Venture Life Share Discussion Threads

[qs99] 05/3/2021 10:19

think without news the MMs are just trying to make a market by edging down on small volumes no? Needs this next update IMO to get things motoring one way or another! DYOR

[frankwhite] 03/3/2021 10:36

Apologies I meant 90p open offer not 80p

[red ninja] 03/3/2021 10:15

The company is also doing a InvestorMeetCompany webinar. I am not sure why they would want to do that if they don't think there is a reasonable story to sell.

[red ninja] 03/3/2021 10:12

The RNS says the placing price was 90p is that not correct ?

[frankwhite] 03/3/2021 10:06

My original suspicions that the imminent aquisition was being delayed/having issues still holds true. Looking at the calibre of investors in the open offer is no justification to follow them blindly. I also took up the open offer at 80p and which I oversubscribed for. Once I saw no progress taking place I had my suspicions and sold all of them. Until there is news I won't be investing here but GLA just be careful not to follow others like sheep. Remember Lakehouse one of Mark Slater's investments, it went nowhere and think has gone private now where investors lost out significant sums, another that I'm sure you all remember is Quindell where intis all got caught out with major loses.

[farnesbarnes] 02/3/2021 12:59

I find it disconcerting that ST hasn't mentioned VLG recently either. The dynamics of the company changed significantly with the corporate action.

[qs99] 02/3/2021 12:58

3 weeks before the results no? Will we see any buying interest ahead of them? Will they finally have completed a deal? Maddening drift in the shares, so let's hope VLG board have something positive to say/report

[qs99] 02/3/2021 12:08

indeed....

[davr0s] 25/2/2021 19:39

For a company that made a lot of noise when raising funds late last year it's done naff all since...

[mallorca 9] 19/2/2021 23:40

Now one of my biggest holdings.

This will rise greatly this year !

[qs99] 19/2/2021 11:10

placing was 3 months ago, with the Vulcan deal "the most advanced" of the 3.....presuming they had agreed at least Heads if not further for that to be stated

In which case they need to change their lawyers quite frankly if it takes 3 months to complete a deal!!!

DYOR
yours frustrated at the slowness
QS99

[basem1] 19/2/2021 10:20

The selling has been relentless here Finally a clean slate and buyers to return. The price has done well to be where it is.

[red ninja] 19/2/2021 09:45

I believe DSM paid 90p per share in the below open offer :-



I've added in the 80's on the basis that if they make a good aquisition or two the upward trend will be resumed.

[rivaldo] 19/2/2021 08:21

Thanks Simon - beat me to it :o))

For the record, Downing (Strategic, not Street!) also state elsewhere in their letter:

"We also invested into Venture Life, a leader in developing,manufacturing and commercialising products for the self‐care market, which we have followed for some time through our ownership in other funds and which we think has reached an interesting juncture with significant growth prospects."

[simon gordon] 19/2/2021 07:25

Downing Street Micro Cap letter - 19/2/21:

VENTURE LIFE was announced as a new position towards the end of 2020, although it is a company that we have followed for the best part of two years. We built our position over the course of last year as our investment case continued to play out, and as other significant developments unfolded.

Firstly, our investment case which centred around increasing own‐brand product diversification, utilising latent capacity within the manufacturing base which in turn should unlock significant operational gearing. This is due to a relatively fixed cost base and margin accretion from increased mix towards own‐brand products. Progression along this line of thinking was most noticeable in the half results, in which an 80% increase in revenue resulted in nine‐fold increase in adjusted profit before tax, which eclipsed the profits made in the whole of the previous financial year. Despite these impressive results, we believe that this is the beginning of this journey. Based on the half year results, management believe full year utilisation will be around 56%. Furthermore, 65% of the top line growth was organic, with 15% from 5 months of contribution from the PharmaSource BV which will deliver greater margin accretion as synergies are enacted and manufacturing is moved into Venture Life’s facilities. PharmaSource BV was acquired on similar multiples as previous acquisitions of <7x profit before tax, before synergies. Previous acquisitions are now trading on <3x profit before tax, following manufacturing integration, yet these acquisitions are still exhibiting double‐digit growth 2 to 4 years post acquisition. We believe these returns will manifest into impressive returns on capital invested as the business scales to utilise excess capacity and recycles capital into further growth. We were initially able to access this return profile for less than 9x earnings, which we felt was a steep discount to comparable businesses that are not as vertically integrated as Venture Life.
Additional developments during the year that are worth noting are as follows:

 Signing of an exclusive long‐term distribution agreement in China with minimum
purchase obligations worth €168 million over a 15‐year period.

 Ramped up production of hand sanitiser gel within 11 days to produce €3.2 million of revenue at the half year from zero before the pandemic. The initial investment was €110,000 and was initially designed to support Italian hospitals on a compassionate basis. But following strong demand from retailers, it evolved into DISINPLUS, a new range of anti‐bacterial products.

 Supported Cardiff University with both in‐vitro and in‐vivo studies of the effectiveness of mouthwashes containing Cetylpyridinium Chloride (CPC) in reducing Covid‐19 viral load within the mouth. The in‐vitro study proved 99.999% effectiveness within a 30 second exposure. The full results of greater lengths of time and the in‐vivo study are to be released in 2021.

 Raised £36 million of equity in December to pursue acquisitions that will accelerate the path towards utilising latent manufacturing capacity. Whilst Venture Life has somewhat benefitted from the Covid‐19 outbreak, this was never part of our original investment case. However, this has highlighted the additional optionality to create value that is embedded in the manufacturing base and the expertise which can be leveraged to extend product lines of existing and acquired product portfolios.

[mallorca 9] 11/2/2021 10:42

Regained my nerve and good sense (I need to stop reading this Board)

JUST TOPPED UP - and quite significantly.

[qs99] 10/2/2021 15:22

indeed Riv, but only bargain if we can see the management put placing and director sales behind them and deliver their 1st M&A piece and continued solid organic growth IMO...that will then see us through a quid again IMO....

Cheers and hope all well with you Riv
QS99

[rivaldo] 10/2/2021 13:35

Bargain time imho. Good to see buying at the full 85p offer price.

[qs99] 10/2/2021 10:28

are we finally, finally going to see a protracted bounce and some M&A?

[mallorca 9] 08/2/2021 18:40

Got to say that this one is on a yellow card for me.

I'll give it until the end March.

[farnesbarnes] 04/2/2021 08:32

Unthinking sheep.
Something fishy.
Smelling a rat.
And now a BOD of snakes.
Just need rain for 40 days and 40 nights now.

edit - plenty of less than salutary comments on Stocko today. They need to have a PR rethink.

[effortless cool] 02/2/2021 15:35

Good to see that VLG have signed up with InvestorMeetCompany. Hopefully, we will get the opportunity to put questions direct to management before too long.

[simon gordon] 02/2/2021 12:01

The Cenkos note from November maps out why Slater went from 5% to 15%. It's all quite clear and if management deliver on this then there is 50% to 100% upside over the next 12 to 18 months.

In a Covid variant world this is an excellent risk reward play.

[thedudie] 02/2/2021 11:52

I like the growth story so bought some more this morning...
And if an acquisition (or more than one) was to happen that took EBITDA to £10m -£12m or above then it looks very cheap to me.

[speedsgh] 02/2/2021 11:10

Impressive list. Reassuring. If we have all got this wrong, then there will be a lot of very successful investment managers with egg on their face too. Unlikely to happen imo.