The meeting is scheduled for 23rd November at 8am. Unfortunately with the current restrictions it seems it will be difficult to attend. I would have loved to ask our new CEO and Chairman the following:
a. Do you have a view on the intrinsic value of the company i.e. $20m cashflow annually plus circa $100m available cash? Given that you (our CEO) come from an investment banking background, how much would you value such an entity? Currently Mr. Market says $100m
b. From a capital allocation point of view, do you have a plan to unlock the intrinsic value?
c. Is the plan a secret?
I believe it’s perfectly reasonable for the directors and executive outline their philosophy on capital allocation. This will be their first time presenting to us owners and as I see it there are 6 options:
1.Share Buyback: Given we are trading so far underthe intrinsic value of the company this is such an easy call to make at thispoint. What alternatives do the executive have to make a better return onour capital in the year ahead? Capital which is just sitting idle at the momentmaking no return.
Alternatives:
2.Dividend: I know this option is attractive tomany on here but for me it’s a question of timing. It should be the secondchoice and only opted for once we have bought back a significant number of sharesand therefore increasing the dividend we receive in due course. If we generateanother circa 10m cashflow by Christmas and are back trading in the 60-70crange I would agree with this option at that point.
3.Paydown Debt: not an issue as flagged reductionin loan book will naturally generate cash. Currently have significant headroom ($60m)on the Fortress facility which was extended in March until December 22.
4.Organic Growth: doesn’t seem like it is an optiongive that the loan book was flagged to shrink in FY21 – which in fact will be cashgenerative. Given our ‘in’ability to manage bad debts I’m not so sure howattractive it is anyway.
5.Inorganic Growth: this is unlikely to be on the cardsuntil we get our own house in order.
6.Do nothing: this is the option currently beingtaken. It is questionable why we need to pay in excess of 500K a year with 500Kbonus earned after just 4 months in the job and 23m performance rights (4% ofthe company issued since June) vesting at zero to take this path. We could alljust chip in and buy a mannequin.
Given the value destroyed by the directors andmanagement over the past 5 years, as owners of the company we are entitled tosome answers. We have a new management team and the CA is behind us, they willgain investors trust back once we see they have plans to allocate capital sensibly andcreate value, not destroy it. To date nothing has been communicated.
(20min delay)