6 Comments
author

Kawagishi Bridge Works (TYO 5921) just announced 'measures to realize management that is conscious of capital costs and stock prices'. They announced a 3.34% buyback, 30% payout ratio, and some other iniaitives. Mostly small, but this is an excellent first step. Should go up nicely in JP trading.

https://contents.xj-storage.jp/xcontents/AS70222/a7deccf6/b1b4/4199/8eb8/e50b89f19f87/140120240226542264.pdf

Expand full comment
author

Quite down here in the comments. While I've been pounding the table on these super deep value net nets in Japan, there really hasn't been much interest in these names, which to me is a good sign. When fintwit jumps on the bandwagon, the trade is likely done. For now, I'm content owning names like this one!

Expand full comment
Dec 4, 2023Liked by AltayCap

Thanks for sharing !

Expand full comment

Interesting idea.

I wonder how you visualize an exit here? Agreed it’s dirt cheap but if management is not willing to return capital to shareholders and the business is low quality, what’s going to be a catalyst to realize value? I’m a big believer in not needing a catalyst usually, I generally follow Joel Greenblatt’s framework that if you do your valuation work well the market agrees with you in 3 years 90+% of the time, but this seems different. Any thoughts?

Thanks.

Expand full comment
author

TSE reforms/governance changes being pushed in Japan are the primary catalysts. These are not 'obviously' going to work, but it's had some impact already across Japan. Besides that, it's just a dirt cheap name that I think will do okay.

Expand full comment

Gotcha, makes sense, thanks. Admittedly I’m not very experienced in the cigar butt world but I find it very interesting so just wanted to learn more.

Expand full comment