There is no doubt LUK is in the "recharging the elephant gun phase". It's ROE is pitiful at the moment. It is trading slightly below tangible book. It has sold and liquidated many of its public investments and owns a few large private businesses. Therefore, the thing to watch is what they are going to do with their resources in the next little while both at investing HQ and at Jefferies HQ. With 10 billion in equity, to achieve a 20% ROE which is what would lead to a 20% growth in book value, they must produce $2 billion per year of gains and/or income. They are nowhere close to that...I would say that the current "complex" can produce - in a stretch , no better than 1 billion per year, so the other billion must come from new investments.
Is it trading already below tangible book? From the latest 10-Q, the tangible book is about $7.6 bn. The current market cap is 9.11 bn.
Regarding Rich Handler, I remember Bruce mentioned somewhere before that he thinks Rich is the best investment banker on Wall Street, but I can't find the source anymore. Anyone?
Note that top IBs like GS is currently trading at about 10% above tangible book, while LUK is currently at 19% above book.