Originally posted by sabine
Is there anybody out there ..?
I’ve been looking at this company because it features on the portfolios of OC Funds. WAM, WAX, CBA and more - has barely any retail holders (2000 odd at last annual report with 5,000 or fewer shares ) and it has dropped substantially in price during a short and disappointing life on the. ASX ( well disappointing except for people like Mr Yde III who started the company and earns almost $1.5 million a year ( including a bonusof more than half a million a year awarded for additional work required in managing a US network - Radiate - that he raised around $57million to buy in December 2026 for around $24 million , was sued over within a month , wrote down to the tune of $21.7 million in December 2017 and apparently sold for one dollar in the latest annual report.)
Who is this guy and why are the funds so supportive of what he is doing?
https://www.bloomberg.com/research/...asp?personId=25239418&privcapId=340000018
He operated something in the US in Ohio from 1994 to 1999 ( Ohio was where he bought Radiate from ) ..then moved to a Japanese Traffic Network where he was CEO for three years until it shut down.
Board members have dropped like flies since GTN went public here .
The most significant event along the way that I have found (so far.) beyond buying then making an enormous loss on the American network was the fact 06/05/18 Cayman Island company Gridlock (GTCR) sold 20million GTN shares
https://hotcopper.com.au/documentdownload?id=uOMxKKzFkiWRTLKhOROKAxjvSDYL4wa9zhbxv/Bt8bFiGug=.
Then around 89 million shares last September
https://hotcopper.com.au/documentdownload?id=uOMxKKzFkiWRTLKhOROKAxjvSDYL4g65yxP1v/Bt8bFiGug=
- at between $1.90 and $1.95 both times? ( is that something more than $200 million Australian dollars ?)
Now the company is flagging it will possibly do a share buy back.
Why are the Funds so heavily involved ?
- it currently has an 11.2% dividend !
Is it going to turn around and make a mint ?
Here’s what OC Funds has to say in its December report :
https://www.ocfunds.com.au/wp-conte...mium-Small-Companies-Fund-update-20181231.pdf
“GTN Limited (GTN, -53.2%) was the biggest disappointment in the portfolio during the quarter following an earnings downgrade in late December. GTN is a traffic information provider to radio and TV stations in Australia, Canada, Brazil and the UK. In exchange for the reports and station compensation, GTN receives commercial advertising slots adjacent to the traffic reports. The company guided the market to a 10-15% year-on-year decline in adjusted EBITDA, primarily due to negative operating leverage in the key Australian business where revenues have fallen but operating costs have risen. Whilst this is a disappointing outcome, the quantum of the share price fall has led us to retain our holding for the time being as we do not see the issues as being structural and should be able to be addressed by management, notwithstanding the fact the broader advertising market has softened in recent times. The stock is now trading on an FY19 PE of 8x and is yielding 6.8%.”
dividend reducing to 70-90% of NPAT from 2019 year.
the half-hearted commitment for a share buy back seems like they're clutching at straws here to try and prop up the price and 'improve' EPS.
(20min delay)