It looks to me that Geoff Lord has indeed succeeded in turning the "train wreck" that was allegedly TNT three years ago into a "red-rattler", but the upgrade to a "bullet train" (all his terms) doesn't look likely to happen anytime soon. The red-rattler that is now TNT consists of around twelve carriages, a couple of first class to carry the prestige clients, a couple of third class offering a very basic service, but most carriages second class for the average "cyber" traveller. The red-rattler is always fully booked, but the cost of running the service is very high, so the train barely makes any money, except at "holiday" times (Q4). So there's no money to re-invest to upgrade the carriages for increased speed and comfort. But the red-rattler employs many people on good wages, and provides a valuable service to the community.
Joking aside, I'm starting to wonder if it really matters at this stage whether there are 1.2 billion (or some multiple) shares on issue, if the NPAT is hovering around zero. Surely they should be aiming to lift their margins significantly, otherwise TNT is never going to be a viable business long term ? They need to be charging more for each service they provide. Looking at the last 4C quarterly, about two-thirds of the customer receipts (~$52m) was spent on "product manufacturing and operating costs" (~$34m). The staff salary spend was the other third. If operating costs are indeed that high and are unavoidable, it seems to me they should be charging much more generate a reasonable margin. You'd think they must have some pricing power in the sector by now. They also make a point of telling investors that they have a decent market share (particularly in government work).
I think if TNT was the target of a takeover, this would be the first action of new management, to increase prices by ~20%. Then suddenly, TNT starts to make decent sized profits for the new owners. For now, GL needs to show he can run a cyber security business profitably, by either raising charges, or cutting operating costs.
All IMHO, DYOR
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