August Uppdate

This will be a brief review of the past month. I'm not sure how I want these updates to look and will figure it out as I go along. My portfolio as a whole went sideways similar to the swedish market. All my nordic holdings took a beating while the american ones rallied somewhat.

Dividends received in August:

Ticker	Shares	Dividend (SEK)	Amount (SEK)	Amount (USD)
ARCP	190	0.57	108.44	15.51
STL	70	2.03	142.1	20.33

Transactions in August:

Transaction type	Ticker	Shares
Sell	GRO	110
Buy	AWLCF	75
Sell	STL	70
Buy	VARDIA	400

These transactions give me an additional 95$ per year for a total yearly dividend of 2608$. The value of my portfolio is 37500$ and my current holdings are seen in the piechart below. Sector composition and currency have been uppdated on my portfoliopage.

For september I'm looking at Kinder Morgan (KMI) and FS Investment Corp (FISC) in the US market and will probably invest in one or the other. Unfortunatly KMI rallied somewhat as I would like to add them to my portfolio at a price below 40$. How was your month? 

Pheonix Group Results Q2 2014

The Phoenix Group (PHNX) recently released their earnings for the second quarter of 2014 and the first half year. It was a very busy half year starting with their divestment of Ignis Asset Management which is the investment branch of the Phoenix Group. The divestment lowers their gearing to 35% on a pro forma basis which is in line with their aspirations to receive investment grade rating. The focus of the second half year of 2014 will be in talking to rating agencies to do just that. With the divestment they paid down 250 million pounds of debt which contributed to the lower gearing substantially. Another factor for the lower gearing was the issuing of a seven year bond as well as combining current bank facilities into one bigger facility. All of the new debt have longer expiration dates as well as lower interest rates.

They announced a dividend of 26.7 pence per share in line with last year's interim dividend. I was a bit disappointed at that, but I saw a good comment which was something similar to this; It is a zero sum game, they do have the cash for a larger dividend but on the other hand they need the cash for growth. The current yield is still quite substantial at 7.24%, so I'm actually liking the potential for growth. The groups goal is a stable and sustainable dividend which they seem to be able to deliver on even without future acquisitions. Potential acquisitions could enable future dividend increases and Analysis consensus believe that the dividend might increase for the final dividend of 2014.

The earnings per share as always been a bad measure when looking at the Phoenix Group. Cash flow remains strong even with the major lowering of debt. The total decrease of debt amounts to 450 MGBP both from the divestment and debt refinancing. As they look to acquire investment grade rating, interest expenses should lower even more. Their bond offering was oversubscribed which speaks to that effect. The oversubscription also allowed them to get the lowest interest rate in their target range. The group now have £0.6 B of headway above ICA surplus requirements and £0.4 B headway with regards to IGD. The group also holds close to a billion pounds in cash which equates to £4.4/share. The total embedded value of the company (MCEV) is at £11.57/share. My interpretation of MCEV is the enterprise value of an insurance company and in the calculations of MCEV, future foreseeable cash inflow is also included.

Thoughts on the report? MCEV?

Source:
Slides, Webcast and transcript

Full disclosure: Long PHNX
Note: I wrote an analysis here (in Swedish)

Introduction

Time for another investing blog. I usually write in Swedish (as seen here) but I enjoy writing in English more and some of what I write about I believe will be more relevant to investors across the pond and likewise I'll hopefully be able to receive some feedback as well.

About me
I am an engineering student who received some money to invest when I turned 18. Student loans and grants are quite favorable in Sweden which makes it easier to get by with investing capital at a young age. I think it's good to start as soon as possible to get the ball to start rolling. I love dividends but have realized that total return is the thing for me. Luckily some companies in Scandinavia embellish this fully and give both growth and dividend without losing quality. I don't follow and probably will not follow a purely DGI strategy even though DGI companies will be present in my portfolio. What's nice with DGI companies is the appreciation that comes with it and the dividends that come while I wait for my investments to mature.

To be clear. I will sell when I think a stock is overpriced. Preferably the stock will appreciate as the company evolves but alas, Mr Market has a mind of it's own. So what I look for is Dividends and Value and if possible growth. Most of what I own are now or have been undervalued even thought my Blue Chip companies have appreciated so far that I'm considering selling even though I try to keep my transactions to a minimum. All my holdings give dividends as seen in my portfolio in the bar at the top of the page. The only exception is Vardia, which is a Norwegian insurance company that went public this spring, I think the company has a lot of potential and follow it closely.

Portfolio
Stable DGI holdings:
Fortum Ojy (HEL:FUM1V)
Statoil ASA (STO:STL)

Growth:
Mr Green & Co AB (STO:MRG)
Bahnhof AB Series B (STO:BAHN B)
Protector Forsikring ASA (STO:PROCT)
Vardia Insurance Group ASA (STO:VARDIA)

High Yeild:
Awilco Drilling ASA (STO:AWLCF)
American Reality Capital Properties (NASDAQ:ARCP)
Iron Mountain Inc. (NYSE:IRM)
Pheonix Group Holdings (LON:PHNX)
Atea ASA (STO:ATEA)

Turn-Around:
Ganger Rolf  ASA (STO:GRO)

Both ARCP and PHNX could fit into the Stable DGI territory but since they both, only have four years of history and their high yeild they fit more inte to high yeild category for now. I only have one turn around and I'm not sure I'm keeping it. Atea could also fit into the Stable DGI territory but it lacks the size I would like to be more stable. I see potential for all stocks mentioned to appreciate. For sector and currency allocation check out the tab Portfolio in the menu.

Contents of the blog
That was all for introductory remarks, if there are any questions, feel free to ask. I'll try to write more of my thoughts of each company and what I see for them in the future as well as thoughts on investing and how I like to Invest. Companies I'll try to cover will mostly be US stocks but I'll try to get into my other investments as well.

Full Disclosure: Long all stocks mentioned