Paul,
I've noticed you mention a few foreign companies from time to time, and from what I can tell, the Yahoo profiles look pretty good on most of them. Quite honestly, NTZ looks especially good. My problem with foreign issues is this is what I find when I try to research them:
sec.gov
They file their PRs with the SEC and that's all she wrote. No disclosures about risk factors, hedging instruments, liquidity, pending or potential legal actions, competition, accounting methods, capital expenditures, etc. Basically none of the information I would consider critical before putting my money in a US company is available to me when researching foreign issues. To me it would be about like buying a used car after viewing its outline under a tarp. Being the skeptical individual I am, I want to look at the paint, check it for dents, hear it run, pop the hood and kick the tires.
This isn't NTZ specific, but a situation I always encounter when looking at foreign issues. If you or anyone else has some helpful hints on how to do good DD on offshore companies, I'd appreciate the feedback.
It seems to me that if foreign companies want access to US equity markets, they should be required to provide the same information US companies do when they want access to US equity markets. I really don't understand why this isn't the case, but it's the main reason I tend to avoid offshore companies almost automatically. |
