I have just noticed that TERN has appeared in James Montier 'Unholy Trinity' Screen Guru listing of shares.
I will start by saying that, I hold TERN shares, and I think shorting is morally wrong (call me old fashioned). But as a long term holder of TERN, I felt that I should point out to the Stockopedia community that shorting TERN should come with a significant health warning.
Over the past 18 months, the share price of TERN has taken a roller coaster journey, rising from 3p to a spike of 47p and now back down again to 8p. If you research TERN you will see that it is actually a group invested in 6 companies, a summary of which I have listed below.
Current portfolio
The group currently owns six investments – the main four are described in detail below, with Tern owning material stakes in each :
▪ Device Authority (£12.3m of NAV as at 30 June 2019) – automates the provision of secure platforms for IIoT and IoMT devices and associated applications. Medical is the largest current sector in terms of client activity, but the process is applied very broadly, can managed complex PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) or other environments, and offers long- term recurring revenues
▪ FundamentalVR (£2.2m of NAV) – provides a software simulation environment, allowing surgeons’ accuracy to be measured objectively for the first time
▪ InVMA (£1m of NAV) – is focussed on heavy-industrial clients, with a platform to help implement IoT sensors and monitors; InVMA also provides associated services
▪ Wyld Networks (£78,000 of NAV) – has a wireless mesh technology to allow low-power networks to be formed, often in a smart-meter environment
Tern also has very modest equity stakes (<1%) in two other companies – Seal Software and Push Technology.
If you visit the TERNplc.com web site, you will see that they have a strategy of taking their investee companies through three stages, at least 2 of which they have stated are at the stage 3 Release. TERN have clearly stated that they are looking for a significant partner. The likelihood is that the partner will test the Investee company as a precursor to acquisition.
Last week Thales presented a joint webinar with Device Authority and it was very clear that the majority of the difficult…
