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Share Name | Share Symbol | Market | Stock Type |
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National World Plc | NWOR | London | Ordinary Share |
Open Price | Low Price | High Price | Close Price | Previous Close |
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16.50 | 16.50 | 18.25 | 18.00 | 16.50 |
Industry Sector |
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SOFTWARE & COMPUTER SERVICES |
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Posted at 11/8/2023 08:44 by maxk Local publisher National World declares interest in bidding for The TelegraphAn 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‐the̴ (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 liabilities and fixed costs and assets tied to printing activities which are a millstone around many other legacy‐publish Ad‐supported businesses and subscription‐s 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 ‘variablise creation here. Peers such as Reach are more expensive, more complicated, and run a considerably more capital‐intens 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‐structure 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://masterinvest |
Posted at 09/11/2021 17:43 by tole https://www.fool.co. |
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" |
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