Monthly Archives: April 2013

J C Penney (JCP) just borrowed $850 million…why?

April 16, 2013 By in Current Market Thoughts, Recent Market Action, Retail, Stock ideas, working capital Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

the 8-k

Yesterday, JCP announced in an 8-K filed with the SEC that it has borrowed $850 million on its newly expanded $1.8 billion bank credit line   …even though it doesn’t really need the money right now.  It also said it’s looking for other sources of new finance, which I interpret as meaning finding someone to purchase new bonds or stock.

My guess is that as the company needs seasonal working capital finance it will borrow more on the credit line rather than deplete its cash balances, which should now amount to around $1.8 billion.  This despite the fact that paying the current 5.25% interest rate on the $850 million will cost the company $44.6 million a year.

Why do this?

We know that the Ackman/Johnson regime inflicted terrible damage on JCP.  Part of this is actual–the stuff about lost sales and profits that we can read in the company’s financial statements.  Part of it is psychological–we don’t know how deeply JCP is wounded, how long it will take for the company to heal, nor even how much healing is possible.

a psychological plus

By borrowing the money now, JCP is in a sense buying itself an insurance policy on the psychological/confidence front by establishing several things:

— it now has enough cash to be able to weather two more ugly years like 2012, rather than one.  This gives it much more breathing room to negotiate any asset disposals, to say nothing of getting customers back into the stores.

–it has lessened the possibility that its banks will withdraw or reduce the credit line if sales continue to deteriorate.  After all, they now have their $850 million that’s in JCP’s hands to protect.

–it demonstrates to suppliers that the company has ample cash to pay for merchandise.  JCP will likely get better payment terms with the money on the balance sheet than without it, although it’s not clear to me that payables still won’t shrink this year.   More important, in my view, is that suppliers won’t restrict either the quantity or selection of merchandise they deliver to JCP for fear they won’t be paid.

–it avoids the negative publicity (see my 2011 post on Eastman Kodak) that would likely have been generated were JCP to wait until it genuinely needed the funds, or until its banks might be getting cold feet.

so far, so good

So far, Wall Street is taking the move in stride.  The stock showed no adverse effect from the announcement.  And in pre-market trading today, it’s up.

a falling gold price–what does it mean?

April 15, 2013 By in emerging markets, Gold, Industry Analysis, Recent Market Action Tags: , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

Back in the day, I was, among other things, a gold mining analyst.  That period left me with an enduring fascination, not about the yellow metal itself, but about gold “bugs”–the people who are obsessed with gold and who buy it as an “investment.”  I have the same complex mixture of feelings about gold bugs that I have about survivalists, Civil War reenactors, model railroad buffs and people from Brooklyn.  It’s not exactly “There but for the grace of God…”, but that’s the general direction.

I really don’t get gold as an investment.  Yes, it’s shiny and there may actually be gnomes in Zurich.  Until the mid-1970s, gold did serve as a kind of money worldwide.  But no longer.  One exception:  developing economies where either there are no banks for businesses to use, or where people don’t want/trust banks to know about their finances.

Contrary to what I think is popular belief in the US, virtually all the demand for gold comes from the developing world.  The US accounts for 5% of purchases, the EU 10%.  Japan is a non-factor.  Last year, as usual, India was the #1 buyer of gold, at 28% of the total.  Greater China took 25%.

Before the Great Recession, the large bulk, maybe 3/4th, of the world’s demand for gold was for jewelry (although much of this did double duty as chuk kam 99.9% gold trinkets). 10% was for technology or dentistry.  The rest was gold bars and coins bought as an “investment.”  The bulk of that demand was supplied by mine production, with the rest coming from recycling and steady selling by central banks in developed countries.

The GR changed that pattern, in two ways.  Demand for gold bars and coins more than tripled.  Central banks in the developed world stopped selling, while their counterparts in emerging economies began to buy gold like there was no tomorrow.  Between 2009 and 2011–which appears to have been the peak of this activity–the gold price doubled in US$.

Gold ETFs?  They peaked in 2009 at about 17% of world gold demand.  By 2011 they had shrunk to 4%.

What’s happening now?

The gold price has been slowly declining for two years, without attracting much attention, as panicky buying by gold bugs has waned.

What’s new is India.  The biggest drain on India’s growing trade imbalance is its citizens’ continuing demand for gold–both for jewelry and because the country’s banks don’t work.  New Delhi has decided to deal with the steady flow of cash out of the country by taxing gold imports.  At least to some degree, this will put the metal’s chief buyer on the sidelines.  That won’t stop mines from churning out the stuff, however, until/unless the gold price drops below their cash cost of production.  That’s a looong way down.

Elsewhere, “investment” demand appears to be waning.  Less significant in the short term, Chinese tastes seem to be slowly shifting away from chuk kam to fashion or statement jewelry with lower gold content.  And, of course, more dentists are using ceramic teeth and PC demand is slowing.

In other words, the supply/demand picture for gold is looking less favorable for prices.  The price decline has nothing to do with inflation fears in the US or EU subsiding, or renewed faith that either area is suddenly on a sounder economic footing.

parity party on the calendar–the yen and the penny?

April 14, 2013 By in Asian economic development, currency effects, economics, Japanese development Tags: , , , , , , , 1 Comment

parity–almost

Two days ago the Japanese yen reached a low where US$1 could buy ¥99 in the foreign exchange markets.  That’s extremely close to parity between the US penny and the yen.

What makes this level shocking is that last September, one greenback would only get you ¥77.  So the exchange value of the yen has dropped against the US$ by 22%+ in a little over half a year.  Stuff like this doesn’t usually happen with the national currencies of large developed world economies.

On the other hand, there aren’t normal times in the Land of Wa.

Japan’s problem

Japan has been struggling economically for almost a quarter century, plagued by a toxic combination of next to zero real economic growth + Deflation.  A falling price level means takes more of your income to repay debt, so no one borrows.  Things will always be cheaper tomorrow, so everyone postpones spending.

This stagnation is not an accidental occurrence, as I see it.  It’s the result of deliberate policy decisions by Tokyo aimed at preserving the social and cultural milieu of the 1970s-1980s–as well as the power of the aging and hidebound executives/bureaucrats/ politicians who came to power in that era.

How so?      The Japanese workforce is shrinking as the population ages, but immigration to replace those workers is not allowed.  Moribund companies are not permitted to die.  Instead, they’re kept alive by financial infusions from suppliers, customers and local financial institutions.  Nor are such firms encouraged to streamline or refocus so they can make money again.  Quite the opposite.  The government even protects inept or indifferent managements from any shareholder attempts to compel them to do so.  In many cases–the auto companies are one shining exception–zombie-like firms destroy the profitability of entire industries.

the inflation “solution”

Faced with severe voter discontent, the recently-elected new government has decided to “cure” the economic malaise by increasing the money supply until doing so creates inflation.  That’s the main economic plank the Liberal Democratic Party ran on, so arguably the ballot box shows the measure has popular approval.  Unfortunately for Japanese citizens, however,…

…there’s little reason to think that this will do lasting good

Textbook theory says an acceleration in money growth will lower interest rates and weaken the currency.  That gives the economy a temporary boost, which will gradually subside–leaving the country with the same real growth rate as before but with higher inflation.

A whiff of inflation is nothing too horrible in Japan’s case, since the country is suffering the ills of deflation–except for the risk that domestic interest rates will rise.  That could make it far more difficult for the government to finance the country’s huge debt burden.

In some ways, we’re in uncharted waters here, however.  Textbook theory is formulated from general economic principles buttressed by observations from practical experience.  Most of that experience comes either from small economies or from a much simpler pre-globalization (no BRICs) world, however.

So far, the announcement of Tokyo’s intention to create inflation has weakened the yen by a (to me) startling 22.5%.  That represents an extraordinary loss in national wealth.  It also means that dollar-denominated items–like food, clothing, fuel–that Japanese consumers buy on a regular basis now cost almost 30% more in yen than they did six months ago.  Yes, this is inflation, but not the healthy kind–wage increases driven by rising industrial productivity;  rather, this is a substantial fall in the Japanese standard of living.

Will the loosening of money policy lead to improvement in profits for Japanese industry?  In the case of commodity-like machinery output, the short-term answer is “Yes.”  Both the EU and the US have recently expressed strong concern that Japan is attempting to export its industrial woes through hostile currency devaluation.  This means that basic industry in both areas is already being hurt by Japan’s move.

On the other hand, will you now pick a Sharp TV over a Samsung, or a Sony smartphone over an iPhone/Galaxy S4 just because the price of the former has gone down a bit?  How many more boomboxes or Walkmen will you buy?

Perhaps most distressingly, for much of Japanese industry a lower currency will only make it easier to ignore their lack of innovation and their weak general management for a while longer.

The damage done to Japanese consumers is real and it’s today.  An industrial renaissance due to looser money is unlikely, in my view, while the government defends the status quo.  As the White Queen in Through the Looking Glass said, it’s “jam tomorrow.”

Ron Johnson out at J. C. Penney (JCP): implications

April 10, 2013 By in cash flow, earnings conference calls, Industry Analysis, Recent Market Action, Retail, Stock ideas Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

Yesterday, only a few weeks after major shareholder Bill Ackman gave Ron Johnson a ringing endorsement as CEO of JCP, Mr. Johnson is out.

Former CEO, Mike Ullman, who was unceremoniously dumped not that long ago to make room for Johnson, is back in.

Wow!

What can we make of this?     …quite a lot, I think.

1.  The change comes right after monthly sales results for JCP in March, the second month of the company’s fiscal year, would have been available.  Presumably they’re really bad (the Wall Street Journal is reporting that quarter-to-date sales are down at least 10% year on year).

This is a big problem.  JCP marks up merchandise by about 50% over what it pays.  It uses the gains from sales, called gross income, to cover the costs of running the store network (like advertising, rent, utilities, salaries…).  What’s left over is profit.

JCP’s sales in fiscal 2010 were $17.6 billion;  its pre-tax profit was $581 million.

In fiscal 2012, sales were $13.0 billion, or 26% lower than in fiscal 2010.  My back of the envelope calculation is that JCP lost just under $800 million from retailing last year–offset by a number of non-recurring gains (see my post).

To my mind, the largest factor in the profit decline is the loss of sales.  The March figures suggests sales may not have bottomed out yet.

2.  Since the company was quick to boot Mr. Ullman not so long ago, he’s probably not the company’s first choice as the new CEO.

I can see two possibilities:

–he may be the only experienced executive willing to take the job, or

–JCP may have been pressured into making the change quickly and Mr. Ullman was available on short notice (I’ve heard he was first contacted last weekend).

Neither possibility is encouraging.

3.  Where would outside pressure come from? The two main sources, as I see it, would be:

–suppliers.  Last year JCP generated $140 million in cash by getting suppliers to agree to wait longer to be paid. As the perceived riskiness of dealing with JCP rises, the standard response by suppliers would be to rethink a decision like this.  In a more extreme situation, suppliers would start to reconsider the amounts and types of merchandise they send to a customer.

–banks.  In its 4Q12 earnings conference call, JCP highlighted the fact that it had negotiated a $500 million increase in its bank credit lines, to just over $2 billion.  The message from this seemed to me to be that JCP had ample funds to weather any problems it might encounter in 2013.  Again, the standard response to continuing deterioration in sales would be for banks to reassess their exposure.  All it would likely take to reduce a credit line–something that would doubtless have adverse effects for JCP–would be one credit committee meeting.

There’s no direct evidence that either suppliers or banks have started down this road.  It’s conceivable, though, that one or both told JCP they’ll have to change their thinking if sales don’t perk up soon.  That might have been the final straw for Mr. Johnson.