HSE Integrated...Argh!!

As usual yours truly was late to (well never actually got to) the party.

The company was HSE Integrated (HSL.to). A friend informed me about the company and made it crystal clear what their potential value was.

They are a provider of health, safety and environmental services and equipment. They have a big presence here in Alberta. The market in Canada is much more fragmented than in the US.

During a time of decent economic growth most companies will contract HSL to provide their services. HSL can do in a short time what it usually takes companies copious amounts of time to design and properly implement. During a recession many companies try to bring this type of expense in house to cut costs. Well in case you don't know the Alberta economy is growing quite well, at 3-4%. HSL was in a nice uptrend in earnings and revenue. Their market was growing rapidly. HSL was trading at like 4x EV/EBITDA. And EBITDA was growing rapidly.

Why didn't I buy??? I thought about it for awhile. There was a part of me that wanted confirmation on the earnings growth. Another part of me had a tough time buying into a stock after the price had doubled.

Maybe it was OK to wait, but many of the oil services companies are at really cheap multiples regardless of earnings growth. Even a flat line in activity would likely generate a decent return.

Another lesson learned. I only post this as I am forcing myself to stay disciplined.

Dean

*thanks to sculpin for the idea