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  "documentTitle": "Stroer SE & Co. KGaA (SAX)",
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  "authorName": "Carson C. Block",
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  "presentationDate": "2016-04-28 00:00:00",
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  "notes": "The slide is a continuation of a research note, likely from an activist short-seller report, focusing on accounting discrepancies and governance concerns.",
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      "text": "It now seems absurd to discuss the company's expectations for organic growth, given that it seems wholly incapable of (or uninterested in) calculating organic growth accurately.",
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      "text": "Ströer wrongly claims that we didn't give credit to the company for ~€12 million in FX movements in 2014. In fact, we gave the company credit for a total of €15.1 million in FX movements. This is shown in our reconciliation on Page 7 of the report.",
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      "text": "Yes. Given the allegations regarding freeXmedia and maybe to avoid allegations in the future, is there a scenario that Ströer Media buys further assets potentially from Media Ventures going forward? And has there been another potential issue in the past with",
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      "text": "We have seen a sell side report that erroneously claims to reconcile to Ströer's organic growth calculations. We show the reconciliation from this report in Appendix B, and we explain the material errors in it. We therefore remain unaware of anybody who can reconcile Ströer's organic growth claims.",
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      "text": "As shown in the following exchange, Udo Müller was asked a straight forward question about whether Ströer had bought other assets from Media Ventures. His answer seems straight forward as well. However, as seems typical with Ströer management, this was a misleading answer. In February 2015, Ströer acquired 65% of a company called Evidero GmbH. Media Ventures had invested in Evidero in March 2014.",
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      "text": "Marcus Diebel JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division",
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      "text": "investor (even professional) to follow. We call upon Ströer to publish 2014 and 2015 reconciliations for organic growth for both its Digital Segment and overall.",
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      "kind": "paragraph",
      "text": "Below is an excerpt from the transcript:",
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      "text": "In addition to the forgoing issues, we continue to firmly believe that the adjustments to Ströer's calculation methodology we discussed in pp. 7 – 11 of our report are prudent and warranted.",
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      "text": "Ströer's comment about our not giving credit for the JVs is irrelevant and misleading. The consolidated JVs contributed revenue of €12.5 million in 2014, and €14.0 million in 2015. The €1.5 million revenue growth in the consolidated JVs equals 0.21% of reported 2014 revenue. This obviously does not come close to bridging the gap between Ströer's declared organic growth and our calculation.",
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      "text": "It now seems absurd to discuss the company's expectations for organic growth, given that it seems wholly incapable of (or uninterested in) calculating organic growth accurately. Ströer might as well report Q1 organic growth of 1,000%.",
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      "text": "Yes. Given the allegations regarding freeXmedia and maybe to avoid allegations in the future, is there a scenario that Ströer Media buys further assets potentially from Media Ventures going forward? And has there been another potential issue in the past with — Marcus Diebel JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division",
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      "text": "1 We did not include JVs in our initial report reconciliation because we believe most companies do not include them in organic growth calculations, and Ströer did not disclose that it included the JVs in its calculations. As explained above, JVs have an immaterial effect on Ströer's organic growth rates. 2 Source: S&P CapitalIQ",
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      "text": "3. Müller Misleads in Response to a Question on Self Dealing",
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      "text": "2. Whether Ströer Reports Q1 Organic Growth that Exceeds Guidance is Irrelevant",
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