Insights

In a management presentation not too long ago I was made aware of an investment theme completely unknown to me previously: ballast water treatment. Ballast water is used by shipping vessels, such as bulk carriers or tankers, to maintain stability in transit. Larger ships can carry millions of gallons of water in their ballast tanks, which is brought on board and discharged between ports as needed. Coincidentally, a colleague of mine recently e-mailed me a copy of Janney Capital Markets Infrastructure Quarterly Newsletter, which had some data on the subject I thought was worth sharing:

I had an opportunity to meet with J. Hilburn co-founder Hil Davis in December of 2013. In my efforts to do a little research prior to the meeting I stumbled across an article in Inc. Magazine. I like stories that expose the catalyst for a new venture:

The Financial Page of the New Yorker recently featured a new Hepatitis-C drug developed by Gilead. The new drug can cure 90% of patients in three to six months.
“There’s just one catch: a single dose of the drug costs a thousand dollars, which means that a full, twelve-week course of treatment comes to more than eighty grand.”

Initially debits and credits are a difficult concept to grasp. If you look at the expanded accounting equation in reference note 001 you should quickly draw the conclusion that debit = left and credit = right.
This quote (from a book: see figure 1) is helpful because it quickly applies the concept to cash. And cash is king.
If the concept feels abstract at first that’s because it is. This concept simply takes time to digest (mentally, don’t eat it).