I think the whole industry is on a tear… Anticipating infrastructure projects.

Take a look at USCR. I received new stock as part of the BK reorg at around $10. It kept dropping and I kept averaging down (I know, I’m not supposed to do that :). Anyway, I bought at $8 and $5 and then decided to hold what I have and just forget about it as it kept dropping (no stop-losses for me).

It bottomed in the 2’s and it’s now around $12… I should’ve continued to average down as planned!!!
I took the elevator ride all the way down and now I’ll take it all the way up!

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=uscr#symbol=uscr;range=1y...

small world. i still have my equity position from the reorg as well. the concrete business is one of my favorite areas to invest.

make a mental note on this bond. cusip = 882491AQ6 with a 9.25% coupon. its my biggest position i have nearly 200 of them. got in a couple years ago below face value. but i am actually gonna start dumping some of it real soon as its trading at 10%+ premium. and then a couple years rebuy them. the notes have tremendous asset coverage in a worst case scenario; actually probably more so to cover the bonds which are priority senior debt. some of the assets are also pretty liquid as well. but the biggest plus is on the equity side. a billionaire has a massive stake in the common; think its something like 20% or 25%.

Altstrat,

Way to go with TXI. http://cxa.gtm.idmanagedsolutions.com/finra/BondCenter/BondD... http://cxa.gtm.idmanagedsolutions.com/finra/BondCenter/BondD...

Yeah, I like ‘concrete’, too. One of my best holdings is Hanson Plc’s 6.126’s of ’16. On a tip from Scott, we both got in low 40s. I also own some of CEMEX’s 4.875’s of ’15 (on which I’m up 40% from my entry last Jan). So the concrete industry’s been good to me, as has been nearly any industrial bond. They tend not to fail like the fluff financials.

Where you and Howard are miles ahead of me is in your willingness to buy both the debt and the common of a company. I'm missing out on too much money by just sticking with the bond side of the bet, and that's a problem I need to correct.

Charlie

that was a great trade on Hanson Charlie. nicely done. i remember those CEMEX bonds. just did not have the funds available for a stretch and then they fell off my radar.

definitely have a soft spot for industrial corps as well.

regarding your comment with respect to just sticking with the bond side of the bet and jumping on the equity side; as you of course know better than anyone, its a mixed bag and relative. however, interestingly enough though, for those scenarios where the equity was just placed into your lap due to reorgs, the scenarios have been very good like with CIT group and US concrete, gen growth props, etc.

however, interestingly enough though, for those scenarios where the equity was just placed into your lap due to reorgs, the scenarios have been very good like with CIT group and US concrete, gen growth props, etc.

altstrat,

When equity does come my way due to a re-org, I blow it out as fast as I can. I made good money on K-Mart's BK selling the shares of Sears I received. With other re-orgs, I was just cleaning up my books by getting rid of the shares that came my way. OTOH, as I wrote nearly FOUR years ago (in Post #27235):

“Actually, an interest in getting involved with stock investing has been there a long time. E.g., I bought Pep Boys’ bond back in ’01. My scan turned up the bond on the basis of its yield. So I pulled a stock chart. The stock had just moved off a bottom around $4 and was now at $7. So I knew from that that the market favored the company’s prospects. I knew nothing about the auto parts business. So I asked a co-worker who knew car repair from the mechanic’s viewpoint. His opinion was favorable. So I bought the bond and made good-enough money, probably 12%. But had I bought the stock at $7 and exited it when the bond was called (giving me a comparable holding-period), my return would have been 35% ann.

I can name dozens of these pairs where I cued off of what the stock was doing as a way of getting into the bond. A distressed bond would come to my attention from running a bond scan. But I got into it comfortably from knowing that the stock guys weren't trashing the company. Every time I consider a bond, I look to see if the issuer is publicly-traded, and how far the stock price is above $5 bucks, and what the short-ratio is. Those things are too important to ignore.

I don't know what I'm going to do about getting into the equity side of gambling game (err, investing game). The money from stocks can be fabulous. But the work is horrendous, and I've gotten very, very lazy for not really needing better returns than I'm already making. So it's more a "seven-year itch" kind of thing, which isn't to say I don't put major hours each week into researching how I'd go about it. But "going live" is still a long way off (if it ever does happen). And with opening season not many months away, I need to loft and build a new boat. Well, OK. I don't really need a new one. But I'd like to see if I could get another mile per hour of rowing speed, which going with a slightly longer hull would give me over my usual, sub-8' foot prams (but, also, under 50 pounds and a pleasure to handle to and from the water).

Charlie