Smoove Share Discussion Threads

[masurenguy] 30/6/2023 14:57

Still no news on the potential takeover talks. The basic synergy that would exist for PEXA acquiring Smoove could enable a faster acceleration of their business in the UK. This would give them an early stage dominant market position here. If no deal is done then they would just continue as evolving competitors on an individual basis.

Currently PEXA UK is only involved in remortgaging services, based upon offering technology solutions and platforms to UK lenders, lawyers and conveyancers in England and Wales, but also plans to expand into property sale and purchase in 2024. Smoove already provides a software platform for property transactions, which helps home movers to find and compare solicitors and estate agents. Smoove also provides many other services related to moving home that cover the administrative aspects of moving, such as packing lists, utility services and checklists.

At todays shareprice the current market cap of Smoove is only circa £23.5m, which includes circa £10m in cash. Consequently, the operating business is only valued at around £14m. If a deal was done at say 95p it would only value the business at circa £50m after deducting the net cash balance.

[masurenguy] 20/6/2023 10:29

Institutional share transactions have to be announced when the company concerned has publicly announced that they are in takeover/merger discussions with a third party. There is probably some regulatory compliance relating to PEXA tactial share transactions but I'm just as mystified as you are in relation to the timeframe of these negotiations.

[earwacks] 20/6/2023 10:22

Why are they releasing all these absurd RNS about Pexa buying 1 share and selling 1 share everyday. Is the plan to try bankrupt us by inane RnSs

[masurenguy] 16/6/2023 17:00

Extension of deadline under Rule 2.6(c) of the Code

On 24 April 2023, the Company announced that it was in early discussions with PEXA Group Ltd, regarding a possible cash offer for the entire issued and to be issued share capital of the Company.

Discussions between the parties remain ongoing and, to allow further time for these discussions to continue, in accordance with Rule 2.6(c) of the Code, the Board has requested, and the Panel on Takeovers and Mergers (the "Takeover Panel") has consented to, an extension to the deadline by which PEXA is required either to announce a firm intention to make an offer for Smoove in accordance with Rule 2.7 of the Code or to announce that it does not intend to make an offer, in which case the announcement will be treated as a statement to which Rule 2.8 of the Code applies. Such announcement must now be made by not later than 5.00 p.m. on 14 July 2023. This deadline can be further extended by the Board, with the consent of the Takeover Panel in accordance with Rule 2.6(c) of the Code. There can be no certainty either that an offer will be made nor as to the terms of any offer, if made. A further announcement will be made as and when appropriate.

[red ninja] 16/6/2023 16:59

Yes another month. See Rns.

[paulsavannah] 16/6/2023 16:56

Where do u see that?

[earwacks] 16/6/2023 16:54

Extended deadline again. Not quite finished downloading all their software yet?

[techno20] 16/6/2023 13:55

Transaction may not be complex, but the market they are operating in is chaotic at the moment, which won’t be helping!

[aimsurfer] 16/6/2023 11:42

Two months of discussions with potential another extension is weird, this is not a complicated business to review and value. What exactly are they waiting for. Make an offer or pull out from discussions. This is taking way too smoove and slow :)

[earwacks] 16/6/2023 10:44

We are 80% owned by institutions. Imagine trying to get an agreement from that lot! I guess a lot depends on who paid what when. The sale of their last business provided significant investment for this current set up and acquisitions which are now assets to the company. Absolutely no reason to sell it for anything less than fair value. They didnt put themselves up for sale. Seems a few opportunists were hoping to get lucky. The question is how badly does Pexa need Smv?

[earwacks] 16/6/2023 10:42

We are 80% owned by institutions. Imagine trying to get an agreement from that lot! I guess a lot depends on who paid what when. The sale of their last business provided significant investment for this current set up and acquisitions which are now assets to the company. Absolutely no reason to sell it for anything less than fair value.

[aimsurfer] 16/6/2023 09:29

It's been two months now, they better not announce discussions are at early stage and extend again with more details. Why keep prolonging these discussions.

[red ninja] 16/6/2023 08:40

An extension is possible if they need it.

You'd have thought they would have made up their minds and could tell us now rather that at 5pm.

I belive Shroders and R&M have eased their position down a little. Maybe they are hedging their bets.

[earwacks] 15/6/2023 17:33

Can’t think they have anything left to discuss. Unless it’s a bluffing game. I believe they can ask the takeover panel to extend a further deadline. When sky news broke the story they suggested buyers were queuing up. So far there has been a withdrawn proposal for a merger and Pexa. Is it possible there are others waiting? Going to be a while before Smv see £1 a share again under their own steam but more the possible in a few years. Would rather take the money now to re invest

[masurenguy] 12/6/2023 14:36

Extended deadline expires just after the market close on Friday. No leaks, and little trading activity, to date so we still wait to see whether there is an acceptable deal on the table or not.

[masurenguy] 08/6/2023 08:27

At the current shareprice of circa 45p, the market cap is only around £25.6m, including £10m in cash.

[aimsurfer] 08/6/2023 08:21

I don't think there is much of a market with this share, it's so illiquid with 95% of the shares held by those holding 1% position or above.

[earwacks] 08/6/2023 07:51

The market looks entirely focussed on deal or no deal with Pexa, when actually Smv looks do be doing quite well on the quiet business wise, in very turbulent market.

[aimsurfer] 08/6/2023 07:30

I would speculate PEXA were made inside on this deal and maybe waiting for official announcement before meeting the valuation board expects.

[masurenguy] 08/6/2023 07:19

Wonder how PEXA view this partnership in the context of current negotiations!

Strategic Partnership with Mortgage Advice Bureau significantly enhancing market reach

Smoove has entered into a strategic agreement with Mortgage Advice Bureau plc ("MAB") to provide conveyancing comparison and related home-buying support services. The strategic agreement will provide conveyancing comparison services to MAB's 2,000+ Advisers through both Smoove's web platform and Connect APIs. MAB will integrate Smoove's solutions with its MIDAS platform, allowing MAB's Advisers seamless access to conveyancing comparison services . The agreement also includes swift DigitalMove onboarding for MAB customers to interact with their chosen professional specialists.

[aimsurfer] 08/6/2023 07:10

Given 2023 Conveyancing completions were 53,224, this news feels very significant."Last year, our Appointed Representatives and their Advisers helped more than 150,000 customers find the right mortgage."If 10% of those use Smoove for Conveyancing that's significant growth.

[bobbym82] 07/6/2023 20:43

Hoping there's a deal in the offing here. Won't be selling on this little drop. Next Friday should reveal all...

[bobbym82] 07/6/2023 09:31

There are only just over 57 million shares in issue after the tender offer so £1 per share would be £57 million cap. ??

[masurenguy] 06/6/2023 17:02

Some relevant contextual background information on PEXA below. If AimSurfer is right that "PEXA have realised that the UK conveyancing market is very different to Australia and therefore you can't just port the technology over that works there" then Smoove could be a good fit to accelerate their market development programme in the UK. Given PEXA's market valuation a price of say circa 100p per share (£65m) would be peanuts to them. However it depends on both the quality and comparative ease of integration of the Smoove software and the aspirations of the both management and the major shareholders in terms of valuation. We can only wait and see how this develops.

PEXA is an entirely online property exchange network which completed its first transaction in the state of Victoria in 2013 and since then has handled more than 11m transactions in Australia. It was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange last year and currently has a market capitalisation of A$2.8bn (£1.6bn).

In the UK, the PEXA platform provides an automated solution integrated with the Land Registry and the Bank of England to enable frictionless remortgages and faster settlements. PEXA’s UK platform, Optima Legal, demonstrates the benefits of digital completions to its lender and customer base. Lenders benefit from reduced processing costs, decreased time to settlement, and increased remortgage capacity. Customers obtain increased speed and certainty, greater transparency of the post-offer process and better loan deals via the ease of switching. In Australia, remortgaging times have dropped from an average of 42 to 15 days, with some remortgages even completing in one day.

[aimsurfer] 23/5/2023 09:20

Options price is interesting reference. You would think the target was set low on purpose. I don't have access to Panmure analyst report but few online sources seem to indicate 91p target price. SMV 2025 back to profit targets were set in q4 and were based on conservative estimates. As we know in q4 there last year we had fears of deep recession and significant impact on property transactions. Times now are different but don't forget YE 2020 econveyancer was doing 19m revenue and 5m ebitda. CAL was sold for 3x revenue and 10x ebitda. If we ignore recent investments into revenue diversification econveyancer alone should easily support current valuation including 10m existing cash position. Accepting or recommending offer around this price is unthinkable for me but who knows. Comparing PEXA valuation to SMV it's a no brainer for them to spend £50m here just to reinforce and protect their own growth and valuation going forward.