original article

There is no doubt that Billabong is an ugly duckling. The desperate state of the company and high debt levels has seen the share price on a downward trajectory for the past three years. However, beneath the aimless management and failed takeovers, lies a set of world-class brands waiting to be seized upon.

Billabong is currently undertaking a serious culling of stores and suppliers, as part of its turnaround strategy and took a $536 million write down in the first half of 2013. Excluding the write-down, the group had a first half EBIT of $36.4 million on sales revenue of $699 million. At its current share price of just $0.63, some good news around future prospects could see a jump in the next 12 months.