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Archived articleThis is an archived article from 2020 - please note that any content within the article may be out of date.

Small Cap Value Report (Fri 6 Nov 2020) - PFD, HAT, MER, UANC, WJG, SNR, TAST

Good morning, it's Paul & Jack here, with Friday's SCVR.

To start you off today, here is the link to yesterday's SCVR, which I finished late last night, with 11 companies in total:

ZOE, SDRY, D4T4, JOUL, WRKS, PCIP, BWNG, DFS, ZTF, HEAD, WIN

Lots of interesting companies there, so it's a pleasure to dig into those (Jack wrote the first section, as I was initially in bed with a hangover, after helping the De Beauvoir Arms (N1) minimise their lockdown 2.0 inventories write-offs, and singing "We'll Meet Again" with the staff just before closing time, which they convincingly pretended to enjoy!).

Anyway, let's see what Friday brings. Hopefully nothing too stressful.

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Agenda - a quiet news day, so I’ll cover a few items left over from earlier this week;

Premier Foods (LON:PFD) - Disposal (Jack, done)

H & T (LON:HAT) - Business update, from 5 Nov (Paul, done)

Mears (LON:MER) - Disposal & trading update (Paul, done)

Urban&civic (LON:UANC) - Agreed bid (Paul, done)

Watkin Jones (LON:WJG) - Trading update (Paul, done)

Senior (LON:SNR) - Q3 trading update from 3 Nov (Paul, done)

Tasty (LON:TAST) - Restaurant closures (Paul, done)

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Timings - at 14:08 - I'm stopping for some lunch and a power nap, so will return later this afternoon to finish off.
Update at 17:00 - today's report is now finished.


** This section written by Jack **

Premier Foods (LON:PFD)

Share price: 105.4p

Shares in issue: 852,385,190

Market cap: £898.4m

(Jack writing - I hold)

The market cap’s too big here for the SCVR, strictly speaking - but Premier Foods (LON:PFD) was a small cap as recently as April before a dramatic rerating, and it looks to be a quiet news day so far so let’s expand the remit a little.

Premier Foods operates in the ambient food sector which continues to be the largest sector within the total UK grocery market. See its brands below.

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Source: company website

For years, PFD was rightly regarded as a ‘zombie’ company, just about generating enough cash flow to satisfy its debt and pension obligations. The group is approaching an inflection point though, helped by lockdown tailwinds.

Debt is coming down at pace and the group is in talks to eventually offload its combined pension fund now, which is now in surplus.

Today PFD announces more positive news.

Disposal of 49% Hovis interest

Years ago, PFD wrote its interest in Hovis down to nothing - a prudent move that was arguably dismissed at the time as the prevailing sentiment towards the company was just so dire. That sentiment was understandable.

Alongside its joint venture partner, Gores, PFD has held a 49% minority interest in Hovis since April 2014. Hovis was sold on 5 November 2020 and proceeds of £37m will go to PFD. This will be used to repay outstanding loan notes and accrued interest.

Conclusion

The Hovis disposal rumour has been doing the rounds for a while now.

Suggested figures had actually been higher - roughly £100m total and £50m to Premier. This is still a creditable result though, particularly given that this investment was written down to nothing years ago.

This £37m windfall will be used to accelerate PFD’s deleveraging, which will strengthen the balance sheet and should over time increase free cash flow to shareholders.

In the group’s 2020 Annual Report it gives something like the following reconciliation of trading profit to free cash flow:


FY20 (£m)

% of trading profit

Trading profit

132.6


Depreciation

19.9


Other non-cash items

1.7


Taxation

0


Interest

-35.6

-26.85%

Pension contributions

-44.7

-33.71%

Capex

-18


Working capital & other

14.6


Restructuring costs

-6.6

-4.98%

Misc

1.1


Free cash flow

65


To my mind, the name of the game is closing that gap between Trading Profit and Free Cash Flow (while paying down debt and growing revenue at the same time).

I’ve highlighted interest costs, pension contributions and restructuring costs to show just how much of a drag they are. That’s 66% of trading profit spent on those three items. In fact, over the past five years, more than 71% of trading profit has been spent in this way.

If it were to successfully pay down debt, offload its pension fund and stop contributions, and leave behind the restructuring costs, then that would make for a free cash flow figure of £151.9m.

McCormick, which was looking to buy Premier a couple of years ago, trades on a free cash flow multiple of 29.1x and 4.56x sales.

Applying those kinds of multiples to the potential free cash flow and current revenue of PFD, we have:

Metric

Potential free cash flow

Current TTM revenue

Forecast EPS

Value

£151.9m

£847m

9.73p

McCormick multiple

29.1

4.56

32.8

Valuation

£4.4bn

£3.9bn

£2.7bn

Share price

516.2p

458.5p

319.4p

I don’t expect PFD to come close to those numbers anytime soon - in fact it suggests to me McCormick is overvalued as much as PFD is cheap - but it does justify a further rerating if the group can continue to de-risk its balance sheet and prove itself as a higher quality Consumer Defensive stock.

ABF appears more modestly valued but still suggests upside, on balance:

Metric

Potential free cash flow

Current TTM revenue

Forecast EPS

Value

£151.9m

£847m

9.73p

ABF multiple

11.8

0.96

14.2

Equity Valuation

£1.8bn

£813.2m

£1.2bn

Share price

211.2p

95p

138.3p

The above also does not take into account any potential revenue growth at Premier Foods, and the fact is PFD has been slowly growing its top line for the past five years now.

Anecdotally, I’ve seen this stock talked about increasingly as a short term trade given the recent rerating. This could contribute to volatility in the near term but the fundamental three-year investment case remains unchanged.

On balance I’d say PFD is the cheap side of fair value, but with some promising catalysts on the horizon and plenty of scope for a more material rerating if it can shed its troubled past and reinstate itself as a quality branded Consumer Defensive company with resilient revenue and free cash flow.

Prospects are certainly much better than they’ve looked at any point over the past five years or so.

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H & T (LON:HAT)

Share price: 234p
No. shares: 39.86m
Market cap: £93.3m

Business update

This pawnbrokers used to be covered here by Graham, and I think quite a few readers hold it, so I’ll add it to my list of things to report on. Several readers have commented that the share price has been unusually weak, despite upbeat trading.

Jack reviewed its interims to 30 June here. H1 profit reduced 27%, due to the impact of lockdown 1.0 forcing the closure of its shops. I’ve just had a look at the 30 June balance sheet, and muttered “wow!” to myself. It’s extremely strong, bulletproof actually.

Moving on to yesterday’s update;

Further to the announcement on 11 August 2020 of its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2020 H&T Group plc ("H&T" or "the Group"), the UK's leading pawnbroker, provides a trading update for the second half of the financial year.

All 253 stores are remaining open during lockdown 2.0, being classed as “essential”. This is different to lockdown 1.0, when all stores were closed. This reinforces the reality that this latest lockdown is milder in scope than the original back in March-June, when many more sectors shut down temporarily, as nobody really knew what we were dealing with at the time.

Regulatory issues - this worries me;

The Group continues to work closely with the FCA in respect of their HCSTC lending review, and we have now appointed a Skilled Person in this regard.

Here’s the most recent stuff on the FCA’s website relating to High Cost Short Term Credit.

A pawnbroking business is always going to face potential regulatory risk. In the worst case scenario, action by regulators could kill the business off, if they wanted to. Therefore I wouldn’t ever pay a high multiple for this kind of high cost lender.

Online -

The Group has continued to invest in digital capability allowing customers to access products both remotely and through its store estate.

Pledge book (i.e. receivables, loans to customers) -

Pawnbroking customers continue to repay their loans (either by attending the store or via the payment portal) and at normal pledge redemption rates. At the end of October the pledge book stood at £48m. The reduction since June [Paul: was £56.3m at end June] reflects both reduced customer demand and a prudent approach to new lending. The quality of the pledge book remains solid and cash generation remains robust.

This sounds positive overall -

Retail sales have been strong, capitalising on increased consumer demand for competitively priced, high-quality jewellery and watches. The high gold price has also driven increased gross profits from both pawnbroking and gold purchasing activities. These strong performances have more than offset weakness in the Group's foreign currency business as a result of reduced international leisure travel.

Balance sheet - is amazingly strong;

The Group's balance sheet and liquidity remains strong with net cash of approximately £30m, no debt, an undrawn revolving credit facility of £35m and net assets of £134m.

Worthless intangibles (mainly goodwill) total £22.6m, so that brings NAV of £134m down to NTAV of £111.4m, or 279p per share - which is above the current share price of 234p. It’s unusual to see a profitable company trading below NTAV.

Moreover, most of the NTAV is liquid, i.e. working capital. Current assets are £109.9m (mostly inventories & receivables), whilst current liabilities are only £15.4m. I would deduct £5.7m lease liabilities from CL, so making that adjustment we arrive at £100.1m net current assets - i.e. surplus working capital, or 251p per share. Hence a share price below 251p means you’re paying less than liquid asset value - very attractive, providing the valuations of inventories & receivables are prudent, which they should be because auditors require provisions to be made against these values if they are not likely to turn into cash when they should.

Trading ahead of market expectations - this is the most important bit -

"H&T is in very good health during this unprecedented time, with a strong performance in our retail operations and a prudent approach to lending. In addition to our websites, our stores remain open for business, in line with Government requirements, with over £30m in cash to support our customers. Whilst the rebuilding of the pledge book is dependent upon a number of factors, including underlying customer demand, overall we are performing in line with plans and currently ahead of market expectations for the year.

I cannot find any broker notes, but the broker consensus graph below looks like it’s been updated with fresh forecasts, which are down considerably on pre-covid levels.

Hence it’s good that HAT is ahead of expectations, but those expectations were lowered considerably, so it’s perhaps not as good as it first looks.

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My opinion - this share looks strikingly good value. You’re not only getting full liquid asset backing for the current share price, but we also have the reassurance that the business is performing OK (in the circumstances), and ahead of (lowered) market expectations, and on a PER below 10.

Given the surplus assets, it has ample future dividend paying capacity.

The regulatory side of things could be a thorn in the side, it would be worth doing some reading on the FCA website, using the link I put in above, to see what the lie of the land is there. Does the FCA want to hurt pawnbrokers with tighter rules, or does it see them as providing a necessary service to the public? I don’t know.

A smaller pledge book probably means lower profits, and it does mention reduced demand, but that’s better than lending recklessly and then having to make bad debt provisions.

Overall, it’s not something I would want to invest in, but the valuation does look attractive at 230p. A fairer valuation would be c.300p in my view. So reasonable upside, and it’s still paying divis whilst you wait for the share price to rise. The buoyant gold price is helpful for pawnbrokers too.

Note the high StockRank too -

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Mears (LON:MER)

Share price: 145p (up c.21%, at 11:52)
No. shares: 110.5m
Market cap: £160.2m

Proposed sale of TerraQuest Solutions Limited

Mears (LSE: MER), the UK Housing solutions provider…

This disposal is material to Mears market cap of £160.2m, and it very significantly reduces net debt;

· The Buyer will acquire the entire issued share capital of TerraQuest for a maximum valuation of £72.0m1. The consideration is as follows:
o minimum cash proceeds are expected to be £61.8 million2;
o up to a further £5.0 million in cash, payable subject to the performance of TerraQuest in the financial year to 31 December 2021; and
o £3.2 million in interest bearing loan notes3 together with ordinary shares equating to a 6.2 per cent. of the share capital of the Buyer's holding company, providing the potential for further value to Shareholders.
· Following the Disposal Mears will:
o be solely focused on its core proposition as a trusted provider of specialist housing solutions to central and local government; and
o have a significantly strengthened balance sheet, where unaudited pro forma net debt as at 30 June 2020 would have been £10.8 million4 (actual net debt 30 June 2020: £62.4 million).

TerraQuest was nicely profitable, so this will permanently reduce Mears future profits by roughly this amount;

In the financial year ended 31 December 2019, the TerraQuest Group generated revenues of £20.9 million and a profit before tax of £4.9 million.

Trading update - for the rest of the group;

Trading across the Continuing Group in the period since 30 June 2020 has been in line with the Board's expectations.

Lockdown 2.0 doesn’t sound like it will be a problem for Mears -

Mears continues to benefit from the supportive financial arrangements agreed with clients through the first half of this year. Given this, and the relative proximity of the year end, the Board expects that the recently implemented England-wide lockdown restrictions and the restrictions in Scotland will not have a materially adverse impact on performance in 2020.

Bank covenants relaxed, it sounds as if the disposal was possibly linked to this -

...amendment of its Revolving Credit Facility to provide materially greater covenant headroom as at 31 December 2020 and 30 June 2021 .

My opinion - I don’t know enough about Mears to form an overall view on the share. This disposal & relaxation of bank covenants, looks a good move, to reduce risk, although it will also reduce future profits. Selling off the family silver to reduce debt, perhaps?

Looking at its last balance sheet, it fails my balance sheet tests, with negative NTAV. Also it has a pension deficit, and very high lease liabilities. It looks a low margin outsourcing type of business, which I tend to avoid, as something usually goes wrong sooner or later.

As you can see below, it’s been a dismal investment over the last 5 years.

That said, it is now looking cheap on a PER and future dividend yield basis. Although the group should probably focus on rebuilding its balance sheet more, before paying out divis. We've seen how lots of big yielders have come a cropper in the crisis this year. It's striking how much more prudent private companies, and family-controlled listed companies are. They seem to put prudence first, whereas all too often listed companies with hired hands running them, take on too much debt, and chase EPS targets & share options, to the detriment of financial stability.

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Urban&civic (LON:UANC)

Share price: 346p (up 64% at 12:25)
No. shares: 145.2m
Market cap: £502.4m

Recommended Offer

The Wellcome Trust has launched an agreed takeover bid for this property developer, at a tremendous premium of 64%. Coming hot on the heels of a takeover bid for retirement property developer Mccarthy & Stone (LON:MCS) this makes the whole sector look interesting.

A noteworthy aspect of both MCS and UANC, is that both were trading well below NTAV, at something like 0.7-0.8. This was what attracted me to buying MCS at about 70p, because I couldn’t see any justification at all for it being priced at a discount to NTAV. If anything, you could argue it should have been at a premium, to reflect profits from sites in construction. A bid came through at 115p, very pleasing indeed.

It’s quick and easy to dig into any sector on Stockopedia. I just clicked on the sector shown on the StockReport for UANC, which brought up all the companies in the Real Estate Operations sector. Then you can click on “value” view, and sort the companies by P/TBV.

Here are some of the results, with my highlighting for some of the ones that look potentially interesting, ignoring the minnows. I’ve also ignored everything with a P/TBV under 0.5, because that’s too low, implying there’s something wrong. Note of course the retailing focused property firms are bombed out, for good reason, as their assets have plummeted in value.

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Rummaging through a sector where a flurry of takeover bids are happening, can be rewarding, if you get lucky and someone bids for a company you've bought.

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Watkin Jones (LON:WJG)

Share price: 135.3p (up <1%, at 13:19)
No. shares: 256.2m
Market cap: £346.6m

This follows on nicely, as this is another property developer;

Watkin Jones plc (AIM:WJG), the UK's leading developer and manager of residential for rent with a focus on the build to rent ('BtR') and purpose built student accommodation ('PBSA') sectors, is pleased to provide a trading update for the year ended 30 September 2020 (the 'year' or '2020').

Trading update

Resilient operational and financial performance, with seven developments successfully delivered despite lockdown restrictions
Strong second half recovery with adjusted operating profit for 2020 expected to be in the range £48.0 million to £50.0 million, with revenues of circa £350.0 million
Intention to pay a full year dividend for 2020 in line with our policy of 2.0x cover, reflecting our strong cash position, subject to there being no material deterioration in market conditions
We have successfully completed seven schemes and made excellent progress in growing our development pipeline, which will deliver returns in the future. We have also started to see growing evidence that institutional investors are beginning to recover their appetite for forward funding developments in both BtR and PBSA, and this is confirmed by our news today that we have forward sold two PBSA developments to Student Roost (owned by Brookfield) for £48.8 million.
We have also incurred certain non-underlying costs in the year associated with the COVID-19 disruption of approximately £6.0 million and the previously announced provision for cladding replacement costs, now expected to be approximately £15.0 million.
The current COVID-19 disruption to the student letting market does not cause any significant exposure to us in respect of the fee revenue earned by FPG on its contracted portfolio of assets under management. However, as previously announced, we do hold six legacy leased PBSA assets. The lower level of student occupancy for the 2020/21 academic year is currently expected to result in a reduction of revenue for us in 2021 of approximately £5.0 million. This will result in an impairment in the carrying value of our right of use assets, the cost of which is expected to be £1.9 million and is included in the non-underlying COVID-19 costs referred to above.
The resilience of the business is reflected in our continued strong cash generation. We expect to report a 2020 year-end gross cash balance of circa £130.0 million and a net cash balance of £90.0 million, after deducting site specific loans of £40.0 million.

My opinion - I’ve been lazy in copy/pasting the key points above, but they’re all self-explanatory, and it is Friday.

I’ve long admired this business, it is a class act, operating in a lucrative niche, and forward-selling projects to institutions, thus reducing risk.

How to value it? Personally, I think PER is not the right way to do it, because the profits are lumpy, project-based. Hence there’s no guarantee the pipeline can be continuously re-filled.

I prefer to look at P/TBV. In this case, Stockopedia is showing a P/TBV of over 2, which is expensive relative to the sector;

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In my view, Watkin Jones does deserve a premium to tangible book value, but not this much.

There again, given its excellent track record, and specialised skills, maybe I should be more aggressive in how I value it?

The shares have sold off a lot this year;

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Note the massive Director selling a few years ago. No wonder he was wearing such a beautiful suit at an investor meeting I attended!

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..

The family trust is still the largest shareholder, with c.15%, enough to keep management motivated, I imagine;

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My opinion - this is a very good company, in my view. It generates superb development profits, in a carefully managed, pre-sold, low risk business model.

The more I think about it, maybe I should just buy some, and ignore the premium to NTAV? Tricky one, I’ll add it to my watchlist, and see what happens. Maybe it might be best to wait, and see where the share price settles? It’s still in a downtrend after all.

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I'm stopping for lunch now, will be back later this afternoon.

Senior (LON:SNR)

Share price: 49.8p
No. shares: 419.4m
Market cap: £208.9m

I’ve never looked at this business before, so please treat this as just an initial review from someone who knows nothing about it! Therefore I particularly welcome input from any readers who know Senior better than I do.

Senior is an international manufacturing Group with operations in 13 countries. It is listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange (symbol SNR). Senior designs, manufactures and markets high technology components and systems for the principal original equipment producers in the worldwide aerospace, defence, land vehicle and power & energy markets.

[source: 2019 results statement]

As background, here are my notes from reviewing the 2019 accounts, to treat that as a normal year, which might be the baseline for future performance once covid has gone away.

  • Mainly an aerospace group: £835m revenues, healthy profit of £76.4m (adj op pr) - awful sector now in 2020 due to covid
  • Smaller “flexonics” (flexible metal hoses) division: £276m revenues, adj op profit £26.1m
  • Adj EPS 16.17p (up 1% on LY) - historic PER of 3!
  • 3 disposals, amusing called “Prune to grow” strategy!
  • Restructuring programme underway pre-covid
  • Impacted by Boeing 737 Max disaster
  • US class action lawsuits - needs checking out, potential liabilities?
  • Pension deficit looks small, £10.2 actuarial, but recovery payments £5.5m p.a. (reduced from £8.1m pa)
  • Pension asset shown on balance sheet - is it really an asset?
  • Heavy capex, it’s a capital-intensive business model
  • Debt: main loans are US private placement notes, unsecured (good), but have covenants, key one being net debt: EBITDA of 3.0-3.5 - this could be a problem in 2020
  • Balance sheet: £559.6m NAV, less £297.1m goodwill = NTAV £26.5m - looks reasonable, but 2020 losses could erode that. Note this includes £79.9m freehold property - what is open market value of this? Good to have - property can be sold/leased back in times of trouble.


2 June 2020 - important RNS, saying it has reached agreement with all lenders (including US bondholders) to relax covenants for June & Dec 2020. Eligible for Bank of England’s CFF loans. Scenario planning shows has adequate funding available.

Next, I’ve reviewed its interim results to 30 June 2020. Key points;

  • H1 Revenues down 30% to £409m
  • Adj PBT £3.6m (LY H1 £40.7m)
  • Goodwill write-off of £110.5m, with other adjustments, gives a loss before tax of £(136.3)m. Goodwill write-offs don’t matter to me, as I write it all off anyway
  • Net debt £238.9m including leases of £83.7m. £ 155.2m without leases - not disastrous by any means
  • Key debt covenant of net debt: EBITDA is 1.6x - comfortably within (for now)
  • No interim divi, no surprise there
  • Going concern note is confident it has enough funding, even in severe but plausible downside case, for foreseeable future

My view - so far, at the interim results stage, it seems to be weathering a severe storm in its end markets. Insolvency risk currently seems low.

That’s brought me up to speed on what the company does, and its recent history. Let’s take a look at the most recent update:

Q3 Trading Update -

Senior plc ("Senior" or the "Group"), an international manufacturer of high technology components and systems, principally for the worldwide aerospace & defence, land vehicle and power & energy markets, today issues this trading update for the nine-month period ended September 2020 (the "Period").

No improvement in sight;

At our 2020 Interim Results we highlighted that the lower level of activity seen in Q2 2020 due to the impact of COVID-19 on some of our key end markets was likely to persist for the remainder of 2020; and that remains our view.

The quarterly trend in 2020 in aerospace (the main part of Senior) is getting worse;

Aerospace sales declined 22% in Q1, 40% in Q2 and 45% in Q3, year-on-year.

The smaller Flexonics division has fared less badly;

Flexonics sales declined 23% in Q1, 33% in Q2 and 25% in Q3 year-on-year.

Liquidity sounds OK still;

The Group continues to focus on cash preservation and Q3 was in line with expectations. Headroom on our committed borrowing facilities was £142m at the end of September 2020. We are confident that at the year-end we will have sufficient liquidity under our existing committed facilities and that we will remain comfortably within our agreed covenant levels.

Although my worry is, what happens in 2021? Covenants were relaxed for Dec 2020, but it sounds like a fresh round of negotiations might be needed for 2021. This could include the need for an equity fundraising, which looks a medium to high probability to me.

Market update - this is interesting, and rings true, with tourists in the UK keen to go on holiday, when it is permitted;

There is some evidence that when people are able to fly, demand will recover strongly: for instance, domestic air travel in China is now above pre-COVID levels.

Moreover, there seems very little evidence that air travel spreads covid. An argument is that the airflow is downwards on board a plane, with air vents providing filtered air from above, travelling in curtains downwards and out through floor level extractor vents. That’s probably the best form of ventilation possible on public transport.

Most industry commentators expect air traffic to return to 2019 levels by around 2023/24 and commercial aircraft production rates to recover to pre-COVID-19 levels by 2024/25.

This sounds far too gloomy to me. Personally, I think there’s tons of pent-up demand for holidays, and we could see things roar back into life in 2021, once covid is in retreat. But there again, I’m a natural optimist, and was far too sanguine about covid over the summer. So your guess is as good as mine, possibly better!

The outlook for the smaller flexonics division is a little better, and other markets like defence and semiconductors are healthy, but oil & gas is struggling due to low levels of drilling.

More restructuring is underway, including merging two divisions, and closing a facility in the Netherlands. Substantial cost-savings are in the pipeline;

The annualised run-rate of savings is expected to increase from £45m in 2021 to around £50m from 2022 once the Bosman closure has completed.

That will incur a cash outflow of restructuring costs of £20m in 2020, and £8m in 2021.

Guidance - not too bad for 2020, but no recovery in sight until 2022;

overall, the Board's current expectations for 2020 are broadly in line with market expectations1… (1) Company compiled consensus for FY20 adjusted profit before tax is £(11.2)m loss based on the nine analysts that have updated their forecasts since our 2020 Interim Results.
… it is likely to be 2022 before we see a meaningful recovery in Group revenues. In 2021, Aerospace is set to be at least as challenging as 2020 given the current production rates which our customers are advising.

My opinion - there’s a lot to take in there. This is just my initial impression but I see the risk of insolvency as quite low here, at the moment. Borrowings don’t seem excessive, and lenders are likely to continue being co-operative. The main risk is an equity fundraising, done at a deep discount in 2021. For that reason, I’m happy to sit on the sidelines and watch.

Another worry is that 2021 could end up being a lot worse than 2020, if customer contracts in 2020 were winding down from existing orders, and not being replaced with new orders. It could get really ugly in 2021.

At some point, maybe in 2021, or 2022, this share could recover decently. But I’m not convinced there’s any need to jump the gun here, given that its markets seem likely to struggle quite badly for some time to come.

.

mwJAlrBw67pWZq0zDvtl3ezClDDHyLx-llrnXEUGEQdc05wB9Mlll7ZF4Al-ptT9cWvHv2asaxUYzAbYTzoVe2TpKzxAtMHoz7jeF8fLBhuzoM0L2ZwftXeZpeNPRXs9PbyLRWUi

.


Tasty (LON:TAST)

1.25p - mkt cap £1.8m

(I hold)

Too small to mention here really, but it's an interesting situation. I bought a few shares after a possible CVA was mentioned recently, but it's continued dropping in price. Option money only now.

Obviously the restaurants have had to close again, which is such a pity as the staff worked so hard to get things up & running again. The team in its Bournemouth site, are so hard-working and friendly, they greet me by name, with a warm smile, it makes such a difference.

This is what it says today;

As reported in the Interims on 30 October 2020, the Company has been successful in achieving rent reductions and lease concessions on a number of sites. The Company is continuing consensual negotiations with landlords and other creditors in respect of outstanding rents and anticipates that this process will be completed by the end of November. The Company will again be relying on Government support for employees' pay and VAT and business rate holidays.

I'm wondering if TAST might agree terms where it can, then launch a CVA to implement the agreed terms, and force terms on landlords who are not co-operating? That would make sense to me.

Remember that TAST still has cash in the bank, and it could survive I think. Post covid, and doing a CVA to ditch the problem sites, then a nice little business could emerge from all of this, later on in 2021.

De-listing risk is very high I think, given how small the market cap is. Hence I've sized my position at a small level, where I could afford to hold shares in a private company, for the long term.

This is a special situation, and high risk. Interesting though, I like special situations. Occasionally you hit the jackpot.

.


Well, I think that's it for today, and the week!

Have a lovely weekend.

Best wishes, Paul.

Disclaimer

This is not financial advice. Our content is intended to be used and must be used for information and education purposes only. Please read our disclaimer and terms and conditions to understand our obligations.

76 comments


Avatar for Chriskay

Re pawn broker regulation raised by Paul as a potential issue with H & T (LON:HAT) (I hold) here is a link to the FCA review on the sector https://www.fca.org.uk/publica...

In summary pawn brokers are ‘not a priority area in terms of potential risk or harm to consumers’ and they do not appear to be singled out for any special concern or regulation, but this is of course no guarantee that such regulation is not being considered.

A number of positives are noted, including; strong customer focus, quality service, robust controls and strong relationships with the local community.

Some concerns are raised, but not any more than with other customer facing sectors. These included:

  • Potential issues and inconsistency with surplus not being returned to customers and the inconsistent way expenses are charged to customers
  • Need for improved approach to criminality and money laundering
  • Important for firms to have clear policies on what items they can loan on and which services meet specific customer needs
  • Firms must ensure systems and record keeping is accessible and as required

290 firms were identified in this sector with 7 firms accounting for 80% of the market, so plenty of small brokers which could be acquired as indeed H&T have already done recently.

I hope this is helpful but as always DYOR

9
Avatar for ckidcurrie23

Paul  posted this comment on the Urban&civic (LON:UANC) report. I am afraid I seem to struggle to be able to do / find this  " I know its just me" but could someone please advise. I am on the new site if I click on the sector it just gives me an explanation?

Many Thanks

"t’s quick and easy to dig into any sector on Stockopedia. I just clicked on the sector shown on the StockReport for UANC, which brought up all the companies in the Real Estate Operations sector. Then you can click on “value” view, and sort the companies by P/TBV."

0
Avatar for Marcus

Hi ckcurrie23,

Not sure where you are clicking but if you look down the stock report page you'll see Sector Industry "Real Estate Operations" in blue just under the list of directors . If you click on this it take you to a  comprehemsive list of companies in that sector industry.  If you then click down on the Table View box and select "Value" this brings up the value details of the stock, after which you can sort by clicking on the P/TB column heading. Trust this works your end!

Regards, Mark

3
Avatar for Fishcake

Offer just announced for Codemasters Group (LON:CDM) which is a nice start to the weekend:

"The Board of Codemasters has received a non-binding proposal from Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc ("Take-Two Interactive") to acquire the entire issued share capital of Codemasters at a price of 485 pence per share (the "Possible Offer"), comprising 120 pence per share in cash and 365 pence per share payable in Take-Two Interactive shares. The Possible Offer remains conditional on, amongst other things, the completion of confirmatory due diligence by Take-Two Interactive and the recommendation of the Board of Codemasters. Take-Two Interactive reserves the right to waive any of these requirements."

7
Avatar for Nick Hewett

Premium is small (approx 8%). I wonder whether it will kick off a bidding war? Not sure who would be interested but Microsoft have just come back to gaming with their latest Flight Simulator offering so potentially could be moving back into gaming........

0
Avatar for Antehelion

Microsoft just bought Bethesda in September, I guess they could be building a stable up, though I think with the diversity already available in Bethesda, I expect they wouldn't have huge need of a driving game company as well.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/542...

1
Avatar for wildshot

Darn it, Codemasters Group (LON:CDM) has been on my watchlist and I hadn't bought in yet. Mind you the premium on the price doesn't seem that high and maybe a steal by Take-Two. Could shareholders turn this down thinking there is long term value outside of cashing in their chips now?

1
Avatar for SlickMongoose

Very low bid, i'm disappointed.

7
Avatar for Edinburgh Investor

Isn't it a bit odd the board recommending it at such a low premium?   I can't imagine it will be backed by the largely institutional holders?  Slater being the largest at 10%.   

8
Avatar for Dave_17

I don't see it as odd. I have no knowledge of Codemaster so this is just my opinion on what could be happening. Company directors receive offer, see a chance to crystallise LTIP and share options, negotiate  very good 12/24 month contract post merger to ease transit/integration (which they don't see out but get paid), then ride off into the sunset. If sensible they would have steered enough institutional holders to support it so shareholders don't spoil the party and job done. Literally 

4
Avatar for john652

hi Dave_17 

Re Codemasters Group (LON:CDM) i think you are absolutely right, the management cash out all share options and then get a whole new set against targets they negotiate as part of the offer, directors minted, shareholders screwed.

I think this is a big, less talked about, risk with small caps. I’ve had this numerous times. 

Lets hope shareholders reject this, i cant imagine slater and buffetology agreeing to this.

2
Avatar for mevans6890

Extremely poor offer for a company that has been exceeding expectations - v hard to understand why the management are recommending this.  Surely shareholders will not accept this.  With the release of new games and new consoles, with Xmas coming this must be a prime candidate for a bidding war.

6
Avatar for Nathantrader

I hold and added early this week on a spread bet, in my opinion offer is far to low, dont see why the Board have recommended the offer, my intention was a long term hold.

2
Avatar for Andy Astbury

Would be disappointed in that premium, given Codemasters Group (LON:CDM) prospects, the premium driving gaming products, and their conservative amortisation of the development costs, compared to their competitors.  Be interested in Jack's view given he has covered before.  I hold.

4
Avatar for jonno

Not sure how the activities of £UANDC relate to those of U And I (LON:UAI), which is a land developer and regeneration specialist that usually works in partnership with other parties, local authorities for example.  U And I (LON:UAI) price has been battered.  The price is about 55p versus Liberum's estimated NAV of 229p for the year to March 2021,  a discount of about 75%.  Directors have sizeable holdings especially Richard Upton, CEO who holds close to 3.6 million shares, many bought at significantly higher prices.  Also recent newsflow has been positive, I added at around 65p after the AGM statement on 10th September. 

I have held the shares throughout the pandemic and remain much the poorer for it, but too my mind they continue to represent very good value. We will know more  shortly as the interims are due next week. 

Just my view I am now off to read up on £UANDC.

All the best.

2
Avatar for shanklin100

Gentlemen

No longer a small cap although it was until a year or so ago, but Games Workshop (LON:GAW) has just issued a rather terse albeit positive intra-day trading statement.

Perhaps there was a board meeting this morning and they felt obliged to RNS something?

Doesn't even mention sales but, despite their shops being neutered for much of the period, PBT for H1 20/21 will be sharply up on last year.

Cheers, Martin

10
Avatar for SlickMongoose

Fantastic update. If they repeat that for H2 they're on a forward p/e of 22. Hardly expensive for the quality of the company.

0
Avatar for vprt

Games Workshop (LON:GAW) over-delivering again and again (no longer much of a surprise, is it, except to analysts?)

0
Avatar for Andy Astbury

They are saying profit before tax not less than £80m for 1H, which makes current broker forecast look under stated to me. Obviously the person who issues the RNS  must have slept in :)

0
Avatar for Paul Scott

Gentlemen....

What about the ladies?!!! (and non-binaries!)

11
Avatar for Trident

And any Aliens tuning in!?

5
Avatar for TS23

I see Games Workshop (LON:GAW) have just issued a trading statement at 2.08pm on a Friday afternoon!

5
Avatar for UK_Investor_8888

Re, pay day lender International Personal Finance (LON:IPF) there is an RNS stating something to the effect that the lender has refinanced their bonds.

International Personal Finance (LON:IPF) surges 8% on the good news.

2
Avatar for Casino_Winner

Paul often mentions whether a company has a strong balance sheet or not. Personally i have very little knowledge as to what is or isn't a strong balance sheet. Can someone point me in the right direction on how I can understand balance sheets better? (From a laymans/beginners approach). Many thanks

4
Avatar for JohnEustace

Possibly better read after a basic introduction elsewhere but looking at my bookshelf one classic  that I would recommend to understand the tricks to look out for is Financial Shenanigans by Howard. M Schilit.

4
Avatar for Casino_Winner

Many thanks JohnEustace

0
Avatar for Jack Brumby

Hi Casino_Winner,

Paul is very much champion of the balance sheet and you can perform very detailed analysis here. There are three main sections to a balance sheet: assets, liabilities, and equity. Assets are what the company owns and include cash and property. Liabilities. are what the company owes and include debt. Equity is what's left over when you subtract L from A.

Assets = liabilities + equity.

You want high quality assets comfortably above liabilities. If assets are largely made up of intangibles or goodwill that can itself be a warning sign.

You can get quite far quite quickly. I'm a big believer in the 80/20 rule and there are some easy checks that can quickly flag up any warning signs:

  • From the StockReport, first check if the company is profit or loss-making in the first box of the Financial Summary. Also is revenue increasing or declining? Trends can be important. Consistently loss-making or those with declining revenue need strong balance sheets or cheaper valuations in order to make the risk/reward attractive.
  • The Cashflow box is similarly useful - if the company is spending more than it is earning, and Free Cashflow ps is consistently red, that again is a warning sign. The company should have cash on its balance sheet in this instance, as it likely can't fund itself from its own operations.
  • Then at the bottom of the Financial Summary, there is the Balance Sheet box. This shows the net cash/debt balance. Watch out for: cash going down, net debt increasing, and/or average shares going up.
  • The Professor Scores to the right are very useful. It's worth clicking on the F-Score and Z-Score to show which checks the company fails - this can point you towards warning signs for more detailed investigation on a stock's Balance Sheet page.
c602f981674965cfb3e53bf7f99dd2d4be8e220b1604670015.png

This is just a quick start - entire books are written on Balance Sheet analysis - but you'd be amazed at how far these few steps can get you. Also a stock with a high Quality Rank is likely to have a strong Balance Sheet.

I always recommend this video by Ed as well, it's a fantastic crash course.

49
Avatar for Casino_Winner

Thanks Jack,  helpful as always! I really appreciate your efforts, all the best Johann

4
Avatar for greensiax

Here are my heat maps for today (prices as at 10am).

SVCR filtered to 'interesting' instruments (reporting soon or recently, trending, breaking out, or moving more than 20d ATR EMA):

7c6eef482101430764e323123f18435c87da21cd1604658955.png


SVCR unfiltered (limited to top 80):

94de60549b1fe8b5786f2f1b81cc3c456dc4d2471604659060.png


Big movers today (moving more than 20d ATR EMA against either yesterdays close, or today's open - not limited to small caps):

3234c685134bb740ad9f1ae9a79588cc189d1f371604658975.png


And finally the key to the heat map contents:

d25fb5aa6b86eba0b6d16b609e394df6b2a9d7d31604659082.png


All heatmaps are ordered by Stock Rank™

27
Avatar for am11nn

Thank you for taking the time to post these. I am a newbie but love the insight this provides. I have a question though, how do you screen for the big movers? Still finding my feet so any help would be welcome. 

1
Avatar for greensiax

Hi am11nn,

Thank you :)

The big movers is not a Stockopedia screen (though it might be possible to achieve?).

What I do  is to maintain a 20d EMA (Exponential Moving Average) of the ATR (Average True /Trading Range) of each Instrument and then I can look for Instruments moving more today than the 20d average daily movement.

Cheers,

Greensiax

3
Avatar for kgb1953

Jack you might be interested to learn that Mccormick is a top 10 holding in Fundsmith. Its a fabulous company which meets all Terry Smith's criteria on operating margin, return on capital etc.. 

7
Avatar for Jack Brumby

Hi kgb1953,

No, I had no idea about the Fundsmith holding. Makes sense as McCormick does Schwarz spices doesn't it - nice, solid, global brand. I don't know much more about the company beyond that.

I remember the botched talks with Premier Foods (LON:PFD) well, that could have been a great home for the brands... A very frustrating experience as a shareholder!

5
Avatar for kgb1953

I'm going to look at Premier Foods (LON:PFD) now but was always put off by its old fashioned brands, most of which date back to my childhood. I do like custard though!

3
Avatar for Tortoise investor

Anyone understand what's up with the Cenkos Securities (LON:CNKS) share price? It's gone from 44p to 54.5p at the time of writing. Reasonable volume yesterday but today looks smaller. The share price has otherwise traded sideways for months. Transactions they list on their website look like they are continuing to come in so maybe it's just a big buyer yesterday driving up the price when volume traded is not normally that high?

4
Avatar for Bluesky Ventura

Interest new IPO for Cenkos Securities (LON:CNKS) : Round Hill Music for $375M, Cenkos Securities plc ("Cenkos") is acting as sole bookrunner and financial adviser to the Company. this should generate £10-14M for Cenkos Securities (LON:CNKS) for the IPO is in Nov. This should be the biggest fee since 2017.

My sales estimate for the year-end is now £36M, EPS of 18p, and the company valuation at 120p plus.

The main article included in the link below.

https://citywire.co.uk/investm...

DYOR

BSV

16
Avatar for Tortoise investor

very helpful - I set up news alerts for my stocks but I missed this. Thank you!

1
Avatar for bsharman

Hi, I think this is related to a massive IPO (Round Hill) and subsequent placing ? 

3
Avatar for Sharewallah

Dear Paul and Jack, any chance of a piece on Watkin Jones (LON:WJG) following its trading update this morning?

6
Avatar for Paul Scott

Yes, I'll be taking a look at Watkin Jones (LON:WJG) later today.

8
Avatar for Jeremy Rea

Hi Paul,

Regarding Watkin Jones (LON:WJG) Mark Watkin-Jones stepped down from the Board in early 2019, and had notified the company of his intention to leave in Jan 2018. Soon after his replacement started the company created an lovely LTIP that paid out at the cost 1p a share and gave the new CEO and CFO circa 460k and 160k shares each, respectively.
I often think you can tell a lot about managements priorities when LTIP's like that come in, especially when it is on the back of a family founder stepping away.

I hold.

4
Avatar for Bouden54

In terms of how to value this, the company forward sells a lot of its property and has a capital light business model, so price to book arguably less relevant than traditional property companies. I think premium to book can be justified as you're paying for intangible things such as expertise, track record and strong relationships with institutional investors who provide the funding. 

0
Avatar for Phillip Arghebant

Good morning. If you click on to the Watkin Jones share price, you will see that Progressive Research has produced a detailed note on the company today and this should assist you if Paul and Jack are unable to provide an update. 

5
Avatar for Sharewallah

Many thanks.

0
Avatar for TEIN

Morning Paul, Jack. Is there any chance of you taking a look at H & T (LON:HAT) who's share price until this week has been tanking but issued a positive trading update yesterday? Kind Regards, Andrew

2
Avatar for Paul Scott

OK, I'll do a section on H & T (LON:HAT) today.

20
Avatar for TEIN

Paul, thank you very much for taking a look at H & T (LON:HAT) , (I hold), I appreciate very much your insight. StockRank has been pointing down of late, it'll be interesting to watch the Momentum ranking (which has just turned red) over the key Christmas trading period, and January when peoples wallets are hardest hit and H&T services might be most 'appreciated'.  There's perhaps some upside in their retail business to come, competitively priced watches and jewellery, fuelled by 'recessionary' demand for their pawnbroking services, tough economic conditions should surely suit them, so I'm encouraged that Pawnbroking is now considered an essential service.

As you highlighted this company suffered closures in Lockdown 1.0 when however the share price held up, and has been able to trade since, when the share price fell down. I'm wondering where they go next after the decent recovery yesterday. 

Added to the regulatory millstone round their neck, a prolonged step back on the gold/ silver price would  perhaps be another risk.

10
Avatar for Lee Brown

I think the SP grossly undervalues the business. I accept a small regulatory risk but H&T moved to mitigate this ASAP. Furthermore, whilst the recession does not help anyone, if banks are tightening lending standards I can see more demand for this type of loan to help people out. I can't see why this is below 300p and I think the CEO and Auditor changes have been much overdone. One side point, I have seen a few auditors resign lately (Boo springs to mind) and whilst in some cases it is a negative, in others it is just auditors tidying shop in my view after years of poor performance from them, i.e. if they have to do the job properly then the risk/reward isn't there some businesses!

3
Avatar for Dojosan

If it helps anyone - on H & T (LON:HAT) 's FCA review , extract from Simon Thompson article - from Nov '19 -

H&T has ceased all HCSTC unsecured lending for the time being and is looking at its HCSTC unsecured lending practices over the past six years as part of the FCA review. The HCSTC unsecured loan portfolio peaked at £4m in December 2016 and has since been reduced to £3m. Customers made total interest payments of £24m over the six-year period, and H&T generated revenue less impairments of £11m. The HCSTC unsecured lending segment is expected to account for less than 4 per cent of H&T’s revenue in the 2019 financial year.

https://www.investorschronicle...

14
Avatar for OldSchool05

Good point on HCSTC lending for H&T (H & T (LON:HAT)).  This type of lending ceased completely in October 2019.  So I do not see it being a concern for the future business prospects.

4
Avatar for TamzinXPiworld

Here's the piworld interview from yesterday: An hour with Paul Jourdan. We get a real sense of Paul's investing rationale and thinking. He talks of where we're at in today's industrial revolution, with the integration of technology into all sectors. He's identifying who will benefit. He is strongly focussed on healthcare. He covers Polarean Imaging (LON:POLX), Renalytix Ai (LON:RENX) & Maxcyte Inc (LON:MXCT). We cover CV19, and what he did.

I loved the (rough) quote: "It's not the losers that cost investors, but the expense of missing the great opportunities where you miss a multiple of what you invested."

Highly recommended. Video & podcast.

The quality is superb. (Apologies to anyone who listened live, as Paul backed off his noise cancelling mic, it fought with the noice cancelling of the webinar. Oh the joys of live broadcasts!)

28
Avatar for SundayTrader

"It's not the losers that cost investors, but the expense of missing the great opportunities where you miss a multiple of what you invested."

Not sure about that quote Tamzin. My own theory is that nothing makes money like not losing it.

26
Avatar for mevans6890

Isn’t it necessary to do both

4
Avatar for Damian Cannon

I'd upvote this twice if I could. I think that portfolio management is a very under-rated skill for any private investor in comparison to believing that you have enough of an edge to consistently pick winners. It's ironic really because learning how to cut your losers and run your winners is a fairly easy skill to improve and it reduces your need to pick winner after winner at the same time.

9
Avatar for Bonitabeach

Paul Jordan:

I loved the (rough) quote: "It's not the losers that cost investors, but the expense of missing the great opportunities where you miss a multiple of what you invested."
Not a gem of insightful wisdom; just another truism pedaled by fund managers who make their money and take their risks with your money. We all spend our time looking for those proverbial great opportunities and with the data and resources at their disposal fund managers should be able to beat the private investor almost every time.

Paul Jordan has a respectable, not earth moving, 20 year CAGR of 7.3%, most of his peers cannot beat a monkey with a pin (the indicies).

How do you measure up?

Bonitabeach


13
Avatar for ezlifeme

Morning Tamzin, Re Paul Jourdan webinar

  1. yes unfortunately disappointing quality because of Paul's poor mic habit as you say, but..
  2. There was enough interest for me to re listen later (to get the details of bits I missed)

PS - If you run a country AND your mic works perfectly, sometimes the Networks cut away anyway.    NO Idea why that might be!

Keep up the webinars and I hope you manage to maintain the quality of your speakers

8
Avatar for Brookeda

Quiet Friday subject 

Hoping not to open a can of worms but the recent uptick in the market still seems a bit strange to me (but welcome for my portfolio.) Yesterday there was 600k new COVID cases across the world with the number of deaths also increasing. There are calls in various countries of hospitals getting to capacity levels which would significantly put a risk to increased risks of deaths increasing. I heard Belgium are moving patients to Germany as they have run out of space.

Is all of this priced into the market or are we just blindly hoping the increased testing will reduce the R rate over time or that some vaccination will stop this being more lethal than common flu?

I am roughly 60% invested at the moment and am adding when I see what I consider good companies at good prices but all of the above just stops me moving to 80-90 which would be my normal level.

How is everyone else playing this out? 

I would add Paul and Jack have done an amazing job this week, big thanks to them

34
Avatar for Silver Moon

Covid-19 releases assets of and for the deceased, it being an ill wind that blows no good.  Free-spenders will spend freely. Investors can expect this to continue in their favour.

2
Avatar for Housemartin2

I cannot see the excess Covid deaths being so high as to make any noticeable difference to the rate of asset redistribution via inheritance. I suppose if we got the 4000 per day it theoretically might but even then I doubt it would keep going at that rate for long enough to be significant (not that 4000 per day was intended to be a believable stat) 

4
Avatar for Forbsy

I think I recall a comment from Michael Taylor where he mentioned the markets started to rally in the spring the day after lockdown 1 was announced...

-1
Avatar for Silver Moon

"Of and for",  As I meant, it's not only what they leave but also the resources consumed in caring for them which turn the wheels of the economy Housemartin.

Silver

0
Avatar for GrahamF

However, with the long current delays getting probate and satisfying HMRC that all the due tax has been paid it seems pretty unlikely that this is a factor at present and probably won’t be for some time to come if at all.

2
Avatar for Silver Moon

"Of and for", As I meant, it's not only what they leave but also the resources consumed in caring for them which turn the wheels of the economy GrahamF.

0
Avatar for kgb1953

There are no overall excess deaths - in fact only 48,000 deaths from or with Covid so far - and there is no evidence that Covid affects those with the most assets to distribute on their death.  Also I think you will find that the savings ratio has increased during this period. 

1
Avatar for peterg

There are no overall excess deaths. 

What is your source for that? PHE currently reckons 55k. Excess deaths will inevitably exceed reported covid deaths as so many died untested in the early part of the outbreak.

4
Avatar for Rusty2

From ONS stats: "Looking at the year-to-date (using the most up-to-date data we have available), the number of deaths up to 9 October 2020 was 473,673, which is 54,424 more than the five-year average. Of the deaths registered by 9 October, 53,640 mentioned COVID-19 on the death certificate, 11.3% of all deaths in England and Wales."

Already over 54,000 and recently it has crept up again since 9th October.

7
Avatar for kgb1953

So 5,000 a month? And how many 'with' Covid and how many 'of' Covid? 

0
Avatar for Rusty2

Excess deaths!

4
Avatar for GrahamF

When I see Ryanair only down less than 4% compared with a year ago it makes me think that there are certain stocks that have far further to fall.

16
Avatar for andrewdb

That is an absolutely excellent Friday subject. The underlying question is :

Q : "How much should I hold in cash"

A: I do not know either. This is complicated. To me, cash is another stock (that has the benefit of being the worlds largest and most liquid) .
I do know that personally, if I had held all my cash in an FTAS tracker (inc divis)  instead since Sep 2011, I would be about 9.7K worse off.

The other way of saying it is my cash holdings managed to outperform the FTAS over that time.

4
Avatar for Silver Moon

Increasingly I'm becoming aware that one has to be ready for anything.  Unlike Rishi I don't have a money tree in my back garden to call upon and I'm still way down the learning curve.  Take Rsa Insurance (LON:RSA) for instance, I marked it as a Buy on the 28th October.  I hold it in my ISA and was and am without free cash in the account so did not follow my hunch.  Yesterday much to my chagrin the news of the Offer came out and while my holding will give me a nice return I look back and see how much better it could have been had I ready money in the right place.

0
Avatar for MrContrarian

My morning smallcap tweet:

Urban&Civic (LON:UANC) STM (LON:STM) Sportech (LON:SPO) Gulf Marine Services (LON:GMS) Mears (LON:MER) Dev Clever Holdings (LON:DEV) Sealand Capital Galaxy (LON:SCGL)

Urban&Civic (UANC) rec offer 345p, a 63.5% premium. [SP=211 Cap=306m]
STM (STM) finally signs £5.5m credit line from RBS to fund acquisitions. [SP=27.7 Cap=16m]
Sportech (SPO) 28.5p offer. Rejected. [SP=20.75 Cap=39m]
Gulf Marine Services (GMS) performance remains ahead of the Business Plan. 9 month adj EBITDA up 25%. Repeats FY guidance of $57-62m adj EBITDA but expected near top of range. [SP=6.2 Cap=22m]
Mears (MER) to sell TerraQuest Solutions for £72m max. £61.8m min cash + £3.2m loan notes. Last FY rev £20.9m and pretax £4.9m. Trading in Continuing Group in line with mgmt exp. [SP=120 Cap=133m]
Dev Clever (DEV) has signed a Heads of Terms with Veative Labs and the National Independent Schools Alliance, India's largest governing body for budget private educational institutions. Will negotiate and design an implementation plan and commercial model that will utilise DEV's Launchyourcareer.com as the platform to deliver a minimum standard of career guidance. Will also look at introduction of a B2C subscription model. No £££. [SP=7.5 Cap=35m]
Sealand Capital (SCGL) wins $45k (is that all?) contract from longstanding client, Suncity Group Leisure Service, for a TikTok campaign to promote Suncity's opportunities in Macau. [SP=1.6 Cap=8m]

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Avatar for jonkingston

'...helping the De Beauvoir Arms (N1) minimise their lockdown 2.0 inventories write-offs, and singing "We'll Meet Again" with the staff just before closing time.'

Well done Paul, doing your bit for the country :)

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Avatar for grout123

To help keep everyones pecker up I think you should drive along the south coast in you Jaaaaaaaaag with union jacks waving from the flying buttresses handing out flyers to Stockopedia 

20
Avatar for Jeffvshepherd

All in the name of research of course.

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