Hml Share Discussion Threads

[psync] 04/11/2019 13:43

It's a big old chunk especially given that there seem to be few other institutions with holdings here. Unicorn Asset Management seems to be the only other big one with 8.11% in their VCT portfolio.

I had a direct holding here for a while but it seemed like the kind of company where it would take a long time for value to be reflected in the share price. Much happier to hold via OIG.

[rivaldo] 04/11/2019 13:16

Encouraging to see Chris Mills' Oryx International Growth Fund buying more shares - they had 6.275m at 12th September, and now they have 6.49m, so that's another 215,000 shares in the bag with a total holding of over 14%:

[rivaldo] 01/11/2019 09:39

Interesting that the CEO has decided to retire and hand over to the COO after 14 years at HMLH.

So the Mello presentation in 10 days or so should be interesting - hopefully the new guy in charge will reveal his case for reinvigorating the company and re-rating the share price.

Any thoughts from long termers here regarding the new leader and how things might differ from hereonin?

[igoe104] 01/10/2019 14:07

Good stuff, this is the kind of company that could appeal to some investors. also noticed a couple of decent buys late yesterday afternoon.

[rivaldo] 01/10/2019 13:22

Excellent news davidosh, thanks. Hopefully just the first step, but should raise the profile nicely amongst private investors.

And the price is ticking up already in anticipation :o))

[davidosh] 30/9/2019 16:51

Well I have invited them to MelloLondon in November

I do think they need to raise their profile with a wider group of investor or Chris mills will step in or even could be a tender like the one that happened on Friday at NTBR

[igoe104] 30/9/2019 12:00

Couldn't be any more boring At the moment, this share.

[rivaldo] 30/9/2019 10:49

A buy! At 34.4p. Huge interest coming through post AGM....:o))

[rp19] 17/9/2019 17:52

No AGM statement unlike last year. Did anyone attend?

[rivaldo] 15/9/2019 07:58

Mark Watson-Mitchell likes HMLH and has a 50p target:



"HML Holdings (LON:HMHL)

Very gradually this property management, insurance and services group is adding to its management portfolio, by both organic and acquired growth.

Earlier this week the company acquired the business of Thornes Chartered Surveyors, which was set up 123 years ago, in a £470,000 deal. The Luton-based property management and lettings company makes a perfect fit for HML.

The HML shares, which touched 37p at their best in July this year, had eased back to my 32p February profile price, before improving to 35p on the news.

The current 33.5p is still some way off my 50p target price; however, the shares continue to look inexpensive to me."

[stemis] 12/9/2019 11:44

They are paying for turnover pound for pound, retaining all the staff and offices. Hard to see how this is going to add much value.

[rivaldo] 12/9/2019 07:13

Another presumably earnings-enhancing acquisition from cash, at one times revenue:



Davidosh, I'd like to attend the AGM, but that day is somewhat difficult, so probably not.

[davidosh] 28/8/2019 14:21

The Agm is on Tuesday 17th September at 11am in the new offices at 95 London Road in Croydon. Any of you coming?

[rivaldo] 28/8/2019 09:21

Nice mention for the record in MWM's small cap round-up:



"HML Holdings (LON:HMLH)

This property management group’s report & accounts have just been published. Its AGM is to be held in Croydon on Tuesday 17 September.

The shares, which peaked at 36.5p in May, were profiled by me in mid-February at 32p, with a 50p target price.

The end-March 2019 results showed a profits advance from £1.46m to £1.69m, with earnings coming out at 4.6p and a dividend of 0.47p per share.

This current year estimates are suggesting that a revenue rise from £28m to £30.5m could help to push pre-tax profits up to around the £2.5m level. That would put the shares at 33.5p out on a mere 7 times current year earnings – that is cheap, so my target price remains unchanged."

[davidosh] 20/8/2019 09:39

It would be good to have a large attendance at the Agm again like we had a couple of years ago

[rivaldo] 20/8/2019 07:22

RNS today - the AGM will be on 17th September. Last year saw an, erm, "succinct" trading update. Hopefully this update should be positive given the cheery outlook in the prelims:



To reiterate, the forecast for this year is 4.7p EPS, with a 0.5p dividend. That's per Finncap, who have a 57p target.

[davidosh] 06/8/2019 16:16

It was lower in Feb '18 but the company are not doing anything to attract investment and do not even arrange presentations now. At this rate Christopher Mills will time his move and make an offer for it at 37p and claim we should all be grateful. I had that problem at Essenden.

[graham1ty] 06/8/2019 15:05

What a dog. 30p bid.

As low as it has been for five years

[davidosh] 16/7/2019 09:55

Well...long suffering shareholders who have seen zero growth in the share price over the last five years may have an out ball if current management are unable to deliver the returns that investors deserve....

Equistone Partners Europe Limited, a European mid-market private equity investor, has signed an agreement to acquire FirstPort, one of the UK’s largest residential property management firm, from Epiris and Chamonix Private Equity. The financial terms of the deal are undisclosed and completion of the transaction remains subject to approval by the Financial Conduct Authority.

FirstPort, who, at The Negotiator Awards 2018 won the Silver Award and in 2017 a Gold Award, says its management team (pictured, above) will remain in the business to “pursue the same customer-focused strategy”.

FirstPort manages 196,000 residential properties across more than 3,900 developments throughout the UK and the company works with developers, investors, freeholders – as well as over 200 Resident Management Companies – to provide services to leaseholders.

[davidosh] 10/7/2019 12:11

I would think if all the insurance commissions were reduced or not possible then all management companies would increase their fees accordingly and margins improve on the other work as sometimes I wonder whether 'management ' is a loss leader to attract in the additional work that it delivers

A bit like auditors doing annual audits at low cost to get the big deal corporate work running alongside.

[eezymunny] 10/7/2019 11:52

I wonder if HMLH are getting best price for leaseholders' insurance. They are loss-making without insurance profits (see note 3 annual report). Could get ugly I guess if they haven't been getting best possible deals?

[stemis] 08/7/2019 11:48

I've just read FinnCap's note on HMLH. Although they describe their forecast as 'conservative' they are actually forecasting an 11% (£2.3m) increase in revenue to £30.4m, "driven primarily by the consolidation of the recent acquisitions". However that translates into a mere £0.1m increase in ebitda. FinnCap seem to be reflecting the uncertainty that many here have about margin erosion. Rather than rebuilding margin, FinnCap seem to feel the risk is on the downside.

What seems to be happening is that HMLH are losing margin on their existing business. Maybe it's the extra cost of compliance or pricing pressure, I don't know. However they are then offsetting it by buying profit through acquisitions, effectively pedalling hard just to stay where they are (or inch forward).

[rivaldo] 08/7/2019 11:14

Nice rise this morning on 12k of buys.

Looking encouraging online too. You can only buy a maximum 10k shares at 35.77p, whilst you can sell 25k at a premium at 34p.

[davidosh] 05/7/2019 17:04

In 2014 the Board stated, when operating profit was 7.2%, that there were targeting £20m revenue and 20% operating margin. That is what I wrote down. Five years later, they are well past £20m revenue, but gross margin is stuck down at 13.4% and operating margin down at 6.2%.

Graham1TY....
This is another problem....It should not be you marking things down like the targets then the company forget about it !

Why do they not have a list of annual KPIs that are shown in the Annual Report so we can see how they are performing against agreed levels of performance and targets??

Sadly probably because we are not performing well on any sensible measure of performance. We need operating margins to increase significantly after the level of growth shown in revenues. Why spend all that shareholder money to end up valued at less than the cost of the acquisitions?

[graham1ty] 05/7/2019 16:45

Skirbell I think part of the problem has been the strategy has changed. Originally each business acquired was to be left alone to work its patch, keeping its name and its local identity. There was also the question of earn outs, so for a couple of years they were left alone.

Then about five years ago, there was the move to a regional structure, with four regions, four local MDs, an attempt to consolidate some of the offices, etc, but all done on a regional basis. Then that went wrong.

So, now, they are trying to bring everything under the HML branding, centralise all back office tasks in Croydon, bring everything onto the same IT, finance and compliance platforms. And this costs money. And should have been thought about years ago. It is all very well acquiring businesses, but you have to know what you are going to do with them.

And rather than economies of scale, it seems to get more and more expensive for HMLH to do business. The drop in gross margin from 16.7% in 1H 2015 to 13.4% just reported does not sound much, but is a 20% fall in gross margin.

For ten years they have repeated the mantra “but we do everything properly” but that comes at a cost as one after the other IT, Compliance, HR, data protection etc etc add a layer of complication......and cost. It is not a very exciting business model where it gets more and more expensive to stay in business.

So, over the last four years they have spent £9.9m (gross) on acquisitions, and that has brought in £10.9m of revenue, but that has added only £576,000 of operating profit......just 5.3% of additional revenue gets translated into operating profit. As the RNS for buying Faraday said that Faraday made £400,000 profit* in the year before acquisition, then have the others contributed anything ? ( * and the RNS says that was £400,000 of pretax profit, so a bit more at the operating level).

In 2014 the Board stated, when operating profit was 7.2%, that there were targeting £20m revenue and 20% operating margin. That is what I wrote down. Five years later, they are well past £20m revenue, but gross margin is stuck down at 13.4% and operating margin down at 6.2%.