Eurovestech Share Discussion Threads

[kenmitch] 10/1/2011 19:23

Yes, but the shares have been very cheap for ages. Still it's good to see the share price rise a bit at long last but why is it rising now?

[a0148009] 10/1/2011 15:59

Half yearly figures not due until late March.
SP 13.5p approx 25% discount to NAV End June 2010 of 18.2p- very cheap at 12.5p
therefore some buying I suggest.

AO

[dd776] 10/1/2011 12:26

Nice to see the share price going in the right direction, are we due some news?

[kenmitch] 29/10/2010 08:41

Posted this on the TOL bb yesterday.

Tipped in Shares Magazine today. Nothing much new - the same positive case. Story of the brilliant Greenfield/ISS buy again + suggestion that TOL will improve their 8.7% margins in 2008 nearer to their own 21.8%. House broker Numis predicts overall operating margins will recover to 17% by 2011. EPS they say should go from 12.5p in 2009 to 19.3p next year. That, says Shares looks cheap given the £128 market cap's growth prospects.

Needless to add that has done nothing for the share price - yet! Achieve (or better still exceed) those targets and then surely the shares will respond.

[kenmitch] 11/10/2010 12:17

Yes positive overall, though it's still bewildering why Richard Grogan would want to sell when the shares seem so obviously far too cheap.

It really is surprising that the share has done nothing for so long, and I can't see what will change that short term since even good news hasn't done the trick so far. A big rise in the Toluna share price would do it but their share price is also stuck for now.

One possible solution might be for Toluna to move to the main market. It really isn't quite right for the largest company of its type in the world still to be languishing on AIM. This is now a serious Company rapidly increasing profits and dividends, yet too few investors even seem to realise it exists. They have all heard of Yougov but tell them that Toluna are bigger and also much better and some don't believe it.

Even Shares Magazine who did an excellent article on Toluna a few months ago concluding that the shares were a buy did not follow it up after the last set of results, not even mentioning them despite the fact that they were very good and the share price was higher than when they tipped them.

So perhaps consideration might be given to a possible move to the Main Market if they think the extra recognition might more than offset the extra costs involved.

Any other views on this?

[dangersimpson2] 04/10/2010 13:49

yeah it looks like Grogan wanted to reduce and Bernstein was happy to take them and a chunk form another weak holder. Petit's holding was less of a round number so maybe he was also picking up from the market over the last few days. Anyway a net increase of director holding of 413k is a positive sign.

[kenmitch] 04/10/2010 13:42

Interesting Director dealing last week, with two significant buys, especially Richard Bernstein who already holds a lot, to counter a sale from Richard Grogan. Very strange that he should sell with the EVT share price so depressed so perhaps he needed the money!

[kenmitch] 29/9/2010 08:44

Another good contract win for KSS Fuels yesterday. The shares even ticked up 0.5p.To think they only paid £1 million for the whole of KSS and have already sold KSS Retail for £11 million.

The share price is far too low - and has been for ages.

Re. the buybacks. You're right - and I've pointed this out too - about them giving sellers the chance to get out.

You have to counter that with the fact that they could now have an additional £10 million to invest if they had also not paid that special dividend.

It can't be easy keeping all shareholders happy, but I would much have preferred them to invest that £10 million - like they've just done in what looks to be very undervalued Net Dimensions, and they once did in an even more undervalued KSS.

[sbs] 24/9/2010 21:13

I suspect the management are not surprised by the short term effect of the buy backs on the price. On the contrary, they may have had a couple of big sellers, and this got them out. And the lower the price, the more the value of the remaining shares. IIRC, they didn't chase the price up, but just waited for sellers to come to them.

[kenmitch] 24/9/2010 17:14

chrisbrown.

Just to add to the excellent post from Danger above (ditto his posts on Motley Fool).

The losses you refer to are basically the administrative costs of running the portfolio. These were higher than usual this time because in addition there were the costs involved in disposals, but generally a figure around £1 million is a rough guide.

Bear in mind that KSS Fuels alone are making £1 million profit per year (and rising) and that near enough covers the above costs in a year without exceptional admin costs.

There are no hidden worries afaiaa. I've been invested in EVT from 6p in the early 2000s topping up down to and including 1.75p at the time of the brilliant bargain priced buy of KSS and then continuously except for a brief spell in 2008 since then. So obviously I'm inclined to see EVT through rose coloured specs.

Fact is though that apart from a very disappointing share price performance over the last few years, EVT Management (and RB is exceptional imo) have hardly put a foot wrong. So the longer the share price stays depressed the bigger a bargain the shares will become.

Bear in mind that EVT are very conservative in valuing their investee stakes too.

It wouldn't take much of a rise in the TOLUNA share price - and they too have hardly disappointed at any stage since floating - for the whole of the EVT share price and the cash to be covered by their stake in Toluna.

I can't, obviously, provide any reassurance about a rising share price soon, but if ever you want to invest in a sleep easy at night undervalued Company then EVT fits the bill.

Also they have a brilliant record in buying stakes in undervalued Companies and selling them on at a profit, or as in the case of KSS ending up buying them for peanuts and then turning them round quickly. The same effect has been seen at Toluna where a big bargain buy acquisition has been integrated in no time.

They have now got a stake in Net Dimensions so that is something to keep an eye on.

I've probably overplayed the negatives re their share buybacks, partly because I hate them and don't make an exception with EVT going for them. Even for undervalued Companies they seem not to work and discounts can go to massive amounts buybacks or not. But they do enable sellers to get out without trashing the share price and anyone put off EVT because convinced by my negative views shouldn't be since mine seems to be a minority opinion! And at least they only spent £2.54 million, that they could easily afford on buying back. They wouldn't say so of course but I guess EVT Management are disappointed that there has been no positive effect on the share price yet from the buybacks.

Hope that helps - post if it doesn't. Also there are some very detailed posts from the past on this bb and I always find a good way of discovering whether a Company is worth investing in is to check out whether they do what they say they will. Check out the posts here and you should see that they do - and if you or anyone finds evidence that they don't then post the examples.

[dangersimpson2] 24/9/2010 13:20

Hi chrisbrown,

What you are looking at is the consolidated income statement. Due to the levels of shareholding some of EVT's investments are classified as subsiduries so their Revenue, CoS and Admin Exp get added up into EVT's income statement and balance sheet.

You can see the company balance sheet in note 8 with all the investments accounted for separately at fair value. There's no company income statement or cash flow statement so its not clear what the split is between company level costs and subsidiary losses (which I think come mainly from Magenta, but again this split isn't given.)

Last year Toluna was accounted for as a subsiduary so its profit would have been included in the same way. Hence the increased loss. The change in accounting treatment of Toluna from Subsiduary to Investment is also responsible for the large profit from discontinued operations as the fair value of Toluna is added to the EVT balance sheet and its Income Statement removed from EVT's Consolidated Income Statement.

So the answer is that some of this money has gone on wages, advisers, rent etc. at the company level but most is probably just accounting treatment of losses in some of the investment companies.

As kenmitch says the NAV makes more sense here, hence my TMF figures are based on the company level balance sheet not the consolidated balance sheet.

I hope that makes sense, I'm not an accountant so its all based on my understanding of the way these things work.

Danger

[chrisbrown71] 23/9/2010 18:03

Kenmitch, thanks - I understand that NAV is key, and the 35% discount to NAV is what caught my eye. But I've learnt that one needs to be careful with asset plays, because if they burn money in admin costs etc faster than their underlying assets grow then NAV shrinks and the shareprice can stagnate or decline.

So, I'm trying to understand what EVT spend their money on year on year, and why they have lost £4m this year and £2m last year, ignoring underlying asset gains.

Does anyone have any idea where this money has gone?

[kenmitch] 23/9/2010 17:54

Chris

The key for an investment company like EVT is NAV - and that is well above the current share price.

e.g their 30% stake in Toluna is worth about 10.5p a share, so that leaves the cash and profitable investee companies (e.g KSS Fuels £1 million profits and rising) in the share price for free.

This latest buy note from Liberum might be of interest.

Eurovestech (EVT LN / BUY) – A good set of final results, in line with our guidance with a NAV per share as at 30th June 2010 of 18.5p (vs our est. last week of 18.2p). We published last week on EVT ahead of these results so please get in touch if you would like a copy of that note. Liberum Comment: A set of positive results today from EVT although there isn't a lot of 'new news' from our preview note last week as there have been no write ups made to unlisted companies as far as we can see but we think there is significant value in the Company. The current price essentially attributes no value to the unlisted portfolio of EVT as listed company Toluna (TOL LN) accounts for around 10.4p of NAV in our estimates including our 10pc liquidity discount. Shares trade at a 34% discount to this updated NAV and we believe there is considerable potential for write ups in the future as the manager reports strong performance from companies like KSS Fuels where the Company's management has 'forecast further increases in revenue and operating profits for the year ending June 2011'. Listed company Toluna continues to trade strongly with a 128% rise in 2010 revenues from 2009 levels. The Company returned £10m of cash to shareholders by way of buy backs and capital returns earlier this year (NAV has been adjusted for these returns). Cash on the balance sheet as at 30th June is 4.3m. We retain our buy recommendation on this company. Manager Richard Bernstein has created significant value for shareholders over the 10 year life of this fund and we can see a clear road to future growth.

[chrisbrown71] 23/9/2010 17:42

Having a look at this following a writeup on TMF. Looks pretty good, but am finding the results a bit difficult to interpret.

The earnings statement looks inflated by ~44m of investment gains & sales. Stripping these out it looks like the company lost around £3.8m this year. Similarly, last year, the company only broke even thanks to £2.4m investment gains. Stripping these out it lost £2m last year as well.

Can anyone help me understand the earnings statement, excluding investment gains? I want to understand how high EVT's overheads are and how much this will drag down performance of its underlying investments.

Thanks!

[kenmitch] 23/9/2010 17:33

Thanks ozz2.

Latest results were excellent - and created no interest as usual. TOLUNA now accounts for almost all the share price with the cash and all the profitable investee companies near enough in the share price for free. One day the market might wake up.

Toluna's own results were outstanding with tripled profits, doubled dividend and a big increase in cash. The bargain priced Greenfield acquisition from Microsoft has been successfull integrated within a year. Their shares did at least go up a bit on their results, and if the TOL price goes up a bit more then the whole of the EVT share price will be accounted for by their TOL stake. Crazy - but how long will it be before that changes?

Sadly the buyback didn't lead to a higher share price though that was no surprise to those of us who hate share buybacks and have been "rewarded" by them with other companies without ever seeing the money. A rare lapse for EVT imo who would have been far better spending the money at what they are good at - either investing more in the best bits of their portfolio or in buying a stake in a small undervalued quoted company and then sell it on for a profit, as they have done very successfully in the past. Easy to nit pick - fact is the shares have tripled since 2000 and very few similar companies have achieved that and they rarely put a foot wrong.

Meanwhile Richard Bernstein was subject of positive comment from City Editor Alex Brummer in the Daily Mail today. See their website for the 90 or so very worthwhile charities where EVT has now gifted around £1.5 million shares. Some might not agree with this but I do and so does Alex Brummer. Here's his comment today.

"Sharing
Normally results of the technology trust Eurovestech would not garner much attention.

But this year it is different. Not only has its founder Richard Bernstein managed to outperform peers by tripling the shares over a decade, he has also emerged as the investor behind Crystal Amber, which is giving Michael Grade's Pinewood such a hard time.
It is all in a good cause. Bernstein, through Eurovestech, is seeking to encourage charitable giving by donating shares at par value to charity.
So far, he has given away stock to more than 90 charities, gifting them £1.5million.
Through his Share and Share Alike scheme he wants to encourage others to do the same, estimating that if every FTSE 100 firm were to give away 0.1 per cent of its capital, it could be worth £1.6billion for good causes – a useful 'Big Society' idea."

[kooba] 22/9/2010 18:28

evt takes an 8% stake.highly respected technology investment co run by richard bernstein the activist fund manager behind crystal amber..i'm sure he has spotted some undervaluation and plans to do something about it.interesting times ahead at netdimensions netd.

+------------------------------------+------------------------------+
| 3. Full name of person(s) subject | Eurovestech plc |
| to the notification obligation: | |
| | |
+------------------------------------+------------------------------+
| 4. Full name of shareholder(s) (if | N/a |
| different from 3.): | |
| | |
+------------------------------------+------------------------------+
| 5. Date of the transaction and | 14 September 2010 |
| date on which the threshold is | |
| crossed or reached: | |
| | |
+------------------------------------+------------------------------+
| 6. Date on which issuer notified: | 22 September 2010 |
| | |
+------------------------------------+------------------------------+
| 7. Threshold(s) that is/are | Above 3% |
| crossed or reached: | |
| | |
+------------------------------------+------------------------------+

+------------+-----------+--------+-----------+-----------+----------+--------+----------+
| 8. Notified details: |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| A: Voting rights attached to shares |
| |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Class/type | Situation | Resulting situation after the |
| of | previous | triggering transaction |
| shares | to the | |
| if | triggering | |
| possible | transaction | |
| using | | |
| the ISIN | | |
| CODE | | |
+ +--------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
| | Number | Number | Number | Number of | % of |
| | of | of | of | voting | voting |
| | Shares | Voting | shares | rights | rights |
| | | Rights | | | |
+ + + +-----------+----------------------+-------------------+
| | | | Direct | Direct | Indirect | Direct | Indirect |
+------------+-----------+--------+-----------+-----------+----------+--------+----------+
| | 0 | 0 | 1,900,000 | 1,900,000 | | 7.59% | |
| Ordinary | | | | | | |

[ozz2] 22/9/2010 18:20

In the magnificent write up of the finals, I think 99% of the content is positive+ and still we are ignored by brokers, or investors of any description.

Maybe in a few days eh?--or not.Undoubtably the private investor can find better things at the moment.(faster moving)

Anyone considering investing in EVT should do him self a favour and read the finals, it reveals more about this company than most of us know, and all but one small investment "Magenta" are doing extremly well.

[dd776] 20/9/2010 07:32

good progress at Toluna, nice div increase

[ozz2] 31/8/2010 16:18

Nice to see you are keeping us well informed,kenmitch, I last bought these when reading your excellent posts on M/W site.(circa 8/10 years ago)
So I hope you will bring me luck in this one.
Bought at 2p about the same time as you and waited, and waited, finally we got a rise. I was so elated--and wanted to buy other shares I sold at 2.8p--what a mug, after all that time they had just become noticed and you know the rest.

ozz2

[kenmitch] 19/8/2010 17:31

Good luck dd776.

I liked the "glad to join u all" as there don't seem to be many of us!

Top quality Company and excellent Management - but the shares have done nothing for far too long and they somehow need to pull a rabbit out of the hat (or Toluna perform way above expectations which is possible) before that changes imo.

A very good worry free long term lockaway though.

[dd776] 17/8/2010 09:23

that was a buy today at 12,75p, glad to join u all.

[sbs] 20/7/2010 06:14

LOL - that's our money he's giving away ;-)

But the mix of charities is good.

[kenmitch] 19/7/2010 11:23

There have been posts before about EVT's good idea of gifting their shares to worthwhile causes. Now that has received recognition with Eurovestech being chosen as UK's Business Charity Champion

It is thanks to shareholder support that Eurovestech have been able to help various charities: since 2001, Eurovestech has created and gifted £1.75 million of shares to more than 80 charities.

Eurovestech and Richard Bernstein have been honoured by the Business Charity Awards. Chosen as both Business Charity Champion and Outstanding Individual, the awards recognise the outstanding contribution to charities by the corporate world.

More than 300 people attended these national awards held at Grosvenor House, Park Lane, which celebrated the many partnerships that have been established between business and the third sector.

Richard was chosen by the judges for inventing 'share gifting', a programme that encourages publicly listed companies to issue and gift shares to charitable causes.

To read more about the Business Charity Award, please visit;

[sbs] 15/7/2010 16:49

PS If EVT are in a close period, they can't buy back shares. Last final results were 29 Sep, so 29 Jul would be the cut off. If results are earlier this year, they may already be constrained.

[sbs] 12/7/2010 21:52

The buy backs are not to increase the share price, but to increase the value of the remaining shares. They are just picking up the cheap ones as sellers come out.