(D)assault !

We initiated in March a position in Dassault Aviation. The French aerospace group currently enjoys a record backlog of close to 8 years in sales providing the company good visibility on future sales with record new export orders on its Rafale fighter. Alone, its 26.5% stake in the defence electronics and electronics group Thales is currently worth 8 bn EUR in the stock market. When we add the 3 bn EUR in proprietary cash we already explain 78% of the current market cap. The civil and military aerospace business is therefore only worth 3 bn EUR, which we find unreasonable in today’s environment. Needless to say that the stock scores high in our proprietary quality-value framework.