Thursday, 19 April 2018

Short Aceto As It Heads Into Bankruptcy

Aceto Corporation (ACET) tanked 64% to $2.66 on Thursday on a very ominous press release "ACETO Board Takes Proactive Steps to Address Business and Financial Challenges". We were originally looking at this company as a long for a bounce play but settled as a strong short as it is very highly likely headed into bankruptcy after doing our research. We are up to 587 followers despite not giving out a lot of alerts, a fact that we think is indicative of a diligent and prudent stock picking history. If you like our picks you can follow our blog by clicking the follow button on the top of the left hand panel. You can also follow us on Twitter handle @StockTradePicks. If you would like to share this blog, make sure to use the URL "nasdaqnewsreports.blogspot.mx" as certain spam filters on social media don't let you post blogspot.com addresses.

The first thing we would like to address is the appointment of Rebecca Roof as Interim CFO:

"The Board announced the appointment of Rebecca Roof as Interim CFO and the resignation of CFO Edward Borkowski, who has decided to pursue another opportunity. Ms. Roof is a highly experienced finance professional and a Managing Director at AlixPartners LLP. While at AlixPartners, Ms. Roof has served as Interim Chief Financial Officer of the Eastman Kodak Company, Atkins Nutritionals, Anchor Glass Corporation, Fleming Foods, and several privately held entities. Her pharmaceutical and specialty chemicals experience includes leadership roles at Taro Pharmaceuticals and LyondellBasell, also while at AlixPartners."

Every single one of those firms mentioned in the press release as places she worked at as "interim" CFO or in another capacity went through bankruptcy proceedings:

The pattern here is undeniable. Companies hire Ms. Roof as "Interim" CFO for the express purpose of going into bankruptcy and emerging as a new company with the old equity wiped out. That's why she is always interim. Once the job is done, she moves on. It's clear that ACET management sees the writing on the wall here and expects to be going into bankruptcy with the equity wiped out. ACET is foretelling it in the press release by telling everyone all the firms she worked at while the companies went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. There may have been other firms she worked at that avoided that fate but the company didn't list those ones. 

Look at the balance sheet:



There is $617 million in liabilities, over half of it in the form of debt, against a billion of assets. At first glance, this is not SO bad. But this is an adverse industry that is very competitive and ACET is fully admitting that it is struggling to compete. The company in its own words said:

"ACETO Corporation (Nasdaq: ACET), an international company engaged in the development, marketing, sale and distribution of Human Health products, Pharmaceutical Ingredients and Performance Chemicals, announced, in light of the persistent adverse conditions in the generics market, it is negotiating with its bank lenders a waiver of its credit agreement with respect to its total net leverage and debt service coverage financial covenants in the fiscal third quarter, and that the financial guidance issued on February 1, 2018, should no longer be relied upon. In addition, the Company anticipates recording non-cash intangible asset impairment charges, including goodwill, in the range of $230 million to $260 million on certain currently marketed and pipeline generic products as a result of continued intense competitive and pricing pressures."

When we look at a company like this, we should only compare the liquid assets against the liabilities. ACET has only $64 million in cash and $477 million in current assets, well short of the liabilities. With Ms. Roof coming on board, the direction is clear. ACET is headed towards restructuring and the equity is headed to zero, or very close to it. Maybe ACET shareholders will get a small percentage of the restructured company. But this would be worth less than the $81 million market cap that ACET has right now. Look for an opportunity to short the stock to under $2, then re-evaluate from there.

Disclosure: We are short Aceto.

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