Discounted Share Issues at Learning Technologies and Whitbread, plus Trump Media Regulation

Companies are vying to undertake placings at present, to shore up their balance sheets in the face of the coronavirus epidemic. With many businesses closed, or suffering very substantial reductions in revenue, they can hardly be blamed for wanting to raise some cash. But private shareholders are disgruntled when they cannot take part in such fund raising, either by the use of a rights issue, or the inclusion of an “open offer” in a placing.

Let’s look at two recent examples – one I hold a few shares in, namely AIM listed Learning Technologies (LTG) and the other being Whitbread (WTB).

Yesterday LTG announced a placing when the market closed. This morning the details are provided. The shares were issued at a discount of 7.6% to the previous closing price and the dilution of existing shareholders was 9.6%. The directors participated including Chairman Andrew Brode and CEO Jonathan Satchell when private shareholders could not as there is no open offer.

That may not be a massive discount but it still rankles. However the shares could be bought in the market at near the placing price this morning. But my main concern is that the justification for the placing given by the company does not make much sense. They say that “The Company believes the current macroeconomic conditions present opportunities to accelerate future growth and gain further share of the $370 billion corporate learning market. The learning industry is highly fragmented and management believes high quality assets previously tracked, and potentially others that were not, are now becoming available at valuation levels that are highly compelling”.

Times are so tough it seems that you can now pick up some companies cheaply seems to be the argument. Does that make any sense? Not to me. Acquisitions are best made for strategic reasons, i.e. they are complementary business-wise and have good prospects, not simply because they are cheap. If they are also particularly cheap now because business prospects are much worse, that’s no reason to buy them surely?

The LTG announcement also refers to the “robust liquidity position” based on substantial facilities and refers to “further cash preservation” measures it has available. Is this perhaps hinting at some other reasons for the placing?

The other company worth mentioning is Whitbread. This company is now focused primarily on their budget hotel chain, Premier Inn. You can see why they may need the cash as both business and tourist travel has ground to a halt.

They said on the 21st May that “All restaurants and the vast majority of hotels closed in the last week of March 2020” and “Decisive action taken to reduce cash outflows and further enhance liquidity, including significant reductions in capital expenditure and discretionary spend, voluntary pay cuts for Board and management team and use of UK and German Government support packages”. They also announced a full rights issue to raise £1 billion.

They put a gloss on this by saying “The purpose of the Rights Issue is to ensure that Whitbread emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic in the strongest possible position to take advantage of its long-term structural growth opportunities and win market share in both the United Kingdom and Germany”, but they also said this which really spells out the main reason: “Actions Whitbread has taken have ensured its business can withstand a prolonged period of closures and/or low demand.  However, given Whitbread’s high fixed and semi-variable costs, its balance sheet will be impacted by material cash outflows during the period when its hotels and restaurants are closed or operating at low occupancy levels as a result of UK Government measures and/or social distancing”.

You can see why the rights issue is a heavily discounted one – a discount of 47% to the market price on the 20th May to encourage people to take up the shares, based on one new share for every two held. It also indicates how large investors view the issue. They need a lot of encouragement to subscribe.

Now anyone who remembers the RBS rights issue back in 2008 which was also a heavily discounted one will recall what a disaster that was. Such issues are to be treated with caution. In the case of Whitbread, it’s simply a bet that the business can reopen in the next few months and that customers will return. Readers can make their own judgement on that, but the company certainly seems to be taking the necessary steps to survive. However investors should remember that just because you already have some money invested in a company, it is not a reason to put more in. You should just judge it on whether buying the new shares at the price offered makes sense given the prospects for the business. Let the institutions and index tracking funds worry about maintaining their percentage stake.

An interesting item of news last night was that Donald Trump has signed an Executive Order” seeking to amend Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. That law enables social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, et al, to avoid responsibility for what appears on their sites because they are not treated as “publishers”. The law in the UK is similar.

That is based on the fact that they do not monitor, edit, or have control over what people post on such sites, and it might be very difficult to do so practically. But in reality they have been intervening in that way more and more. President Trump has raised the issue apparently because they edited a couple of his tweets to add “fact-check” links. Mr Trump only has 80 million followers on Twitter!

In reality these social media sites do monitor what is posted to remove or block some content. I recently had the need to complain to a financial blogger about some comments posted on an article on his site and it was very clear that he had been reviewing all such comments before they appeared, i.e. he was moderating the blog comments. In such circumstances it is difficult to see how someone could claim not to be the “publisher”.

In the financial world, it is quite important that what is published is accurate and responsible and I agree with Donald Trump. Social media sites cannot have it both ways – they are either moderating their sites or they are not, and it they are then they are publishers. In that case they have to take responsibility for all content, not just some of it. But if they are not moderating then the readers had better beware and there needs to be some other way to prevent or discourage libellous comments or market abuse from taking place.

Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://twitter.com/RogerWLawson  )

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Population Growth Problem, Trump at Davos and More Bad News at Ted Baker

 

7.7 Billion and Growing. That was the subtitle of a BBC TV Horizon programme last night on population. Chris Packham was the presenter. He said the world’s population was 5 million 10,000 years ago but by 2050 it is forecast to be 10 billion. He showed the impact of excessive population on biodiversity and on rubbish generation with lots of other negative impacts on the environment. It is surely one of the most important things to think about at present, and will have major economic impacts if not tackled.

The big growth is coming in countries such as Brazil and Nigeria. Sao Paolo is now 5 times the size of London and it’s running out of water. So are many other major cities including London. The growth in population is being driven by better healthcare, people living longer but mainly via procreation. A stable population requires 2.1 babies per family, but it is currently 2.4. In Nigeria it’s 5!

In some countries it is lower than that. It’s 1.7 in the UK (but population is growing from immigration) and it’s 1.4 in Japan where an ageing population is creating social and economic problems.

The FT ran an editorial on the 14th of January suggesting population in Europe needed to be boosted but it received a good rebuke in a letter published today from Lord Hodgson. He said “Global warming comes about as a result of human activity, and the more humans the more activity.  This is before counting the additional costs of the destruction of the natural world and the depletion of the world’s resources. In these circumstances suggesting there is a need for more people seems irresponsible”.

I completely agree with Lord Hodgson and the concerns of Chris Packham. The latter is a patron of a campaigning charity to restrain the growth in population called Population Matters (see  https://populationmatters.org/ ). Making a donation or becoming a member might assist.

For a slightly different view in Davos President Trump made a speech decrying the alarmist climate views and saying “This is a time for optimism, to reject the perennial prophets of doom and their predictions of the apocalypse”. He was followed by a 17-year old with limited education who said just that and got more coverage in some of the media. I believe Trump and moderate environmental writers like Matt Ridley who suggest we can handle rises in world temperature and that the future is still rosy. But we surely do need to tackle the problem of a growing world population.

Chris Packham reported how this was done somewhat too aggressively in India and China but there are other ways to do it via education and financial incentives. Just ensuring enough economic growth in poorer countries will ensure population growth is minimised. Let’s get on with it!

On a more mundane matter, I have previously commented on the audit failure at Ted Baker (TED). The latest bad news today after an independent review it has been discovered that the inventory problem is twice as worse than previously reported. The company now states that inventory in January 2019 was overstated by £58 million. The share price has fallen by another 7% at the time of writing.

This is not just another example of a minor audit failure. Stock value in the Jan 2019 Annual Report was given as £225 million so that is a 22% shortfall. Auditors are supposed to check the stock and its valuation so this is a major error. It will reinforce the complaints of many investors that audit quality in the UK is simply not good enough and the Financial Reporting Council (FRC ) has been doing a rather inept job in regulating and supervising auditors. But will we see the proposed replacement by ARGA anytime soon, which will require some legislation? It seems this is not a high Government priority at present.

Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://twitter.com/RogerWLawson )

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Trump Tariffs, 4Imprint AGM and Purplebricks Apologies

US President Donald Trump has created some havoc in world stock markets by threatening in a tweet to impose 25% tariffs on a wider range of Chinese goods from Friday. He is apparently getting impatient with the progress on trade talks between the USA and China, but is pursuing international diplomacy via tweets a good idea?

One company that might be affected by higher tariffs on Chinese products is 4Imprint (FOUR) whose AGM I attended this morning. 4Imprint is an AIM-listed retailer of promotional products (sold via catalogues and the internet). Most of its business arises in the USA with only a relatively smaller operation in the UK, and it imports a considerable proportion of the merchandise from China. I asked the Chairman after the AGM whether this was a concern. He said they discussed tariffs at every board meeting but as their competitors would be in the same position the impact might not be high.

There was a trading statement from the company this morning before the AGM. Revenue up 16% in the first four months and the board is confident that the Group will deliver full year results in line with market expectations.

This is the kind of company I like. Revenue growing, no debt, profits turn into cash and return on equity was 82% last year. Like a lot of retailers, they sell the products and collect the cash from customers before they have to pay the suppliers. In essence a simple business and the AGM in the City was a quite brief affair – duration about 15 minutes.

Only I asked any questions in the formal part of the meeting and one was: what is their market share in the USA? About 4% was the answer, and it’s still increasing. The competition is also fragmented so there is room for growth. You can see the kind of products they sell here: https://www.4imprint.co.uk/ . Having used the company in the past I can recommend them.

I also asked whether there were any substantial numbers of proxy votes against any of the resolutions (this is a question to ask when the Chairman says proxy votes will be disclosed at the end of the meeting as happened here!). Yes there was one. Remuneration Committee Chairman Charles Brady only got 93% support. I later asked him why. He said one institutional investor voted against him because the company does not have an LTIP.

I actually voted for the Remuneration Report because they have a simple remuneration scheme and pay of the executive directors is not unreasonable bearing in mind they are based in the USA. This is the kind of pay scheme that should be applauded, not voted against.

Another AIM company of a very different nature that made an announcement this morning is Purplebricks (PURP). A trading statement gave a financial update but included several very negative points. The Australian operation is being closed down, the US operations are now the subject of a “strategic review” with bad news being hinted at, and founder/CEO Michael Bruce is “stepping down with immediate effect”. That usually means the person named has been fired.

The board acknowledges that performance has been disappointing over the last 12 months and “we sincerely apologise to shareholders for that”. The company blames too rapid geographic expansion and poor operational execution.

The company is still losing money and the share price graph is one of those downward facing ski-slopes that investors hate. The share price is down another 7% today at the time of writing. Still an unproven business model in my view. I do not hold shares in the company for that reason.

Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://twitter.com/RogerWLawson )

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