Pat Mauro
President
Patrick Mauro Investment Advisor Inc.
Oak Brook, IL


PICO Holdings, Inc. (PICO-NASDAQ)
closing price June 13, ’08: $43.47

1) La Jolla, CA based company engages in the ownership and development of land and related mineral rights and water rights in Nevada. The company also owns a portfolio of land worth about $100 million. The land is both in Nevada and California.

2) This is a speculative grade stock that pays no dividends. The main attraction is its extensive and increasingly valuable water resources. The estimated value of its water resources portfolio is just under $600 million.

3) The company also has an insurance company that is being liquidated in an orderly fashion.

4) While the main attraction to this company is its water resource business which develops access for utilities, municipalities and industrial users, the land development business has serious upside value in the long-term. Based upon company disclosures, the shares have an adjusted book value of at least $50 per share.

Banco Latino Americano de Exportaciones S.A. (BLX-nyse)

closing price June 13, ’08: $16.30

1) Panama City, Panama based quasi-public chartered trade financing bank (also known as Bladex in banking circles) with abundant capital. Company has an investment management division which is highly profitable.

2) This bank is partly owned by over twenty central banks of Latin America and the Caribbean region. The shares trade at a slight discount to book value ($16.72 per share) thus rendering the shares exceedingly cheap times earnings and dividends. Earnings last year were $1.99 per share and could approach $2.20 per share this year.

3) The current dividend is $0.22 per quarter. The yield based on Friday’s close is over 5%. The company has no exposure to sub-prime real estate.

4) While the shares are volatile, it has basically performed in line with the S&P 500 stock index over the past several years, except that the dividend is significantlyy higher than the S&P. The dividend is growing faster than the dividends paid on the S& P as well. S&P raised the company’s credit rating debt to BBB last month, an extremely rare event for any bank in the past twelve months.