Tag: Victoria

Victoria Hit by an Iceberg – A Peculiar Tale

Flooring distributor Victoria (VCP) has been the subject of a shorting attack by Iceberg Research. Their report which you can easily find on the web was published on August 3rd (yesterday) but the share price actually rose yesterday and is rising today even though a well-known blogger mentioned it.

I have an interest in this company having held a few shares historically which were almost all sold in 2021 – currently down to 50 shares worth all of £170 – and I commented on their last results webinar.

As with all shorting attacks, the Iceberg note covers a number of issues but the main complaints are: a) Companies claimed to be acquired were in fact already subsidiaries and changed their names to conceal this (it is unclear what assets were actually acquired and from whom); b)  Executive Chairman Geoff Wilding was previously involved with two companies that failed; c) Victoria inventory levels have been rising and may have to be written down (their inventory levels are higher than peers); d) debt is rising and free cash flow was negative over the last 10 years.

The company has not yet responded but I hope they do so as it should be easy to rebut these allegations if untrue or if published information is being misinterpreted as may be the case.

I am not even going to attempt to differentiate fact from fiction until more information is disclosed which may not be soon in the mid-August holiday season.    

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

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Abcam to Delist from AIM and Victoria Webinar

Biotechnology company Abcam (ABC) is one of the largest AIM listed companies (market cap £2.7 billion). Yesterday (20/7/2022) they included in a trading update a statement that they are planning to cancel the admission of their shares on AIM. They previously moved to list their shares also on Nasdaq so they are currently dual-listed. This means they have already lost the IHT tax advantage of most AIM shares which qualify for Business Property Relief.

The move to Nasdaq was no doubt made in the anticipation that the valuation of the company might be higher and to attract more US investors. It did not obviously have an impact. They now say the latest move is to improve liquidity. But it will prove a great inconvenience to UK investors.

The board of the company does not seem to realise that there are good reasons why Abcam does not look attractive to investors. The financial profile of the company has been declining in recent years. Reported EPS has declined and ROCE is now down to 3%. Only adjusted EPS has held up due to adjustments which comprise everything the company wants to ignore such as “systems and process improvement costs” and “integration and reorganisation costs”.

How will removing one listing venue help liquidity? I do not understand. If the company proceeds with the delisting from AIM I will be selling my shares and I have already been reducing my holding after losing confidence in the current Chairman.

We should get a vote on this proposal so I hope shareholders will vote it down.

Another event yesterday was a Results Webinar for flooring manufacturer and distributor Victoria (VCP). Geoff Wilding took over as Executive Chairman of this company ten years ago after a revolution and turned around what was a moribund business into a great success. After a number of acquisitions the company claims that £1 invested in VCP on the day Geoff was appointed Chairman would today be worth £24.57 (with dividends reinvested).

After backing Geoff in his appointment I bought a few shares but I did not do as well as that claim might suggest because I never held a large number of shares and am now down to a nominal number. I became concerned about the high debt (net debt now £406 million ignoring leases which actually rose on these latest numbers which were otherwise good – revenue up 54% and adjusted eps up 38%). Understanding the business after several acquisitions is not easy and the preference shares issued to Koch complicate matters although operationally it seems to be well managed. The webinar helped to explain matters and there was useful discussion on the results by Paul Scott et al on Stockopedia yesterday.

Numerous acquisitions always lead to difficulty in understanding the true financial position of a company. I am currently reading the book “Engines that move markets” by Alasdair Nairn and he is particularly good on the history of internet companies. He has this to say about AOL: “AOL’s chequered financial history is readily apparent. In the early days, analysing the accounts required constant to-ing and fro-ing between different years in an effort to separate the operating results from other items such as acquisitions/ disposals, financing and changes to accounting treatment. In many ways analysing AOL was the same as trying to analyse the acquisitive conglomerates of the 1970s and 1980s. The business never appeared to be in a ‘steady state’, making it difficult to estimate future operating margins and rates of subscriber growth. Some analysts argued that the changing nature of the business made this analysis fruitless, but such an argument was spurious. For any investor buying something, the more information that can be gained about the ‘substance’ of the something that is being bought the better. Sadly, for Time Warner, this did not appear to be a principle that was followed”.

The merger of AOL and Time Warner subsequently turned out to be one the biggest mistakes ever made in US corporate history.

Numerous acquisitions certainly complicate any investors understanding of a business and in addition acquisitions can be risky. On some measures Victoria currently looks cheap but you need to have confidence that Geoff Wilding will continue to manage the risks well.

Note that the Victoria webinar was hosted by the Investor Meet Company platform which is a good service and where you can no doubt find a recording.

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

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Victoria and Downing One VCT Annual Reports, and Rio Tinto Mea Culpa

With it being all quiet on the financial front, with a lot of people on holiday, I had the time to read a couple of Annual Reports over the weekend. First came Victoria (VCP), a producer of flooring products (carpets and tiles) in which I have a relatively small holding. Chairman Geoff Wilding always has some interesting things to say and their Annual Report is an exemplary model of shareholder enlightenment.

He commences with this statement: “There is an old Yiddish adage which, loosely translated, says “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans”. It is safe to say that when Victoria developed its business plan for 2020/21 at the start of this year, we did not factor in the complete economic shutdown in most of the various countries in which we operate”. He does briefly cover the latest business position but the Annual Report covers the year to the end of March so it is mainly historic data.

It was interesting to read this section: “A core element of our UK growth strategy, made possible due to the scale of our business, is our logistics operation, Alliance Flooring Distribution. 18 months ago, we made the decision to invest heavily in logistics, accepting the consequential temporary loss of some margin, in the belief that our customers – flooring retailers – would highly value reliable on-time delivery of carpet, cut precisely to size for a specific consumer order. This has meant that they can hold less inventory, freeing up cash from their working capital, and devote more space in their stores to point of sale rather than using it to warehouse product, and reduce waste, improving their margins. (Carpet is produced in rolls 25m long. However, houses rarely need exactly a full roll and retailers would invariably be left with a typical leftover 2-3m “short end”, which would be thrown away. In contrast, given our high volume of orders and sophisticated cutting planning software, our wastage is much lower). And this is exactly how it has turned out”.

Going back into history, in 1980 I developed a similar system for Harris Carpets to establish a computer system to optimise their central carpet cutting operations and minimise “remnants” or “short-ends”. This proved to be one of their key competitive advantages. Similar systems have been used by other big carpet retailers and distributors since, but the carpet market is still dominated by smallish local operations so you can see the advantages that Victoria might gain.

The second annual report I read was that of Downing One VCT (DDV1). Apart from a very poor financial performance for the second year running, the report fails to cover several important items.

Firstly there is no information on the length of service of the directors, nor their ages. It is now convention not to report the ages of directors which I consider unfortunate but they should at least state when they joined the board so we can see their length of service. Ages can of course be easily looked up at Companies House – they are 60, 71 and 75 years for the three directors.  Are ages and length of service important? I think they are simply from my experience of boards and their performance.

But the really big omission is that the substantial loss reported of £23.8 million partly included a “Provision for doubtful income” under Other Expenses of £2.1 million in Note 5 to the Accounts. What is that? I cannot spot any explanation in the report. I have sent a request for more information to the company.

Rio Tinto (RIO) published an abject apology this morning for their destruction of a cultural heritage site in Juukan Gorge in Australia. They say “The board review concluded that while Rio Tinto had obtained legal authority to impact the Juukan rockshelters, it fell short of the Standards and internal guidance that Rio Tinto sets for itself, over and above its legal obligations. The review found no single root cause or error that directly resulted in the destruction of the rockshelters. It was the result of a series of decisions, actions and omissions over an extended period of time, underpinned by flaws in systems, data sharing, engagement within the company and with the PKKP, and poor decision-making”. They propose a number of improvements to avoid the problems in future. In the meantime they are knocking off £2.7 million from the possible bonuses under the STIP and LTIP schemes available to CEO J-S Jacques and large amounts from two other senior executives. That should hurt enough I think. 

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

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Coronavirus Impacts – Victoria, Auto Trader and Bowling Alleys

Stock market investors are clearly becoming nervous again following a rise in Covid-19 infections in the UKA – particularly in the Southern and Western states. This has affected the US stock markets and, as usual, it has affected UK markets in sympathy.

There were two announcements this morning that were interesting as regards the impact of the virus epidemic and the resulting “lockdown” of the population. Home working has become more normal or people have been “furloughed” or permanently laid off.

Victoria (VCP), a manufacturer of floor coverings, had to close their factories but they have all now reopened. Their customers are mostly retailers and many of them had to close but are now reopening or already have done. The company says group revenues for the last three weeks are now at 85% of pre-Covid-19 budgets.

Interestingly they say this in today’s trading update: “It is important to remember that 93% of Victoria’s revenues are derived from consumers redecorating their homes, not construction or commercial projects, and consumer demand for home decorating products appears to be strong across the world. This is not altogether surprising, given the extended period consumers have spent in their home over the last four months, which is likely to have encouraged the impulse to redecorate”. Clearly it’s time to do some DIY jobs.

Auto Trader Group (AUTO) announced their final results for the year ending March 2020, which contained an update on current trading. They provide a web portal for car dealers, who all had to close. Auto Trader provided free advertising in April and May plus a 25% discount in June. As a result they lost money in those months. The company has also chopped the dividend, cancelled further share buy-banks, did an equity placing and used the Government’s Job Retention Scheme. A vigorous response in essence, rather like that of property portal Rightmove.

Car dealers are reopening but for most you cannot just walk in to the dealer. You have to make an appointment. This encourages web shopping for a new car which is to the advantage of Auto Trader. The company announcement (and what was said in their web cast which was otherwise somewhat boring as it consisted mainly of reading a script), was generally positive but it leaves a question as to how soon car sales will recover. They don’t seem to be losing many dealers and dealer stock figures are what matter rather than sales. But dealers’ revenue and profits might come under pressure as many car purchases can be postponed. Cars do wear out of course, but with mileage reduced as there were, or are, few places open to go to and more home working is taking place, this could reduce car sales.

This is therefore a company where one needs to look to the future and how they can capitalise on the trend to shop for cars on the internet, like one might shop for groceries or clothes of late. One competitor mentioned in the conference call was Cazoo who sell (or lease) cars directly on the internet. No test drives or inspection first. You just get 7 days to trial it before acceptance. This is clearly a different business model that might affect traditional dealers although they also provide service of course and concentrate on new cars which is a more complex sales process. There may also be an issue of trust when using an on-line service. But the process of buying and selling cars certainly needs simplifying from my last experience of doing so.

At least bars and restaurants can reopen, albeit with severe restrictions on social distancing. That will certainly reduce their sales volumes and increase their costs, resulting in a big hit to profits. Still a sector to avoid I think.

Bowling alleys were expecting to be able to open from the 4th July based on what Ten Entertainment (TEG) and Hollywood Bowl (BOWL) said. But the recent Government announcement has put a stop to that along with the reopening of gyms and swimming pools. They now hope to reopen in August.

Is this ban rational? I can see why indoor gyms might need to remain closed. A lot of heavy breathing and sweating in close proximity. But bowlers don’t exert themselves much from my experience and if alternate lanes were used social separation would be good so long as they used their own shoes.

Note that I hold shares in some of the above companies. But thankfully not in Wirecard which I previously commented upon and which is now filing for bankruptcy proceedings.

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

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It’s Impossible to Value Companies at Present!

The stock markets rose sharply yesterday and this morning, allegedly on the news of the $2 trillion economic support package announced in the USA. But the company news is consistently bad where it is available.

In the company announcements I have read, they seem to fall into two kinds: 1) We are shutting down all or part of our operations and managing the cash but our balance sheet strength is such that we can survive this for weeks and won’t go out of business (Greggs, Dunelm, Next and Victoria for example); or 2) Only minor impacts so far but it is too early to judge the wider impact of a possible economic recession on the business (Diploma for example).

Nobody is giving forecasts and it’s impossible to work them out for oneself. The result is that individual stock prices are bouncing up and down, and the whole market is also gyrating. I have no confidence that the recent market bounce is an indication that we have passed the bottom. It’s simply impossible to value companies at present with any accuracy.

One could perhaps say one can value them because the coronavirus crisis may only last a few weeks while company valuations should be based on years into the future, but there is no certainty on the duration of the epidemic, how many people will die and when the economy will be back to normal.

Here’s a useful quotation from the Victoria (VCP) announcement today: “….the Group goes into the uncertainty of the next few months from a position of considerable strength. However, as Darwin stated, those who survive ‘are not the strongest or the most intelligent, but the most adaptable to change.’ Therefore, our managers have been willing to think the unthinkable and act decisively and promptly to protect their business – particularly its cash position – as the impact will, in the short term, be significant”.

Some of the companies mentioned above have seen an immediate impact on their businesses while others are less affected. Those who run “non-essential” businesses such as General Retailers and Hospitality operators are the worst hit, but I suspect others will see the impact in due course as the economy slows. It’s OK for Governments to pump money into the economy to try and keep it afloat but the future profits of many companies will surely be wiped out this year.

The impact might be wider than we expect. For example, one of the on-line retailers I use has closed down its web site today presumably because of the difficulty of packing and shipping orders. On the other hand, office productivity might suddenly improve if everyone is working from home – less time will be spent gossiping or flirting with others or wasted on commuting.

As an investor does one simply sit on one’s hands in the expectation that the crisis will pass in due course and the markets will rebound?  There was an interesting article by Chris Dillow in last week’s Investors’ Chronicle. He pointed out that research tells us that when there is bad news, investors tend to look at their portfolios less often. It’s the equivalent of not going to the doctor because their diagnosis might be bad news. Not reviewing your portfolio regularly is surely a habit to be avoided. I do it every evening as a matter of routine.

I know exactly the value of all my portfolios and the movements of individual holdings over the day. It’s made for gloomy reading of late. I also get alerts during the day of share prices that have moved significantly from previous levels and review them at the end of the day also. I use software products such as ShareScope and Stockopedia to provide this information. As a man of action, I do react to what I see happening in the market and to individual shares. I manage my portfolio to reduce exposure to the market when it is falling. And I make changes to my individual holdings dependent on the latest news and current prospects.

But it’s easy to waste a lot of money by over-trading, and waste a lot of your personal time, so I try not to make changes unless trends are very clear. My habits have developed over many years of investing in the stock market and have worked out reasonably well. But others might take a different approach. There is no one “best solution” but hiding behind ignorance of what is happening in the market is surely a recipe for poor portfolio performance.

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

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De La Rue, Excessive Debt, Victoria and Link’s Debt Monitor

Link Asset Services have issued a note pointing out that De La Rue (DLAR) has net debt that now exceeds its market cap. The high debt in the company and recent falling revenue no doubt accounts for much of the recent fall in the share price, although the report of an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) cannot have helped. But if you read the last interim report which was issued a couple of days ago, there are lots of other points that might put you off investing in the company. For example, it declares the business is in “turnaround” mode so restructuring is being accelerated, and that all of the Chairman, CEO, senior independent director and most of the executive team have left or resigned in the period.

How do you judge whether a company has excessive debt? There are two simple ratios which I look at for companies. The Current Ratio (current assets divided by current liabilities) and the interest cover (operating profits divided by net interest paid). For operating businesses I prefer to see a current ratio higher than 1.4 and interest cover of several times.

Why because companies go bust, or have to come to some accommodation with their bankers or raise urgent equity finance – all of which can be very damaging for equity shareholders, when they run out of cash. A low current ratio or low interest cover means that any sudden or unexpected decline in revenue and profitability can mean they get into financial difficulties. They simply have no buffer against unexpected adversity.

De La Rue’s Current Ratio is only 0.63 according to Stockopedia and as there were negative profits (i.e. losses) in the half year the Interest Cover is zero.

There are some exceptions to the Current Ratio rule so sometimes it is necessary to look more closely at the reasons for a low figure, but De La Rue just looks like a business in some difficulty.

Link Asset Services’ note also points readers to their Debt Monitor (see https://www.linkassetservices.com/our-thinking/uk-plc-debt-monitor ) which gives a comprehensive overview of the indebtedness of UK listed companies. They point out that it has risen by 5.8% to a new record of £433 billion. For comparison that’s only just higher than the Labour Party proposes to borrow for its “Infrastructure Fund”! But it’s worth pointing out that the FTSE is dominated by relatively few very large and traditional companies. They have probably been using financial engineering to enable them to maintain dividends and the result is higher debts. Or they are dedicated to the mantra of having an “efficient” balance sheet where there is significant debt so as to maximise shareholder returns, and have been buying back shares using debt.

Debt has become easier to obtain after the financial crisis of 2008/09 when banks were reluctant to lend at all. Interest rates have also come down making debt very cheap for those with good credit ratings and good security. It’s worth reading the Link Asset report to see which major companies and sectors have the most debt.

In smaller companies, particularly technology companies, there tends to be much less debt partly because they have few fixed assets against which to secure cheap debt. So they find equity less costly and more readily available. Or perhaps they just have more sense in realising that business is essentially uncertain so equity is preferable to debt.

There is relatively little debt in the companies in which I am invested (De La Rue is definitely not one of them) with one exception which is Victoria (VCP). If you wish to be convinced of the wonders of debt financing read the comments of Victoria’s CEO Geoff Wilding in their last Annual Report. In such companies one has to have faith in the management that they can control the risks that come with high debt levels. But most investors get very nervous in such circumstances which is probably why it’s only on a p/e of 10 (and my personal holding is relatively small). That’s so even though it has a Current Ratio of 1.8 and Interest Cover of 1.2 – the latter is too low for comfort in my view.

Of course it depends whether this is a temporary position (say after an acquisition) and how soon the debt is likely to be repaid. So you need to look at the cash flows. In the case of De La Rue it was minus £42 million in the half-year before investing/financing activities which is yet another negative sign, but it was a positive £38 million at Victoria in their half-year results announced on the same day. Clearly two very different businesses!

Note that there are some other financial ratios that you can look at to see the risk profile of a company but as always, a few simple things that you actually pay attention to plus getting an understanding of the business trends are to my mind more important.

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

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Victoria AGM, Dunelm Results and Brexit Impacts

I attended the Annual General Meeting of Victoria (VCP) in central London yesterday. I have held a few shares in this producer of carpets and tiles since the revolution that installed Geoff Wilding as Executive Chairman a few years ago. He did a great job of turning the business around but the share price fell back sharply last October over concerns about the level of debt and a failed bond issue to replace bank debt which cost £7.3 million As Mr Wilding says in the Annual Report: “There is no way to view the majority of these costs other than, with the benefit of hindsight, a waste of money”. The Annual Report is certainly worth reading as it is a good example of the Chairman and CEO revealing their thoughts on many issues rather than the polished and anodyne statements you see in most such reports.

The company has subsequently issued some loan notes with a five-year term and fixed rate of interest to replace some of the bank debt. These were described as “covenant light” in the meeting. The company has adopted the use of high debt levels (net debt/EBITDA ratio of 3.2) to finance acquisitions and to finance substantial restructuring of its operations. There is extensive justification of this policy in the Annual Report but there are clearly still concerns among investors.

Last year the company reported a loss of £7.9 million despite reporting an operating profit of £24 million because of the exceptional finance costs, restructuring costs and amortisation of acquired intangibles. This is one of those companies where it is best to look at the cash flow statement to see what is going on as the accounts are otherwise quite confusing. The company did generate £52 million in cash from operations last year.

An announcement from the company on the morning of the AGM contained positive comments and they expect to meet market expectations for the full year. They are also continuing to look at further acquisitions although it states “mindful of financial leverage levels, the Board is proceeding cautiously”. I would certainly like to see some reduction in debt levels with fewer exceptional costs for a period of time.

There were less than a dozen shareholders at the AGM. There were only a few questions. One was on the attributes of new non-executive director Zachary Sternberg, and what he will be contributing. Apparently he is the investment manager of a US fund who have a 15% stake in Victoria. It was said he is very good at financial analysis but is not a flooring expert.

I asked about the breakdown of sales. Turf (i.e. artificial grass) is now 4% and growing. Otherwise it’s about two thirds tiles to one third carpet. In Europe hard flooring (not just tiles but wood/laminates) is growing but the demand varies between countries. That surely is has been a long-term but slow trend in recent years in the UK for example. Even my wife wants to replace our hall carpet with something else because she is tired of cleaning it but other areas are likely to remain carpet.

I also asked about the impact of Brexit, hard or otherwise. Earlier in the year they built up stock in case of disruption and are now doing this again. But the CEO said they might be able to take advantage by increasing prices. He did not appear too concerned about the prospects.

In summary a useful meeting, but investing in this company is very much dependent on one’s trust in Geoff Wilding to manage the debt levels and its business operations wisely. Mr Wilding has a beneficial interest in 18% of the shares although he did dispose of some shares last year.

Another company I hold is Dunelm (DNLM). The company issued preliminary results this morning and at the time of writing the share price is down about 8%. That may be surprising because the earnings were slightly better than forecast and a special dividend was also declared. Like-for-like revenue was up 10.7% and market share is increasing in the homewares sector. The company appears to have been successful in moving into “multi-channel” operations with internet sales rapidly increasing. So why would shareholders be concerned about the announcement?

One comment in the announcement was “Whilst trading performance has continued to be strong, we remain cautious about the full year outlook due to ongoing Brexit uncertainty and specifically the impact it may have on consumer spending as we enter out peak period”. They go into more detail on the impact of Brexit, especially a “no-deal” version which might disrupt imports after the possible Oct 31st date. But if Boris Johnson loses his fight against the “remainers” this evening then it could be put off yet again, even into “never-never” land. Comment: What a shambles and the House of Commons is descending into anarchy. I hope Mr Johnson manages to call a General Election to get this matter settled finally. But at least a Scottish Court has rejected the challenge to the Government’s ability to prorogue Parliament which was surely misconceived. Legal cases driven by emotion are never a good idea.

As regards Dunelm, perhaps another issue that rattled investors was the adoption of IFRS16 which will apparently reduce group pre-tax profit by approximately £3 million (i.e. by about 2.3%) but with no impact on cash flows. However EBITDA will increase. IFRS16 concerns accounting for leases and has surely been well known about for some time so it is odd if this was the cause of the share price fall.

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

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Blue Prism, GB Group, Gooch & Housego, Greggs, IDOX, Pets at Home, Victoria, Brexit and Pre-Pack Administrations

Lots of results and trading statements this morning of interest. Here’s a few brief comments on some of them in alphabetic order (I hold some of these stocks), with the share price movement on the day at 14:00 hours (at the time of writing):

Blue Prism (PRSM) – down 12.3%. This was one of the ultimate go-go technology stocks until mid-September when it started a sharp decline like many other such stocks. It has some very interesting technology to automate business processes which is why everyone wanted to buy the shares. The trading statement had some positive comments about sales and cash flow (without giving any specifics which is annoying), but it also said “The EBITDA loss is expected to be larger than current expectations due to continued investments into the Group’s growth strategy and increased sales commissions arising from the strong fourth quarter”. With rising losses already forecast and no prospect of a profit in sight, the share price predictably fell. This company has a market cap of over £1 billion when revenue in the current year might be £55 million. I have seen technology companies before (e.g. in the dot.com boom era) that managed to grow sales at a terrific rate but with rising losses. Often they never did manage to show they had a profitable business as competition eroded their USP before they got there.

GB Group (GBG) – up 5.0%. Half year results much as expected taking into account the big one-off deal in the previous half year. Like Blue Prism the share price was down by 30% since early September in the technology stock rout. The valuation is now back down to a more sensible level and with revenue growth of 9%, cash up by £14.5 million and a positive outlook statement there seems to be little to be concerned about. The company provides on-line id verification and location services which is clearly a growth area at present and accounts for the consistently high valuation of the company.

Gooch & Housego (GHH) – down 1.8%. The share price fell sharply after the market opened but that seems to be a frequent occurrence after announcements by small technology stocks as a few insiders take the opportunity to sell. But the new chairman bought a few shares today. The shares in the company are also thinly traded which means they tend to be volatile. The preliminary results were slightly better than forecast on an “adjusted” basis although the reported accounts of this company are heavily distorted by the number of exceptional items including a large write-off of goodwill, restructuring costs (including a site closure) and transaction fees on acquisitions. The share price has been declining like other technology stocks and the announcement today about the departure of the CFO, but not until summer 2019, may not help the share price. The company has moved into a net debt position due to heavy investment in property, plant and equipment and an acquisition but it’s still quite lowly geared.

Greggs (GRG) – Up 11.6%. The share price jumped after the company reported sales up 9.0% in the last eight weeks – no particular reason was supplied. Also forecasting profits to be substantially ahead of forecasts. Greggs went through a share price dip in the middle of the year probably due to poor figures after bad weather hit this “food-on-the-go” seller. But it seems junk food is still a growth market if you adapt to sell it in new locations and less on the High Street, and the weather is good – not that Greggs are not into selling healthy options now of course.

IDOX (IDOX) – up 1.6%. A year-end trading update showed declining revenues even ignoring the disposal of the loss-making Digital business which will have a negative impact on the final results. The company is in cost-cutting mood so as to increase profitability and so as to “align the cost base more directly with its re-focused business model”. There was a new Chairman appointed recently with a very relevant industry background. The business should at least report a profit this year unlike last, and the valuation is lowly due to past problems. But investors may be getting impatient for better results.

Pets at Home (PETS) – down 0.1%. Interim results reported good like-for-like growth in both the retail business and the vet practices but a restructuring of the vet business is going to result in very substantial write-downs including cash costs of £27 million. The reason the share price did not fall is probably because of the positive trading figures and a commitment to hold the dividends both for the interim and future final ones. It’s on a prospective yield of 6.5% at present. With a new management team this may be a good share for those who like “value” plays but being in the general retail sector which is a bloodbath for many such stocks does not help.

Treatt (TET) – Up 5%. This manufacturer of flavourings issued very positive final results – revenue up 11% and adjusted earnings up 10%, with positive comments about likely future results in addition. This is one of John Lee’s favourite stocks and no doubt he will have been talking about it in the last couple of days at the Mello London conference. Unfortunately I could not attend that event, which is one reason for this long blog post today.

Victoria (VCP) – up 1.6%. Interim results were generally positive and they look to be on target to make the full year estimates. But Exec Chairman Geoff Wilding probably summed it up well with this comment: “Finally, I am acutely aware that Victoria’s share price is not where I believe it should be given our current trading and prospects. As one of the largest shareholders, you can be assured that I, and the other directors and management, are focused on building the confidence of investors and delivering the financial results expected of Victoria. It is important to remember, together we own a very robust, well-managed, and growing business with over 3,000 employees who manufacture and sell some of the finest flooring in the world. The events of the last couple of months have not distracted management from delivering and for that reason I am highly confident of Victoria’s continued long-term success”. The events he refers to were the growing concerns about the level of debt in the company and the aborted proposal to convert bank debt into a bond. Floor-covering businesses can be somewhat cyclical, as results from the Australian subsidiary in these figures indicate. Investors can get nervous about high debt and what will happen when it is due for repayment. You need a lot of confidence in Geoff Wilding for him to steer through this situation to buy the shares even at the current level.

It is remarkable looking back over these results and the share price performance of the companies over the last few months that share prices seem to have been driven by emotion and trend following even more than usual. Brexit also seems to be making investors nervous and overseas investors particularly so. That explains why the dividend yield on the market overall is at record levels. Current yield is not everything of course as future growth is also important to market valuations which depends on profit growth. But apart from Brexit there are few clouds on the horizon at present.

Brexit. Mrs May is apparently trying to sell her agreed Brexit deal directly to the general public, i.e. over the heads of politicians. But with no unanimity in the Conservative party nobody sees how she can get the Withdrawal Agreement through Parliament even if she manages to persuade the DUP to support it. It’s not easy to see how even a change of leader would help unless they can tweak the Agreement in some aspects to make it acceptable to the hardliners. That might just be possible whatever the EU bureaucrats currently say but otherwise we are headed for a “hard” and abrupt exit in March. Am I worried about such a prospect? Having run a business which exported considerably into Europe before we joined the Common Market, the concerns about the required customs formalities are exaggerated. The port facilities may suffer temporary congestion but it is always remarkable how quickly businesses can adapt to differing circumstances. For those who think we should simply go for a hard Brexit and stop debating what to do there is an on-line Parliamentary petition here: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/229963/signatures/new . With the Brexit Withdrawal date set for March 29th 2019, I confidently predict that the matter will be settled by March 28th or soon after, probably based on Theresa May’s Agreement which actually does have many positive aspects. It’s just the few glaring stumbling blocks in the deal that are annoying the Brexiteers.

Incidentally Donald Trump was incorrect in suggesting that the current Agreement would prevent the UK signing a trade deal with the USA. See https://brexitfacts.blog.gov.uk/2018/11/27/response-to-coverage-of-the-uks-ability-to-strike-a-trade-deal-with-the-us-when-we-leave-the-eu/ . There’s just as much fake news from politicians than there is from digital media platforms these days.

Pre-Pack Administrations. There was an interesting article on the subject of Pre-Pack Administrations in the Financial Times yesterday (26/11/2018). I have covered this topic, many times in the past, always negatively. For example on the recent case of Johnston Press – see https://roliscon.blog/2018/11/19/johnston-press-trakm8-and-brexit/ where creditors were dumped and a payment into the pension scheme due in just days time was not made with the result than the Pension Protection Fund is likely to pick up the tab. That not just means pensioners in the Johnston scheme will suffer to some extent, but the costs fall on all other defined benefit schemes so you could be contributing also.

They are not the only losers though. The FT article pointed out that one of the biggest losers are HMRC as it seems some pre-packs are done to simply avoid paying tax due to them. There is now an advisory group called the “Pre-Pack Pool” that was set up to try and stop the abusive use of pre-packs, but it is reported that even when they gave a pre-pack proposal a “red card” many were put through regardless. This looks another case where self-regulation does not work and abuses are likely to continue.

That’s not to say that all administrations could result in a better return to trade creditors and the taxman than zero, but a conventional administration with proper marketing and the sale of a business as a going concern is much more likely to do so. The insolvency regime needs reform to stop pre-packs and provide better alternatives.

Have I got a bee in my bonnet about pre-packs because of suffering from one or more? No, but I know people who have even though they are relatively rare in public companies. But I just hate the duplicity and underhand shenanigans that go along with them.

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

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Bad News from Crawshaw and ULS, Ideagen AGM, Victoria Doubts and Other News

The real bad news today is that butchers Crawshaw (CRAW) is going into administration, “in order to protect both shareholders and creditors”. They hope the business will be sold as a going concern but it is unusual for shareholders to end up with anything in such circumstances. The shares have been suspended and the last share price was 2p. It actually achieved a share price of 3425p at its peak in 2005. Revenue have been rising of late but losses have been also.

I never invested in the company although I do recall seeing a presentation by the company when it was the hottest stock in the market but I considered it to be a business operating in a market with no barriers to entry and likely to suffer from competition once the supermarkets had woken up to what it was doing. That’s apart from the difficulties all high street retailers have been facing of late. Well that’s one disaster I avoided at least.

Another AIM stock I do hold is ULS Technology (ULS) who operate a conveyance service platform. A trading statement this morning for the first half year said the revenue is expected to be up 3% and underlying profit up 5%, despite a fall of 4% in the number of housing transactions across the UK market. But the sting in the tail was the mention of a slowdown in mortgage approvals which “may well be short lived but is likely to have some impact on the Group’s second half results”. The share price promptly dropped 20% this morning. It’s that kind of market at present – any negative comments promptly cause investors to dump the shares in a thin market.

One piece of good news for the housing market which I failed to mention in my comments on the budget was that the “Help to Buy” scheme is not being curtailed as some expected, but is extended for at least another two years to 2023.

Yesterday I attended the Annual General Meeting of Ideagen (IDEA), another company I hold. It was unexciting with only 4 ordinary shareholders in attendance so I won’t cover it in detail. But boring is certainly good these days.

It was the first AGM chaired by David Hornsby who is now Executive Chairman. One pertinent question from a shareholder was “what keeps the CEO awake at night?”. It transpired that the pound/dollar exchange rate was one of them simply because a lot of their revenue is in dollars (their US market seems to be a high growth area also). I suggested they might want a “hard Brexit” when the pound would collapse and improve their profits greatly. But the board somewhat ducked that issue. Note that this business is moving to a SAAS revenue model from up-front licence fees which may reduce organic growth slightly but increase revenue visibility. The point to bear in mind here is that even on a hard Brexit it is unlikely that trade tariffs would impact software income because there are no “goods” exported on a SAAS model.

Another question asked was about financing new acquisitions which the company does regularly. These are generally purchased for cash, and share placings are done to raise the funds required. Debt target revenue is only one times EBITDA so debt tends to be avoided.

It is worth comparing that with Victoria (VCP) a manufacturer of floor coverings who issued a trading statement on the 29th October which did not impress me or anyone else it seems. Paul Scott did a devasting critique on Stockopedia of the announcement. In summary he questioned the mention of a new debt being raised, although it was said that this would be used to repay existing debt, when there were few other details given. He also questioned the reference to reduction in margins to maintain revenue growth. The share price promptly headed south.

The company issued another RNS this morning in response to the negative speculation to reassure investors about the banking relationships, covenants and credit rating.

I have held a few shares in Victoria since the board bust-up a few years back and attended their last AGM in September when I wrote a report on it here: https://roliscon.blog/2018/09/11/brexit-abcam-victoria-and-the-beaufort-case/ . The share price was already falling due to shorters activities and my report mentioned the high level of debt. The companies target for debt was stated to be “no more than 2.5 to 3 times” at the AGM which is clearly very different to Ideagen’s!

I did have confidence in Geoff Wilding, Executive Chairman, to sort out the original mess in Victoria but the excessive use of debt and a very opaque announcement on the 29th has caused a lot of folks to lose confidence in the company and his leadership. Let us hope he gets through these difficulties. But in the current state of the stock market, the concerns raised are good enough to spook investors. It’s yet another previously high-flying company that has fallen back to earth.

One more company in which I have a miniscule number of shares is Restaurant Group (RTN) which I bought back in 2016 as a value/recovery play. That was a mistake as it’s really gone nowhere since with continuing declines in like-for-like sales. At least I never bought many. Yesterday the company announced the acquisition of the Wagamama restaurant chain, to be financed by a rights issue. The market reacted negatively and the share price fell.

I did sample some of the restaurants in the RTN portfolio but I don’t recall eating in Wagamama’s so it’s difficult to comment on the wisdom of this move. All “casual dining” chains are having difficulties of late as the market changes, although Wagamama is suggested to have more growth potential. The dividend will be rebased and more debt taken on though. With those reservations, the price does not look excessive. However, while they are still trying to get the original business back to strength does it really make much sense to make an acquisition of another chain operating in the same market? Will it not stretch management further? I will await more details but I suspect I may not take up the rights in this case.

One other item of news that slipped through in the budget announcements was the fact that in future Index-linked Saving Certificates from NS&I will be indexed by Consumer Price Index (CPI) rather than the Retail Price Index (RPI). This is likely to reduce the interest paid on them. But it will only affect certificates that come up for renewal as no new issues have been made of late. These certificates are becoming less and less attractive now that deposit interest rates are rising so investors in them should be careful when renewing to consider whether they are still a good buy. I suspect the Chancellor is relying too much on folks inertia.

At least even with the bad news, my portfolio is up significantly today. Is the market about to bounce back? I think it depends on consistent price rises in the USA before the UK market picks up, or a good Brexit deal being announced.

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

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Brexit, Abcam, Victoria and the Beaufort Case

Another bad day for my portfolio yesterday after a week of bad days last week when I was on holiday. Some of the problems relate to the rise in the pound based on suggestions by Michel Barnier that there might actually be a settlement of Brexit along the lines proposed by Theresa May. This has hit all the companies with lots of exports and investment trusts with big holdings in dollar investments that comprise much of my portfolio. But a really big hit yesterday was Abcam (ABC).

Abcam issued their preliminary results yesterday morning. When I first read it, it seemed to be much as expected. Adjusted earnings per share up 27.1%, dividend up 17.1% and broker forecasts generally met. The share price promptly headed downhill and dropped as much as 32%, which is the kind of drop you see on a major profit warning, before recovering to a drop of 15.2% at the end of the day.

I re-read the announcement more than once without being able to identify any major issues or hidden messages that could explain this drop. The announcement did mention more investment in the Oracle ERP system, in a new office and other costs but those projects were already known about. Indeed I covered them in the last blog post I wrote about the previous Abcam AGM where I was somewhat critical of the rising costs (see https://roliscon.blog/2017/11/15/abcam-agm-cambridge-cognition-ultra-electronics-wey-education-and-idox/ ). The Oracle project is clearly over-budget and running behind schedule. A lot of these costs are being capitalised so they disappear from the “adjusted” figures.

The killer to the share price appears to have been comments from Peel Hunt that the extra costs will reduce adjusted earnings by 9% based on reduced margins. The preliminary results announcement did suggest that the adjusted EBITDA margin would likely be 36% as against the 37.8% that was actually reported for last year. Revenue growth of 11% is expected for the current year so even at the reduced margin that still means profits will grow by about 5%. That implies only a slight reduction in adjusted e.p.s. on my calculations which implies a prospective p/e of about 34. That may be acceptable for such a high-quality company with an enviable track record (which is why it is one of my larger holdings) but perhaps investors suddenly realised that the previous rating was too high and vulnerable to a change of sentiment. That realisation seems to be affecting many highly rated go-go growth stocks at present.

The excessive IT project costs are of concern but if the management considered that such investment (£33 million to date) was necessary I think I’ll take their word on it for the present. At least the implementation of the remaining modules is being done on a phased approach which suggests some consideration has been given to controlling the costs in the short term.

I attended the AGM of another of my holdings yesterday – Victoria (VCP). They manufacture flooring products such as carpets, tiles, underlay and also distribute synthetic flooring products (I think that means laminates etc). There was a big bust-up at this company back in 2012 in which I was involved. The company was loss making at the time but some major shareholders decided they wanted a change or management and lined up Geoff Wilding who is now Executive Chairman. After an argument over his generous remuneration scheme and several general meetings, it was finally settled. After meeting Geoff I decided he knew more about the carpet business and what was wrong with the company than the previous management and therefore backed him – a wise decision as it turned out. Since then, with aggressive use of debt, he has done a great job of expanding the business by acquisition and this has driven the share price up from 25p to 760p. Needless to say shareholders are happy, but there were only about half a dozen at the AGM in London.

I’ll cover some of the key questions raised, and the answers, in brief. I asked about the rise in administration costs. This arises from the acquisitions and investment in the management team apparently. I also questioned the high amortisation of acquisition intangibles which apparently relates to customer relationships capitalised but was assured this was not abnormal. This is one of those companies, a bit like Abcam, where the “adjusted” or “underlying” figures differ greatly to the “reported” numbers so one has to spend a lot of time trying to figure out what is happening. It can be easier to just look at the cash flow.

Incidentally the company still has a large amount of debt because that has been raised to finance acquisitions in addition to the use of equity placings. In response to another question it was stated that the policy is to maintain net debt to EBITDA at a ratio of no more than 2.5 to 3 times. But earnings accretion is an important factor.

Geoff spent a few minutes outlining his approach to acquisitions and their integration which was most revealing. He talked a lot of sense. He will never ever buy a failing company. He wants to buy good companies with enthusiastic management. Thereafter he acts as a coach and wants to avoid disrupting the culture. He said a lot of acquisitions fail as people try to change everything wholesale. One shareholder suggestion this was leading to a “rambling empire” but the CEO advised otherwise.

The impact of Brexit was raised, particularly as there is nothing in the Annual Report on the subject. Were there any contingency plans? Geoff replied that if it is messy it will help Victoria as a lot of carpet is made on the continent and a fall in sterling will also help. He suggested they have lower operational gearing than many people think but obviously they might be affected by changing customer confidence. The CEO said that Brexit is on his “opportunity list”, not his “problem list”.

A question arose about the level of short selling in the stock which seems to have driven down the share price of late. Geoff suggested this was a concerted effort by certain hedge funds but he was confident the share price will recover.

Clearly Geoff Wilding is a key person in this company so the question arose about his future ambitions. He expects to do 2, 3 or 4 acquisitions per year and life would be simpler if he didn’t do so many. He tends to live out of a suitcase at present. But he still hopes to be leading the company in 5 year’s time.

In summary this was a useful meeting and I wish I had purchased more shares years ago but was somewhat put off by the debt levels.

Lastly, there was a very interesting article by Mark Bentley on the Beaufort case in the latest ShareSoc newsletter (if you are not a member already, please join as it covers many important topics for private investors). It seems that the possible “shortfall” in assets was only 0.1% of the claimed assets with only three client accounts unreconciled. But administrators PWC and lawyers Linklaters are racking up millions of pounds in fees when the client assets could have been transferred to other brokers in no time at all and at minimal cost. An absolute disgrace in essence. Be sure you encourage the Government, via your M.P., to reform the relevant legislation to stop this kind of gravy train in future.

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

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