LONDON, July 08, 2024--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Com Laude, leading global provider of internet domain name management and online brand protection to many of the world’s foremost brands, announced the appointment of Ben Crawford as Chief Executive Officer and Director. The news follows Com Laude’s recent strategic growth investment from pan-European private equity firm PX3 Partners.
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Does anyone know why Ben left the company?
As soon as he left the share buyback commenced. |
My view on the above query:... Only if he has an accomplice holding enough shares to sell him at an ever lower price. However that would be illegal on the grounds that a concert party is selling shares to itself to create a false market. All the shares involved are effectively under the control of the same entity (the concert party) and the combined holding should have been declared meaning no real sale has taken place. |
When do you close your short sceptical? |
Until TiG can put some evidence on the table as to why they purchased an Israeli company at a hugely over inflated price no serious investor is going to touch this. So price will continue to fall. |
Can a purchaser drive the price of shares down to make a lower bid for the company? |
So we learn that Kestrel bought 190k shares last week, buying on every day, and maybe they are buying this week with another delayed RNS, but what does it mean? |
Ben Crawford was skilled at capital allocation. Two years later TIG has spent millions on buybacks and the share is at a multi-year low. |
Tempted to follow the Kestrel buying, but it hasn’t had a positive effect so far… |
Agree Boadi…reasssurance. |
That Kestrel/Royde purchase on Thursday should cheer you up a bit, ggrantsu. They now hold over 26% of TIG and must have expectations - but we can only guess what they are!
It puts them in pole postion to broker or frustrate any corporate deal and an absolute postion to reject any SoA proposal of which they disapprove. |
 Not commented up until now but thought I'd share my thoughts...
Christ...what a brutal brutal drop. 200p to 84p...
I have to say...I'm struggling to comprehend the Shinez acquisition...to have paid out shareholder money for something that is now potentially going to be loss making. 40mm dollars were paid...for a business expected to do c.11mm dollars in EBITDA at least this year. It is totally staggering...I hate to say it but I cannot think of another situation like this in my investment career...not one which has happened so quickly. I mean they literally bought it with shareholder money and it must have been the next week when the business fell off a cliff...
the people who got paid that 40mmm...it is an absolute coup for them. they have literally pulled off one of the biggest heists in UK small cap land throughout history.
While I appreciate the company just wants to move on...this is an absolutely shocking destruction of value. I have a lot of respect for the team at TIG...who have up until now not put a foot wrong...but on this occasion I am really taken aback. Does mgmt have any way of pursuing an action in court? I guess caveat emptor applies...it is devastating. To think that money could have been spent on a buyback.
I have noted mgmt see a route forward using Shinez's technology across the rest of the OM business. While that is somewhat a positive...it doesn't really alter the numbers involved here.
I think the Shinez debacle would have seen the stock trade down here anyway...but I'm probably more concerned by the RPM declines. I understand that the RPM data is affected by a multitude of factors but the declines QoQ seem fairly enormous and are sooner or later not going to be offset by volume increases...surely? If volumes slowed and RPM's kept dropping at a double digit % rate...there won't be an OM business left.
Feels screamingly cheap but if you think about how the business was rated when TONIC was growing QoQ at +20% organically...one realises that we could really stay cheap given growth has now slowed to a halt.
It's difficult to see any other way for a massive re-rating in the public markets until OP is split out at a considerably higher multiple. its encouraging that they are clearly very focused on doing this in the nearer term now. i the meantime I just hope things stabilise across the rest of the business...
I want this to succeed (for my own sake!)...but its going to potentially be quite a long road back.
little bit disheartened not to see the usual Royde purchases + any other inside buys. |
There needs to be some decisive management action here, either a head rolls or a recovery plan is put forward. They were clearly mislead by Shinez, and it doesn’t wash to just state previous acquisitions have been successful., and It seems crazy to be buying back shares, despite how cheap they are, to improve shareholder value when the share price is tanking, especially with their level of debt. |
New note out from Edison:
They forecast 22.9c EPS this year, rising to 23.3c EPS next year - a P/E of 4.8...
That's with 2.3p and 2.5p dividends.
They conclude (when the share price was 102p):
"Valuation: Ample opportunities for value creation
The shares look overly discounted at an FY25e P/E of 5.6x (a c 50% discount to
adtech peers) and an FCF yield of 20%. We believe this discount should start to
close if trading remains stable, as expected, and investors gain more visibility on
the impact of key strategic initiatives. Management initiatives to deliver value
through capital returns or asset sales could deliver substantial upside." |
A lot of talk of returning shareholder value, buybacks/divvies but halving share price is hardly value! Management should be 100% focused on growing the business with astute acquisitions, cross selling, synergies etc, . I wonder where Kestrel are with this right now? |
Buyback Rns |
Unfortunately they are right the risk here is that the next results will be poor to especially with the 3m payment made to settle acquisition . The metrics also look poor so I would expect to see this continue to fall rather than rebound . |
Wonder who's short here then lol |
That Q3 RPM data point is shocking. And trends not to just turn around at the end of a period so presumably heading further south at Q4.Commiserations to holders |
With everything relying on a good Q4 to barely match last year, the scope for a another profit warning is huge. |
TIG must be on a PE of between 5 and 6 now. |
Q1 24
In the Online Marketing segment, the number of visitor sessions increased by 19% to 6.0 billion for TTM 2024 from 5.0 billion for the trailing twelve-month period ended 31 March 2023 ("TTM 2023"). Revenue per thousand sessions ("RPM") decreased by 10% from USD 102 to USD 91
Q2 24
In the Online Marketing segment, the number of visitor sessions increased by 16% to 6.1 billion for TTM 2024 from 5.3 billion for the trailing twelve-month period ended 30 June 2023 ("TTM 2023"). Revenue per thousand sessions ("RPM") decreased by 12% from USD 100 to USD 88
Q3 24
In the Online Marketing segment, for the core products of TONIC and ParkingCrew, the number of visitor sessions increased by 15% to 6.5 billion for TTM 2024 from 5.6 billion for the trailing twelve-month period ended 30 September 2023 ("TTM 2023"). Revenue per thousand sessions ("RPM") decreased by 18% from USD 97 to USD 79
TIG are experiencing a significant and accelerating decline in Marketing RPM. At this stage there is no explanation for this revenue decline while visitor sessions are increasing. Both the M&A growth strategy and organic growth stories are now in question. |
The Shinez acquisition has been disastrous. I couldn't particularly see the attraction anyway, but given TIG's excellent track record to date re acquisitions I gave them the benefit of the doubt. This has been their first major mis-step, and has exacerbated the relatively weak general performance in Online Marketing.
Nevertheless, TIG wasn't trading on a high rating so hopefully shouldn't drift too much more. In particular the Online Presence arm alone must be worth a large sum given its huge recurring income, highly positive cash flows and market positioning.
The Shinez deferred consideration is now almost certain not to have to be paid, and perhaps its repositioning will succeed - as stated by others, I too like the CEO and believe he knows his stuff in this sector.
Zeus have reduced expectations. They now forecast 22.7c EPS this year, rising to 24.5c EPS next year.
There are also 2.2p and 2.4p dividends respectively.
Net debt of $95.3m is forecast to reduce next year to $48.8m and then $3.4m in 2026. |
Afraid to say that this was evident at the interims. Their full year guidance always looked a stretch, particularly with the weak performance of Shinez in 2024 at that point.
Will go through later today or this week but hard to see the share price recovering rapidly given it was never a hugely loved stock so if you through in missing expectations, it'll take longer to recover.
I like the CEO though and think he has the right focus on value creation, plus the large shareholder is only ever going to be able to sell via the company being sold, so there are reasons to own but the risk premium/profile has gone up a little more with today's announcement |
Michael Riedl, CEO of Team Internet, commented: "Team Internet has delivered a resilient performance in our core businesses within a dynamic market environment and the Group is poised to maintain record levels of profitability. Although our recent acquisition has not yet contributed to EBITDA, I am confident in its strategic value to our long-term objectives.
Riedl is unable to provide an explanation or apology for the fumbled Shinez acquisition, he appears too embarrassed to even mention the name in his rather low effort comments. It could take some time to work through the write-downs, FY24 results could be a shocker.
Some clarity on the financial targets set to the trigger the $12.3 million contingent payment to Shinez would be useful. |
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