There is no doubt that Billabong is an ugly duckling. The...

There is no doubt that Billabong is an ugly duckling. The desperate state of the company and high debt levels has seen the share price on a downward trajectory for the past three years. However, beneath the aimless management and failed takeovers, lies a set of world-class brands waiting to be seized upon.

Billabong is currently undertaking a serious culling of stores and suppliers, as part of its turnaround strategy and took a $536 million write down in the first half of 2013. Excluding the write-down, the group had a first half EBIT of $36.4 million on sales revenue of $699 million. At its current share price of just $0.63, some good news around future prospects could see a jump in the next 12 months.