BLS Capital

McDonald’s

Once upon a time McDonald’s was just a burger – but today it is a comprehensive breakfast table, a global life style, locally adapted menus – and an exceptional business.

McDonald’s is the world’s largest restaurant chain with over 34,000 restaurants in around 120 countries. The product range is well known to most people and is becoming familiar to more every day. McDonald’s serves more than a billion people a year – and the golden M is one of the world’s strongest brands today.

Burger King or McDonald’s? This was once an almost classic dilemma.

Mastercard

The entire world is on its way to give up on cash and pay by card. This has made the money pour into MasterCard.

Not more than a few years ago, cash and cheque were the most widespread payment methods in Denmark, but with the launch of electronic payment in Denmark in 1983 a trend began in which more and more transactions were carried out electronically. The same has happened in the rest of the world, but not to the same extent. Globally, as much as 55 percent of all payments are still carried out using cash or cheques, and with retailers the figure is as high as 85 percent.

American Express

An American Express card is not just a debit- or credit card. It is so much more.

With an American Express card in his/her hand a customer is signaling that he/she is a slightly better customer. To both the salesman and the surrounding world – this advantage is central to the company’s basic strategy. When a salesman sees a customer equipped with a card issued by American Express, the salesman knows the customer has more buying power and larger consumption than other customers. Thus, a virtual value growth is created from which American Express benefits – but which the

PetSmart

A paradise for man’s best friends – and for PetSmart’s investors.

PetSmart was founded in 1986 in Phoenix, Arizona, and the chain’s first two stores were opened in 1987. Since then, the company has expanded radically and consists of more than 1,300 stores and nearly 200 PetsHotels today. At first the chain was first and foremost a supermarket for Americans with pets, but today the concept is more comprehensive and includes –apart from the stores – the earlier mentioned hotels for animals as well as a cooperation with the veterinarian hospitals Banfield, which are

SimCorp

SimCorp delivers portfolio management systems to the financial world – and has its own finances well under control.

SimCorp products are software to control and monitor securities portfolios for investments companies, banks, pension funds and other large investors, and the company is the global market leader in this area with approximately 1,000 employees and sales companies in some 20 countries.  Over the past ten years, SimCorp has created significant shareholder value through high growth in revenue and increasing operating profits as percentage of sales. It is software

Sa Sa International

Sa Sa is a chain of Asian beauty. And for the shareholders, the growing cosmetics chain is a great investment.

Sa Sa markets, distributes and sells more than 400 different brands of cosmetics. About 40 percent of the sales are from the company’s exclusive rights to sell and market its own and more than 100 international brands in Hong Kong. This happens from more than 270 locations, of which around 260 are own stores. The stores’ concept is based on strong brands within cosmetics, skin- and hair products and a strategy of being able to provide them at a reasonable cost.

YUM! Brands

In 2013, the Chinese kitchen was struck with chicken distress. But the Chinese continue to love the colonel and his fast food.

YUM! Brands opened its first Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in China in 1987 and with its more than 4,500 restaurants KFC is the leading fast food chain in China today. In 2013, YUM! opened more than 700 new restaurants in the country, and it is expected to open another 700 restaurants in China annually in the coming years.

When Colonel Saunders founded Kentucky Fried Chicken – better known as KFC – in 1964, he could hardly have imagined

Novo Nordisk

They are working non-stop to make life easier for patients everywhere. Novo Nordisk are rewarded for this by an increasing number of diabetics.

Novo Nordisk looks back at 2013 as an extremely challenging year. The American Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s rejection of Novo Nordisk’s new long-acting insulin Tresiba in February was a significant setback to the company’s ambitions concerning increased market shares in the important American market.

But even in a year, that Novo Nordisk looks back on with disappointment, it is comforting and pleasing that sales

McGraw-Hill

The flagship in McGraw-Hill Financial is an American dream and a brilliant business – it is Standard & Poor’s.

In 1849, Henry Poor became the editor of the magazine The American Railroad Journal, which described the American railroad industry with relevant information for investors. This happened in a time when trading in securities – bonds as well as shares – grew and at the same time started to spread between the states.  Previously this type of investment was mostly done within one’s own state, and therefore access to information was easier. But when

Nestlé

Every day, Nestlé is a welcome guest in homes across the globe. This has given the company an unshakeable position and a magnificent business.

Sometimes you do not have to look further than your usual surroundings to get great investment ideas. Nestlé is a magnificent example of this. We see the company’s products and brands everywhere – without even realizing it. Apart from the well-known Nescafé, which we drink in the morning, or the cup of coffee we get from the Nespresso machine at work, we also create earnings in the Nestlé group, when we drink bottled water such