Morning all!
Cape (CIU) – Interim Results Half Year To 2-Jul-17 – This is a company engaged in the provision of critical industrial services principally to the energy and natural resources sectors. This is an impressive half year update but quite irrelevant it seems - The takeover by Altrad (265p per share) seems to be a done deal so don’t see much point in adding anything else here.
Empresaria (EMR) – Interim Results 6 Months To End June 2017 – This is a company specialising in the provision of staffing and recruitment services. In this 6 month report there’s impressive Revenue growth of 50% CC - Which is sadly let down by a PBT increase of just 3% (CC). Having a quick look at the high level numbers, things look OK but I just find it hard to get excited about recruitment companies at the moment. Stockopedia classes this as a Speculative High Flyer. With decent high level numbers and a PER of 10 this could mean there’s potential here for some decent returns although it may be a bit of a roller coaster ride!
Hostelworld (HSW) – Interim Results – A return to (modest) growth statement which in my opinion confirms that the PER of 16.8 is about right, if not a little generous. I do have a couple of notes on this company. First of all, I don’t like the historic numbers, for example, Net profit; -£72.2m in 2014, +£81.2m in 2015, +£0.78m in 2016, +£18.1m estimated in 2017 (this update seems to confirm in-line). But, I just hate seeing this kind of fluctuation. Sure, there may be valid reasons for it but, to be honest, I would just prefer more consistency than this. The other thing is this, who uses Hostelworld? I am guessing it has an audience (that’s clear from the booking numbers) - Perhaps in the backpacker world, I accept that. However, with AirBnB and Booking.com out there too, how long before those backpackers become users of the alternatives? Without continuing advertising spend, how will Hostelworld attract the next generation when AirBnB and Booking.com are poised to dominate? OK, I know I may be wrong here, just my gut feel, I just don’t like the long term outlook for Hostelworld.
