A Couple More New Issues

June 24, 2014  10:30 pm

There are a couple new issues in the last week that we have not posted so better get to it.

1st is a Senior Note issue from General Finance Corp (ticker:GFN).  General Finance sells and leases containers (storage, shipping, liquid and all sorts of containers).  The company has been around since 2005 and while just moderately profitable does have a reasonable cash flow (with large depreciation charges).  Our brief analysis says that this is not an issue to hold if we head into a recession.  This is a 8.125% issue with a maturity date of 2021.  While General Finance is not a hugely profitable concern the 8.125% coupon and the relatively short maturity date has our interest. The issue has begun trading and has traded in a tight $25.20 to $25.35 price range in the last week (issued last week).  NOTE that this issue has some optional redemption features that are not normal (but ok).  Make sure to read the details.

With our interest in shortening our overall portfolio maturity we will be buying this issue on Wednesday.

Details of this issue are here.

The 2nd issue that we overlooked is from National General Holdings Corp (ticker:NGH).  National General Holdings is the property and casualty business of the old GMAC (or at least portions of the business).  The company has cross pollinated management with AmTrust and Maiden–all of them run by the Karfunkels.

This issue is a 7.50% non cumulative (as is normal for insurance companies) preferred issue.  The issue is alright for those that do not mind the perpetual nature of the issue–but at this point in time we are not interested in most perpetual issues.

Details of the issue are here.