Volvere Share Discussion Threads

[rivaldo] 20/9/2023 14:55

DBAY's bid for Finsbury Foods today appears to value it at a P/E of around 10.3, and may have to be raised to win the vote. Maybe a read-through for Shire?

Different part of the food sector though being cakes, bread etc, so perhaps not. A shame Indulgence wasn't quite so successful....

[rivaldo] 19/9/2023 13:46

No-one's invested here for regular dividends - the model is to buy cheap businesses, turn them around with investment and resources and then sell them. Although with £21.4m of cash there's always an argument to be had about special dividends alongside the regular share buybacks.

Of course Shire's taken a lot longer than prior investments. This has been an extremely successful turnaround, but personally I'd like to see Shire sold rather than retained and scaled up further with more food-related acquisitions, but I recognise that the current environment for selling companies at decent prices is probably not ideal.

[zangdook] 19/9/2023 10:24

reliable source of dividend information:



short answer - none

[purplepelmets] 19/9/2023 10:18

what divis get paid here? Stocko shows none paid in the last few years

[rivaldo] 19/9/2023 09:29

Excellent H1 results from Shire, with revenues up 21%, margins increasing and PBT up 29% in the much seasonally weaker first half.

The £25.96m m/cap compares to £21.4m cash (plus £1.45m of properties for sale) and £35.3m net assets.

Shire made £2.43m PBT last year, so PBT looks set for well over £3m PBT this year assuming the H1 rate of growth continues.

Assuming £3m PBT, less 25% CT, times 80% ownership, equals £1.8m. Give that a P/E of say 8 and Shire is worth £14.4m.

Taking into account the cash pile and the net assets there's plenty of upside from here.

Good to see the reassuring commentary too from Nick about he and the business moving forward from the tragic loss of his brother.

[galles] 19/9/2023 08:30

Ah, thanks EM. Glad you clarified it

[eezymunny] 19/9/2023 08:22

Galles

Trailing 12 month pbt and central charges for Shire was 2.95m if my sums are right, so that divi just about covered by profits and I guess fully covered by cash flow.

[jaf111] 19/9/2023 08:19

If there really is a distinct shortage of acquisition targets and if maximising shareholder returns really is at the forefront of the Board’s strategy then the next steps would seem pretty straightforward̷0;…sell Shire and liquidate the company…..IMHO

And certainly in the interim more share buybacks and / or tender offer…..

[galles] 19/9/2023 08:05

I like the results, always knew we'd be back in profit when only Shire is accounted for. Market cap backed mostly in cash, and the rest by a profitable, growing company. But did I read this right, £2.5m dividends paid for by Shire. That's rich of them, how do they justify that when the earnings aren't close to that.

[rivaldo] 08/9/2023 08:26

Just back from hols and learnt the terrible news. My thoughts are also with Jonathan's family, particularly Nick, and friends. To be taken at the age of just 55 is just inconceivable.

I talked with Jonathan in person and on the phone a number of times, and he was always a pleasure to discuss matters Volvere-related and anything else with, being as honest and forthcoming as he could be. He had a fine, dry sense of humour and was obviously an extremely capable businessman. He and Nick have done a fine job with VLE.

For the record Evil Knievil on Master Investor had this to say:



"I invested successfully in Volvere (VLE) several years ago and sold out. I thought no more about it. It was and remains a very successful investment/trading company run by Jonathan and Nick Lander. It is chaired by David Buchler, a distinguished small company assessor. Last Monday, Jonathan died very suddenly aged 55. As an enquiry on Google will show there was nothing gross about Jonathan Lander.

Thus Nick is in the driving seat and one wonders what will happen now. TNAV is about £14 a share and one can buy stock (not much) at about £11.50. VLE is highly solvent and loaded with cash.

Curiously, the Lander brothers were shown as being paid just £19,000 p.a. between them. But, slightly unusually, they were also taking £650,000 p.a. into their management company, D2L. Perhaps Nick will take just £325,000 p.a. now. I do not know.

I also do not know what Nick intends to do with his time or why or where. But he might take VLE on to new heights of sensible achievement. Or he might accept an offer for the lot. If the latter, it must surely be above £11.50 a share. Here is an opportunity for patient investors."

[mathew wood] 29/8/2023 12:19

Very sad news. A Great man.

[davidosh] 29/8/2023 11:50

This tragic news was shocking to receive this morning and my thoughts are with Nick and all the close friends and family plus all the employees who regularly came into contact with Jonathan.

I met Jonathan on three occasions including two attendances at our Mello conferences as he was a great supporter of engagement with investors and wanting us to fully understand the Volvere strategy. I admired what he and Nick were achieving and shareholders have done well backing them. Taken far too early at 55 years young.

[zoolook] 29/8/2023 09:43

Oh no. That’s so sad. Condolences to those close to him.

[jaf111] 29/8/2023 08:38

I sort of understand the fall in share price today due to likely no acquisition news BUT IMO most likely scenario going forward is sale of Shire and VLE being wound up…..NAV £13 plus so actually today’s sellers likely to regret their decision…̷0;

[9degrees] 29/8/2023 08:22

Nick our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family at this sad time .xx

[galles] 29/8/2023 07:22

Indeed. So sad to see.

[jaf111] 29/8/2023 07:09

Very sad news…55 years young

Volvere plc (AIM: VLE), the growth and turnaround investment company, announces with great sadness that its Chief Executive, Jonathan Lander, died peacefully after a short illness fought with much courage, on 28 August 2023, surrounded by his family.

[zoolook] 28/7/2023 18:48

To my knowledge they’ve only ever paid cash for their investments

[9degrees] 28/7/2023 14:26

Rivaldo if you had 20 minutes would you be able to update the header? Thanks

[9degrees] 28/7/2023 14:24

Do they buy them back so they can reissue them as payment for the purchase of another business? Or is it just to increase shareholder value in absence of any other uses for cash??

[rivaldo] 28/7/2023 14:13

Another £24,000 of shares just bought back at 1200p, in addition to the £27,875 bought back on 11th July:



Also, on 20th June FG Nominees based via Intertrust in Nassau (very nice) declared they'd been tipped over the 3% holding mark by the buybacks:



There's more info as to FG Nominees in the Panama Papers (!) here, but not sure it yields much:

[rivaldo] 06/6/2023 14:50

RNS - that's a chunky £90,000 buyback of 7,500 shares at 1200p. That's another 10,000 shares off the books including the one four days ago.

[rivaldo] 26/5/2023 09:03

Nice commentary just emailed out from Investors' Champion - "compelling value":



"Compelling value

Volvere (AIM: VLE), the growth and turnaround investment company, announced results for the year ended 31 December 2022. This proven performer certainly looks compelling value at current levels.

Volvere identifies and invests in undervalued and/or distressed businesses, as well as businesses that are complementary to existing Group companies. The sole activity of the Group's continuing trading subsidiary, Shire Foods, is food manufacturing.

Shire, in which the Group has an 80% stake, was acquired in 2011 and manufactures frozen pies, pasties and other pastry products for food retailers and food service customers from its factory in Royal Leamington Spa. Volvere originally invested £500,000 in Shire for a 54% stake - it appears to have worked out rather well.

Group revenue from continuing operations (all Shire Foods) in the year rose 24% to £38.03m and the profit before tax from continuing operations more than doubled to £2.33m (2021 restated: £1.07m).

The closure of Indulgence Patisserie in the period was the first unsuccessful turnaround in Volvere's 20+ year history with the resulting loss for the year from discontinued operations £2.4m.

We commend Volvere for not mentioning the fairy tale EBITDA anywhere in its results!

Following share buy-backs, Volvere's total net assets at the year end were £35.75m, largely made up of cash and available for sale investments of £20.79m. Net assets per share of £13.90 compares to the current share price of £11.50 and market capitalisation of £27m, implying a 17% discount to the net asset value alone.

Exclude the cash and available for sale investments from the current market capitalisation assigns a value of only £6.2m for the Group’s 80% stake in the Shire Foods business. This seems very low for a business delivering excellent growth and profits (4 year CAGR: 38%) and c£2m of free cash flow in the most recent financial year. Put differently, we assume Volvere management would want a great deal more than £6.2m for the Shire business!

As a very rough guide, speciality bakery manufacturer Finsbury Food Group (AIM:FINS) trades at 8.9x forecast ‘adjusted’ earnings. Finsbury also carries some debt with the market capitalisation £122m and enterprise value £149m. There are also mercifully no adjustments in the Volvere numbers.

Volvere shares are unfortunately extremely illiquid with its share buybacks not helping matters."

[rivaldo] 25/5/2023 07:22

Full results for 2022 are out and in line with the trading statement.

Shire Foods had a stellar year, with PBT before intra-group charges etc at £2.78m up hugely from £2.14m (edited). Such a shame that the small (at the time) Indulgence acquisition proved to be VLE's first failure.

At the year end there was £20.8m net cash and £35.75m net assets against the current £28.2m m/cap (with 2.35m shares in issue).

The commentary re Shire going forward remains optimistic, with energy and raw material prices abating, increased capacity etc.

VLE have confirmed that one of Indulgence's properties was sold post year end (from memory around £750k?) and the other property, worth £1.635m, is to be split into two - the two can now be seen here: