Mark Cuban Ups Reading International Stake

We don't track Mark Cuban on the blog, but we saw this and thought it was interesting. Cuban has recently disclosed a 10.5% stake in Reading International (RDI) through a 13G filed with the SEC. He now owns 157,411 shares. Cuban of course is well known for his ownership of the NBA franchise Dallas Mavericks. He is also a decently active investor as he sometimes discusses the markets on trhis blog. And, in the past, Cuban also funded a hedge fund (Precept Capital) based on his tech background which he later sold. For a list of hedge funds that we track on a daily basis, check our portfolio tracking series to get the latest updates.

Taken from Google Finance,

Reading International is an internationally diversified company principally focused on the development, ownership and operation of entertainment and real property assets in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. The Company operates in two business segments: Cinema Exhibition, through its 58 multiplex theatres, and Real Estate, including real estate development and the rental of retail, commercial and live theatre assets.

Comments

[Andrew Shapiro:]

Cuban's purchase may prove fortuitous for Reading. He owns the Landmark cinemas chain and not long after purchasing 10% of Carmike cinemas, that stock rose substantially. Maybe investor who followed Cuban into Carmike will consider taking profits, rolling out of CKEC and into RDI, which is not up anything close to CKEC this year, despite a favorable reversal of AUD/NZ currency vs. dollar. Also RDI is likely to be be named late 6/12 to Russell's list of RU 2000 additions for its end of june index recomposition.

Jun 12 02:33 AM

[Andrew Shapiro:]

Mark Cuban discloses increased purchases of Reading International (A-RDI and A-RDI_B)

In a form 4 filing made with the SEC on June 23, billionaire Mark Cuban disclosed an initial purchase, at $4.51/share, of 500,000 shares or 2.4% of Reading’s Class A stock (A-RDI); and
an incremental purchase, at $6.84/share, of 50,100 shares of Reading International Class B stock (A-RDI/B), increasing his investment to 207,511 or 13.9% of Reading’s Class B shares;

Mark Cuban’s Form 4 filing can be found at SEC website at www.sec.gov/Archives/e...

On June 19th, Russell published its final update to its preliminary lists of additions to and deletions from the Russell indexes. Reading’s Class A Stock under the symbol RDI remains on the list for addition to three Russell indices, being added to the Russell 2000 part of its most popular Russell 3000 group of stocks as well as added to the Russell Microcap and Global Indices. The Russell Reconstitution will be effective after the close of trading this week on Friday, June 26. The full list of additions/deletions may be found at www.russell.com/indexe...

Jun 24 09:38 AM

[Andrew Shapiro:]

Reading International (RDI) reported quarterly results late last week.

The Q3 earnings full press release may be found on RDI's website at www.readingrdi.com/pdf...

I note the following salient points:

1) Since the US dollar skyrocketed last year during Q3 08, this year’s Q3 09 was the final quarter of negative yr/yr currency headwinds for Reading. Despite those headwinds, Reading’s operating results were good. In local currency, Reading’s Australia and New Zealand cinema segments enjoyed continued revenue growth, in the case of Australia, growing better than US industry box office trends. Global box office releases for the remainder of 2009 and early 2010 (summer in Aus/NZ) look appealing. Going forward, for at least the next few quarters, yr/yr currency impacts on Reading’s operating cash flow, should finally become a tailwind.

2) Good operating results and the quarter’s foreign currency improvement catapulted Reading’s book value/share to over $5. We believe this $5/share book value still greatly understates the current fair value of Reading’s Australian, New Zealand, New York and Chicago real estate, held for more than a decade that has since been upzoned and some developed. Thus, we feel true book value is well more than $5.

3) Reading maintains substantial liquidity and an interest in accretive acquisitions of cash flowing assets. Sept 30 cash and marketable securities balances were $23.1MM and Reading has a combined $26.6MM of undrawn credit availability on its Australian and New Zealand Credit facilities. The company has filed of a universal shelf registration statement for up to $100MM of debt and warrants for debt and “units”, etc in addition to equity to enable Reading to act quickly to structure and finance growth transactions.

Other items of note :

4) The Malulani litigation settlement gain, reported below-the-line as other income, is actually a recovery of several quarters of above-the-line s,g&a litigation expense. “Apples to Apples” analysis would call for this current quarter’s gain to be viewed as part of operating income.

5) Prior year 2008 revenues included multiple quarter lump sum recognition from completion of screen advertising revenue contract in Q3 2008.

6) During the quarter, Reading re-listed both classes of its common stock from the AMEX to the NASDAQ exchange, maintaining the RDI symbol and adopting the RDIB symbol for the Class B voting stock. The RDI shares trade as a component of both the Russell 2000 small cap and Microcap indicies.

Nov 09 03:11 PM