It has been a long tme since my last post Trading value for exceptional Value (Group) which in fact did turn out better than expected, as the company was bought out at a substantial premium. While it was sad to see this fine company leave the stock exchange, it did provide fresh capital with which I was able to buy some more very undervalued South African small cap shares, which have done well. So in general, it has been a good period for Dividend Tycoon HQ. I should also mention, for the long time readers, that my Choppies (fast growing Botswana grocery retailer) saga has come to an end ..read more

My last post was about my new model, the Berkshire model, whereby I find great companies managed by great people, and hold them. This lets them do the hard work, while I just need to keep tabs on them, monitor developments, and then if all is well, hopefully receive the dividend. This was going quite well. The only mistake and issue still lingering in my portfolio is my substantial stake in food retailer Choppies. The share is still suspended so there is nothing I can do, although they have now released all the outstanding financial statements, and I am hoping that the share will trade ag ..read more

It has been over a year since my last post. I said in that article that I would write more often, but I failed to do so, so this time I will just say that I would like to write more, and hopefully I will. While writing has taken a backseat, I have been quite busy on the investing front. I have had both successes and disappointments, but I have used both to transform my portfolio to,  I believe, a better future. The big disappointment has been a substantial investment in Choppies, the dominant grocery retailer in Botswana, which reminded me of an early Wal-mart. I can admit that I bought t ..read more

Those of you who still read this blog, given it has been over 6 months since my last post, may be wondering if the very poor market in South Africa has resulted in me hanging up my boots and giving up. Well, not yet. I am though continually repeating to myself Warren Buffett’s mantra to ‘Be greedy when others are fearful, and fearful when others are greedy’. Being an investor in South Africa in 2019 squarely places me in the ‘Be greedy when others are fearful’ camp. It is not easy though. You may also be wondering about my last post “My ‘Worst Trade Ever’” where I wrote about my investment in ..read more

It has been a long time since my last post. Apologies for that, but the birth of my amazing daughter in January this year has meant I have had very little time for this blog. I am a first time parent at an age that is lets just say somewhat older than the average first time parent, so it does tend to take it out of you, but is worth every second. The new year has also unfortunately also heralded a year of very poor investment returns. My stocks are mostly small cap South African stocks, which keep going from cheap, to even cheaper. This slow grind down has been rather depressing, but I am tryi ..read more

Firstly, a happy New Year to both regular and new readers. May the new year be filled with happiness, and dividends of course. 2017 ended on a scary and at the same time fascinating note in South Africa. We have witnessed the implosion of one of our biggest companies, Steinhoff, due to accounting fraud it would seem. They had been acquiring companies at a dizzy pace for a number of years, not just in South Africa, but also companies like Conforama in France and Poundland in the UK. I will not get into the technicals, but it would seem debt and fancy accounting (fraud) are at the root of the pr ..read more

It has been a trying time again at Dividend Tycoon HQ. While there are a few exceptions, much of my portfolio is stuck in a no growth phase, share prices are stagnant to down. While I have been reading and re-reading my article on organic growth, where I had stated that I do not want to make any changes to my portfolio for a while, sometimes plans get interrupted and stuff happens. The stuff that happened of late, is that my property developer stock, Balwin Properties has sunk somewhat, to under R5. This stock earned R1,31 last year, so is now on a price earnings ratio of 5 or less, even if ea ..read more

I recently finished reading the book ‘The Greatest Trade Ever’ by Gregory Zuckerman. I can highly recommend the book. It is about various investors, but mainly John Paulson the hedge fund manager, who shorted the US housing market in the run up to the global financial crisis in 2007/2008. I am not going to get into the specifics of the trade, mainly because I am not clever enough to understand it, but secondly it is rather complex and boring, but I can sum it up by saying they used derivatives to short pools of risky mortgage bonds. And if that is still confusing you like it did me, they made ..read more

I must confess that the phrase ‘organic growth’ always used to confuse me somewhat when I heard companies say they had ‘good organic growth’ or plan to grow ‘organically’. What I now understand is that it is growing your business using the cash flows from your current business. It differs somewhat from acquisitive growth where you take over new businesses by selling current businesses or using debt or issuing shares. A real example is when as a private investor in a property stock (or REIT) you are given the option to reinvest dividends in the property stock (or REIT) rather than receive the c ..read more

Well another month has passed, and for me the stock market has not been a good place. I am invested in mostly small and medium cap shares in South Africa, and to be quite frank, the market has been terrible. The reasons: Political instability, recession, lack of liquidity in these shares, and people just giving up on some of them. Now you might think this has depressed me no end, and you would be partly right. Nobody likes to see their net worth decreasing on a sometimes daily basis. You may detect though that I am not totally downhearted about this, and in fact to some degree I take a certain ..read more