Today’s post is a brief departure from my usual discussion of micro-caps and illiquid stocks, and instead contains some updates and news on the blog and on my RIA firm. Regular posting will resume later this week with a profile of a true rarity in today’s market: a profitable net-net, this one in Australia.

The Business

It’s been nearly six months since I started my RIA firm, and I’ve never had so much fun at work! It’s been a great pleasure to manage portfolios for many readers. Being a one-man shop is a lot of work, but finally being able to buy promising securities for clients rather than merely writing about them online is such a great feeling. Assets under management is growing quickly, but there’s still plenty of room for new clients! Drop me a line if you’re interested.

That brings me to an important announcement: the name of my RIA firm is changing from Catalpa Capital Management, LLC to Alluvial Capital Management, LLC. Nothing else about the business is changing except for the name. The change should show up on FINRA soon, and the new website is alluvialcapital.com.

The Blog

Long-time readers may have noticed a decline in the frequency of new posts on OTC Adventures. The main reason for the decline is my RIA duties. Writing new blog posts necessarily falls lower on the list of priorities than performing research and managing client accounts. Besides that, it’s simply more difficult to locate clearly cheap stocks. It’s not impossible, in fact I think anyone who claims all the good values have been eliminated by the rising market is just not searching very hard. However, the days when I could browse through filings for an hour and come up with a list of a dozen dirt cheap American OTC stocks are over for now. That’s the reason that more than half of the new posts I do are on exchange-traded companies outside the US. Many international markets still abound with tiny, cheap companies waiting to be discovered by investors. Here are a few of the areas where I am finding a good number of promising stocks:

• Western Europe, particularly France, Germany and Switzerland – These nations abound with family-controlled micro-caps and larger companies with low floats due to the presence of controlling shareholders. So long as the owning families or controlling shareholders have a history of stewarding their companies well and treating outside shareholders fairly, I’m happy to buy in at valuations and ratios that are a distant memory in US markets. So far, I’ve found bargains in real estate and manufacturing, though nearly every sector offers value.

• Australia – The perception of Australia that many investors have is of an economy dominated by raw materials and energy and beholden to China’s appetite for coal and iron ore. There’s a grain of truth to that, but it obscures the hundreds of small Australian companies that have nothing to do with the resource economy. For example, I’ve found bargains in agriculture, consumer goods and logistics, and I’ve only just begun my search. Another nice feature of Australian companies is the dividend culture that exists there. Australian companies normally pay out high portions of their earnings in dividends, which I find tends to discourage management from frittering away earnings on dubious investments.

• Mexico – Mexico suffers from a reputation for shaky creditworthiness, high inflation and social issues. Investors who focus on these perceptions may miss that fact that Mexico’s per capita GDP rose 27% from 2009 to 2012, and will likely keep growing following the liberalization of the nation’s energy sector. I’ve found bargains in consumer staples and auto suppliers.

• “Exotic” Exchanges – Lately, I’ve been spending time seeking out local exchanges in developed nations that for whatever reason aren’t widely available to Western investors. I’ve not yet found ways of accessing many of these exchanges, but several offer incredible value, if the stocks can be bought. In the interest of keeping it that way, I won’t be talking about them here…..

Thank you, as always, for reading OTC Adventures. I’ve benefited immeasurably as a writer, analyst and investor from your comments and e-mails. Nearly without fail, each time I write up a company I get several e-mails from company or industry experts offering insights and perspectives that I would struggle to arrive at myself. Please feel free to contact me at any time.