As I dig through the toxic debris of collapsed Ponzi-Land MLP vehicles, I keep having this recurring question; why do all these MLPs continue to have sponsors that are so aggressive in supporting the LP distributions? I’ve seen everything from; purchases of preferreds at below market interest rates, to sponsors agreeing to forgo subordinated distributions, to support agreements where they are literally gifting the Read More

Until early this summer, certain promoters seemed to believe that they could do a magic trick that no one would catch. A larger entity would “drop down” an asset at twice what it cost to purchase or build, add a bit more leverage and call it a “yield vehicle” that would then be sold to retail investors. Adding hubris to this whole charade of Read More

A few years back, I was at dinner with a British ship-owner who had just sold part of his fleet for almost $250 million (which was about $200 million more than he had paid for the ships only a few years earlier). He couldn’t stop laughing. Sure, they threw off about $50 million in cash (20% yield for the buyers) based on this year’s Read More

My Buddy Tal, publisher of Beijing Perspective (http://www.beijingperspective.com) sent me the following last week. It’s both prescient and obvious advice. I felt the need to share as I agree completely. If you want more of his notes, I recommend signing up at his site. Kuppy   November 7, 2015 Two cents on interest rates Cent #1) “Anyone familiar with asset markets know that it is Read More

It has now been three weeks since CitronResearch.com accused Valeant (VRX: NYSE) of being Pharmron (Pharma + Enron). Ever since then, I’ve read a bunch of articles and tried to find an actionable angle. When there are rumors, innuendo and allegations of fraud, there’s a potential for opportunity. However, the deeper I dug; something increasingly struck me as rather odd about Valeant. At its Read More