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NWOR National World Plc

18.00
1.50 (9.09%)
28 Jun 2024 - Closed
Delayed by 15 minutes
National World Investors - NWOR

National World Investors - NWOR

Share Name Share Symbol Market Stock Type
National World Plc NWOR London Ordinary Share
  Price Change Price Change % Share Price Last Trade
1.50 9.09% 18.00 12:57:36
Open Price Low Price High Price Close Price Previous Close
16.50 16.50 18.25 18.00 16.50
more quote information »
Industry Sector
SOFTWARE & COMPUTER SERVICES

Top Investor Posts

Top Posts
Posted at 11/8/2023 08:44 by maxk
Local publisher National World declares interest in bidding for The Telegraph

An auction is expected to begin formally in September

By
Christopher Williams,
BUSINESS EDITOR
10 August 2023 • 5:48pm




A veteran newspaper executive has become first to declare publicly an interest in a takeover of The Telegraph since Lloyds Banking Group seized control in June.

National World, a local newspaper and news website publisher founded by David Montgomery, 74, who edited The News of the World in the late 1980s, told the stock market it was considering a bid.

It said it “will consider participating in a sale process for Telegraph Media Group as and when such a process formally commences”.

The announcement was not required by City authorities and was described as a “tidying up exercise” by a source close to National World. However, public confirmation could make conversations with potential financiers less legally complex by ensuring insider information is not shared.

Lloyds took ownership of The Telegraph by appointing receivers from the specialist consultancy AlixPartners. The bank won court approval for the unusual action following a lengthy dispute over debts of more than £1bn which had been secured against the publisher by the Barclay family, its owners since 2004.

Goldman Sachs has been appointed to run an auction, expected to begin formally in September.

A bid would represent a bold attempt at expansion for Mr Montgomery and National World, which is listed on London’s junior Aim market and valued at £48m. Estimates of The Telegraph’s valuation vary significantly but begin at £200m and run as high as £1bn.

At £39m, its pre-tax profits last year were nearly eight times those of Mr Montgomery’s portfolio of local titles, at £5m.

National World, which at the end of last month had £22m cash, made no reference to how it might finance a bid.

The company’s biggest shareholder is Media Concierge Holdings, a direct marketing provider that has become Ireland’s biggest local newspaper publisher with a reputation for deep cost cutting. It is controlled by British businessman Malcolm Denmark.

After a career as a journalist, in the 1990s Mr Montgomery became chief executive of Mirror Group following the Maxwell scandal. He then founded Mecom, a London-listed company which borrowed heavily to buy up European newspapers in the 2000s. It hit trouble in the advertising recession sparked by the financial crisis and Mr Montgomery was ousted by City investors in 2010.

He had greater success with Local World, set up to acquire a portfolio of regional newspapers from the publisher of The Daily Mail. Mr Montgomery stripped out costs and sold the titles on to his former employer Reach, the owner of Mirror Group.

His latest venture National World was formed from the bust ruins of Johnston Press, latterly JPI Media, the publisher of titles including The Yorkshire Post, The Scotsman and Belfast’s News Letter, the oldest English-language daily in print. Mr Montgomery, who acquired the newspapers in 2021 for just £10m, has substantially increased their value by squeezing budgets and investing in their websites.

National World said its interest in The Telegraph reflected its growth strategy of “actively exploring opportunities to build its business through acquisitions and implementing its new operating model for owned assets”.

Mr Montgomery’s appetites for cost cutting and influence have brought him into conflict with journalists many times over his executive career, including now at National World. As the company declared an interest in The Telegraph, the National Union of Journalists announced a ballot for industrial action over pay, job cuts and “David Montgomery’s decision to make himself the de facto editor”.

A union spokesman said: “The number of staff who’ve chosen to leave National World in recent weeks is a direct reflection of how little faith is left in a management whose only strategy appears to be ‘more for less’.”

National World’s decision to declare its interest will fuel speculation about possible collaborative bid structures designed to beat potential regulatory hurdles.

For instance a bid by DMGT, the publisher of The Daily Mail, would be at risk of a lengthy review of its impact on media plurality that would reduce its attractiveness to Lloyds. A joint bid might reduce such a risk, as well as share the cost.
Posted at 29/7/2022 19:58 by red ninja
Downing Strategic Micro Cap I.T on NWor in February investor letter (they mention 3 key names in Nwor):-

Just after January month end, we added NATIONAL WORLD (NWOR), an illiquid and under‐the̴8;radar company trading at the bottom end of the main market. NWOR was a reverse into the regional publishing assets of the old Johnston Press. The management team are top calibre, with experience seldom found in £70 million market caps. David Montgomery has a decades‐ long career in newspapers and considerable experience in newsprint consolidation. Vijay Vaghela is exceptionally well referenced and comes from Reach where he was group FD for almost 16 years. And Mark Hollinshead also brings career‐long media experience to the group, having been managing director of the Daily Record and Sunday Mail, and COO at Trinity Mirror
(now Reach). David and Vijay worked closely together on prior venture Local World, formed in 2013, which acquired certain regional news assets and subsequently exited these to Reach in 2015, increasing equity value by 289% in the process.
The story has several contrasting elements. Namely, declining print married with growing digital; transitioning ad revenues to subscriptions; and organic complemented by inorganic growth. These are all at early stages, but management have begun putting the foundations in place to build a valuable and scalable multi‐platform publishing business.
The JPI Group assets constituted the third largest regional newspaper publisher in the UK.
NWOR has taken control of established heritage titles such as The Scotsman and the Yorkshire
Post and has since launched several regional ‘World Sites’ and a new online national ‘NationalWorld.com’. Management have unpicked the centralisation which drove the decline of the heritage brands, with editorial and commercial responsibilities pushed back into the regions. The acquired assets have been heavily restructured, generating £5 million of annualised cost savings to date and with more to come as significant printing and office contracts come up for negotiation this year and next. These savings will allow management to re‐invest in digital and quality content to drive growth. NWOR is also free of legacy pension
liabilities and fixed costs and assets tied to printing activities which are a millstone around many other legacy‐publisher’s necks.
Ad‐supported businesses and subscription‐supported businesses are quite different. While the aim is to transition to the latter, realistically the business is going to be dependent on both for the foreseeable future. Ad revenues are driven by volume of traffic, whereas subscription requires much more finessing around lifetime value, acquisition costs and churn. This is less science and more art since some methods for converting a cohort of registrants to subscribers
will not work for others. But through data and tracking, management will be able to target users with different content and introductory or renewal rates and this should improve conversion.
Much is achieved from trial and error and that requires the right infrastructure to deliver effectively over many users.
The transition won’t happen overnight, but this is not a bad thing since the print titles are highly cash generative, and more time will allow management to get the reinvestment right. Early signs are positive with digital ad revenues, page views, and digital subscription revenues growing strongly. The size of the prize in digital is significant since we think that print operating margins of around 10%, will be replaced by digital operating margins which are much higher.
This obviously depends on scale, but since there is basically zero incremental cost to serve a digital audience, and the cost base is fixed (versus print cost bases which are high and variable), we think that there is a pathway to 20‐30% operating margins here. Digital is alsoadvantageous since the potential audience is much larger. The New York Times has already achieved more than 6x as many digital subscribers than their peak print circulation since digital
content can be consumed anywhere in the world. National World’s own title, The Scotsman, is gaining traction in regions which the print copy couldn’t access, and in August reached a record
19.5 million page views.
This investment is not without risk. But the heavy lifting in declining print to ‘variablise217; thatcost base has already been achieved. Combined with strong revenue growth and operating leverage in digital, and an experienced and aligned management team at the helm, we think that the prospects are strong. NWOR has £22 million of net cash and is trading on around 5x EV/ EBITDA and almost a 15% free cash flow yield, so there is sufficient optionality for value
creation here.

Peers such as Reach are more expensive, more complicated, and run a
considerably more capital‐intensive operation. If these businesses need to reinvest print cash flows to grow then NWOR has, in our view, the cleanest structure from which to do that.
NWOR’s cash is likely to be deployed into print assets at low valuations, or digital assets at higher valuations. Or, as we expect might be the case, a mix of both. In all scenarios, there is reasonable expectation of multiple and earnings expansion and a share price materially above where it is today. The current valuation must be viewed alongside a business with declining print revenues, but we still think this is particularly cheap given earnings should still grow through a combination of digital transition and continuous cost savings. If management can’t
find a transaction, then the business probably accumulates its market cap in net cash before the end of the decade. In our opinion, that is not a terrible downside.
Like Local World, we expect that an exit is the most likely route to value crystallisation. This could be to private equity looking for a cash generative stand‐alone asset, or an international print publishing group looking for an established and scalable digital platform to leverage their
existing titles. Timing is uncertain, but we do expect this will be a longer journey than management’s previous venture. We think that there are two key aspects to creating a strategically valuable enterprise here. The first is obviously the content itself – digital must be growing, profitable and have intrinsically valuable inventory, with the bonus of a highly cash generative print business in run‐off. The second is the digital infrastructure. We think that any buyer would be looking for a well‐structured, scalable, and portable digital publishing platform
which could be used as a vehicle to continue consolidating the space in the UK and
internationally.
Posted at 23/4/2022 13:40 by red ninja
Downing Strategic Micro Cap. I. T. March factsheet comment :-

National World (-0.8%) reported maiden results under our ownership.
The full year was a 10% upgrade versus consensus expectations which was pleasing. Both the print and digital business revenue performance was stronger than we expected. We continue to think that guidance is set conservatively here with cover price increases and stabilised ad revenues in print and the prospect of an exit run-rate of 200m average monthly page views. In addition, we expect the improved
conversion and monetisation of digital subscribers to play out through 2022. There are also significant further operating and tax savings to come through and £22 million of net cash to inorganically grow the business.
Posted at 23/2/2022 06:44 by tole
https://masterinvestor.co.uk/equities/national-world-getting-ready-for-the-next-share-price-move-upwards/National World – getting ready for the next share price move upwardsBy Mark Watson-Mitchell 21 February 2022 4 mins. to readNational World – getting ready for the next share price move upwardsIn mid-May last year, I alighted upon this budding media group.Within four months its shares had doubled in price.They subsequently peaked 130% higher than my profile price and easily breaking through my objective.It was at an early point in the group's development, just a few months after it had made a massive acquisition which totally changed its corporate path.From a 'tiddler' status in January last year that purchase helped to turn it into the third largest UK operator in its chosen sector.Shortly we should be seeing the first major year's results and, hopefully, signposting its future growth from its well-expanded base.The businessDavid Montgomery is 'a man of the print'. He was formerly with the Daily Mirror, The Sun, the News of the World and Today. He knows his sector very well and made a couple of fortunes for himself and fellow investors along the way.He also knew how to handle mergers and acquisitions within that trade, gaining further knowledge with his Mecom Group and then with Local World, the latter which was sold to the Reach Group.He set up National World (LON:NWOR) and floated the new company in September 2019.His aim was to acquire both historic and more recent news brands, then using latest technology to reduce costs while boosting online strategies.He then looks to jettison legacy systems and archaic industrial practices to create efficient dissemination of news, monetising it by matching content to audience.His new publishing business model enables his management 'to localise, energise, digitise and monetise relevant and unique content'.First stepping stoneWithin three months of coming to the market the company confirmed that it had been contemplating several acquisitions. It also stated that it had approached JPI, the remnants of the former Johnson Press International provincial newspaper empire.That was early December 2019. At the very end of 2020 the company announced the £10.2m acquisition of JPI Media Publishing and associated subsidiaries, making up the JPI Group, from JPI Media Ltd.In one big blow Montgomery kicked off the first part of his corporate strategy for National World.That cash and loan notes deal included a range of 13 regional and city daily newspapers, together with over 100 other franchises in print and online.Third biggest local publishing groupThe JPI Group is the third largest local news publisher in the UK and its iconic titles and websites include: The Scotsman, The Derry Journal, The Yorkshire Post, Belfast's The Newsletter (the oldest English language newspaper in the world), The Sheffield Star, Edinburgh Evening News, The Portsmouth News and The Lancashire Evening Post.What was effectively a 'reverse takeover', looks to have been a real coup for Montgomery and his team, who are also all well experienced within the print trade.EquityThere are some 259.4m shares in issue. Larger holders include Aberforth Partners (20.5%), David Montgomery, Chmn (7.02%), Gresham House Asset Management (4.73%), Downing (3.30%), Miton Asset Management (2.01%), Canaccord Genuity Wealth (1.83%), Vijay Vaghela, COO (1.29%), Paul Curtis (1.04%) and David Poutney (0.96%).Latest Trading UpdateIn the middle of last December, the enlarged group declared its Pre close Trading Update for the year ending 1 January 2022.Since the acquisition of JPI Media and its subsidiaries on 2 January 2021, the modernisation of the business proceeded at pace and the new owners have established a media presence across the whole of the UK with numerous online launches. At the same time, very much as planned, they have delivered efficiencies and there has been an improvement in advertising revenue.The group guided that revenue for last year was around £85m.It also stated that it was implementing a new phase of restructure to create a sustainable premium content and sales business, as well as maintaining performance in the near term.Brokers ViewAnalysts Paul Richards and Brendan D'Souza, at brokers Dowgate Capital, estimate that on last year's sales it could well have made £7.6m adjusted pre-tax profits, worth 3.0p per share in earnings.For the current year they go for a repeat £85m of revenues but with £8.1m of profits, generating slightly lower earnings of 2.4p per share.The next year, 2023, should see some £86.2m of sales and £8.9m profits, giving 2.6p in earnings per share.Upon the recent Update they increased their price objective from 50p to 55p per share.My ViewI do believe that Montgomery and his team have the talent and the ability to create a real force within the UK local and regional news publishing sector.Although we have no dates yet for the full final results being published, I imagine that they are not that far away.At that time I would expect the £70m group to step up its investor publicity quite significantly. They have a very good story to tell and that should reflect in a much higher share price.Last year the group's shares touched 42.28p, that was in early September. They subsequently fell away to just 24p at the start of this month.It is well worth noting that the shares also boast some 8p worth of net cash in the balance sheet.On Friday night they closed at 27p, I see them attempting to break above the previous High within the next year.
Posted at 09/11/2021 17:43 by tole
https://www.fool.co.uk/2021/11/09/this-small-cap-penny-share-has-unbelievable-growth-potential/This small-cap penny share has unbelievable growth potentialAndy Ross | Tuesday, 9th November, 2021 | More on: NWORChart displaying growth Image source: Getty Images.Although I primarily focus on value and growth at a reasonable price (GARP) shares, I do like to dabble in small-cap shares occasionally. This is why I set aside a small part of my portfolio for more speculative companies. I think this penny share has many characteristics that could lead to spectacular share price growth, so I'm tempted to buy right now. Penny share with huge growth potentialNational World (LSE: NWOR) is a recently listed media company that has gone from nothing in 2020 to having revenues of £42.1m. This is a result of its acquisition of JPIMedia Publishing. The 2 January 2021 acquisition gave National World 13 regional and city daily newspapers, plus over 100 print and online publications. One of the major attractions of this share for me is the quality of the management team. It seems like they have pedigree and know the media industry inside out. Chairman David Montgomery was chief executive of Local World, which was acquired by Reach in 2015. Vijay Vaghela, the COO, was most recently group finance director of Reach.Mr Montgomery also holds about 7.5% of the shares, so his interests are well aligned with those of private investors. Unfortunately, many companies don't incentivise directors to be well aligned with ordinary investors, which is a shame but hey ho...The National World business model should work. Shares in Reach have been flying over the past 18 months as investors cotton on to its growth potential and digital transformation success.Looking at it right now, it's early days for sure for National World. There's a lot of work still to be done. But it has a scalable business model, a strong management team, and no or very few legacy issues to deal with because it's a new company. That makes it a very exciting investment, from my point of view.What could go wrong?As an acquisitive company, National World could end up overpaying for new websites and other media titles. That's probably the main risk I'm worried about as a potential investor. Also, while management has experience in digitalising media assets, it's not always an easy way to make money. In tough economic times, advertising is often cut. A change in how Alphabet's Google ranks websites could hit traffic. The group may not create content that leads to high levels of subscription and recurring revenue. That would also hit its profitability.As with all companies, especially small caps, the journey with this share is likely to be rocky and testing. The shares will fluctuate – fact. However, the payoff, if management get enough things right and grow revenue and profits in the coming years, could be huge. Despite being a penny share right now, National World could become much bigger and much better known in the coming years. I'm tempted to invest, at least a little, in the shares.
Posted at 07/11/2021 07:55 by waspfactory
The Momentum Investor Nov 21
"With cash of £19.1m, management are eyeing further aquisitions...the prospective PE of 12.5 is modest given it's growing from a low base with market cap under £78m and I think more M&A will drive the shares higher"