Management - and especially employees - should be incentivised, especially given the excellent job they're doing.
These options are minimally dilutive, and most importantly are only exerciseable at 180.5p each compared to the usual nil cost options issued by most PLCs.
Again, the total options now in issue are just 1.76% of the shares in issue!
And the prior sale by management was only at 225p, so not that much above the current price - which was so oversubscribed by institutional demand it had to be increased by some 50%.
The main three sellers still own from memory around 33% of the company, so are extremely incentivised on the same basis as the rest of us shareholders.
Above all, it's good to see the share price bouncing nicely. Hopefully this means the seller(s) are now out. |
Maybe, but they surely got those options at very good relative price.
I also seem to remember that the management sold out a chunk of their holdings when the share price was a lot higher.
Thus, the management are doing a lot better on capital appreciation than their shareholders a lot of whom are in the red.
I think shareholders would feel a bit happier if they reflected a more average price above £2. |
At least conditions are set for the options and the staff members concerned have to stay with the company for a few more years! |
These are due a wee turn up
Bought a few |
 Investors Champion still positive on FNX :-
Results for 6 months to 31 December 2024 (18/03/25)
Gross profit for the period increased 6.5% to £9.8m driven by 6% growth in mobile payments, 10% growth in mobile messaging, and 4% growth in managed services. Geographically, gross profit grew by 6% in the UK and 9% across the rest of Europe.
Revenue for the period declined by 2% to £38.8m, primarily due to a reduction in voice telephony services, which are largely pass-through transactions. As a result of the change in the revenue profile of mobile payments, blended gross profit margins increased to 25.2% (H1 FY24: 23.2%).
Total payment volumes (TPV) fell to £150m (H1 FY24: £158m), reflecting fewer charity campaigns, a reduction in low-margin voice telephony services, and the exit of some gaming customers from the UK market.
Fonix has secured contracts with each of the major mobile network operators in Portugal, marking a significant milestone in its international expansion. A strategic partnership with NOS, one of Portugal's leading telecom providers, further strengthens its market presence and enables the delivery of the Campaign Manager product to NOS' extensive network of broadcast customers.
In the UK, interactive services have been launched with News UK across its talkSPORT and Virgin Radio brands, reinforcing relationships with major media partners.
Fonix signed a two-year agreement with Bauer to remain its exclusive provider of premium SMS services in the UK.
The product portfolio has been expanded with the launch of two innovative solutions designed to unlock new revenue opportunities from existing customers from early summer 2025:
-PayFlex: A cutting-edge tool that recovers failed mobile payments by integrating Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal.
-DonationPortal: A dedicated solution for charities, offering branded donation pages, streamlined Gift Aid processing, and real-time analytics to enhance donor engagement.
Adjusted profit before tax climbed 5.4% to £7.8m while adjusted earnings per share rose 8.8% to 6.2 pence.
In line with the Company's progressive dividend policy to pay out at least 75% of adjusted EPS, the interim dividend was raised 11% to 2.9p per share,. This is in addition to a special dividend of 3.0p per share paid in February 2025.
International expansion is accelerating, with early discussions with mobile operators and broadcasters across several high-potential European markets.
Customer services in the Republic of Ireland continue to operate unchanged and are experiencing growth, with no anticipated changes this year.
Underlying cash (excluding cash held on behalf of customers) was £11.0m (H1 FY24: £11.2m) at the period end, of which £3.0m was subsequently returned to shareholders in February 2025 in the form of a special dividend of 3.0p per share.
Outlook
With a solid base of recurring revenue from existing clients and the addition of new customers including News UK, Lebara, and Grace Media, along with the upcoming launch of services in Portugal, Fonix is well-placed for a strong second half of the financial year. The Board anticipates a stronger second half weighting than usual periods, driven by the growing client base and steady demand for enterprise messaging solutions.
Looking ahead, Fonix's expanding range of products and focused international growth strategy offer clear opportunities across key European markets.
Forecasts and valuation
For the year ending June 2025, profit is forecast to rise 2% to £14.3m with earnings per share up 1.8% to 10.9 pence. Given the strong momentum, enhanced product offerring, overseas expansion and anticipated stronger second half to the year, those forecasts look too low to us. The forecast dividend of 11.8 pence (which includes the special) is a yield of 6.5% at the current 182 pence share price (market cap £180m).
Fellow AIM peers Boku (LON:BOKU) and Bango (LON:BGO) offer services to the App stores and remain loss making. Boku had revenues in 2024 of £99m and is currently valued at £485m (March 2025). Bango had revenues of $46m in 2023 and is valued at £63m. |
New podcast from Pauls Scott and Hill - Paul Scott is extremely positive about and is a buyer of FNX (see from 47mins in): |
The new tie-up with Lebara is interesting. Lebara were acquired by Waterland Private Equity last year and are "one of the most successful MVNOs in Europe".
They have "over 4 million customers across the UK, Netherlands, Germany, France, and Denmark, and operating brand license agreements in a further 5 markets around the world". Which perhaps suggests an easy route for FNX's international expansion:
Cavendish have reiterated their 300p target price as follows:
"Investment case
Robust H1 25 with +6-7% yoy gross profit and adjusted EBITDA growth (p5)
— New customer wins in H1 25 include News UK, Lebara, and Grace Media; H1 25 gross profit as a % of TPV increased to 6.5% from 5.8% in H1 24; and after becoming the market leader for interactive services in Ireland after launch in FY23, management is awaiting customer activations to launch into Portugal in the coming months, with multiple other European countries targeted for future expansion
— H1 25 gross profit grew +6% yoy to £9.8m with +6% growth in the UK to £8.5m and +9% growth in Rest of Europe including Ireland to £1.2m; we reiterate our FY25E gross profit growth of +6% to £19.0m, including no contribution from Portugal in FY25E at this point; and we reiterate our FY26E gross profit growth of +10% to £20.9m
— Adjusted EBITDA grew +7% yoy to £7.8m in H1 25, which includes investment in international expansion and enhancing the platform’s capabilities; and following the July and January 2024 trading updates where we upgraded FY25E adjusted EBITDA by +3% each time, we conservatively reiterate our FY25E adjusted EBITDA growth of +8% to £14.8m, and reiterate FY26E adjusted EBITDA growth of +10% to £16.2m
— H1 25 underlying EFCF of £5.2m has driven net cash to £11.0m, including £5.6m of H1 dividend payments; we reiterate our FY25E EFCF and net cash, including the 3p special dividend from the January trading update and the H1 ordinary DPS of 2.9p; and we reiterate our FY26E EFCF and net cash of £10.5m and £11.3m
— Following H1 25 results, we conservatively reiterate our FY25E and FY26E gross profit, adjusted EBITDA, EFCF, and net cash, as we show in the table on p12
— Fonix has now achieved 51% of FY25E gross profit and 53% of FY25E adjusted EBITDA, with the potential for growth to accelerate in H2 25E from the launch in Portugal, which we do not currently include in our FY25E gross profit, as we show in the table on p13.
Valuation
— Since IPO in October 2020, Fonix has delivered a perfect record of seven consecutive gross profit upgrades and eight consecutive adjusted EBITDA upgrades, as the platform’s momentum continues to build
— We value Fonix at 300p based on 3.5% FY26E EFCF yield, and it is currently trading on 12x 12-month forward EV/EBITDA with +9% NTM EBITDA growth, 5.4% EFCF yield, and 5.2% dividend yield
— Fonix’s listed peers are currently trading on 12-month forward multiples of 5-29x EV/EBITDA with average NTM EBITDA growth of +10-15%, and average EFCF yields of 3-6%" |
If you check, you will see that the CEO Robert Weisz holds 6.0m shares (6.13%)and William Neale (non exec Director) holds 18.9m shares (19.12%).
There's over 25% there - looks like plenty of skin in the game to me! |
Why do FNX directors never buy FNX shares?
I mean if they are such a buy and allthat |
Simon Thompson has covered Fonix in his Investors Chronicle article following yesterday's Interim Results (to 31/12/24)
Titled - Get ready for an upgrade with this payment company
"Analysts’ estimates are too conservative and the shares could easily re-rate
Mobile payment technology group and prodigious cash generator Fonix Mobile (FNX:188.5p) is continuing to drive growth through a combination of domestic growth and international expansion.
Fonix’s core activity is a mobile payments service that enables merchants to charge customers for products or services (mobile ticketing, gaming, parking, dating, charity donations), turning the mobile device into a cash register while offering convenience for consumers. The media sector dominates the blue-chip client base, which has virtually no churn.
With a solid base of recurring revenue from existing clients (more than 99 per cent of income is repeating) and the addition of new customers including News UK, Lebara and Grace Media, along with the upcoming launch of services in Portugal, Fonix is well-placed for a bumper second half of the financial year. In fact, management expects a stronger second-half weighting than usual, driven by the growing client base and steady demand for enterprise messaging services.
It looks increasingly likely that Fonix will outperform house broker Cavendish’s full-year pre-tax profit estimate of £14.3mn, which underpins its earnings per share (EPS) estimate of 10.9p. Also, shareholders can expect a 42 per cent hike in the annual payout to 11.8p, including a special dividend of 3p paid in February. It will hardly dent the cash pile as forecast free cash flow of £11mn covers 93 per cent of the total payout.
Expansion and innovation to drive growth
Moreover, having cracked the Irish market, Fonix is setting its sights on entering additional high-potential international markets and is in early-stage discussions with mobile operators and broadcasters across multiple European regions.
Growth is also being generated through technical innovation. Launched after the period end, PayFlex, an advanced extension of Fonix’s campaign manager platform which integrates Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal to improve the recovery of failed mobile payments, is likely to be a powerful catalyst for revenue growth. By driving higher checkout conversions, maximising transaction values and delivering cost efficiencies, PayFlex could be a transformative force in mobile payments to strengthen customers’ competitive edge and reinforce Fonix’s leadership in the industry.
Trading on 13 times operating profit to enterprise value, offering a 5.4 per cent free cash flow yield and with earnings upgrades likely, Fonix’s shares rate a buy". |
Could be around historical support of Sept 23. Not covered by stocko today so unsure of any broker forecasts? |
as per post 205 Everything we learned today we knew on the 23rd of January except i think the total payments volume and i think that may be the catalyst for the drop today .
So is this expensive at about £180m market cap ?
Profit is up to 7.8m for the half year (15m PA maybe ?), less share based payments and R&D credits, the 11m cash is theirs not customers. the second half of the year is forecast to be stronger. 99% customer retention , free cash flow is +ve /low capex, Ireland is probably less of a risk than it was in January. If Portugal doesn't happen there are other countries the model could be expanded to.
I thought there was going to be bad news announced today based on the 20% sell off since early march and since i thought there wasnt i added . For those that dont own this its probably been largely de risked in the last 3 weeks . I think the last 3 posts have given a good picture of the situation. I'm holding |
Strange reaction in the last few weeks, specially today as the ebitda and gross profit numbers were known (23. Jan trading update).I expect much better growth numbers in September, so I will hold! |
I'm still a holder but less bullish than I was.
This is why...
Whilst still growing in the UK and Ireland the rate of profit growth has slowed sharply from 17% to 7%ish in just 6 months.Indeed,sales as they gauge have actually declined from 158mn to 150mn so by that measure you could argue the existing business has experienced a shrinkage notwithstanding the reasons they gave.
Thus I'm worried the growth runway in the UK is not as long as I had previously expected.It certainly feels to me like growth is going to be harder to generate at home than previously.
On the 11th December last year the Fonix blog declared they had officially launched in Portugal.
Today they tell us Portugal will launch in "the upcoming months".No word of explanation from Fonix but apparently not a single customer has actually started using the service yet.
At the time of the last results 6 months ago I thought the new broker profit forecast for 2025 (and the finance director confirmed to me the company basically tell the broker what numbers to put out) was stupidly low.Now I'm not so sure...especially if Portugal takes a while longer to get up and running (although on balance I think they will beat the current unchanged forecast,just not by much!)
There is still that question mark over regulation in Ireland,we can be optimistic about the outcome for Fonix but personally I'm not going to ignore the risk completely.
All in all the derating,although only temporary I hope, makes complete sense to me. |
I struggle to get excited about FNX. When you have a company on a ~20x PE rating & forecast EBITDA / EPS growth is minimal there is serious de-rating risk should the market find a reason.
My view is that they are distributing far too much capital via dividends and that the lack of internal investment into new products leaves them at risk of stagnation. It's a very common theme on the LSE, as companies falsely believe that paying a high dividend will attract income investors. The reality is that will only work for so long & gradually alienate risk capital. IMO FNX need to evidence a growth reacceleration or a de-rating to 12-15x PE will become the norm. |
wow
how come they hate this?
Aim effect? (no one likes aim it would seem).
Results were fine |
Very pleased with results, and baffled by the reaction of other PIs selling off.
Plenty of growth and upside to the business itself, plus a 4.5% divi (6% inc. special divis) while we wait. |
I think managing the share price is difficult here. Management and employees want to be able to take capital out, so sell shares. I bought more shares today @ 197p and for all the reasons expressed here think this is a solid holding with good dividends and steady growth. The results also included the outlook which with all the forthcoming extra services and customer wins looks very promising for the future. Probably a takeover candidate too. I’m going to buy more. |
A year low on decent results... a sad indictment on these markets and UK small caps. |
Given the recent market I’d fully expect these to be another 5 or 10% down on results day. So this is a particularly good response (sadly) |
Dividend this year 2.9p + say 5.9p on finals at buy price £1.92 = 4.6%
Also paid 3.0p special dividend earlier this year, giving over 6% for us longer term investors.
Not bad for solid, well run growth share with good profits and 99% recurring revenue.
Today's share price reaction just shows how poor the UK market is, where small companies are unloved and sell offs are indiscriminate.
It will change.
Added more this morning and outlook for stronger H2 is bullish. |
Hope is last to die |
I have also added some, re the 18x fwd pe, I think in this case you arent paying a premium for growth, youre paying a premium for the quality of said growth, never losing customers, recurring nature of revenues, quality of management, international optionality, pricing power, entrenched nature of business, low capital requirements means we can enjoy a 4% divi alongside growth, insider ownership, many things for make make this a buy at current price |
Added a few at the open. Happy to hold for income and hopefully good news re: other European markets to come. |
Comment on Ireland reflects the report of the GRAI posted yesterday. Suggesting that any impact will be in the distant future |
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