I was pleased that Bubba was forthright enough to e-mail me, but was struck by how weak his objections to the company are. If this is what the Marblehead bears are left with by now, they're on shakier ground than I thought. Let’s go through Bubba’s points one at a time, and you’ll see what I mean:

1. The securitization market is currently closed.

Actually, the securitization markets aren’t closed. Just last week, NelNet completed a $1.5 billion deal. And Phoenix-based NextStudent is set to come to market next week with a $1.4 billion offering. Yes, the market has been disrupted and is challenging. That happens from time to time. But the disruption won’t last forever. It never does. In fact, I expect Marblehead will come to market with a deal of its own any day.

But even if the market were frozen solid, as Bubba seems to think, I still wouldn’t be too concerned. Granted, Bubba’s and my investment time horizons are different. I am a long-term investor and can wait these things out, while Bubba’s fund has a demonstrated record of being quite short-term oriented. A frozen market could be a disaster for Bubba. But unless the freeze lasts for years, Marblehead won’t have to change its business model an iota. As long as the company keeps facilitating loan volume at its current rapid (like, 40%-plus) rate at attractive spread to Treasuries, the company is creating a huge amount of economic value.

Full Article