After a long break over the winter it's a pleasure to meet some new companies and catch up with familiar faces. Given how tumultuous the markets have been, since my last seminar back in October, it's instructive to remember that there are lots of good companies out there doing good work. The key is finding them and I certainly regard these ShareSoc seminars as very helpful in that respect.
Ten Lifestyle (TENG)
According to Alex Cheatle (CEO) Ten Lifestyle want to become the world's most trusted service platform, working behind global brands. What this means is that they provide the concierge services that Coutts, HSBC Private Banking and other high-end brands provide to their customers. If you're one of these rich individuals then TENG will help you discover, organise and book travel, dining and entertainment better than you could do yourself. This is clearly an attractive proposition and businesses are willing to pay for the service (as are some members who subscribe directly). In fact when the business started 20 years ago in 1998 it was all about member subscriptions but of course it's hard to grow with a B2C model. The breakthrough came when they realised that companies would pay for the service in order to improve customer loyalty (which is important when your customers are affluent and HNWI). In addition suppliers like TENG because clients spend more, cancel less often and want premium products - which is why the group can uncover services that are unavailable elsewhere.
After coming to the market at 134p in November 2017 it's fair to say that the business hasn't delivered on its initial promise with the price today just 66p. The reason for this is that their new platform was very late launching and they had to find a new CTO while creating a more mature, experienced team. Now the platform is live and the business is global with dedicated sales resources in the USA and more products on offer. So they have, eventually, made good on their growth plans although the group is still not profitable due to this expansion. On one side, adding more international offices, costs should start to level off as they hit a high enough coverage level. On the other side, spending on technology, it's likely that costs will remain level because they have a solid team and the website needs to remain current. So I can…
