Shawn Kravetz - Seeking Alpha © seekingalpha.com. Use of this feed is limited to personal, non-commercial use and is governed by Seeking Alpha's Terms of Use (http://seekingalpha.com/page/terms-of-use). Publishing this feed for public or commercial use and/or misrepresentation by a third party is prohibited. SeekingAlpha.com http://seekingalpha.com/author/shawn-kravetz Macau On Lake Erie http://seekingalpha.com/article/666341-macau-on-lake-erie?source=feed 666341 Nobody is going to mistake Ohio for Macau, but the Horseshoe Casino Cleveland which opened May 15th to extraordinary crowds has been described by Bank of America as "the busiest vertical casino this side of Macau."

Other casinos are opening in Toledo, Columbus, and Cincinnati in the coming months. You need to be a giant like Caesars (CZR), Penn National Gaming (PENN), or Dan Gilbert (Founder of Quicken Loans and owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers) to own a piece of these local monopolies - right?

Wrong.

Lakes Entertainment (LACO) owns 8% of Cleveland and Cincinnati through its 10% stake in Rock Ohio Ventures. Lakes is the Anthony "Spud" Webb of gaming: a 5-foot 7-inch basketball player who won the 1986 NBA Slam Dunk Competition surrounded by giants. Once celebrated as the owner of the World Poker Tour, Lakes has repositioned itself in recent years and today holds a portfolio

]]> Mon, 18 Jun 2012 11:23:50 -0400 Shawn Kravetz Nobody is going to mistake Ohio for Macau, but the Horseshoe Casino Cleveland which opened May 15th to extraordinary crowds has been described by Bank of America as "the busiest vertical casino this side of Macau."

Other casinos are opening in Toledo, Columbus, and Cincinnati in the coming months. You need to be a giant like Caesars (CZR), Penn National Gaming (PENN), or Dan Gilbert (Founder of Quicken Loans and owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers) to own a piece of these local monopolies - right?

Wrong.

Lakes Entertainment (LACO) owns 8% of Cleveland and Cincinnati through its 10% stake in Rock Ohio Ventures. Lakes is the Anthony "Spud" Webb of gaming: a 5-foot 7-inch basketball player who won the 1986 NBA Slam Dunk Competition surrounded by giants. Once celebrated as the owner of the World Poker Tour, Lakes has repositioned itself in recent years and today holds a portfolio


Complete Story »]]> CZR PENN LACO Shawn Kravetz High Conviction: An Education Stock With Healthy Cash Flow Growth http://seekingalpha.com/article/203655-high-conviction-an-education-stock-with-healthy-cash-flow-growth?source=feed 203655 Shawn Kravetz is president of Boston-based Esplanade Capital, which focuses on capital management for a small number of families, private investors and institutions - primarily in retail, consumer products, casino gaming, business services, education and solar power. Before founding Esplanade Capital, Shawn held positions at The Parthenon Group and The CML Group.

Seeking Alpha recently got the chance to ask him about his current single highest-conviction stock.

What is your highest-conviction stock position in your fund?

Our pick is Corinthian Colleges (COCO).

We invested in postsecondary education the day I launched our fund on Jan. 1, 2000. The first stock we bought at the time was the Apollo Group (APOL). Their old CFO, Kenda Gonzales, used to answer the phone on the first ring because they didn’t get too many phone calls at the time even though they were nearing $1 billion in market cap. We had always

]]> Fri, 07 May 2010 05:48:49 -0400 Shawn Kravetz Shawn Kravetz is president of Boston-based Esplanade Capital, which focuses on capital management for a small number of families, private investors and institutions - primarily in retail, consumer products, casino gaming, business services, education and solar power. Before founding Esplanade Capital, Shawn held positions at The Parthenon Group and The CML Group.

Seeking Alpha recently got the chance to ask him about his current single highest-conviction stock.

What is your highest-conviction stock position in your fund?

Our pick is Corinthian Colleges (COCO).

We invested in postsecondary education the day I launched our fund on Jan. 1, 2000. The first stock we bought at the time was the Apollo Group (APOL). Their old CFO, Kenda Gonzales, used to answer the phone on the first ring because they didn’t get too many phone calls at the time even though they were nearing $1 billion in market cap. We had always


Complete Story »]]> COCO BRK.A WPO EDMC CECO Shawn Kravetz The Sweet Smell of Solar Values http://seekingalpha.com/article/165781-the-sweet-smell-of-solar-values?source=feed 165781 For decades, enterprising marketers have unabashedly pitched knockoffs of designer colognes and perfumes at cut rate prices. They were originally marketed with catchy slogans like: “If you like GIORGIO, you’ll love PRIMO.” Today, it might read “If you like OBSESSION, you’ll love RECESSION.”
I thought of this vis a vis solar stocks because we are seeing something reminiscent of this today…with a twist. Today we are seeing the real stuff on sale. It’s Brioni suits at Filene’s Basement or TJ Maxx. Truly the same, but much cheaper and in your size. We humbly offer you four examples of designer quality solar companies without the designer prices.
If you like Yingli (YGE), you’ll love Trina (TSL). This duo is a fairly traditional relative value play with an edge. The investor community has crowned Yingli as the global low cost leader, a title rightfully deserved in the recent past. However, on the
]]> Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:03:54 -0400 Shawn Kravetz For decades, enterprising marketers have unabashedly pitched knockoffs of designer colognes and perfumes at cut rate prices. They were originally marketed with catchy slogans like: “If you like GIORGIO, you’ll love PRIMO.” Today, it might read “If you like OBSESSION, you’ll love RECESSION.”
I thought of this vis a vis solar stocks because we are seeing something reminiscent of this today…with a twist. Today we are seeing the real stuff on sale. It’s Brioni suits at Filene’s Basement or TJ Maxx. Truly the same, but much cheaper and in your size. We humbly offer you four examples of designer quality solar companies without the designer prices.
If you like Yingli (YGE), you’ll love Trina (TSL). This duo is a fairly traditional relative value play with an edge. The investor community has crowned Yingli as the global low cost leader, a title rightfully deserved in the recent past. However, on the

Complete Story »]]> YGE TSL ESLRQ.PK ATSAF.PK FSLR TIMNF.PK CSIQ RSOL WEST.OB Shawn Kravetz China Solar Safari: Hunting for Five Value Companies http://seekingalpha.com/article/155155-china-solar-safari-hunting-for-five-value-companies?source=feed 155155 Big Five Game are viewed as the five trophy animals of an African safari. We have just returned from another trip to China visiting solar companies and would like to offer our Big Five as well as our top five reasons why analysts are still off the mark on Chinese solar stocks.

Suntech Power (STP): the African Elephant. The biggest of them all, they are deceptively fast despite their size. However, in this case, their enormous capacity and high cost of goods sold will make for a challenging balance of 2009. As the only company that is a true leader in every big global market, they are well positioned in 2010 and beyond, but the near term will be tough.

Trina Solar (TSL): the Leopard. The fastest of them all. Trina is, in our view, the low cost crystalline silicon manufacturer today, having overtaken the previous leader, Yingli (YGE). Moreover,

]]> Mon, 10 Aug 2009 14:05:17 -0400 Shawn Kravetz Big Five Game are viewed as the five trophy animals of an African safari. We have just returned from another trip to China visiting solar companies and would like to offer our Big Five as well as our top five reasons why analysts are still off the mark on Chinese solar stocks.

Suntech Power (STP): the African Elephant. The biggest of them all, they are deceptively fast despite their size. However, in this case, their enormous capacity and high cost of goods sold will make for a challenging balance of 2009. As the only company that is a true leader in every big global market, they are well positioned in 2010 and beyond, but the near term will be tough.

Trina Solar (TSL): the Leopard. The fastest of them all. Trina is, in our view, the low cost crystalline silicon manufacturer today, having overtaken the previous leader, Yingli (YGE). Moreover,


Complete Story »]]> TSL STP LDK YGE CSIQ SPWR FSLR QCLSF.PK SHCAY.PK Shawn Kravetz