Andrew Walker

As a PRTH shareholder, Andrew views the $6.00-$6.15 take-private proposal as an opportunistic bid on an illiquid, roughly 60% insider-owned company, made just two days after a bad print knocked the stock from about $7 to about $5; the January 2025 secondary at $7.75, which the company itself suggested undervalued the shares, makes the bid look far too cheap. He reads the roughly $3 million Q2 add-back of special committee legal costs as a sign negotiations are hot and heavy, sees PRTH as a strategic asset that would attract strategic bidders (payments history suggests several will want the SG&A synergies), and argues even a $10 takeout would be a steal: the CEO already owns about 60%, would only need to write a $200-$300 million check, and saves $4-$5 million of public company costs. If no deal happens, the business is performing and the roughly $50 million of cash generated this year can go to debt paydown or buybacks, providing optionality.

Jet2 is a London-listed airline/package-holiday company that trades very cheaply and owns a lot of its aircraft. Andrew thought it was trading far below the value of its owned planes and floated an activist idea to restructure/wind down the business and sell the aircraft; it also benefits from customer float from package bookings. This is a valuation/asset-backed long mentioned as a comparison to El Al, so it is a secondary idea rather than the main pitch.

Fastenal's organic growth has accelerated from roughly zero to high-single/low-double digits because of the AI boom, making it a distributor beneficiary of AI infrastructure demand in a more sustainable way than memory stocks.