Invested in Olam?

Those invested in Olam. Here are some fast facts to take note of.

1) Olam's net profits grew from $48million (2004) to $371million (current), this represents a 30% YoY growth

2) Olam only generate "positive" Cash flow for 3 times of the 9 years since listing

4) Between 2004 and its last financial year, its operations ate up $3.4 Billion

5) Cumulative FCF for the past 9 years amounted to -$5.2 Billion

6) The group's total liabilities grew 10x in the past 8 years, from $1.05 Billion to $10.3 Billion

7) Total assets grew by an average of 38% YoY

8) According to Pio-troski F-score, Olam registered a 'low' score hence this means that the company might have deteriorating fundamentals as well as the lack of capital discipline

9) What muddy water's research team is trying to say in a nutshell (if you dont want to read the 50 over pages) is that Olam might have been too aggressive with their growth strategies, if the accumulated growth over the many years do not "pay back" what is expected, stakeholders might be in trouble.

Personal thoughts: I'm quite surprised that Olam's bonds are not rated. The surprise is about the people who bought the bond... how do they value this perceptual bond if it's not rated? How then is the 7% yield established?

Also, looking at the price of Olam's bonds and the stock price concurrently, there is a period where the bond price keeps on dropping while the share price maintain it's level. Under finance theories, bonds is ranked above equity in terms of risk. (In finance; risk is defined as volatility; Warren Buffett defines it as permanent loss of capital) then should'nt the stock price drop as well? Strange...