Special situations across equities and credit: distressed, M&A, activist, spinoffs. NYC based. Not investment advice.

New York, NY
Joined August 2017
Took a look at the Aston Martin/HPS dropdown financing. Senior secured notes had their collateral stripped but I don't hate them at current levels (~57c). Sharing some thoughts below $AML $AML.L
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Ariel sold their entire ~26% position in $LESL during July or am I missing something? sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/…
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Quite a journey with this one
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Took a quick look at $NFE equity. Short answer: not interesting here. Sharing some thoughts below
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$OCI.AS $OCINF OCI Global announces sale of its European Nitrogen distribution assets for EUR 290M (USD $330M or $1.60/share), still reviewing strategic alternatives for its EU Nitrogen production assets. Seems like a good result. I had the total EU Nitrogen business (both production and distribution assets) at $2-3.50/share. And I think a positive development for the ultimate combination with Orascom... will be more difficult for controlling shareholders to force a bad deal for the remaining assets when it's just a cash box.
$OCINF OCI Global is currently trading at ~$7.50/share, while there’s clear line-of-site to ~$10/share in net asset value by end of 2025 *excluding* the value of its European Nitrogen business, which I estimate could be worth an additional $2-$3.50/share. The Company is currently evaluating strategic options for both the EU Nitrogen business and OCI as a whole. EU Nitrogen is Europe’s second-largest integrated nitrates fertilizer producer and a global leader in melamine – plus it owns a strategically located ammonia import terminal in the port of Rotterdam. At current prices, you are effectively getting this business for less than free. I first wrote about this idea in December 2024 and recently posted my updated thoughts – link below.
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$MAGN Some signs of life! Glad this biz isn't going bk tomorrow like it's been trading. No real change in my thoughts/trends post-earnings. FY26 EBITDA guide in-line with what I was expecting, cash flow generation better than expected. Industry conditions likely make it still too early for a real move higher. That said, 25%+ FCF yield while MAGN and other producers are removing capacity to rationalize the market isn't too bad. $100M FCF guide also still includes ~$50M integration costs that should ramp down next couple years. 2031 notes traded up 7 points to a 9% YTM as well today.
Thoughts from the $MAGN earnings today: 1) I was not expecting this to be a breakout quarter for MAGN. The CPGs - $PG, $CLX, $KMB - last week all generally reported that demand stabilized in calendar Q2 but has not yet normalized. Category growth rates are still below long-term norms. 2) MAGN's North America business looks well-positioned. Management noted volumes were stable/slightly positive there this Q. Some of the strength here is likely tariff related as MAGN's customers have been sorting through their supply chains and MAGN has benefitted from being a local supplier. 3) MAGN's South America business must have been down pretty big this Q given (i) Americas organic volumes declined 6%, (ii) North America makes up almost 75% of Americas revenue, and (iii) North America was flat/slightly positive. By that math, volumes in the South America business must have been down by 20%+. While this business has clearly struggled, I don't view this as being too material to the overall credit profile of the business. The South America business is 15% of total revenue, or roughly $500M annually. I assume it has lower margins than the rest of the business but assuming it’s the same (~10%), it represents $50M of EBITDA exposure on $360M total for the company. Mgmt clearly acknowledged this business has lost some market share but was confident this business would stabilize, and they expect to feel much better about it going forward. 4) Project CORE – overall this seems manageable and smaller than what I thought a footprint rationalization plan could potentially look like. $20M of costs to achieve $20M of annual cost savings beginning in FY26 after doing a "thoughtful and thorough evaluation of the portfolio" tells me we likely don't have a larger issue here, and it’s not very material in the context of a business with $570M of liquidity, generating close to $100M of FCF annually. 5) Cluster insider buying – while not new, worth reiterating here the open market buys from the CEO and six different directors during May/early June. These give me confidence in the overall competitiveness of the business - they would not be buying if they viewed this as a melting ice cube. Will be interested to see the FY26 guidance next quarter as more of the merger cost synergies and footprint rationalization savings roll through the numbers. $400M of Adj EBITDA in FY26 seems reasonable to me assuming they capture half of the merger cost synergies and $20M from footprint rationalization, and assuming no improvement from cyclical lows. At a 6x multiple, that’s $2.4B EV, $615M market cap or ~$17/share. Obviously if we get any improvement in underlying fundamentals, I expect it to go much higher, but may still be too early to see the thesis fully play out. Also will be good for the company to get its first 10-K on file and some more coverage going into next year.
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$QVCGA $QVCGP QVC revised its incentive comp plan on Friday (Aug 15) to prepay a certain % of target variable compensation for management for 2025 and 2026 in cash. sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/… CEO filed a Form 4 today (Aug 20) showing his RSUs for QVCGA shares that would have vested each year 2025-2027 have been cancelled. sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/… Looks like they are basically prepaying management in cash rather than tying any more of their comp to the A shares going forward. My view is they are still intending to do an LME out-of-court, and they are likely just providing management with guarantee of compensation while the outcome is still uncertain. I don't think it reflects favorably on prospects for the A shares though. Thoughts?
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$LFCR Sharing my thoughts on the LFCR set-up. Apologies to those that are tired of hearing about this one over the last few years but wanted to share my take In short: 1) LFCR’s business plan looks achievable. After five years, the company finally has all the pieces in place to execute between (i) a new management team, (ii) a shored-up balance sheet and liquidity, (iii) expanded manufacturing capacity, and (iv) favorable industry dynamics. As new capacity is filled, operating leverage should kick in and drive a meaningful inflection in the financials of over the next 3 years 2) There is a decent chance LFCR gets acquired in the near-term, and the transaction could value LFCR at upwards of 2x the current price 3) If no near-term transaction materializes, LFCR could still work out to be a good investment. That said, I do have some concerns around valuation – specifically, what multiple LFCR might trade for in three years as it realizes some of the growth embedded in its current valuation, and as other players in the industry bring on additional capacity. LFCR currently trades at 24x Adj EBITDA. On the face of it, this does not look cheap, and we are clearly paying something for growth. While I believe this growth is real and the multiple is more than supported by recent M&A activity, I am not sure what premium will still exist in three years in a less supply-constrained environment. Based on management’s plan and assuming some multiple contraction to 20x, I am underwriting a mid-$14 stock price by mid-2028 (30% IRR over three years) Link to full write up below
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$LFCR Anyone else surprised by the market reaction so far to this? This Q results gave me more confidence in the thesis. Maybe the fact they're targeting 2029/2030 for the potential GLP-1 commercialization was surprising how long it's going to take? And lack of detail on potential size of the contract doesn't help. But whether this contract works out or not, I still have more confidence in them reaching their mid-term/long-term targets than I did before this call.
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$QVCGA $QVCGP QVC drew down nearly all of its revolver post Q2. QVC Inc. leverage at 3.9x as of June 30, expected to brush up against 4.5x covenant cap with Q3 earnings ended Sep 30. China trade truce set to expire on Aug 12th, where QVC sources ~50% of its US product. Mgmt trying to reduce that to <33% by year-end. $1.1B deferred tax liability related to exchangeable bonds issued 25 years ago that no one is quite sure how will be treated in a full reorg scenario. A lot going on operationally and strategically at QVC. I think we see a transaction announcement after we get more certainty on tariffs and they can come to an agreement with lenders. If they can squeak by Q3, then they probably wait until after Q4 to see how the holiday season plays out? I still own some $QVCGP but took off some exposure given my uncertainty on the tax liability.
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Thoughts from the $MAGN earnings today: 1) I was not expecting this to be a breakout quarter for MAGN. The CPGs - $PG, $CLX, $KMB - last week all generally reported that demand stabilized in calendar Q2 but has not yet normalized. Category growth rates are still below long-term norms. 2) MAGN's North America business looks well-positioned. Management noted volumes were stable/slightly positive there this Q. Some of the strength here is likely tariff related as MAGN's customers have been sorting through their supply chains and MAGN has benefitted from being a local supplier. 3) MAGN's South America business must have been down pretty big this Q given (i) Americas organic volumes declined 6%, (ii) North America makes up almost 75% of Americas revenue, and (iii) North America was flat/slightly positive. By that math, volumes in the South America business must have been down by 20%+. While this business has clearly struggled, I don't view this as being too material to the overall credit profile of the business. The South America business is 15% of total revenue, or roughly $500M annually. I assume it has lower margins than the rest of the business but assuming it’s the same (~10%), it represents $50M of EBITDA exposure on $360M total for the company. Mgmt clearly acknowledged this business has lost some market share but was confident this business would stabilize, and they expect to feel much better about it going forward. 4) Project CORE – overall this seems manageable and smaller than what I thought a footprint rationalization plan could potentially look like. $20M of costs to achieve $20M of annual cost savings beginning in FY26 after doing a "thoughtful and thorough evaluation of the portfolio" tells me we likely don't have a larger issue here, and it’s not very material in the context of a business with $570M of liquidity, generating close to $100M of FCF annually. 5) Cluster insider buying – while not new, worth reiterating here the open market buys from the CEO and six different directors during May/early June. These give me confidence in the overall competitiveness of the business - they would not be buying if they viewed this as a melting ice cube. Will be interested to see the FY26 guidance next quarter as more of the merger cost synergies and footprint rationalization savings roll through the numbers. $400M of Adj EBITDA in FY26 seems reasonable to me assuming they capture half of the merger cost synergies and $20M from footprint rationalization, and assuming no improvement from cyclical lows. At a 6x multiple, that’s $2.4B EV, $615M market cap or ~$17/share. Obviously if we get any improvement in underlying fundamentals, I expect it to go much higher, but may still be too early to see the thesis fully play out. Also will be good for the company to get its first 10-K on file and some more coverage going into next year.
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Added 47 new stock writeups to the site (pt 1): @ValueEric - $CLG.AX @TheRayMyers - $NBIS (overview) @jefke00 - $BEKB.BR @Premski_SGP - $NXSN.TA @Compoundandfire - $HEI (overvalued) @AltCapx - $LFCR @RaasGroup - $PV1.AX @DuckPond_VR - $FRVIA.PA
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