Shares in kettle control supplier Strix Group (KETL) fell by 40% this morning after they published a trading update. It reported that the Covid lockdowns in China had adversely affected their major OEM customers. Along with negative comments about the future impacts and “continued macroeconomic and political uncertainty” you can see why investors are nervous.
I used to hold this stock but sold the shares in May and August last year – at a small loss I hasten to add – as growth prospects seemed to be weakening and the valuation seemed too high. So I am currently suffering from schadenfreude – pleasure in escaping from that disaster.
Yesterday GB Group (GBG) issued an interim statement which received some negative comments. This is what Graham Neary said on Stockopedia about it: “…. the outlook statement tells us that H2 has started in line with expectations, and there is no change to forecasts. Net debt currently sits at around £118m. This is a large and reputable business providing advanced digital intelligence services to some of the world’s biggest businesses. However, there are many different moving parts to understand, and I perceive it as a black box type of investment. It is in my “too difficult” tray at this time”.
My response to some of the other posts was “Re all the comments on GB (LON:GBG) the accounts are complex but it helps to watch the company’s presentation here: https://www.gbgplc.com/en/investors/ . There have clearly been negative impacts from declines in cryptocurrency and internet companies generally but I am not as negative as others about prospects. A lot of the issues are one-offs and judging a company on one half-year’s results is not wise in my view. I am a long-term holder and am likely to remain so”.
This is clearly one company affected by all the negative reports on cryptocurrency trading and the collapse of several companies operating in that sector (FTX etc). It appears there are many fewer people opening crypto trading accounts and needing to have their identity verified – surely a good thing.
Another company announcement of interest today was from property company Segro (SGRO). It said it is issuing a 19-year bond with an annual coupon of 5.125%. It was six times oversubscribed apparently. This shows that property companies can still raise debt easily which was one concern affecting their share prices recently but it seems they now have to pay a lot more in interest on such debt than they have been doing of late. If they need to refinance existing debt it is clearly going to be at much higher rates. Can they still make a profit if debt is that much more expensive? They surely can if inflation is running at 10% and rents they can charge are up to match.
Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://twitter.com/RogerWLawson )
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