| GM's Phony Bailout Repayment Edward Harrison submits:This comes via Deal Book at the New York Times. The company’s chief executive, Fritz Henderson, called the repayment plan “a personal commitment.” The Obama administration, wardens of the 60 percent taxpayer stake in the company, declared itself “encouraged” by the news. Many commentators followed suit. But in the premature rush to herald the beginning of the end of the government’s involvement in the auto industry, a number of key considerations were left out, Edward Niedermayer, the editor of The Truth About Cars, writes in an op-ed in The New York Times.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Global Ship Lease: Screaming Buy or Screaming Downside Risk? Saj Karsan submits:Revenue certainty is a good thing. We've discussed a few examples where stocks appear undervalued and where investors can rest easy because companies have backlogs or have signed contracts that provide some assurances. Such revenue certainty allows companies visibility into the future, which translates into an ability to set their costs such that a profit will be made. But investors must take care to ascertain whether the agreements will indeed be honoured.Consider Global Ship Lease (GSL), a lessor of container ships. The company leased away its fleet of ships in 2007 and 2008 over long-term periods, locking in future revenue rates. As a result, despite the fact that the shipping industry has been hit hard and shipping rates have fallen industry-wide, GSL continues to turn in profits. This should continue, as no leases are set to expire until December of 2012, and even then only 2 of the company's 16 ships will need new contracts. The following chart illustrates how long the company's ships have been leased out for at guaranteed rates:Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp. Q1 2010 Earnings Call Transcript Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp. (WAB)Q1 2010 Earnings CallApril 27, 2010 10:00 am ETComplete Story » seekingalpha.com |
More Cross Currents: Rails, Claims, PPI, and Treasury Yields Symmetry Capital Mgmt submits: Volatile cross-currents continue, and yesterday's data pulls us a little bit closer to the bearish camp. There's simply no way we return to something approximating "normal" without continuing and concerted federal stimulus (quality would be nice too). That said, we note that some smarter folks than us, like Warren Mosler, are more sanguine. We just think that demographic trends are going to prevent past and current stimulus from igniting much of a rally in private sector credit growth (more on that in an upcoming article). RAILSComplete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Treasury Gets $11.7 Billion Back From GM IPO Zacks.com submits: The Treasury Department of U.S. has received payments of $11.7 billion against its loan extended to General Motors Corporation (GM). The payment was made through the net proceeds from its initial public offering (IPO) last week. The automaker sold 478 million shares at the targeted price of $33, raising $15.8 billion in the IPO. Of this, the Treasury has sold 358.5 million shares. The Treasury has revealed that it would also get $1.8 billion as bankers handling the IPO exercise options to purchase an additional 53.8 million shares of its stock within 30 days of the IPO. The bankers are allowed to exercise an option to sell up to 72 million shares.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |