This was from Barrons Fri. Perhaps the most overvalued big company on the planet remains Volkswagen (VOW.Germany), the European auto maker whose shares fell 40% to 210 euros last week but still trade at a big premium to rivals like Daimler (DAI) and BMW (BMW.Germany). Barron's wrote skeptically on VW recently. VW still fetches nearly 20 times earnings, while Daimler has a P/E of five and BMW just six based on projected 2008 profits. VW has benefited from a big short squeeze that has started to abate. Its shares could fall under 100 euros, analysts say. Its market value of $84 billion is triple Daimler's, a seemingly nutty situation.
"Its market value of $84 billion is triple Daimler's, a seemingly nutty situation." Wake up Barron's, it is a short squeeze, it isn't supposed to make sense. Porsche owns 42.6% of VW stock and has options for 31.5% giving a total of 74.1%. Lower Saxony owns 20% of VW, so only 5.9% of VW is left for everyone else. 5.9% of VW is the only difference between a short squeeze and a corner.
They can't trade those accounts in receivership. Essentially toast. They will have to liquidate other positions to make margin calls. The highly leveraged un-hedged imbeciles are toast. I doubt anyone will be foolish enough to give money to these people again. With new regulations and Paulson out to shoot everyone of them dead, the "hedge-fund" industry is essentially toast. SAC is ahead of the curve. Others will follow.
yes, if baron does not know these facts he is a fool. But there are 2 ways out of this. 1) VW emmits new stocks (Kapitalerhöhung) 2) Niedersachsen sells its stake 1) is especially attractive because VW (Piech) still does not like to have Wiedeking in the boat. And they could raise a lot of cash now from the Hedgefunds beeing under enormous pressure. I think one of the 2 will happen and VW shares back to 200 in minutes.
Hedge funds hit as Porsche moves on VW http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2ce144b0-a456-11dd-8104-000077b07658.html