Bombay Burmah Trading Corp(BBTC): Is this really cheap?

Discussion in 'Ask A Query About Your Stock Picks And Portfolio' started by Satpat, Jun 27, 2015.

  1. Satpat

    Satpat New Member

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    Bombay Burmah Trading Corp(BBTC) is a holding company for Britannia and other companies of Wadis. Per the article given below, BBTC holds ~ 50% in Britannia. Current Britannia's market cap is around 32,000 cr. Where as BBTC's market cap is around 3400 cr. Wondering reasons for this mismatch. If BBTC holds 50% of Britannia, market cap should come close to 16000 cr... right? Is this really available at such a low valuation? Wondering if there is any catch?

    I'd appreciate if someone can shed some light.

    https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/c...es-at-85-discount-to-investments_1137803.html
     
    Last edited: Jun 27, 2015
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  2. stockguru

    stockguru Active Member

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    Usually the holding companies of large groups do trade at a discount. You can wonder about the valuation of the company with respect to it's holding of Britannia stock. But the fact of the matter is that you have to realize that these are promoter owner holding companies and just because BBTC owns 16000 crs of Britannia shares it is not going to sell those shares and distribute the earnings to it's shareholders. It has been holding them since many years and would continue to do so. The major revenue of these holding companies is primary the dividend income that they get from their stock holding. They can either keep it with themselves or distribute a part of it to their shareholders. You can argue that the mismatch is huge and stock might move up but when does that happens nobody knows. It can take 3 months or maybe 3 years or even more. But you should always note that there will always be a valuation discount of a pure holding company. For more information you could refer to these links or do a google search for Holding companies discount

    https://www.sagefa.com/articles/Valuation Dicounts for Holding Companies.pdf

    https://corporatevaluations.in/newHolding_company.html
     
  3. Praisesingh

    Praisesingh New Member

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    Stock guru I have one doubt for a company iam tracking the promoter holding is 58% and in public holding two entities holding 17% with same address and for me it looks like promoter is holding thru this entities is to overcome the sebi regulations if so if the promoter is willing to hold that high why not directly is it a good sign or something to be alarmed about.
     
  4. Meenakshi Razdan

    Meenakshi Razdan Administrator Staff Member Moderator

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    As @stockguru rightly points it is customary for holding companies to quote at a discount. One can see this in all the holding companies such as Tata Investments, Bajaj Holdings, etc.

    There is an interesting talk by Mr. Basant Maheshwari on whether one should buy holding companies or the underlying operational companies. He says:

    "But, my argument is if you are bullish on the holding company, you have to be bullish on the underlying businesses and it is better to buy the underlying businesses. Betting blindly that the discount will narrow up and the discount will widen out, over a one-two quarter can make money, if I have some insider news that the company is going to restructure and things are going to happen. But over a long period of time, it doesn't make a lot of money."

    With particular reference to Bombay Burmah, Mr. Porinju Veliyath has discussed it, in case you haven't seen it:



    There is also an interesting article in the Business Line on how if one buys Tata Investment Corp, one gets to participate in the fortunes of its subsidiaries like Tata Motors, Titan Industries, Tata Chemicals etc. The article says:

    "The stock’s steep discount to its intrinsic value offers an attractive investment opportunity both for institutional investors and for the firm’s promoters. Should they peg up their stake, investors should see the stock price bridging the gap with the market value of its investment book.
    "
     
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  5. Satpat

    Satpat New Member

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    Thanks @Meenakshi Razdan for the links and excerpts. I came to know about other holding companies and their discounts. I will take a look at Tata Investment Corp.

    Thanks @stockguru for sending the links on research angle. I came to know about following discounts .
    " When valuing holding companies an appraiser will typically consider four basic types of discounts: a liquidation discount, a discount for lack of control, a discount for lack of marketability, and a cotenancy discount "

    Since BBTC is trading at 70-80% discount, I would like to dig little deep. It seems the typical discount is 40-60%(based on the link sent by @stockguru). So, BBTC seems to trade at more discount to other holding companies (is it really so?). Why it is so? Is it because of reputation of Wadia's or any other liabilities? Also, wondering if there are any research reports on BBTC. Would like to understand their liabilities and would love to see their valuation based on "Sum of Parts".

    Another angle is ...BBTC holds GoAir. Read somewhere that GoAir is also going for listing and wondering how much value it unlocks. It is a profitable Airlines. I think Indigo is getting listed at ~25K cr valuation and SpiceJet is valued at ~1K cr. I am guesstimating that, Go Air could be valued between 1K -7K cr (9% market share is 1/4 of Indigo's-37% )...

    Thanks for taking time and responding to my questions. This definitely expanded my horizons.
     
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