The Contrarian Investor Podcast gives voice to those who challenge a prevailing narrative in global financial markets
Theron De Ris of London-based Eschler Asset Management joins the podcast to discuss why now may be an optimal time to invest in shares of precious metals companies and energy concerns.
One of De Ris’ favorite stocks — and primary portfolio holdings — is discussed at some length in the second half of the program.
Comments closedGabriele Grego of Quintessential Capital Management used the inaugural Contrarian Investor Virtual Conference to announce his short of Akazoo (NASDAQ:SONG).
“We believe Akazoo is a scheme orchestrated by management to profit while egregiously deceiving investors,” Grego said during the presentation. “We see signs of very suspicious accounting manipulation,” including cash inconsistencies and “a total lack of income taxes.”
Akazoo shares sold off immediately after publication of Grego’s report. After closing the previous session at $2.53, SONG dropped to $2.22. A series of law firms quickly lined up to launch lawsuits against the company.
A week later the stock was trading at $1.14,. The company fired its CEO and Nasdaq suspended trading in its shares. On May 21, an Akazoo special committee of independent directors announced that management and associates “participated in sophisticated multi-year fraud.”
Nasdaq delisted the shares on May 27.
Akazoo has since become a poster child for SPAC misconduct, with the Financial Times devoting an article to Grego and his report (see below).
Shameless Plug Alert: The next iteration of the Contrarian Investor Virtual Conference, our fifth, takes place Dec. 10. Get tickets here.
Attendees at the first ever Contrarian Stock Talks webinar on Nov. 10 got to hear three exclusive long ideas:
Andreas Aen of Symmetry Invest A/S presented on Gaming Innovation Group, which trades on the gray market in the U.S. under stock symbol GIGI. “This is a company that we think is the cheapest one in Scandinavia right now,” Aen said, with price-to-earnings of free cashflow yield of 4.4 next year. “It’s basically priced for bankruptcy, despite the fact that it doesn’t have a lot of debt.”
Watch Aen’s presentation on our YouTube channel below. The full write-up is available on Symmetry’s website.
Maj Soueidan of GeoInvesting LLC discussed his thesis on Information Analysis, an OTC stock trading under ticker symbol IAIC. The IT software company “falls into the category of a quiet little nanocap company that noone really noticed” despite some “interesting developments” that have taken place recently.
Soueidan also mentioned Ocean Bio-Chem (NASDAQ: OBCI) as a stock that had just been added to GeoInvesting’s “Buy on Pullback” portfolio. That portfolio, which looks for overreactions in price movement, has seen seven previous iterations. OBCI is the first addition to the new vintage.
“There’s an assumption that because of the [COVID] vaccine, that some stocks where the growth were benefiting from COVID-19…would see an abatement of their growth.” While this is true for some companies, there are others that will continue to benefit from COVID, even if and when there is a vaccine.
OBCI, which creates maintenance products for the boating and RV industry, developed a product during the ebola outbreak. The product, a sanitation solution, benefited from COVID but when the vaccine news broke earlier this week its stock sold off. While it has since rebounded, Soueidan still views it as undervalued.
Watch Souedian’s presentation below.
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