Posted on 11/26/2004 5:34:23 PM PST by Trajan88
LONDON, Nov 25 (Reuters) - A former Wall Street stockbroker plans to launch a hedge fund to short-sell shares in Coca-Cola Co. and give any profits to people in countries he says the U.S. drinks company has exploited.
Max Keiser, 44, a self-styled "investment activist", has teamed up with the son of the late entrepreneur Sir James Goldsmith with the aim of halving Coke's share price to $22 dollars in 12 months from its current value of around $40.
Profits from the fund would be distributed to the "victims of Coke" in a process supported and audited by Zak Goldsmith's London-based Ecologist magazine, which will decide where to donate any proceeds.
Keiser says Coca-Cola has poisoned land in India and trampled on human rights in Colombia, charges the company has frequently and vigorously denied.
"Coke's been down this year as sales dry up," Keiser told Reuters, attributing part of the fall in the stock to anti-American sentiment following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
Earlier this month, Atlanta-based Coca-Cola, the world's largest soft drinks company, lowered its long-term earnings and sales targets, saying it expected demand for its products to remain weak in North America, Germany and other key markets.
Keiser hopes a campaign to boycott Coca-Cola products will undermine the company's share price, making money for his as yet unnamed hedge fund, which will sell Coke shares with the aim of buying them back more cheaply later.
"Our target for Coke is $22 as dissent is pushed back onto the balance sheet," said Keiser, a New Yorker living in London who runs investment activism website KarmabanQue.com.
Coca-Cola stock touched a year low of $38.30 in October, well down from highs of over $85 they reached in the late 1990s. They closed at $39.80 on Wednesday, before the Thanksgiving holiday, valuing the company at more than $96 billion.
"BLATANT FALSEHOODS"
"This so-called campaign is based on blatant falsehoods," Coca-Cola spokesman Ben Deutsch told Reuters by phone from Atlanta.
"It's unfortunate that anyone would attempt to hurt Coca-Cola shareholders by waging such an effort without knowing and recognising the facts," Deutsch added.
Keiser worked with Wall Street stockbrokers PaineWebber and Alex Brown in the 1980s before co-founding the Hollywood Stock Exchange website, a virtual exchange trading celebrity values which is now owned by broker Cantor Fitzgerald.
He plans to register his hedge fund by early next year, probably in Britain, and to tap a number of rich private investors to raise up to $100 million.
Iain Martin, editor of specialist London monthly Hedge Fund Manager, said Keiser's investment strategy had several merits and that his funding target was attainable.
"Hedge funds are attracting a lot of interest from high net worth individuals and institutions," Martin said. "I think there's no reason to think he won't achieve that total."
Take a look at the venom from Keiser's web page (www.karmabanque.com): "Coca-Cola is the one boycott the world should be joining right now KarmabanQue in association with The Ecologist magazine is launching a new hedge fund that will donate profits from short-sales in Coke's stock to the victims of Coke's business model in places like India and Colombia. As the Coke boycott swells, the money committed to this new fund will also increase. We'll commit to as much money as it takes to take down Coke
A 4-way relationship that drains Coke's stock 1) you boycott, 2) we sell-short, 3) victims of Coke get the profits at the expense of, 4) Coke's shareholders
Americans electing Bush have said , 'f*** you world' Say, 'f*** you America' by joining Karmabanque."
Hey Keiser do us a favor and don't bother coming back to the U.S.; the U.K. can keep your sorry tail.
Trajan88; TAMU Class of '88
must be a pepsi fan
"He who sells what isn't his'n
Buys it back, or goes to prison"
Not very bright of them to announce their plans. Shorting the stock will presumably drive the price down for the short or intermediate term, but then Coca Cola or some of the big funds can just buy more stock cheap and that will bring the price back up again. I doubt whether these geniuses have as much cash to work with as the other side.
Trajan88
Please explain. This will be amusing!
This guy should expect a visit from the SEC shortly (no pun intended). And British regulators too.
Four words.
Loser, broke, six - months
Here is his website:
http://www.karmabanque.com/
yeah, the stock is worth what the company is worth. he can short it all he wants but if the company performs he is just going to end up in a lot of debt.
I'm really dense in stock matters. Why would it take $100 mil
from wealthy investors to drive a stock down? Where is the return on this $100 mil when the plan is to donate "profits" to people in India and Columbia? What constitues a victim in
these circumstances anyway? Where can I apply?
order in at 43, stop loss at 41 :)
You raise great questions. The best one is related to who would be dumb enough to invest in anything where if there is a profit it's distributed to non-shareholders! It sounds like a grant (ie money down the drain) than an investment! I hope they raise a lot of money from lefties. I'll be toasting them by spending money on a Coke!
Someone needs to hire a ... err... shall we say a "hostile takeover Eliminator" ?
If I ran a company and I knew of a particular person(s) who would and were getting ready to destroy my company, my workers, all the dependents of the company, and down the entire chain --- I would simply hire somebody to eliminate that threat to thousands of loves - in CocaCola's case you are talking TENs of thousands of lives that will be adversely affected and many will die as a result of this attack.
This is a form of terrorsims and it is time we strike them back hard and pemanently - no matter WHERE they hold citizenship papers from.
Maybe the money is being borrowed and thus an interest payment is made. That would be an liability and expense. Any profit would come after debt and expenses are paid out. I doubt the "Victims" will see much of this or the money will be spent on how this group feels it needs to be spent, which most likely will be the opposite of what the "Victims" will want/need.
The short interest is published. So potential investors, and folks who currently own the stock and may be considering selling, look at the total shares currently sold short and know that they have to be bought back. It is a guaranteed market for your shares. If you are selling turkeys, and you know that XYZ company has committed to provide 1 million turkeys to ZZZ company... a contract they have to fulfill ... then you would probably jack up your price a bit.
then, watch when they squeeze you like bug under the wheel of a bus. you'll feel like you were shot from a cannon straight up underneath an overpass.
This story is too stupid for words. Either that, or the principal is.
And it's not necessary because in a liquid market real companies will crush bear raiders, like this fool.
I wish he'd go after Nextel. They're *ssholes.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.