Interesting developments in the Australian drilling industry...

Interesting developments in the Australian drilling industry with Perenti in a merger/buyout with DDH1 yesterday. The agreed price is at 3.4 x EBITDA which is quite low. Multiples of 5x EBITDA would be considered the norm in a favourable industry backdrop (which we have). A similar multiple applied to MSV (without having seen the FY 2024 4th Qtr results) of say normalised EBITDA at $40million would put a price of $136million less a reduction for debt to say $120million. The CEO has said the business should be earning EBITDA $50million. Nathan Mitchell has publicly stated up to $60million in the current market conditions. Taking the lower number, by EOFY 2024 they are targeting a reduction to $15million in debt on the balance sheet. In that case MSV on the DDH agreed multiple would be worth around $170million....that's around 77c a share. There's a lot of potential value in the business if they get it running efficiently & as stated the multiple DDH will be transacted upon is quite low historically.