Monday, 28 July 2014

Morning mumble: Blurry-eyed but limited news...and another IPO'(oh)

Very limited news in the Market, Focus on delivery as Tongon deals with challenges Randgold announces today...which one wonders why they're informing us so late in the date. Perhaps a "if we don't get these permits we won't be able to employ people" type conversation needs to happen with the Government. Nevermind the technical issues and ground lost, targets and warnings that are now coming out. The Gold price may support Randgold here when normally the market would punish it. 

Its with pleasure I welcome ULS Technology plc & First day of dealings. For myself I am assessing the stock as a short, with a market cap or near £26M based on revenues of £16M and a margin of 18%, it doesn't bode well for funding when adding in the additional costs etc...Stock is being sold (18,713,750 shares) (a warning sign for me), and a bit of cash raised (11,536,250 new ordinary shares) raising £4,614,500 before expenses. The company has around £1.85M of debt being repaid and after the costs of the IPO, fund raising and repaying debt, the company will have around £2.2M. This company has been going near 11 years, albeit its form and earnings are only discussed for the past 4 years. All eyes will certainly be on the "progressive" dividend model. 

For those wanting to find out more about the company, a good place to start is here: Econveyancer.com. Perhaps the company would be wise to incorporate an Investor Relations section on their website. This should have been done prior to the first day of dealing. The ulsgroup.co.uk (Investor Relations & PR Email Address) website merely directs interested parties to the econveyancer website. However if you do desire anything there is a Media / Investor Relations enquiry email address.

This company has a lot to do in the Market and the recognised comparison brands are already designing formats for conveyancing comparisons. Yes the model appears to be via the intermediary markets approach, but surely one should recognise the brand? A quick google for interested parties will show, using the phrase “(compare conveyancing prices)”  you’ll note where the company's listed.

The company purport to have 4.5% market share of the market which is allegedly £1.6B. So by operating in this market and being involved in £72M of referrals the company had a revenue of £16.2M of which 18% was EBITDA, or £2.916 and a market cap of 9 times this? One shall await their results, but it appears like an also ran…To me something doesn’t stack up…perhaps I’m not an American that’s able to understand the model? or that I'm clearly missing the purpose, model or business strategy.

What bugs me is the comparison model extends itself to the user comparing the prices to have faith in the process? Yet this is via an intermediary approach? So people, if you want a comparison, you’ll have to take someone else’s word for it, or the limited offerings in place. This will also be conducted by a model you’ve not heard or, its PR and Brand Awareness is lacking. I shall be waiting in the wings! Suffice to say I’m not currently very positive on this company. Until such time as it presents its previous accounts, prospectus and the like…I’m remaining negative without a position (currently).

Atb Fraser

2 comments:

  1. The most important news for MTC holders is their announcement today! http://www.investegate.co.uk/mothercare-plc--mtc-/gnw/response-to-announcement/20140728070038H9370/ No takeover....so the tank is on...target £1.45?

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  2. Fraser- Hi- A good weekend I take it.

    Re MTC- Im not really sure how much support Destination Maternity (a nice name for a tv series based on 18-30 holidays surely) really had for this move in the first place as it appears to have problems of its own in the US to deal with before making speculative global offers. MTC have a new CEO and they also stated "The Board also notes that it has had no contact with Destination Maternity since 3 June 2014" which isn't really something it would "note" unless it wasn't paying much attention to DM and its moves. Perhaps "confirms" is the right word. MTC has its problems and all I can say is good luck to all holders (you may need it).

    Re Randgold- Its recent RNSs have all been re their charity bike ride, which did raise $1.6m for Africas poor so its understandable that they have had their hands too full to notice that the kit at Tongon had failed and so they needed to do a bit of real work instead of riding bikes :-)) With the Tour De Africa over now, perhaps the mine will get a bit of attention- sorry to sound so cynical but running mines should be a little higher on their job descriptions perhaps.... or appoint Mark Cavendish and Chris Froome to the board....

    Re Bolivia nationalisations- down to 3 now so I will soon see if any are investable - it looks like a Canadian company at this stage (2 of my 3 finalists), which could cause problems for volume trades as TSX is a bit of a busted flush at present. I will report later in the week here but a Trent Bridge visit tomorrow so that comes first.

    Cheers. The Leggie

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