We could not find any results for:
Make sure your spelling is correct or try broadening your search.
Register for streaming realtime charts, analysis tools, and prices.
| Share Name | Share Symbol | Market | Stock Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| National World Plc | NWOR | London | Ordinary Share |
| Price Change | Price Change % | Share Price | Last Trade
|
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.00 | 0.00% | 22.50 | 08:00:21 |
| Open Price | Low Price | High Price | Close Price | Previous Close |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22.50 | 22.50 | 22.70 | 22.50 | 22.50 |
| Industry Sector |
|---|
| SOFTWARE & COMPUTER SERVICES |
| Top Posts |
|---|
Posted at 27/11/2024 09:55 by red ninja National World shareholder calls on board to engage with £56mn takeover bidHarwood Capital says newspaper group should negotiate a higher offer price One of the biggest shareholders in National World has called on the company’s board to enter discussions over a potential sale to Media Concierge, which last week made a £56mn takeover approach for the listed newspaper group. National World, which is one of the UK’s largest regional newspaper owners with The Yorkshire Post and The Scotsman, is at the centre of a takeover battle between its board, led by veteran media boss David Montgomery, and Media Concierge, its largest shareholder, run by Malcolm Denmark. Harwood Capital, which is the sixth largest shareholder in the company and an investor since its initial public offering in 2019, has pushed the company to engage with Media Concierge to try to negotiate a higher price than the 21p a share offered last week. Richard Staveley, a partner at Harwood, which owns more than 5 per cent of National World’s stock, told the Financial Times that Media Concierge could “pay slightly more” for the business, which could make the deal acceptable. Harwood has met with the company this week to discuss the bid. “We are keen for National World to engage with the offer,” Staveley said. “We are encouraging the board to engage fully and agree on a price to vote on.” Media Concierge, which owns 28 per cent of National World, offered 21p a share for the business, a 40 per cent premium to its closing price before the bid was made public on Friday. Staveley said he was concerned that the board might not engage fully with the approach, given the two sides are already locked in a commercial dispute that erupted last week in a series of accusations and counter claims. “It is not good to see this commercial dispute to come up at this point,” said Staveley. “We don’t want to see this dispute frustrating the chance to give shareholders the vote on an offer for the company.” In a statement, National World said that it had undertaken a “significant amount of work with its financial and legal advisers to evaluate the possible offer”. It added: “The board has confidence in National World’s strategy for value creation as an independent business, but acknowledges the potential merits of the possible offer. The work to evaluate the possible offer continues and further announcements will be made as and when appropriate.” Over the weekend, Media Concierge said that National World’s advisers had indicated that they would provide access for “limited and confirmatory due diligence” but that this had not yet been provided. Media Concierge said that it was “unclear whether the board of National World has any intention to engage meaningfully”. The approach from Media Concierge last week prompted National World to reveal that it was investigating “a potentially systemic pattern of historical invoicing irregularities in relation to the activities of entities affiliated with Media Concierge”, relating to an advertising deal between the two companies. Entities affiliated with Media Concierge were also withholding revenues of £4.4mn, it said. Media Concierge said the allegations were “completely baseless and are strongly denied in their entirety”. It added that National World had provided no evidence to support the allegations, and noted that the timing coincided with the initial takeover approach. The amounts that were allegedly “withheld&rdqu National World said that for Media Concierge’s potential offer to be evaluated, it had requested access to historical records to facilitate the investigation, but these had not yet been provided. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2024. All rights reserved. Reuse this content(opens in new window)CommentsJump to comments section |
Posted at 22/10/2024 21:44 by red ninja Bought a few more today.I’m hoping that NWOR can survive the Ni tax raid, new workers rights and CGT hit on investors. Hopefully Labour won’t remove the AIM inheritance tax break assuming they don”t want to finish off the AIM market. |
Posted at 03/8/2024 11:55 by napoleon 14th Forensic analyst Small Caps Live writes very +ively:National World (NWOR.L) - Half-Year Results. Strong results and outlook here: "Revenues in July have increased by 13% year on year. The Company will continue to benefit in the second half from three key drivers - the acquired businesses, new launches and relaunches of heritage brands. Tight cost management remains a critical factor as in the whole sector. Adjusted EBITDA of £5.0 million, up 61% and adjusted operating profit of £4.7 million, up 62%." Not all of this is organic, where revenue is likely flat, if not down slightly. This would be much better than Reach, though, which they have an apparent dig at: "The Company's primary focus is to build a sustainable and monetisable content business, embracing its news provision tradition but with a wider agenda across all platforms. This pivoting of the business has continued unabated despite the economic headwinds in the first half." Broker Dowgate join in the Reach pile-on: "Balance sheet. Net cash finished the period at £13.0m, equal to 5p per share. The group has no defined benefit pension obligations or earnouts." They also say: "We view the encouraging H1 results as firmly underpinning our FY24 PBT/EPS estimates of £11.0m/3.0p." This is down from 3.1p but a very minor change. There is scope for their dividend forecast to be beaten, though, as National World has declared an interim dividend for the first time. They don’t say if they will reduce the final dividend accordingly but think there is a chance that this beats expectations for payout. The high dividend payout is one of the reasons some investors take the risk with Reach. However, fast forward a few years and Reach may be forced to cut theirs, given the weak balance sheet there, so National World may overtake their yield unless prices change to reflect the valuation disparity. Like Reach, National World is a company that likes their adjustments, and for both companies, you could argue that restructuring is part of their business model, not a one-off item. Here, the figure has reduced to £ 0.6m from £1m, and the rest of the exceptional are goodwill write-downs, which we think is usually correct to adjust out, So Mark would go for £4.1m operating profit, not the £4.7m declared, to be the true underlying, but this makes it still pretty much the cheapest UK trading company on an earnings basis. So far, the share price rise has been modest, reflecting the confident but in-line outlook. However, this doesn’t even reverse the drop on no news that happened over the last month, presumably from boredom amongst smaller investors. Running the numbers and assuming the restructuring costs are part of normal business and adjusting for cash, then this works out to be a P/E of 5.7 for FY24 and 5.1 for FY25 at the current buy price. On the same basis (and including agreed cash payments to the pension trustee), Reach is on 10.3x for a much riskier business that, in our opinion, is not run as well. We get the concerns with declining revenue and why some may want to avoid the sector, but it seems nonsensical that investors would prefer Reach in the sector on double the rating. |
Posted at 11/8/2023 07:44 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 18:58 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 12:40 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" |
It looks like you are not logged in. Click the button below to log in and keep track of your recent history.
Support: +44 (0) 203 8794 460 | support@advfn.com
By accessing the services available at ADVFN you are agreeing to be bound by ADVFN's Terms & Conditions
Hot Features
Premium
