Firsthand Technology Value Fund: Priced Like A Stolen Laptop [View article]
<"90% of closed end funds trade at discounts. 25% trade at discounts greater than 25%.> You need to check Page M52 of Barron's this week. Only 6 of about 600 funds listed trade at discounts above 25%. <Very few closed end funds charge a 2% management fee ON CASH, which is what they're doing AND take 20% off the top on any gains.> Most of the closed-end funds charge fees in this range. For the 25% discount funds look at EQS, FXBY, GGI and RCG on ETF connect. Most are in the 1.5% range. WRT the 20% off the top on any gains, if you were in a Kleiner Perkins, New Enterprise or Sequoia Capital private equity funds, you would see similar charge on gains.
<That's an annualized 10% management fee!!!! And that doesn't consider the fund managers annualized 9% loss for the decade 2000 - 2010 nor the -50% return on invested capital since the fund started in April 2011.> You selectively excluded cash on the 10% management fee. It's 2% as you said above. Kevin is waiting for the fat pitch which the Facebook fiasco has provided in the venture capital market. You selectively used 2000-2010 for Landis' annualized returns. That probably was the worst period for tech investing in history. And the -50% return in the fund was not due to Landis' investments but dumb money buying the fund on an expectation that FB would go to the moon after the IPO.
<So what is it you boneheads don't get? If they invest it, they'll lose it as they've done for many years and most recently with Facebook. If they keep the cash, then they're just raking 2% for doing nothing and will be forced by shareholders and the board to invest it and lose it.>
The FB IPO has created a shortage of venture capital. Landis has the capital and will likely close deals on terms he could not even dream of when he invested in FB. He should do very well with the remaining cash. There is no longer a bubble in social media.
Firsthand Technology Value Fund: Now Offering Facebook For Free [View article]
I just wanted to update the NAV math on SVVC. Here is what I found from prior press releases.
It had 8,556,480 shares of SVVC outstanding at June 5, 2012 and the following large positions:
Facebook, Inc. 600,000 shares at about $31.23 at June 29, 2012 or $18,738,000 at market.
Intevac, Inc. 545,156 shares at cost of $4,633,826
Silicon Genesis Corp. 8.5 million shares at cost of $3,210,093
Gilt Groupe, Inc. 88,841 shares at a cost roughly estimated at $2.4 million.
SolarCity Corp. 120,000 shares at May 31, 2012 with 300,000 shares added on June 8, 2012 for a total of 420,000 shares (with a total cost of $6.74 million). See http://1.usa.gov/NctQHx
Additional positions listed as of March 31, 2012 are:
INNOVION CORP. with a cost of $147,000. IP UNITY with a cost of about $300,000 SKYLINE SOLAR with a cost of about $774,000 SOLOPOWER, INC. with a cost of $1,968,000 UCT COATINGS with a cost of $0 YELP, INC. 125,000 shares with a market value of $23.45 per share for a value of $2,931,250.
Total Investments: Facebook at market $18.7 million Intevac at cost $4.6 million Silicon Genesis at cost $3.2 million Gilt Groupe at cost $2.4 million Solar City at cost $6.7 million Twitter at cost $1.8 million Innovion at cost $0.15 million IP Unity at cost $0.3 million Skyline Solar at cost $0.8 million Solopower at cost $2.0 million Yelp at market $2.9 million
Total investments $43.55 million
Now for the cash on hand:
Net cash from secondary appears to be $ $111,078,000 on April 19, 2012. Net proceeds from over allotment appears to be $16.7 million. Cash and segregated cash at March 31, prior to secondary was $47,548,382. Acquisitions since March 31, 2012 include: 1. SolarCity Corp. 120,000 shares at April 2, 2012 with 300,000 shares added on June 8, 2012 for a total of 420,000 shares (with a total cost of $6.74 million). See http://1.usa.gov/NctQHx
2. Gilt Groupe 54,000 shares of common stock on April 13, 2012 plus 34,714 shares of common stock of Gilt Groupe, Inc. on April 23, 2012 with a total cost of $2.4.
3. Twitter, Inc. 100,000 shares of common stock for approximately $1.8 million on May 2, 2012.
Cash from the secondary $111.1 million Over allotment from secondary $16.7 million Cash at March 31st before secondary $47.5 million Less: SolarCity purchase $6.7 million Less: Gilt Groupe purchase $2.4 million Less: Twitter purchase $1.8 million
Cash after purchases estimated at $164.4 million
Net asset value: Investments $43.5 million Cash $164.4 million Less: Liabilities $0.8 million NAV $207.1 million Shares 8.556 million NAV/share $24.20 Net Cash per share $19.12 Price per share $17.4 Discount to NAV 28%
GSV Capital: Deep Value With Numerous Potential Catalysts [View article]
I checked this week's Barron's closed end fund listing (see page M40). There are only two funds of the hundreds listed selling at discounts to NAVs near or above the 36% you cited. This is an extraordinarily cheap stock.
GSVC Capital: Value Investing Via Options [View article]
Tomorrow is the last day of the quarter. I can't imagine investment managers will want this showing up on their books. We may have the final flush then.
That said, if the market starts a big decline, GSVC is part of the Russell 3000 and could be expected to follow that index regardless of the discount of its private investments. However, it is cheap at current prices.
GSVC Capital: Value Investing Via Options [View article]
An analog to GSVC is the closed end fund Equus Total Return fund (EQS) which traded at a 25.4% discount to book value NAV as shown in the ETF Connect web site as of June 22, 2012. http://bit.ly/LG8Lv9
According to a press release dated June 21, 2012, a large investment in a private printing company, Sovereign Business Forms, Inc., was sold resulting in the Company having $2.69 per share in cash. See
EQS has about $0.66 in debt per share which means its cash net of debt is $2.03 per share. At a price per share of $2.44, it is trading as if its private investments are worth $0.41/share with a net asset value of $1.24 for investments (NAV of $3.27 less net cash of $2.03) or 33% of NAV of investments ($0.41/$1.24=33%).
If GSVC’s investments trade at a discount of 33%, it means that the price per share could go to 33% of $7.77/share of investments ($2.56) plus cash per share of $6.20 or $8.76/share.
Consider that EQS is much smaller than GSVC and one of the worst performing closed end funds in recent years. Also, GSVC has $0.85/share of IPO’d holdings in Groupon, Facebook and Zynga which should mitigate some of the downside. The bottom may be near.
GSVC Capital: Value Investing Via Options [View article]
If you look at the presentation from the Annual Shareholders’ Meeting on June 5, 2012 see http://1.usa.gov/MWoOTo , you will see that at that time the GSVC had $6.20/share in cash. Also, there were about 19.35 million shares outstanding. The company had at that time, $150.3 million in investments made in primarily private companies, but included in that number, the following public company investments:
The quality of the company’s portfolio can be seen by checking the top venture capital firm’s portfolios as linked below. Those firms include New Enterprise Assoc.(NE), Kleiner Perkins(KP) and Sequoia Capital(SC). The following holdings by GSVC with dollar amount owned are also held by one or more of these venture capital firms as shown below.
Bloom Energy ($3.8mm) NE Chegg ($10mm) KP Drop Box ($11.9mm) SC Gilt ($5.5mm) NE Groupon ($2.0mm) NE & KP Nest ($1.0mm) KP Serious Energy ($0.7mm) NE Silver Spring ($4.9mm) KP Twitter ($31.5mm) KP Zynga ($4.0mm) KP
In total, about $75 million of GSVC’s holding (50%) are also held by top VCs.
You can confirm the holdings by going the web sites listed below.
Now here is what’s interesting about GSVC’s stock. With $6.20/share in cash and about $7.77/share in investments, you are buying the investments (at a price per share of $9.30) at about 40 cents on the dollar.
The math is as follows:
$150.3 million in investment/19.35 million = $7.77
Price per share at $9.30 less cash of $6.20 = $3.10 of investment value
$3.10 investment value in share price/$7.77 investment value at cost = 40%
I believe that the stock has been hammered mostly because a lot of dumb money trying to chase Facebook ahead of the IPO is now dumping it. You can see how extreme the dumping has been in the relative strength as shown in the stock chart below.
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Firsthand Technology Value Fund: Priced Like A Stolen Laptop [View article]
You need to check Page M52 of Barron's this week. Only 6 of about 600 funds listed trade at discounts above 25%.
<Very few closed end funds charge a 2% management fee ON CASH, which is what they're doing AND take 20% off the top on any gains.>
Most of the closed-end funds charge fees in this range. For the 25% discount funds look at EQS, FXBY, GGI and RCG on ETF connect. Most are in the 1.5% range. WRT the 20% off the top on any gains, if you were in a Kleiner Perkins, New Enterprise or Sequoia Capital private equity funds, you would see similar charge on gains.
<That's an annualized 10% management fee!!!! And that doesn't consider the fund managers annualized 9% loss for the decade 2000 - 2010 nor the -50% return on invested capital since the fund started in April 2011.>
You selectively excluded cash on the 10% management fee. It's 2% as you said above. Kevin is waiting for the fat pitch which the Facebook fiasco has provided in the venture capital market. You selectively used 2000-2010 for Landis' annualized returns. That probably was the worst period for tech investing in history. And the -50% return in the fund was not due to Landis' investments but dumb money buying the fund on an expectation that FB would go to the moon after the IPO.
<So what is it you boneheads don't get? If they invest it, they'll lose it as they've done for many years and most recently with Facebook. If they keep the cash, then they're just raking 2% for doing nothing and will be forced by shareholders and the board to invest it and lose it.>
The FB IPO has created a shortage of venture capital. Landis has the capital and will likely close deals on terms he could not even dream of when he invested in FB. He should do very well with the remaining cash. There is no longer a bubble in social media.
Firsthand Technology Value Fund: Priced Like A Stolen Laptop [View article]
GSV Capital: Deep Value With Numerous Potential Catalysts [View article]
Have you looked at S V V C? It's at lot like GSVC only cheaper.
Firsthand Technology Value Fund: Now Offering Facebook For Free [View article]
It had 8,556,480 shares of SVVC outstanding at June 5, 2012 and the following large positions:
Facebook, Inc. 600,000 shares at about $31.23 at June 29, 2012 or $18,738,000 at market.
Intevac, Inc. 545,156 shares at cost of $4,633,826
Silicon Genesis Corp. 8.5 million shares at cost of $3,210,093
Gilt Groupe, Inc. 88,841 shares at a cost roughly estimated at $2.4 million.
SolarCity Corp. 120,000 shares at May 31, 2012 with 300,000 shares added on June 8, 2012 for a total of 420,000 shares (with a total cost of $6.74 million). See http://1.usa.gov/NctQHx
Additional positions listed as of March 31, 2012 are:
INNOVION CORP. with a cost of $147,000.
IP UNITY with a cost of about $300,000
SKYLINE SOLAR with a cost of about $774,000
SOLOPOWER, INC. with a cost of $1,968,000
UCT COATINGS with a cost of $0
YELP, INC. 125,000 shares with a market value of $23.45 per share for a value of $2,931,250.
Total Investments:
Facebook at market $18.7 million
Intevac at cost $4.6 million
Silicon Genesis at cost $3.2 million
Gilt Groupe at cost $2.4 million
Solar City at cost $6.7 million
Twitter at cost $1.8 million
Innovion at cost $0.15 million
IP Unity at cost $0.3 million
Skyline Solar at cost $0.8 million
Solopower at cost $2.0 million
Yelp at market $2.9 million
Total investments $43.55 million
Now for the cash on hand:
Net cash from secondary appears to be $ $111,078,000 on April 19, 2012.
Net proceeds from over allotment appears to be $16.7 million.
Cash and segregated cash at March 31, prior to secondary was $47,548,382.
Acquisitions since March 31, 2012 include:
1. SolarCity Corp. 120,000 shares at April 2, 2012 with 300,000 shares added on June 8, 2012 for a total of 420,000 shares (with a total cost of $6.74 million). See http://1.usa.gov/NctQHx
2. Gilt Groupe 54,000 shares of common stock on April 13, 2012 plus 34,714 shares of common stock of Gilt Groupe, Inc. on April 23, 2012 with a total cost of $2.4.
3. Twitter, Inc. 100,000 shares of common stock for approximately $1.8 million on May 2, 2012.
Cash from the secondary $111.1 million
Over allotment from secondary $16.7 million
Cash at March 31st before secondary $47.5 million
Less: SolarCity purchase $6.7 million
Less: Gilt Groupe purchase $2.4 million
Less: Twitter purchase $1.8 million
Cash after purchases estimated at $164.4 million
Net asset value:
Investments $43.5 million
Cash $164.4 million
Less: Liabilities $0.8 million
NAV $207.1 million
Shares 8.556 million
NAV/share $24.20
Net Cash per share $19.12
Price per share $17.4
Discount to NAV 28%
GSV Capital: Deep Value With Numerous Potential Catalysts [View article]
There are only two funds of the hundreds listed selling at discounts to NAVs near or above the 36% you cited. This is an extraordinarily cheap stock.
GSV Capital: Deep Value With Numerous Potential Catalysts [View article]
GSVC Capital: Value Investing Via Options [View article]
That said, if the market starts a big decline, GSVC is part of the Russell 3000 and could be expected to follow that index regardless of the discount of its private investments. However, it is cheap at current prices.
GSVC Capital: Value Investing Via Options [View article]
http://bit.ly/LG8Lv9
According to a press release dated June 21, 2012, a large investment in a private printing company, Sovereign Business Forms, Inc., was sold resulting in the Company having $2.69 per share in cash. See
http://1.usa.gov/NGpEAN
EQS has about $0.66 in debt per share which means its cash net of debt is $2.03 per share. At a price per share of $2.44, it is trading as if its private investments are worth $0.41/share with a net asset value of $1.24 for investments (NAV of $3.27 less net cash of $2.03) or 33% of NAV of investments ($0.41/$1.24=33%).
If GSVC’s investments trade at a discount of 33%, it means that the price per share could go to 33% of $7.77/share of investments ($2.56) plus cash per share of $6.20 or $8.76/share.
Consider that EQS is much smaller than GSVC and one of the worst performing closed end funds in recent years. Also, GSVC has $0.85/share of IPO’d holdings in Groupon, Facebook and Zynga which should mitigate some of the downside. The bottom may be near.
GSVC Capital: Value Investing Via Options [View article]
Groupon ($2.0mm)
Facebook ($10.5mm)
Zynga ($4.0mm)
The quality of the company’s portfolio can be seen by checking the top venture capital firm’s portfolios as linked below. Those firms include New Enterprise Assoc.(NE), Kleiner Perkins(KP) and Sequoia Capital(SC). The following holdings by GSVC with dollar amount owned are also held by one or more of these venture capital firms as shown below.
Bloom Energy ($3.8mm) NE
Chegg ($10mm) KP
Drop Box ($11.9mm) SC
Gilt ($5.5mm) NE
Groupon ($2.0mm) NE & KP
Nest ($1.0mm) KP
Serious Energy ($0.7mm) NE
Silver Spring ($4.9mm) KP
Twitter ($31.5mm) KP
Zynga ($4.0mm) KP
In total, about $75 million of GSVC’s holding (50%) are also held by top VCs.
You can confirm the holdings by going the web sites listed below.
New Enterprises Associates
http://bit.ly/MWoQKY
Sequoia Capital
http://bit.ly/Lh8CJW
Kleiner Perkins
http://bit.ly/MWoOTs
Now here is what’s interesting about GSVC’s stock. With $6.20/share in cash and about $7.77/share in investments, you are buying the investments (at a price per share of $9.30) at about 40 cents on the dollar.
The math is as follows:
$150.3 million in investment/19.35 million = $7.77
Price per share at $9.30 less cash of $6.20 = $3.10 of investment value
$3.10 investment value in share price/$7.77 investment value at cost = 40%
I believe that the stock has been hammered mostly because a lot of dumb money trying to chase Facebook ahead of the IPO is now dumping it. You can see how extreme the dumping has been in the relative strength as shown in the stock chart below.
http://bit.ly/Lh8E4H
Consider that VC firms can buy GSVC more cheaply at $9.30 than they can invest directly in the private venture companies.