Investment Pitches

Pitch Summary:
CrowdStrike is positioned at the forefront of the shift to cloud-native, AI-driven cybersecurity, benefiting from the increasing necessity of cybersecurity as a non-discretionary spend. Despite its strong fundamentals and growth prospects, the stock's current valuation appears stretched, leaving little room for error and limiting upside potential.

BSD Analysis:
CrowdStrike's Q3 results demonstrated strong demand and accelerating growth, driven by its Falcon platform's adoption and the flexible Falcon Flex subscription model. The company benefits from secular trends in digitalization and AI integration, which expand the cybersecurity market. However, its high valuation multiples, such as 138x earnings and 27x sales, suggest that the stock is priced for perfection. While the company's long-term growth runway is promising, with expectations of significant ARR growth and margin expansion, the current price does not offer a compelling risk-reward profile. Investors should be cautious of potential valuation compression if execution falters.

Pitch Summary:
AT&T is positioned to capitalize on its extensive fiber network and strong rural and urban wireless coverage, giving it a competitive edge over rivals like T-Mobile and Verizon. The company's strategy to expand its fiber footprint and leverage fixed wireless internet in areas where fiber isn't feasible positions it for growth.

BSD Analysis:
AT&T's focus on expanding its fiber network and decommissioning outdated copper infrastructure is a strategic move to enhance its service offerings and customer retention. The company's ability to bundle services, such as cellular and home internet, provides a competitive advantage over T-Mobile, which lacks a comprehensive fiber network. AT&T's recent acquisition of mid-band spectrum from EchoStar further strengthens its 5G capabilities, allowing it to offer advanced fixed wireless services and transition customers from legacy systems. Despite past challenges with acquisitions like Time Warner and DirecTV, AT&T has refocused on its core telecom business, showing promising growth in fiber subscribers and mobility services. The company's strategic partnerships and spectrum acquisitions position it well for future growth, particularly in rural areas where it can leverage its strong network coverage.

Pitch Summary:
Herbalife has a history of significant share buybacks, reducing its share count from 290 million to 100 million, and is likely to resume this practice in the medium term.

BSD Analysis:
Herbalife's past strategy of aggressive share buybacks has significantly reduced its share count, which can enhance shareholder value by increasing earnings per share. The company's potential return to this strategy suggests confidence in its financial health and future prospects. However, investors should consider the sustainability of this approach, especially in light of any changes in market conditions or regulatory environments. Monitoring Herbalife's financial disclosures and market performance will be crucial in assessing the viability of continued buybacks.

Pitch Summary:
Aegon is actively engaged in share buybacks, partially funded by business disposals, indicating a strategic focus on returning value to shareholders.

BSD Analysis:
Aegon's strategy of leveraging business disposals to fund share buybacks suggests a disciplined approach to capital management. The upcoming Capital Markets Day could provide further insights into their disposal activities and future buyback plans. This approach may enhance shareholder value by reducing share count and potentially increasing earnings per share. However, the success of this strategy depends on the effective execution of asset sales and the market's reception of these moves. Investors should monitor Aegon's announcements closely for any shifts in strategy or financial performance.

Pitch Summary:
@akramsrazor argues GitLab is materially undervalued relative to its strategic importance in modern software development. He highlights that GitLab is deeply embedded across Fortune 100 enterprises and U.S. government agencies, often under long-term enterprise agreements. Despite acting as a system of record for code, security, and CI/CD workflows, GitLab monetizes at a relatively low per-developer ARPU. In contrast, emerging AI developer tools are charging multiples of GitLab’s pricing despite being layered on top of existing platforms. The thesis is that GitLab is mispriced as a lightweight SaaS product rather than as critical infrastructure. This disconnect represents a structural valuation inefficiency as AI workloads increase the importance of centralized developer platforms.

BSD Analysis:
GitLab occupies a privileged position in the software supply chain as a unified DevSecOps control plane, which becomes more valuable as AI-generated code increases system complexity and compliance risk. Its deep penetration into regulated enterprises and government agencies creates switching costs that are not reflected in current monetization levels. The emerging AI tooling ecosystem is effectively attempting to tax developer workflows at the margin, while GitLab controls the workflow itself. Over time, pricing power should migrate toward platforms that orchestrate code, security, and deployment rather than point solutions. The key risk is execution—whether GitLab can successfully layer AI orchestration and agent routing into its platform before hyperscalers or IDE vendors disintermediate it. If successful, GitLab’s revenue model and valuation framework could re-rate materially upward.

Actual Post Content:
So to summarize $gtlb GitLab is embedded in roughly 60% of the Fortune 100 GitLab is embedded across the DoD US federal and government agencies GitLab is sold on multi-year heavily discounted enterprise lands Realized ARPU is $35–$40 per dev per month Meanwhile AI vendors are trying to charge $100–$300 per seat per month Copilot AgentForce JetBrains AI $500 plus per seat per month verticalized agents $1,000 per month or more for bespoke compliance and AI orchestration tools GitLab is not priced like a mission-critical control plane a compute orchestration platform a system-of-record for code and security or a future AI agent router It is priced like a web app with marginal costs close to zero That is a serious market inefficiency

URL: https://x.com/akramsrazor/status/1996660578405007378

Pitch Summary:
The bullish case for NBIS rests on its position as a rapidly scaling AI-infrastructure provider — essentially a “picks and shovels” play on the surging demand for AI compute. The recent MSFT deal materially reduces execution risk and boosts contract visibility, which could anchor long-term revenue growth. Given NBIS's business model (GPU clusters, data-center infrastructure, AI cloud services), the company benefits from structural tailwinds as AI adoption spreads across enterprises and research institutions. That said, the company remains loss-making (Q3 2025 net loss ≈ $119.6 M despite +355% YoY revenue growth) and is deploying massive CapEx, which introduces high leverage and execution risk. As noted in external analysis, aggressive capacity expansion and backlog could lead to dilution or debt-related stress. The key value driver will be whether the new capacity gets filled, long-term contracts scale, and NBIS manages costs effectively. If so, the large AI infrastructure demand and limited global supply of high-performance GPU compute could support steep revenue growth and eventually margin expansion — making NBIS an attractive long-term speculative growth compounder. That said, downside risk is significant if demand softens or execution stalls.

BSD Analysis:
The Microsoft partnership meaningfully alters the industry positioning of Nebius Group by validating its technology and operating capability within an AI infrastructure market increasingly dominated by trust, scale, and execution certainty. Industry structure favors a small number of credible, well-capitalized platforms as hyperscalers and large enterprises consolidate vendors to secure compute reliability and long-term capacity. The Microsoft deal materially reduces customer acquisition friction and elevates Nebius’ competitive standing versus subscale AI cloud providers lacking marquee endorsements. Secular demand for AI compute remains supply-constrained, supporting sustained triple-digit growth for operators able to deploy capital efficiently and secure power, hardware, and network access. The $3B capital raise is strategically sound, prioritizing speed and capacity expansion at an inflection point rather than optimizing near-term dilution optics. Key risks center on execution intensity, return on invested capital as capacity scales, and potential pricing normalization if industry supply accelerates faster than expected. Valuation risk is non-trivial after a sharp rerating, but anchoring to prior prices understates the step-change in earnings durability implied by the Microsoft relationship. If management converts credibility into repeat large-scale contracts, Nebius’ earnings power could compound well beyond current consensus expectations.

Actual Post Content:
I missed $NBIS ” If you feel like the $NBIS train has departed and you’re too late, here are a few things I’d like you to know: 1 - Do not anchor to the prior stock price The $MSFT deal massively de-risked the stock. There’s now a clear path to sustained triple-digit revenue growth in the years ahead. And mind you – $MSFT doesn’t make these deals lightheartedly. It’s a testament to the quality $NBIS delivers. This deal also increases $NBIS mindshare among high-profile customers. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more large deals with other high profile names in the coming months. So even after the +50% gain yesterday, the story is still very early. We’re at an inflection point where the snowball is gaining traction and is likely to accelerate. The $3B capital raise $NBIS announced today is a very smart and timely move to keep momentum and invest for future growth. There’s still a huge runway, and if $NBIS keeps executing the way it has, the stock will follow. Don’t look back – look ahead. 2 - Think long term I used to worry about whether I should buy a stock at $76 or wait for it to dip to $67. Over time, I realized how pointless that is. If the stock goes to $297, why bother about $76 vs $67? Entry prices are overrated. What matters is seeing the potential, acting on it, and sizing your position appropriately to match your conviction. 3 - Do not chase either I’m not saying you should chase the stock higher. Here’s what I would do if I weren’t already a shareholder with a full position: I would initiate a position around ~5% of my portfolio. That way, I’d benefit if it runs, but I’d also have room to add significantly – either if the stock dips without fundamentals deteriorating, or if the business executes so well that I average up. It's not financial advice of course, just how I’d personally approach it. 4 - Stick to what fits you best Hypergrowth investing isn’t for everyone. If you’re not familiar with the business or the industry, do your due diligence before even considering a share. I’ve worked in tech for a decade and have a tech-only portfolio. $NBIS fits right in my circle of competence. But this style isn’t for everyone. It requires staying sharp in a fast-moving industry and understanding the dynamics. My two cents, cheers! 🙏” The author argues that even though NBIS has already rallied strongly (e.g. +50%), the stock remains at an early inflection point thanks to a transformative deal with Microsoft that de-risks the business and paves a path to sustained triple-digit revenue growth. The Microsoft agreement should boost NBIS’s credibility with large customers and attract further big-tech clients, providing a long runway for growth. The author views the company’s recent $3 billion capital raise as timely to fund expansion and support future growth. Rather than focusing on where the stock was, the author advocates a long-term mindset — suggesting a small initial allocation (~5% of portfolio) with optional scaling if the business executes. They warn against chasing the stock at highs, but believe that if NBIS “keeps executing,” the upside remains significant given the AI-infrastructure opportunity. Overall, the pitch is bullish and frames NBIS as a high-growth, de-risked AI-infrastructure company with substantial upside."

URL: https://x.com/InvestingVisual/status/1965780778345992599

Pitch Summary:
Lewis (JSE: LEW) Lewis is a Southern African furniture retailer with a substantial credit book, as approximately 70% of merchandise sales are done on credit. The company reported interim results for the six months ended September 2025. Operating profit margin expanded 250 basis points to 20.7%. Headline earnings per share increased 16.8% to R6.48. The credit book remains healthy and stable. Lewis is a seasonal business, with most of its sales and profits generated in the second half of the fiscal year. The previous second half created a high base, yet management indicated that current trading conditions are strong and that they expect to show growth in the upcoming period. Lewis trades on a price to earnings multiple of about 5 and offers a dividend yield of about 11%, which is far too cheap for a business growing earnings at double-digit rates.

BSD Analysis:
Lewis is a South African retailer that thrives by understanding credit risk better than anyone else in the furniture chain space. Its customer base is economically sensitive, but Lewis prices that risk aggressively through margins and disciplined collections. Inflation has actually supported revenue growth as ticket sizes rise and credit demand increases. The store footprint is optimized for lower-income catchment areas competitors don’t want, giving Lewis a defensible moat. Earnings volatility is always present, but cash generation remains impressive for a business dismissed as subscale. The stock trades like a melting ice cube, yet operational data suggests a company built for survival in a tough macro. If consumer conditions stabilize even slightly, Lewis could produce outsized equity returns.

Pitch Summary:
Astoria (JSE: ARA) Astoria is an investment holding company listed in Mauritius and South Africa. We established a position because we liked the underlying portfolio and the stock was trading at a deep discount. The company recently announced a repurchase and delisting offer. The offer price represents a 36% premium to the prevailing volume-weighted average price at the time the offer was made. We expect the transaction to conclude and proceeds to be distributed during January 2026.

BSD Analysis:
Astoria is a hybrid investment company that blends listed equities, private assets, and opportunistic holdings — essentially a small-cap version of a global allocator with teeth. Its NAV growth has been quietly compounding, helped by disciplined selection and an aversion to overpaying for private deals. Liquidity is thin, so the share price often divorces from intrinsic value, creating periodic dislocations. Astoria’s edge comes from being able to move into areas larger funds ignore, including special situations and niche growth plays. Volatility is part of the package, but the long-run trajectory of NAV shows real skill, not luck. For investors comfortable with unconventional vehicles, Astoria offers cheap optionality on a management team that knows how to exploit market inefficiencies. The discount to NAV feels more structural than justified.

Pitch Summary:
Argent (JSE: ART) Argent is an industrial conglomerate with operations across South Africa, the United Kingdom, and North America. Intrinsic value continues to grow through disciplined capital allocation and consistent operational execution. The group reported interim results for the six months ended September 2025. Headline earnings per share increased 13.3% to R2.62. Order books remain healthy and the outlook is positive. Argent has excess cash equal to almost one third of its market capitalization. The company is accelerating share buybacks at value-accretive prices, and earnings-accretive disposals and acquisitions are ongoing. Argent is trading at approximately 6 times earnings, or 4 times earnings when excluding cash, and 0.9 times book value. This is far too cheap for a company with a strong track record of value creation and a positive outlook.

BSD Analysis:
Argent is an industrial roll-up that actually creates value instead of just collecting assets. Its portfolio spans manufacturing niches that tend to be oligopolistic, giving Argent pricing power even in weak cycles. Cash conversion is consistently strong, which funds buybacks and bolt-ons without bloating the balance sheet. South Africa’s energy instability is a problem, but Argent has been aggressive in self-generation and operational efficiency. The stock trades at a discount that assumes earnings will stagnate — yet the company keeps expanding its margin profile. This is the kind of industrial that benefits when competitors fail, not one that fears downturns. If management keeps compounding capital at historical rates, the market eventually has to pay attention.

Pitch Summary:
Acsion (JSE: ACS) Acsion is a relatively unknown property development company with a portfolio of properties located in South Africa, Greece, and Cyprus. The company recently commenced construction on one of Cape Town’s most prestigious sites, 1 Breë Street, which will include 505 hotel rooms, 270 residential apartments, and 4000 square meters of retail space. Acsion reported interim results for the six months ended August 2025. Headline earnings per share increased 45% to 95 cents. Net asset value per share increased 14% to R31.81. Gearing remains low, with loan-to-value improving to 5%. The company is paying dividends, buying back shares at a deep discount, and insiders are accumulating stock. Acsion is trading at approximately 0.3 three times book value and 4 times earnings.

BSD Analysis:
Acsion is a quirky South African real estate story built around specialist properties that don’t behave like traditional office or retail assets. Its portfolio generates sticky cash flows, and management’s opportunistic development pipeline creates a degree of internal growth unusual for a REIT this small. Leverage is manageable, especially given the high-yield environment in South Africa, and the company has shown discipline in capital allocation. The market worries endlessly about the macro backdrop, but Acsion’s tenants tend to be insulated from cyclical collapses. Liquidity in the stock is poor, which scares off institutions and suppresses valuation. That illiquidity cuts both ways: fundamentals can improve long before the share price wakes up. Acsion is a classic “ignored but durable” compounder in a market obsessed with big-cap volatility.

Pitch Summary:
Herbalife is showing signs of a turnaround with stable sales despite competitive pressures from GLP-1 weight loss drugs. Under new CEO Stephan Gratziani, the company is implementing new initiatives to stabilize and grow revenue and profits, aiming to reduce debt significantly by 2028.

BSD Analysis:
Herbalife's resilience in the face of competitive pressures from GLP-1 weight loss drugs is notable, with stable sales and a recent quarter of year-over-year revenue growth in the U.S. The company's strategic initiatives under CEO Stephan Gratziani, including new product rollouts and technological enhancements, are expected to drive further growth. Herbalife's focus on reducing its debt by USD 1 billion by 2028 is ambitious but feasible, given its strong free cash flow generation. The company's asset-light business model and global distribution network provide a solid foundation for future growth. Despite recent share price increases driven by technical factors, the long-term outlook remains positive as Herbalife continues to adapt to market challenges.

Pitch Summary:
Aegon is transitioning towards a simpler, more predictable business model under CEO Lard Friese, focusing on U.S. insurance activities and divesting non-core assets. This strategy is expected to enhance shareholder value through increased dividends and share buybacks.

BSD Analysis:
Aegon's strategic shift under CEO Lard Friese aims to streamline operations by focusing on U.S. insurance activities and divesting non-core assets, such as interests in the UK, Spain, and China. This approach is expected to generate significant cash flow, enabling substantial share buybacks and dividend increases. The company has already retired over 22% of its share count through buybacks, with plans for further reductions. The upcoming Capital Markets Day on December 10, 2025, is anticipated to provide more insights into Aegon's progress and future plans. The company's financial health is bolstered by a strong balance sheet and a focus on reducing excess capital.

Pitch Summary:
Eagle Eye Solutions Group Plc is positioned in the dynamic retail technology sector with its agile loyalty platform. The company is expanding its North American presence and deepening its European market penetration while investing in AI-driven personalization to enhance client ROI. Despite its growth potential, the company faces challenges such as reliance on low-margin grocery retailers, integration complexities with legacy systems, and competition from larger CRM providers.

BSD Analysis:
Eagle Eye's strategy focuses on leveraging its existing partnerships, such as with Loblaw, to expand its market reach. The company's investment in AI and predictive analytics aims to increase ARPU by upselling advanced platform modules. However, its growth is constrained by the technical challenges of integrating with legacy systems and the need for continuous compliance with data privacy regulations. The competitive landscape includes enterprise giants that could commoditize its niche offerings. Despite being listed for over a decade with modest share price growth, the company has recently turned profitable and shows potential for top-line growth. Operational efficiency and diversification into new retail verticals are crucial for sustained financial performance.

Pitch Summary:
The author views Salesforce as a stable, large-scale enterprise-software business that could see asymmetric upside if its newer AI-driven products (particularly “AgentForce” and its platform/“AF” cloud) meaningfully accelerate over the next few years. The Q3 results were mixed: core cloud segments grew modestly, some decelerated (Marketing Cloud, Data Cloud) while Platform/AgentForce showed strong growth, creating optionality. The pitch argues that if margins expand and AI monetization succeeds, GAAP EPS could grow 20–30% per year, making 25–30× EPS a reasonable target. On the flip side, the author questions the company’s ability to sustain growth, flags competitive threats (from large cloud/AI players and emerging tools), and notes potential dilution from acquisitions. Given these dynamics and the current valuation, they view the risk/reward as asymmetrical — not a strong buy today, but a setup worth monitoring for re-rating if AI execution delivers.

BSD Analysis:
Salesforce remains one of the largest and most entrenched enterprise-software platforms globally, with a broad base of customers and deep integration across sales, service, marketing, and analytics. Its transition toward AI-driven “agentic” software (e.g., AgentForce) could, if successful, provide a multi-year growth runway as companies increasingly look to automation and AI to reduce labor costs. The core strength is the existing network, scale, and enterprise relationships — powerful moats that new AI-first challengers lack. However, realizing that upside is not trivial: AI remains nascent in adoption, enterprise procurement cycles are long, and competitors (big cloud vendors or AI-native platform providers) may erode pricing power or market share. Furthermore, margin expansion depends on disciplined execution, efficient scaling, and proving that AI adds sustained value rather than being a hype transient. Given current valuation (20× 2026 GAAP EPS) and execution uncertainty, the risk/return profile could be balanced — potentially attractive if AI becomes a real growth lever, but also vulnerable to deceleration or disruption.```

Actual Post Content:
$CRM quarter was fine – some good, some bad. Story is moving sideways for now as market waits to see whether AI is a headwind or tailwind or transition. Numbers moving sideways to slightly up. More room for favorable revisions on the bottom line. Risk / reward pretty asymmetric. Downside of 0% to 15x street CY2026 FCF. We all know every stock has downside of at least 20% regardless of how cheap it is, so let’s just go with 20% downside. Upside of 66% to 20x my CY2027 FCF which is 29x GAAP EPS, 28x GAAP EPS excluding amortization, and 23x see-through EPS assuming business can achieve 40% GAAP OM. GAAP EPS ought to grow 20-30% growing forward given the long runway for margin expansion so, if market goes back to believing this is a durable business, 25-30x GAAP EPS seems plausible. Quarter Sub rev of 9.7b grew 9% yy cc consistent w/ prior 5 qtrs. Net add of 36m was down from 115m last Q3 and 135m the Q3 prior to that. Sales cloud grew 8% yy cc but net add of 30m was down from 48m last Q3. Service cloud grew 8% yy cc w/ net add of 37m up from 31m last Q3 and 25m the Q3 prior to that. Marketing cloud decelerated to 1% yy cc down from 8% yy cc last Q3. This business has really been struggling. Data cloud decelerated to 6% yy cc – team said this was due to Tableau transitioning to cloud faster than expected. Hmmm. Platform / AgentForce (AF) cloud accelerated to 19% yy cc from 8% last Q3. Within this, AF / Data rev of 1.6b grew 22% yy w/ 90m net rev add up from 43m last Q3 and 15m the Q3 prior to that. They also quantified Platform / AF as 1.4b growing 114% yy. AF is now at 540m ARR up 330% from 126m last Q3. Not bad. If AF were a stand-alone company, it would be worth >20b. cRPO grew 11% yy cc which was consistent w/ the prior 7 qtrs. They guided to 9% yy cc organic growth in Q4 and typically beat that by 1-2 points so consistent as well – but not an acceleration. PF OM of 35.5% up from 33.1% last Q3. GAAP OM of 23.9% up from 20.6% last Q3. GAAP OM here ought to be >40% so there is a long way to go. Share count shrank 1% qq as they stepped up the buyback to 3.8b. Guidance was basically inline on an organic basis w/ slight bump to profitability. Bear Case — CEO past his prime. Buying INFA?! Not exactly where the puck is going. Company is just big and clunky at this point. Growth will never go much higher than 10% and probably goes down to 4-5% over time. Expensive acquisitions on the horizon. New competitive threats – over-the-top AI functionality via Open.AI / Glean / etc. Plus NOW trying to make inroads into field service mgmt while HUBS trying to take share at low-end. Why bother? MSFT, AMZN, GOOGL are vastly larger, more profitable and growing faster in their infra clouds. Bull Case — Platform business entrenched across hundreds of thousands of customers including the largest on the planet. Agentic AI will be impactful. It is difficult to get working and will take time, but customers can’t do it on their own and will look to CRM for solutions. As the tech advances, CRM has the customers and selling capabilities to get it to market quickly. Monetization of AI will be fine. So long as CRM is delivering more value to the customer, they will pay for it however the contract is written. GAAP margins of 23% today will be >35-40% over time. Street numbers seem a bit low (and thankfully don’t bake in any acceleration per guidance) Stock trades at 20x GAAP CY2026 EPS for a company that likely will grow operating profits by mid-high teens going forward.

URL: https://x.com/TechFundies/status/1996422579536740848

Pitch Summary:
Vinci (France, Industrials) – Vinci is a major global operator of concessions and a provider of energy and construction services primarily in Europe. In its concessions division, Vinci operates a network of motorways in France spanning over 4,000 kilometers that provides predictable cash flow while being indexed to traffic growth and inflation. The company also operates 72 airports serving 318 million passengers in 14 countries including the United Kingdom, Portugal, Mexico, France, Dominican Republic, Brazil and Japan. We believe that airports are an attractive long-term asset class given good prospects for passenger volume growth along with the ability to generate robust returns in non-regulated areas such as retail, food courts and parking lots. In its Energy Services division, Vinci benefits from several long-term megatrends such as the modernization of energy generation and distribution infrastructure, the increased desire for energy efficiency in factories and buildings and the build-out of data centers and telecommunication networks. This division primarily serves repeat customers with small contract sizes via Vinci’s specially trained employees who are in short supply across Europe. Over the long-term we expect the Energy Services division to grow revenues by 7–9% annually aided in part by smaller acquisitions, while growth in the intermediate term may be even higher aided by German infrastructure-focused fiscal stimulus. Lastly, in its Construction division, Vinci builds roads and civil engineers projects and buildings. While this division is not as profitable as the rest of the company, it provides Vinci with a competitive advantage in bidding for concession projects which often require some amount of construction. We believe that Vinci, which once primarily operated French toll roads, now owns several much more attractive businesses such as Airports and Energy Services and that market participants have been slow to recognize the extent of this change. Shares of Vinci are valued at 13.3 times forward earnings and currently offer a 3.9% dividend yield.

BSD Analysis:
Vinci is one of Europe’s infrastructure titans, positioned perfectly for a world spending heavily on transport, energy transition, and digital connectivity. Its concessions business provides long-duration cash flows while the contracting segment gives exposure to global capex cycles. Traffic numbers across airports and toll roads continue to recover, reinforcing Vinci’s structural earnings power. Rising rates are a headwind, but Vinci’s balance sheet gives it enough firepower to keep winning projects at scale. The market often values Vinci like a traditional construction company, ignoring the embedded infrastructure royalty streams. As governments keep outsourcing large-scale projects, Vinci sits at the top of the bidding pyramid. This is a slow-burn compounder hiding inside an industrial shell.