News

Bringing back the Gulf South economy 

October 17, 2005

While many companies across the Gulf South suffered a major financial blow as a result of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, others will clean up in the cleanup, says Peter Ricchiuti, assistant dean of the Freeman School of Business.

Ricchiuti, a nationally respected market expert and research director of Burkenroad Reports, the school's acclaimed equities research program, says many of the small-cap companies they follow stand to prosper in the long run.

“Burkenroad Reports is loaded with companies that will take a short-term hit but be long-term beneficiaries,” says Ricchiuti, who cites Team Inc., a repair and maintenance company servicing chemical plants and refineries, and Superior Energy Services Inc., which plugs abandoned offshore production platforms, as two companies that will benefit for years to come.

“As my grandmother used to say,” Ricchiuti quips, “they're going to be as busy as one-armed wallpaper hangers.”

Energy-related companies won't be the only ones to profit. Marine Products, for example, makers of Chaparral and Robalo fishing and leisure boats, is another likely beneficiary. “Most of those boats wound up in Oklahoma, so I think it's going to be good for them,” Ricchiuti says.

After weeks dwelling on the hurricane devastation, Ricchiuti says the financial media is finally starting to pick up on what he's known all along: there are still bargains to be found on the bayou. Barron's and MSNBC each recently cited Hancock Bank's Horizon Burkenroad Fund—which uses Burkenroad Reports as a primary source of research and invests in many of the companies covered by the reports—as one of the smartest post-Katrina plays for savvy investors.

Another institution many are counting on to help bring New Orleans back is Tulane University. “I think Tulane is really the keystone,” says Ricchiuti, who in the wake of Katrina has continued to tour the country talking about Tulane and Burkenroad Reports. “Wherever I go, that's the first thing people ask—what's going to happen to Tulane. Once I tell them Tulane already has a plan to start up again, they have a much better feeling. People always knew Tulane was important, but now we're at the forefront. The truth of the matter is, in January Tulane is going to be one of the most important economic engines.”

Ricchiuti adds that Burkenroad Reports will not miss a beat this year. Instead of splitting the companies over two semesters, he plans to have students cover all 50 companies this spring and to hold the annual Burkenroad Conference as scheduled on April 28.