Professor Glen Arnold

I’m quite content to continue holding the portfolio of shares I have; British shares, as a whole, are not over-priced, being at roughly their historical average using most valuation measures.  Besides which, I don’t buy the market, I buy shares that are neglected, unloved and cheap. So I’ll carry on doing that. However, I think […]

The icing on the cake with Caffyns (LSE:CFYN) is the very strong balance sheet.  Even if selling and servicing cars became a fruitless activity the company can fall back on its land and buildings to give value to shareholders, either by liquidation or renting-out and them paying dividends to shareholders. Property The 2017 Report contained […]

Caffyns (LSE:CFYN) has produced reasonably good turnover and earnings figures for the six months to September considering the trauma that the car selling sector is going through – see yesterday’s newsletter. But what about earnings performance over an industry cycle?  How does the current share price look in relation to the proven average annual earnings […]

Caffyns (LSE:CFYN), the family-controlled car dealer in the South East with a talent for gaining planning permissions and profit from property, reported reasonably robust interim results from its 13 dealerships last week. In the face of an industry slowdown, with an 11.7% fall nationally in new vehicle registrations, Caffyns volume of new car sales fell […]

I wrote about MS International’s (LSE:MSI) return on net tangible assets only a month ago, concluding that it was cheap and bought some more (see Newsletters dated 9th and 14th November).   Since then the half year report has been published.  It provides some more numbers to go into the return on net tangible assets calculation, so I’ll […]

MS International (LSE:MSI) is a group with few synergistic benefits between its older three divisions, (1) manufacturing naval guns and servicing them, (2) making forks for fork lift trucks, and (3) constructing petrol forecourts.  However, these three divisions do share engineering knowledge, and, most importantly, having the three in the Group allows it to benefit […]

MS International (LSE:MSI), a small engineering company with a market cap of only £32m, is frequently overlooked by analysts and private investors alike.  The shares are largely held by directors, or by investors who have no intention of trading, thus weeks go by without any trades. It is understandable that such an illiquid, small company […]

N Brown (LSE:BWNG) has a high level of debt (£365m) relative to its market capitalisation of £800m.  I need reassurance that the company is not displaying signs of financial distress.  I’ll use Joseph Piotroski’s nine variables to gain an overall impression of vulnerability. Before that, it is worth repeating that N Brown has two sides, […]

The last two Newsletters record my rationale for rejecting N Brown (LSE:BWNG) on the basis of its shares being too high relative to its 11-year cyclically adjusted price earnings ratio, and relative to its proven owner earnings. Today I want to examine if it makes very high returns on tangible assets. £’000s  Year end April […]

At a market capitalisation of £795m (share price £2.80) N Brown (LSE:BWNG) does not look like a bargain for a value investor on the basis of its 11-year cyclically adjusted price earnings ratio – see yesterday’s Newsletter. However, I will not give up on it yet. Today I’ll value it using the owner earnings method […]