Thursday, March 26, 2015

It Is Obvious FT Alphaville Does Not Understand Rocket Internet (RKET)

From FT Alphaville:

Rocket from the shelf
One of the useful aspects of German corporate filings lodged at the Federal Gazette (Bundesanzeiger) each year is a list of subsidiaries, along with an equity and net profit number.

Click for a Google translated version of the 2013 report for Rocket Internet, the recently listed and super-hyped e-commerce conglomerate, valued by the stock market at more than €7bn.

The list of shareholdings starts on page 14. Note first the proliferation of negative profit numbers. Second: Bambinos, Jades, Jewels and Platinums?...
Now stop right there!

This is all part of the plan.
From our Sept. 24, 2015 post on the treasure that is Rocket:

"Our proven winners generated aggregated net losses of €442 million" ($568 million)
-Rocket Internet prospectus via "How Do You Say 'Dot-Com Crash' in German?"

Proven winners, bub.

Back to FTAv:
...The names belong to series of so-called “off the shelf” companies, previously inactive corporate shells registered with the relevant authorities and ready for a buyer to use.
Rocket is stuffed with these companies. Here are the Jades and some of the Jewels from the 103 companies listed as direct subsidiaries. Titles for the columns are Name, Seat, Shareholding, Date of last financial statement, Equity (€) and Result (€).
Most of the amounts are inconsequential in the context of a company with Rocket’s valuation, although it looks like those Jades where Rocket owns less than 100 per cent also appear to be the more valuable, 1217 and 1318 for instance.

The company also reports more than 200 further subsidiaries held at the grandchild and great grandchild level, where holdings in more of these off the shelf companies appear....MORE
So typical of big media, beating up on bambinos.

Here's what comes up when I Google Climateer Investing for Rocket, Alphaville:
FT Alphaville Recommends a Cartoon, Hilarity Ensues