Volvere Share Discussion Threads

[rivaldo] 10/10/2022 07:13

Another £52,500 of shares bought back - encouraging to see the usually prudent Landers buying at 1,050p:

[piedro] 06/10/2022 08:52

FWIW ...

October 3, 2022
UK pork-pie firm Vale of Mowbray collapses under market challenges
Administrators cite challenges around ingredients and energy costs, and labour shortages for the firm's demise.

[rivaldo] 05/10/2022 09:27

That's 95,000 shares bought back in the last week, i.e approaching £1m's worth and around 3.7% of the total in issue at the interims.

That's a lot more than I thought they'd be able to repurchase, and a good use of part of the £20.4m cash pile.

[ntv] 05/10/2022 08:17

Another 5k @1010

[rivaldo] 04/10/2022 07:10

Good to see VLE confident enough to buy back another almst £25,000's worth of shares at 990p:

[rivaldo] 02/10/2022 23:28

In case anyone missed Friday's late RNS, VLE have a new major shareholder - Crucible Clarity Fund Plc now have just over 3% with almost 75,000 shares:



They've gone over 3% as a result of the recent buybacks.

Here they are:

[rivaldo] 30/9/2022 13:37

That's a rather sizeable £704,800 buyback in one fell swoop!

The treasury shares could be used for example to satisfy future share/share option issues to the Landers or to the management of acquired companies, they could be re-sold at higher prices to institutions/large buyers at a profit to VLE, or they could simply be cancelled.

[zangdook] 30/9/2022 13:32

so they can reissue them when the price is high, I think they did that once before.

[smithie6] 30/9/2022 12:03

Why is such a big % of the issued no. of shares held in treasury ?

[ntv] 29/9/2022 17:48

Any chance any of these trades are company purchases?

[eezymunny] 29/9/2022 10:00

All looks about right to me Stemis. The Indulgence property indeed held separately "The three wholly-owned properties occupied by the business (of which two are physically linked) were independently valued in July 2022, resulting in an upwards revaluation of £1.11 million (before a deferred tax liability of £0.28 million). This has been credited to reserves. The properties are owned by an entity separate from the trading entity (and their cost is included in the acquisition price of £1.31m), although they are presented as one business above."

Disappointing results of course, but not in the least surprising.

VLE valuation looks all wrong as is so often the case. Unless you write down the great British Pound to zero - which will possibly happen over the next few years :)

[stemis] 29/9/2022 09:17

Surely the correct way to value this is on a company only (not consolidated) balance sheet basis?

Net assets of Investment & Management Services segment (which I presume is effectively the holding company(ies)) is £19.8m. However I notice that in the accounts of Indulgence Patisserie Limited (the actual company holding the trading activity) for 31.12.20 is a loan from the parent undertaking of £3.2m. Can't imagine that's fallen when they've been making losses. Can't imagine much of that would be recoverable in a closure situation (or indeed a sale). That would reduce net assets of I&MS to £16.6m. Interestingly the accounts of Indulgence Pattiserie don't show any property, so I assume it's held seperately but not included in the I&MS segement(?). So let's add that. Which makes £18.6m. Then there is the value of Shire. Making £2.2m pre tax so say a value of £12.5m (which is about NAV). That makes £31.1m of which around 2/3 is cash.

Current market cap at 800p at is £20.6m so a discount of 33%.

If it's any consolation, LDG is at a discount of over 40% and almost all of it (84%) is cash. Similarily, Advt, which is currently failing in its bid for SAA, is on a discount of 22%, again almost all (88%) in cash.

[ntv] 29/9/2022 07:59

Indulgence is just down the road from me on Severals Ind. est.
Demand is good for space on the est. (the area area around Colchester has seen a huge increase in the number of homes. Personally i don't like it but that is how it is.)
I am not really surprised that the property has increased in value and should be easy to sell or rent out.
Not fixing energy prices was a big mistake but I am betting finding labour was also difficult
They maybe able to get a £1 for the business if they are lucky
Anyway I am not buying anymore till I see the next business they purchase

[elsa7878] 29/9/2022 07:55

With the repricing of yields this week the properties will not be valued at £2 million now.....Really poor purchase and thought it was when they announced it and sold. Thankfully. If they close it I will revisit.

[rivaldo] 29/9/2022 07:23

H1 results show £20.4m cash, plus £2m of newly revalued Indulgence properties.

Shire performed pretty well in the circumstances, with a steady £0.6m PBT in the much seasonally weaker H1. I note too that its energy costs are fixed for the long-term.

Indulgence has been a disaster - VLE's first. With manufacturing now closed altogether for the moment to run down stocks, and retail supplies now terminated, it seems possible that the whole shebang may be closed or sold. The only consolation is the potential sale in that eventuality of those nicely revalued properties.

The £23m m/cap is backed up by cash and properties, and Shire is still doing fine (and has apparently pushed through price rises to soak up extra costs).

Indulgence is essentially written off in the share price anyway, but hopefully will be shuttered as too much of a distraction. Meanwhile more acquisitions are likely at some point, but VLE will be cautious as ever....

[ntv] 18/9/2022 19:29

Interesting situation
Picked up a few recently but going to wait for a trading update to see what to do next

[rivaldo] 05/9/2022 13:57

Well, VLE's £22m of cash (against the £25.2m m/cap) is looking pretty handy in the current economic climate. There should be bargains galore out there pretty soon.

Shire's business will certainly be suffering from increased running costs - hopefully they've forward fixed their energy costs. But the May prelims indicated that Shire are able to pass on most of their increased costs to their customer base.

Last year's interims were published on 17th September, so not too long to wait.

[rivaldo] 30/5/2022 13:09

Hi JakNife, don't think so! Maybe without realising/remembering who the other was?

[rivaldo] 30/5/2022 11:42

Just caught up here as away at Mello and elsewhere at the end of last week.

Shire's results were excellent. This is now a sizeable company, with revenues up 13% at £30.6m and PBT up 18% to £2.14m. The vegan range is doing really well and gets very good reviews AFAICS. The business has navigated all the current supply chain and labour issues extremely well to date.

With Shire, £21.09m cash and 1349p of net assets VLE's value relative to its share price looks in good shape.

It's such a shame that Indulgence was bought in Feb'20 right at the onset of the pandemic. The consolation is that only £1.25m was spent in taking it out of administration, but I would never have expected that £5.6m of loan monies would need to be made available to them.

Hopefully this year Indulgence will finally show some improvement with European economies now fully open, at least enough to offset any cost and logistics difficulties.

And of course some acquisition news would be welcome and a nice catalyst.....

[zoolook] 27/5/2022 19:33

Unfortunately you have to be a subscriber to read the full article.

hxxps://monopolyinvestor.substack.com/p/volvere-where-patience-is-an-art?

[cockerhoop] 25/5/2022 13:35

elsa,

That's not correct the group cash is £21.87m, offsetting this is total external debt of £3.468m down from £3.971m.

The £5.5m you allude to includes buying Indulgence and supporting working capital since acquisition, it's not sitting on the balance sheet as cash.

Agree you need to know your accounting ;-)

[exv] 25/5/2022 12:58

Agreed, you do need to know your accounting