Sosandar Share Discussion Threads

[ramridge] 30/10/2018 15:58

paulypilot -
Let's get to the bottom line. Sosander is a story stock. Period.
IMO, the probability that it flies and becomes a multi-bagger is about the same as the probability that it falls flat on its face and quietly dies in a corner.
If you believe, as you do, in the former then you should stuff your socks, again, as you have done.
If you believe otherwise, then move on. There are enough opportunities being thrown up by the current wobbly stock market. Put your time where it matters.
I hope it works out for you.

[someuwin] 30/10/2018 13:17

"...There is a large addressable market for Sosandar to target. Sosandar is an ageless brand with a wide spread of customers across all age groups but a strong core demographic amongst 30-55 year old women. This demographic spends £3.7bn on fashion per annum and the UK online clothing market is estimated to be worth c£16.2bn today and is forecast by Mintel to grow to £29.0bn by 2022 – an annual compounded growth rate of 12.4%."

[ramridge] 30/10/2018 10:59

Here is a new law I'd like to put forward.

The length of a blogger's reply is directly proportional to the potential loss he is likely to incur if the share tanks.

[wwepe] 30/10/2018 10:43

Who is CR?

[someuwin] 30/10/2018 08:39

I'm adding at these levels.

[puzzler2] 30/10/2018 07:44

That looks like a very clear head and shoulders forming on the chart, suggesting that the share price could fall below the placing price to 20p?

[jamesto2] 29/10/2018 22:05

RE: London Stock Exchange
A slightly longer one:

[paulypilot] 27/10/2018 12:58

re post 1077 - please don't invent lies about me. I have not sold my Sosandar shares, and have no intention of doing so. This is a buy & hold forever stock for me. I don't care what the short term share price does, as it's just falling on low volumes, in a general market panic/correction.

The fundamentals at SOS are roaring ahead of plan. Originally it was forecast to do about £3m revenues this year. At the interim stage (which includes quiet summer months, in a record-breaking heatwave) revenues were £1.84m - NB remember this is net of returns, so it's a true net revenue figure. Up 407% on H1 last year. That's stunning growth - yes, from a low base, but still it augurs very well for the future.

Gross margin is also amazingly high, for such a small company - up from 46% in H1 LY, to 55% in H1 this year. That's higher than Asos's gross margin, and higher than a lot of High Street (much larger) retailers. This proves that Sosandar's designs are what the customer wants, which is fundamentally what this sector is all about. It also shows that Sosandar has pricing power (as it's more expensive than most mass market competitors, but cheaper than "designer" brands).

A high gross margin is also proof that Sosandar is achieving full price for most sales. It does very little discounting, because many product lines sell out at full price. What does that tell you? That demand exceeds supply - hence we can expect continuing strong growth, as the company gains in confidence any places larger orders.

Compare this with many other online (and physical) retailers, which are continously discounting & doing special offers, to stimulate demand. SOS doesn't need to do that, as the product sells itself, by being better designed than competitors. This is the benefit of having management that are steeped in fashion, from a publishing background - they know exactly what their customers want. Everything else can be outsourced, or delegated, which is exactly what they've done. The sourcing director is ex-Matalan, and other key staff have the necessary experience, e.g. in marketing. IT and logistics are all outsourced, so the team of only about 24 staff at Sosandar can get on with what they do best. It's a fantastic, and infinitely scaleable business model.

The returns level is too high, but this should come down in the autumn/winter season, due to the product mix changing. Also, I discussed the issue of sizing with the company recently. I'm told that there's no such thing as standard sizing in womenswear. Instead each company uses their own fit, and customers get to know what size suits them best, through trial and error. Dresses are a more complex fit too, so the returns rate is higher. Returned goods are re-sold, so the only financial impact is 2 lots of postage & handling costs for returned goods. Not such a huge issue at the higher price points Sosandar deals in (over £100 average order value).

As regards the placing, again I made enquiries, and am happy with this now. It wasn't a normal placing, in that the company didn't seek new funds. Instead a couple of institutions offered them fresh funding, as they were keen to invest. It was decided to accept the offer, because it shores up the balance sheet (hence de-risking things for everyone), and the dilution of under 10% is inconsequential.

In any case, due to crazy market conditions, we can now buy the shares cheaper in the open market, at sub-30p. I think in the long run, this will look a remarkably good buying opportunity. I'm basing that view on my expectations that the company is likely to report very strong autumn/winter trading, after Xmas. Why? Well, we already know that Sept trading was a record month - that's important because it's when new season A/W stock is launched. So a strong Sept augurs well for the rest of the season. It also means the company has time to get in repeat orders of the best-selling lines, to have 2 bits of the cake in one season - a big advantage that eCommerce companies have. Larger physical retailers are generally not nimble enough, with slow supply chains, to be able to do this.

All in all, the fundamentals here are fantastic, and it won't be long before the company grows into the valuation. Value investors & people who don't understand the sector, will no doubt think that the valuation is far too high. That's fine, many people (including me!) were moaning about how over-valued Asos was, all the way up from £1 to £70! The fact is that the market is willing to pay a high valuation for exceptional growth companies.

I did some comparison work recently, looking back through Asos's published accounts from start-up to now. Putting Sosandar's figures alongside them, Sosandar is actually growing faster than Asos's early days - although to be fair, Sosandar is spending more on marketing, and running heavier early stage losses than did Asos.

Of course, that's no guarantee that Sosandar will turn into the next Asos, but it's a bloody good start! There's little doubt that Sosandar is in the process of becoming a much bigger business. It's astonishing what they have already achieved in just 2 years. That's why the share price appears high, for an early stage company - because they're executing so well, and exceeding the initial (very ambitious) growth rates. You don't see that very often.

It's expensive on historic numbers, but very cheap based on the potential opportunity here. I have a £3/share price target, with a 2-3 year view - providing of course that stellar growth continues. It may not do, as with everything, there's always a risk of something going wrong. Hence why it's vital for everyone to do your own research & take responsibility for your own investment decisions, and not base it on someone else's enthusiasm.

Anyway, as you can see from my public portfolio, Beam Me Up Scotty (I didn't chose the name, Ed Croft did, when he cajoled me into setting up a public portfolio - something I didn't really want to do), I haven't sold Sosandar, and it remains by far my largest holding, both in real life, and in BMUS, which is here for anyone interested:

People who put up posts here saying things like, Oh I expect Paul Scott has sold out, and hasn't told us - actually this tells us all we need to know about the person writing that post, as that's how their minds work! That's not how I work. I'm a long-term investor, and short term price disruption in the market doesn't bother me - it's part of the process, you have to endure prices going down as well as up, as part of normal market volatility, especially in smaller caps, which can be very volatile for no reason at all.

We can choose to be part of the stampeding herds, that rush in & out of shares, depending on which way the share price is going, or we can just take a long term view and ignore price fluctuations. I'm in the latter camp. In any case, my position sizes in small caps are far too large to be able to move in & out, so I don't even attempt it.

When the time does come to sell, I adjust BMUS accordingly - as you can see from the history of my public portfolio.

Anyway good luck all. We're going through a market correction, which happens from time to time. In my experience that's when, in the words of Uncle Warren Buffett, it pays to be "greedy when others are fearful, and fearful when others are greedy". After all, this game is all about BLASH - Buying Low And Selling High.

For that reason, I'm looking to buy more Sosandar on any further dips. There are lots of other buying opportunities out there at the moment too. I spotted several in last week's SCVRs, e.g. PHTM and FLO (I don't hold either, yet) which both look good value and reporting decent figures. There are some cracking dividend yields out there now too. This is the first time in several years that the market is offering us genuine bargains, in my view.

The key point with Sosandar is that we're buying in to great management, with many years' experience in the fashion sector. They're doing something genuinely different - targeting an under-served niche for affluent women aged 35-55, with product designs specifically suited to flatter the figure of the target demographic. Performance to date is ahead of the ambitious original plans, so there's everything to play for here. I think the recent share price weakness is an opportunity, not a worry.

Sorry for length of post, but lots to discuss!

Best wishes, Paul.

[jamesto2] 26/10/2018 07:49

MMX OPENS LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE TO MARK LAUNCH OF .LUXE


Minds + Machines Group Limited (AIM: MMX), the top-level domain registry company, is today honoured to be joined by its commercial partners Alibaba Cloud and Ethereum to open trading on London Stock Exchange and celebrate the official launch of .luxe.


.luxe is the first top-level domain designed to resolve naming conventions both on the World Wide Web and the Ethereum blockchain.


The Company also announces that it is now a member of London Stock Exchange's Issuer Services Marketplace enabling the Company to generate deeper awareness amongst London Stock Exchange Group listed companies for .luxe and its wider portfolio of new domain name extensions.

[jamesto2] 26/10/2018 07:31

Big blockchain news just out on MMX

[jamesto2] 26/10/2018 07:31

Regulatory News

MMX opens LSE to mark launch of .luxe
Fri, 26th Oct 2018 07:00

RNS Number : 2482F
Minds + Machines Group Limited
26 October 2018
For release: 07.00 am, 26 October 2018


Minds + Machines Group Limited

("MMX" or the "Company")


MMX OPENS LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE TO MARK LAUNCH OF .LUXE


Minds + Machines Group Limited (AIM: MMX), the top-level domain registry company, is today honoured to be joined by its commercial partners Alibaba Cloud and Ethereum to open trading on London Stock Exchange and celebrate the official launch of .luxe.


.luxe is the first top-level domain designed to resolve naming conventions both on the World Wide Web and the Ethereum blockchain.


The Company also announces that it is now a member of London Stock Exchange's Issuer Services Marketplace enabling the Company to generate deeper awareness amongst London Stock Exchange Group listed companies for .luxe and its wider portfolio of new domain name extensions.


Toby Hall, CEO of MMX, commented:


"Our goal is simple - to create a trusted naming convention that can work across multiple blockchains as well as the World Wide Web. To achieve this, we are working with the world's fastest growing blockchain, Ethereum, as a cornerstone partner in this initiative. We look forward to welcoming others into .luxe in the coming months as well as creating broader awareness for human readable digital identifiers that can work in multiple online universes. We are likewise delighted to be joined today by our retail partner, Alibaba Cloud."


Currently there is no interoperable naming convention across the World Wide Web and separate blockchains. Each blockchain typically uses a randomly generated hexadecimal string as the public identifier for each item. For example, on Ethereum, the hexadecimal string is 42 characters long. Through .luxe, it will be possible to use a relevant, memorable name of the user's choice instead of the cumbersome string as the public identifier. The same .luxe name can then also be used on the World Wide Web helping to generate further trust and transparency between parties.


Dr Robert Barnes, Global Head of Primary Markets and CEO Turquoise, London Stock Exchange Group, said:


"We are delighted to welcome Minds + Machines, one of our listed companies, to open the London market. London is a world-leading fintech hub and we are committed to supporting the growth of fintech businesses."


Yeming Wang, general manager of Alibaba Cloud EMEA, said:


"As one of the top three global Infrastructure-as-a-Service providers and a technology innovator, we have helped many companies across the globe with their digital transformation initiatives. Our mission is to provide a scalable, secure and robust platform so customers can focus on delivering business results. With a similar belief in mind, we are proud to be partnering with MMX to help bring a simple, consistent and user-friendly solution to a digitally-born technology, so users can concentrate on building the products to better serve the Blockchain communities."


Nick Johnson, Lead Developer Ethereum Name Service, said:


"We are delighted to welcome .luxe into the Ethereum Name Service. We see the approach being taken by MMX as fulfilling an essential role in generating broader mainstream understanding and adoption of blockchain solutions with ease-of-use and usability being central to their thinking."


Sales of .luxe names to the general public will begin on 6 November 2018. However, there is an Early Access Programme running from 1600 UTC on 30 October 2018, where names can be purchased ahead of general availability subject to an additional one-time fee. For further information on .luxe and its launch time-table, please visit www.join.luxe


- ends -

[jackson83] 24/10/2018 18:52

Did Paul sell down his holding the other week ???? 👀

[jackson83] 24/10/2018 18:34

KOOVs is not the next ASOS
...and that’s okay.

There was a lot of hope for KOOVs to be the next ASOS. However, that’s not the right
way to look at it.

Comparing ASOS to KOOVs is unrealistic. The UK market had a well-established ‘high street’ culture for ASOS to disrupt. India is not the same, it’s an emerging market with no comparable high street, there are brands of course, but the clothes shopping culture isn’t the same.

Obviously, the mistake KOOVs management was treating the Indian market too similarly to the UKs and not taking into account the differences in both the retail space and online shopping behaviour, essentially, KOOVs were 3-4 years too early. The marketing spend was too high for such an immature market and as a result, the sales haven’t yet materialised.

On the surface, this all sounds quite bad, however, what this has led to is high brand awareness, a great online shopping experience and high NPS scores. All of those things are valuable particularly to a customer base made up of young fashion-conscious shoppers.

The partnership with FLFL is key to KOOVs success, they now have funding and a partner with retail real estate who is incentivised through (up to 30%) ownership to ensure KOOVs has prime locations in their shopping malls.

Having lived in China, I’ve experienced the impact of the shopping malls catering to the new middle class, they are constantly busy with local and foreign brands selling clothes to the Chinese middle class at Western prices. KOOVs earlier investment in brand awareness and its London-based designers mean that KOOVs are well placed to compete in this area in India.

This new partnership has two key effects:

Increasing margins to accelerate KOOVs path to profitability by gaining scale through additional distribution channels

An alternative to expensive marketing for sustained brand awareness

KOOVs have done a great job building a brand, compare them to their top ten competitors and you can see they know fashion and how to design a good shopping experience. They’re a brand people will want to buy clothes to impress from, not the likes of Amazon or Myntra (no one wants to buy their clothes at the same place they buy their doormat).

Ultimately, there is a reason FLFL took a large stake in KOOVs at 15p per share. They’re a strong growing company and see the benefits of the KOOVs brand both on and offline.

IMO, Long-term outlook:

KOOVs becomes a well-respected fashion brand AND online marketplace. Fashion conscious shoppers don’t buy clothes from Amazon, they either go to a physical shop, or to a specialist retailer which offers what’s stylish and good quality.

As I see it, and why I bought and will continue to at a price I think makes sense, KOOVS is not the next ASOS, it's more like the next Inditex, and I'm okay given the potential market size and the partnerships KOOVS has to succeed in this space.

[jamesto2] 23/10/2018 00:20

Harebridge you had your chance to buy into SOSANDAR under 12p lol

[harebridge] 22/10/2018 15:17

Jamesto2 is jackson83 is hotaimstocks. This cretin was one of the early holders in Koovs & previously wroteJamesto2 Unfortunately I bought most of my shares above 86p and wrote the lot offLost his shirt with Koovs, now 10p, so trolls day & night on various threads he has set up to make himself feel better. A classic AIM mug punter.

[hotaimstocks] 21/10/2018 22:32

Today 17:29 Price: 10.80
Jambon 6,131 posts
RE: Re Paul Scott @paulypilot response
I really dont get it to be honest.... Take your own pick but the fact is do you listen to some plonker who writes about hundreds of shares or do you follow the actions of people who have made real money in life such as Biyani and Ali, when Biyani whacked 10 million in this at 15p that tells me a lot more that paul scotts silly comments do...