Good morning, it's Paul here!
Thank you for the reader requests. I'll be able to cover most of them. Please see the header above for the list of stocks whose results or trading updates that I will be reporting on today.
Vianet (LON:VNET)
Share price: 122.5p (down 9.9% today)
No. shares: 28.0m
Market cap: £34.3m
(at the time of writing, I hold a long position in this share)
Vianet Group plc (AIM:VNET), the international provider of actionable data and business insight through devices connected to its Internet of Things platform ("IOT"), is pleased to announce its interim results for the six months ended 30 September 2017.
The core, cash generative business within Vianet is the Brulines business, which monitors & reports the flow of beer in tenanted pubs (to ensure the tenant doesn't cheat the system by selling cheaper beer, bought outside the brewery tie agreement). The second, up & coming division provides remote monitoring for vending machines. Its petrol station business has been disposed of.
Today's results look to have disappointed the market, with the share price down almost 10%. Although as with most small caps, there is little liquidity, hence it only takes a handful of small trades to move the price. So the initial price reaction is not necessarily anything to rely on.
Top marks to management for taking the time & trouble to produce a video & slides presentation for all investors, published this morning with the results. Why can't all companies do this? It levels the playing field, and gives retail investors similar additional information and understanding of the business that institutions & analysts get from meeting company management.
Talking of which, I'm meeting VNET management tomorrow, so if anyone has any specific questions, then by all means add a comment below, and I will endeavour to ask & report back. (please keep any questions brief, and to the point!)
Some key numbers for H1;
Revenues down 5.0% to £6.7m, although a very high proportion, 90% are recurring revenues - which are generally regarded as higher quality (as predictable & repeating) - hence deserving of a higher valuation of the shares.
Adjusted operating profit up 4% to £1.7m. It's always worth checking what items have been adjusted for, and in this case the adjustments…
