billion, it had $1.4 billion of unencumbered cash, and no corporate debt.
The comparison is somewhat apples-to-oranges in part because of Dow Jones’s Professional Information Business, but the broader point shouldn’t be lost: the private market value of the Dow Jones Group is substantially higher than what the market is giving credit for.
The company has: agreed to acquire Investor’s Business Daily and the consumer publishing segment of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; entered into landmark agreements with Facebook and Google in Australia whereby the tech giants will pay NWSA for access to its news content; and raised $1.0 billion of debt.
Dow Jones will do at least $300 million of EBITDA this year and is growing; HarperCollins should continue to do $250 million per year; I estimate Realtor.com is generating $50 million which should also grow over time; the news agreements with Facebook and Google will probably add $50 million per annum in the early years, with the potential for significant expansion if similar agreements are struck covering geographies beyond Australia; the recent acquisitions will add $40-$50 million; and the company is in the early stages of a shared services project that management estimates will eliminate $100 million of back-office expenses.
So why are NWSA shares cheap? Is it the somewhat “messy” accounting that requires the consolidation of REA Group and Foxtel .
As of the end of the fourth quarter of 2020, News Corporation was in 32 hedge fund portfolios, compared to 31 funds in the third quarter.
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While near-term growth rates will start to moderate following F2Q21, we are more comfortable in Apple’s longterm positioning,” Yang wrote in a research note to investors.
“The rapid rise in net equity issuance is another sign to us that this market cycle is happening at warp speed.”All this is a big reversal from the pre-pandemic era, when the number of stocks dropped year-on-year and staying-private was in vogue.That spurred fears the public market was losing its appeal as a pricing mechanism and gateway to raise capital — not to mention angst that Main Street was missing out on the spoils of American capitalism.The question now: Will money managers gobble up supply, or will corporate buybacks pick up the slack to fuel markets at records?On the latter, there’s good news for bulls with Alphabet Inc.
First-quarter results suggest that the Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate, whose dozens of operating businesses include the BNSF railroad and Geico auto insurance, may have experienced the worst effects of the pandemic, including the loss of tens of thousands of jobs.
“The process of writing helps me crystallize my thoughts about what’s interesting and what’s not interesting, what’s potentially strategic and what’s potentially risky about a particular sector.”One of Wilson’s earliest musings on cryptocurrency was in 2011, when he wrote that “an alternative currency with roots in peer to peer networks and based on an algorithm that is transparent to everyone is an idea whose time has come.” Union Square’s founding theory of seeking out emerging, fast-growing online communities has since evolved beyond original social media to include other blockchain and cryptocurrency startups like Stacks 2.0, an open network for decentralized apps and contracts on the blockchain, and even CryptoKitties, an Ethereum-based virtual game that allows players to adopt, raise, and trade virtual cats that kickstarted the craze for non-fungible tokens, or NFTs.Coinbase’s breakthrough listing was the buzziest investment in recent years for Wilson, whose enthusiasm has been more measured compared with crypto evangelists like investor Mike Novogratz or the Winklevoss brothers who started the Gemini digital asset exchange.In January 2018, Wilson wrote about locking in profits at a time when Bitcoin was taking off.
“It’s a very controllable number so if our performance weakens we can take it right down again,” he said.A review of the bank’s real estate needs as more staff work from home is due within months and could lead to onetime charges in future, finance director Tushar Morzaria told reporters.More ProvisionsBarclays also took a further 55 million-pound charge for doubtful loans, departing from British rivals including Lloyds Banking Group Plc and NatWest Group Plc who released provisions this week, but said impairment charges this year will be “materially below” 2020 as the pandemic starts to abate.
and stocks slumped.Despite buybacks that fell short of Buffett’s quarterly record, the billionaire investor has continued to go after Berkshire’s own stock since the end of March, with at least $1.25 billion of repurchases through April 22, according to the filing.Berkshire Class A shares climbed almost 11% in the first quarter, outpacing the 5.8% gain in the S&P 500 during the same time.Buffett, 90, will join his longtime business partner, Charlie Munger, 97, for Berkshire’s annual meeting Saturday.
On the other hand, the deal priced the same or slightly wider than some deals tied to higher-quality trophy towers, he added.Proceeds of the 555 California Street CMBS will fund improvements to the buildings and return about $617 million to the owners, according to a marketing document obtained by Bloomberg.“For a complex that couldn’t be sold last year, a large equity return is arguably the next best thing for the sponsor,” said Christopher Sullivan, chief investment officer at the United Nations Federal Credit Union.
market with its VinFast line of cars and hoping that electric SUVs and a battery leasing model will be enough to woo consumers away from homegrown market leaders like Tesla and General Motors Co.
uses each year, with similar boosts to aluminum and copper demand.MeatIt’s been a tough year to be in the meat business, from devastating Covid outbreaks to the deadly pig disease that hit Germany and is roaring back in China.And as crop prices surge, farmers rearing poultry, pigs and cattle are among the first to get squeezed by the eye-watering run-up in grains.
The pan-European bourse said on Thursday it would move its data centre from Basildon, a town east of London, to Bergamo near the Italian financial capital of Milan in the second quarter of 2022.