Infra Plays Should Be Rolled Into One

Going into today's session, if you added up the market caps of the big six infrastructure companies -- McDermott (MDR - commentary - Cramer's Take), Foster Wheeler (FWLT - commentary - Cramer's Take), Shaw Group (SGR - commentary - Cramer's Take), Jacobs Engineering (JEC - commentary - Cramer's Take), CBI (CBI - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Fluor (FLR - commentary - Cramer's Take) -- they were not equal to the market cap Fluor had last June.

Meanwhile, while all of these companies are experiencing some degree of pushback on energy projects, they are all extremely profitable.

Fluor reported a good number last night and the stock is flying, but what's amazing to me is there is not a soul on earth who believes that we are not in a power-supply- and infrastructure-starved world. That's the bread and butter of these companies. It is what they do. It is how they make their living.

If I were running a major infrastructure-oriented company, I would take advantage of this anomaly and roll them all up into one big infrastructure division. Their projects on the books, even if cut in half, would still generate a huge amount of income. The long-term secular trends are totally clear.

What are these stocks doing down here? The usual. They are all owned by hedge funds. The hedge funds are still liquidating.

Of course, no one in the real business world could possibly understand this, or they would have spent the $17 billion it would have taken to buy all of these companies as of their closing price yesterday. Sure, there would be some premium involved.

But this roll-up of every major infrastructure company in America, ahead of the power supply shortages and the promised infrastructure programs under Obama, is just way too cheap to be ignored.

It ought to be someone's game plan, some company's opportunity.

But they are all paralyzed. Everyone.

So I presume nothing will happen.

At the time of publication, Cramer was long Foster Wheeler.

ALL JIM CRAMER BLOG ENTRIES | POST A COMMENT | READ COMMENTS  

---

Jim Cramer is co-founder and chairman of TheStreet.com. He contributes daily market commentary for TheStreet.com's sites and serves as an adviser to the company's CEO. Outside contributing columnists for TheStreet.com and RealMoney.com, including Cramer, may, from time to time, write about stocks in which they have a position. In such cases, appropriate disclosure is made. To see his personal portfolio and find out what trades Cramer will make before he makes them, sign up for Action Alerts PLUS. Watch Cramer on "Mad Money" weeknights on CNBC. To order Cramer's newest book -- "Jim Cramer's Stay Mad for Life: Get Rich, Stay Rich (Make Your Kids Even Richer)," click here. Click here to order "Mad Money: Watch TV, Get Rich," click here to order "Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World," click here to get "You Got Screwed!" and click here for Cramer's autobiography, "Confessions of a Street Addict." While he cannot provide personalized investment advice or recommendations, he appreciates your feedback and invites you to send comments by clicking here.

TheStreet.com has a revenue-sharing relationship with Amazon.com under which it receives a portion of the revenue from Amazon.com purchases by customers directed there from TheStreet.com.