It has been a while since I last wrote about Biglari Holdings (BH) and their efforts to diversify into a holding company far bigger than just the core Steak 'n Shake restaurant operations. BH has acquired a 20% stake in Cracker Barrel (CBRL), as well as purchased Maxim magazine, First Guard Insurance, and Western Sizzlin outright. Accounting for a recently completed rights offering that raised $86 million, BH has around $200 million of cash and no holding company debt (the Steak 'n Shake subsidiary does have debt of $220 million). An update seems in order now that BH shares are trading for $330 each, for an equity market value of $680 million.
Why? Well, the valuation seems off, to put it mildly. At the current quote of $103 per share, BH's Cracker Barrel stake is worth $488 million. Add in a net cash position of approximately $200 million and you quickly realize that buyers of BH today are getting Steak 'n Shake (a business with more than $700 million of annual sales) for free, as well as all of the company's other assets. To give you an idea of how ridiculous this is, consider that the Steak 'n Shake generated annual free cash flow of $60 million in 2010 and 2011 (that figure has come down in recent years as CEO Sardar Biglari has invested a lot of capital into accelerating Steak 'n Shake's franchising business globally). As such, it is not a stretch to value Steak 'n Shake equity at multiple hundreds of millions of dollars (accounting for its debt load). Getting that business for free is a big deal on a percentage basis considering that BH's total equity capitalization is currently valued at less than $700 million by the market.
I am not the only investor who sees value in BH shares. Och-Ziff Capital Management (OZM) recently filed a 13G disclosing an 8% passive stake in the company, and that filing was made when the stock was trading over $400 per share. It will be interesting to see if they increase their stake at current prices. Accordingly, you may not be surprised to learn that BH is currently my largest equity holding.
Full Disclosure: Long shares of BH at the time of writing, but positions may change at any time.