BB&T Corporation Message Board

Their plan is to release earnings seconds before they shut the office down for the evening .... no one around to field calls from angry shareholders.

They on CDT? ... so, I suspect we'll be reading the horrid news around 6:30 pm EST.

Yep, I did a poor job of scanning the filing. Missed that. Assumed EDAC hired Stifel after being approached with an offer. It is obvious they hired Stifel specifically to shop the company. My bad. Glad I did miss that though. Had I read it, I likely would have hit the exit, taken the $17.70 - 17.73. Lady Luck on my side.

This is disappointing. I am shocked there was not more interest, especially from strategic buyers. There are few opportunities to get positioned in Aero engine part manufacturing. And it's a significantly less cyclical area than other aspects of Aero. Would have thought the frame manufacturers would jump on it. The size of the deal could have been a factor. $100 M is chump change for most. Too much trouble.

Although, EDAC is a perfect fit for WWD. Woodward recently acquired an Aero frame manufacturer. While it does mostly biz jet work, they are trying to make in-roads into commercial. More importantly though, WWD is heavy into parts machining for gas turbines, wind turbines, et al. They could have easily recognized synergies with EDACs skills and facilities.

Now that we know it was shopped, far and wide, it is even more obvious that the jump in volume and price from mid-Feb was trading on insider info. Someone is going to get nailed here.

However, this raises an entirely new and troubling issue. When a public company hires a representative to find a buyer, an immediate disclosure is made to shareholders. Insiders who know the company is being shopped are sitting on material information. Just the act of not selling their shares during this period opens them up to insider trading accusations. We should have been told back in Oct that Stifel was engaged to look for a buyer for the company. Anyone who sold from Oct to the point of the $17.75 offer got harmed by that lack of disclosure, and I bet lawsuits will fly over this issue.

This whole process was terribly mishandled.

Another thought comes to mind as well ... THE LEAK. Trading on insider info, and its impact on rushing the deal.

Obviously, news of the pending offer got out in mid-Feb. Volume spiked. The shares started running. I suspect that wound up having the effect of a rushed effort to get a decision made and out to the mkt. There wasn't ample time for all interested parties to thoroughly do their work to determine value. Could be that mgt just went ahead and aligned with someone, anyone, to get the news out ... knowing they could then run a fair and open auction afterwards? Given ... Even if they did commit their shares to Greenbriar, they aren't locked. They have legal duties to shareholders to accept the best offer.

This could turn into a circus. The move is happening. Sales are ramping. New contracts are expected soon. A bidding war for the company is on. And the SEC has been alerted to the trading on insider information. I suspect the SEC will walk into this situation soon, which will truly turn this into a EDAC three ring circus.

Too funny.

I traded CVU actively in the early/mid 2000s. I drank the kool-aide there too, for a couple years. Mr. Fred is an impressive sounding CEO, initially. But, you'll soon catch on. He's a promoter. All hat, no cattle. He promises the moon in the way of new business, but fails to deliver.

The more significant problem there is their accounting. They use % completion accounting, which is highly subjective. Mr. Fred is a former CPA, he knows how to massage the numbers so that profits show continual growth. It can be done for a number of years, but eventually it catches up with you and massive write-offs ensue. Their last major write-off was a year or two ago. They'll have another within the next 1 to 2 years. You simply can't trust GAAP accounting there. Book income is meaningless in these cases. The only gauge you can use in judging CVU's performance is FCF (free cash flow).

Look at the cash flow stmt of CVU. They book profits, but never generate cash. In the last 3 years alone, they have USED $38 Million in cash from operations. The company has a mkt cap of only $71 M. Last time I saw such a massive imbalance ... Enron.

CVU is simply dangerous. Their CEO has no credibility. Their financials can not be trusted. You'd be smart to stay away from CVU.

It wasn't all roses with Pagano. There was a long period where sales were slowly rising, but income went no where (2008-10). We got nothing in the way of decent disclosure in the SEC filings, and the conference calls were even less informative. When things got cranking on the bottom line (2011-2012), we learned of the massive product development expenditures of earlier years to bring the new products to market.

You showed up years after I had been playing in the EDAC sandbox. I was there for the fall from $11s to $1s (2007-08). Riding it down wasn't fun. But that ride, and being so familiar with the story, gave me that much more comfort to back up the truck.

WSCI can unfold in a similar manner. They are taking hits to the P&L now to get the necessary AS9100 quality certifications, and development costs, to attact Aero business. We know what's in store for Aero as a result of our exposure to the EDAC story - massive growth. WSCI is so small, that even a crumb from Aero can cause this company to explode overnight. We just need to have patience. It may take awhile for them to get their foot in the door somewhere, but it will happen eventually.

On the energy front - there's an air pocket happening now on the drilling front. The number of domestic rigs operating has fallen appreciably. This is a short term factor that will take another year or two to iron out. Many were drilled when gas was $8 - $14, then capped with the price fell to $2-$3. We're going to have to wait until those are opened and pumping before well count starts increasing again. Plus, there are a number of pipeline expansions that will be opening soon that can take gas from the fields in Ohio and Pa down to the Gulf for storage and processing. Well count should start another round of torrid growth later this year or early next.

If nothing else, stay engaged here with a small position. This is another EDAC, just waiting to unfold.

Argyle,

I bought shares in a turd once at $11, years ago. Quarter after quarter I suffered through terrible results, terrible press releases, terrible earnings calls. But I had faith the turd's industry was on a major upswing. I backed up the truck when the turd fell into the highs $1s and low $2s. You know that turd too Argyle. It just got stolen from us at $17.75. ... EDAC

I have faith that if I hang with this WSCI turd awhile longer, it will eventually pay off too. Not this year. Maybe not next. But I suffered through 4 or 5 painful years before scoring an 8 bagger on EDAC.

WSCI is trying to get positioned in AERO. We know the story there Argyle. There is massive growth ahead.

WSCI is trying to get positioned in Energy. Fracking. Check out the Business Insider tweet this evening re: Fracking. Follow the link to the presentation. One slide indicates there are currently 12,000 operating wells in just the Marcelles field alone .... Moving to 100,000.

There's tremendous opportunity and growth in the areas where WSCI is making the effort to get positioned. The only question is whether the 2 clowns running the WSCI show can get us there. These clowns remind me of the EDAC clowns. And EDAC worked out pretty darn well.

So, I'm warming up my truck again ....