IDR, another target of Pirate.

**xxyygorich** Sun Apr 09, 2006 9:28 pm

IDR, another target of Pirate.
First, where is everybody? No one posts for the contest this week.

Ok, here is mine.

IDR, Intrawest Corporation, another target of Pirate.

How did IDR go into the radar?
When I was doing research on JRCC, I happened to read an article, or just the title exactly "Pirate Hoards Intrawest, James River". I know what James river is, and I know Pirate is one of the largest holders of JRCC, and I know Pirate has very good performence on its investment, say 27% per year, So I became very interested in the story of Intrawest.

Description of Intrawest.
"Intrawest Corporation engages in the development of mountain resort real estate and golf courses in North America. It owns, develops, and manages residential and commercial resort real estate at each of its mountain resorts and develops resort villages. The company also builds and operates resort club locations at its resorts. As of June 30, 2005, it operated 10 mountain resorts, which include Blackcomb and Panorama in British Columbia; Blue Mountain in Ontario; Tremblant in Quebec; Stratton in Vermont; Snowshoe in West Virginia; Copper and Winter Park in Colorado; Mountain Creek in New Jersey; and Mammoth in California. The company also operated 18 golf courses and managed 17 other courses, as of the above date. In addition, it owns and operates the 50-store chain of Breeze/Max sport retail, and ski and snowboard rental shops containing approximately 96,000 square feet of space, located in the western United States. Further, the company provides tour and travel services to various destinations worldwide. Intrawest was formed in 1979 and is based in Vancouver, Canada." --- Shamelessly copied from Yahoo.

Take home messages:
1. It's not exactly a US company. It founded in Canada.
2. Its business can be divided into 2 big parts: one is travel, resort related business, the other is real estate development.
3. The travel part can further be divided into mountain resort, beach golf course, adventure travel.
4. Intrawest Corp. has become North America's largest ski resort operator. Its crown jewel is British Columbia's Whistler Blackcomb resort, host site of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Positive side of IDR.
1. HUGE insider purchase! Guess who? PIRATE CAPITAL LLC From Feb, Pirate is buying IDR like crazy from 27.54 to 33.87. Pirate is playing the same strategy used on JRCC by pushing the company to sell itself.
2. It has almost the lowest P/E ratio in the sector of resorts and casinos. However, its Canadian origin may be one of the reasons for a lower P/E ratio.
3. The debt level is also very low among the secter.
4. Good management records. IDR keeps earning money in the recent years.
5. Travel and Ski are growing business. The total number of people who stayed in the resort increased by 4-5% from 2004-2005. And host site of the 2010 Winter Olympics will be a good plus in terms of advertising, and marketing. The advanture travel sector is growing in a fast pace.
6. It pays dividend. (I am a fun of dividend, I like stocks issueing dividend).

The negative side.
1. Slow growth in 2005.
2. Appreciation of CAN dollar. It will hurt the spending of US travelers.
3. Strikes. A strick happened in 2005, caused a loss in the prime season.
4. Global warming?! Bad weather condition.

Is it a value stock?
I don't have a solid answer for that, but Pirate and other sources are claiming the fair value of this stock is about $45.

Blast in his weekly insider buying report sorted IDR as OTHER STOCK. So by his definition, it is not an obvious value stock.

Overall, I am a little bit positive on this one and might invest a small portion of portfolio into it.

Please share ur opinion.