Kuoni is taken private by EQT

Kuoni announced today that the private equity house EQT has launched a cash public tender offer for all publicly held registered shares of Kuoni for a price of CHF370 per registered B share. The offer represents a premium 34% to the current 60-day average share price and a 60% premium to the average share price since the 5 January when Kuoni confirmed early-stage discussions with potential bidders. Should the deal be completed, Kuoni should be delisted between Q2 and Q3 2016.

Speculations of a potential takeover of Kuoni

The press announced yesterday that the Swedish buy-out firm, EQT Partners AB, could be a potential bidder to takeover Kuoni. For several weeks, rumours have emerged about a potential buy-out of Kuoni by private equity investors (including BC Partners, Permira Advisers and Partners Group). This morning the board has admitted that the group has received preliminary approaches from third parties as regards potentially taking Kuoni Group and its businesses private. The board highlighted that talks w

Brand new management and extensive restructuring announced

Kuoni unveiled weak 9m 15 results, below consensus and our expectations. One-off impacts of the disposal of the European TO operations and unfavourable FX are behind the loss of CHF293m (from CHF52.5m net profit in 9m 14). Still, Kuoni posted 7.6% sales growth LFL in 9m 15, on the back of robust VFS Global (+26.2%) and GTD (+10.6%) but the strengthening of the Swiss franc was highly penalising (-7.7% impact on 9m 15 sales) as well as the struggling GTS division (-1.1% LFL in 9m 15 sales). Within

A penalising exposure to difficult Asian markets

Kuoni announced mitigating organic trends in H1 15, while it was hammered by the conversion into Swiss francs. Revenue grew by 6.8% LFL in H1 15 which was more than offset by the appreciation of the Swiss franc (-7.4%). The VFS Global division (visa processing services) experienced the highest LFL growth (+28.8% vs 14.5% in H1 14) with a 23% rise in EBITA yoy. A temporary contract with the South African authorities in FY14 and H1 15 has contributed to this growth. Global Travel Distribution (GTD

Topps Group (TPT LN) - Initiation: Market leader trading at cyclical lows

Topps Group is the UK’s largest specialist supplier and distributor of tiles and associated products to the UK’s domestic and commercial markets. Each of the last three years the Group has successfully achieved record revenue in a market that’s seen recent volume declines and regional peers enter administration. Following the right sizing of its business, Topps Group is now well positioned to capitalise on the economic recovery and continue taking share from competitors, supported by its global

HeiQ - Forecast update and Ecolab contract

HeiQ reported its interim results for the 12-months to December 2023, a period characterised by challenging conditions in the markets in which the company currently operates. In-line with the recent trading update, the company reported revenues of $41.7m for FY23 and closed the period with a cash balance of c$10m and a net debt position of $2.2m. We have updated our forecasts to reflect the FY23 results and HeiQ’s outlook in 2024, leaving our revenue forecast unchanged but adjusting gross margin

Pinewood Technologies (PINE LN) - Strong results, growth ahead

Pinewood Technologies’ results for the 13 months to 31 January 2024 confirmed good growth in user numbers, revenue and operating profit for the continuing automotive software business. Our unchanged forecasts (see 6 March research) show strong revenue growth, high margins, and good cash generation over the period to FY26 as the Group executes its accelerated growth plan. As of Tuesday this week, Pinewood’s shares are ex-dividend and a 1-for-20 share consolidation is effective, meaning our discou

Morning Note – 24 April 2024

LIBERUM: Tortilla Mexican Grill: Prioritising profitability over roll-out

PROGRESSIVE: Gear4music: FY24 trading in-line and debt reduction ahead of market expectations

At its FY23 results in June 2023, G4M announced its intention to focus on product margins, overhead cost reduction, and efficiency ahead of revenue growth, along with further net debt reduction, in FY24. The FY24 year-end trading update confirms G4M has delivered on these rebalanced priorities, with gross margin rising and net debt almost halving compared with FY23. Cost savings achieved in FY24 and the continued development of higher-margin categories should deliver further upside in FY25E.

Hybridan Small Cap Feast - 24 April 24

24th April 2024 * A corporate client of Hybridan LLP ** Arranged by type of listing and date of announcement *** Alphabetically arranged **** Potential means Intention to Float (ITF) has been announced Dish of the day Admissions: Delistings: What’s baking in the oven? ** Potential**** Initial Public Offerings: Reverse Takeovers: 16 April 2024: Electric Guitar (ELEG.L) Concurrent with its Admission to trading on AIM, Electric Guitar is proposing to acquire the entire issued share capital of 3radi

React Group H1 Trading Update

React Group has released a positive update that has confirmed that the strong 2H 2023A momentum has continued into 1H 2024E, with what was described as a ‘record trading performance'.

LIBERUM: The Liberum Leisure Digest: NLW increase - pricing power is key

Pinewood Technologies (PINE LN) - Driving growth in automotive software

Pinewood’s transition to a pure-play automotive SaaS business is now largely complete. Today we introduce summary forecasts out to FY26 and reiterate the investment case. We see significant opportunity for Pinewood to grow its user base in the UK and internationally whilst generating high EBITDA margins and cash conversion. With a 24.5p special dividend embedded in the current price (payable Q1/Q2), the effective price today is 12.3p. Based on the Group’s FY27 target of £27m EBITDA, we estimate

PPHE Hotel Group Limited

PPHE has released its usual Q1 trading update (31 March period-end) which reads reassuringly. The outlook says that “the Board remains confident in delivering full year performance in line with market expectations”. Revenue rose by 11.9%, from £68.8m to £77.0m. Growth was 11.0% on a Like-for-like (LFL) basis excluding the first three months of operation from art’otel Zagreb, Croatia. Revenue growth was driven by a rise in occupancy as room rates continued to normalise across both leisure, corpo

PROGRESSIVE: Vertu Motors: Traction control

Vertu is the fourth largest automotive retailer in the UK, with 188 sales outlets and a track record of cross-cycle growth, principally through businesses it has acquired, funded by equity, debt and most importantly cash generation. Vertu operates across the entire vehicle lifecycle, including new and used vehicle sales, and vehicle servicing, repair and parts. Service and repair is a 40+% gross margin repeating business. With economic headwinds, the transition to electric vehicles, recent overs

Zeus Top Picks for 2024 - 2023 review and outlook for 2024

On 9 January last year, we set out our ten top stock picks for 2023, for what turned out to be another relatively poor twelve months for UK equities due to two wars, stubbornly high inflation and further tightening of monetary policy. This was even as other major markets, such as the US, largely recovered in the year. In the 2023 calendar year, the AIM All-Share index fell 8.2% and is still 42% off its 2021 high. From the release of our 2023 top picks note, the average total return (assuming div

AKA: Initiating Coverage of a.k.a. Brands with Buy and $14 PT: Upside Ahead

We are initiating coverage of a.k.a. Brands Holding Corp. ("a.k.a. Brands" or the "company"), a leading owner of primarily online apparel-based brands focused on Generation Z and Millennial consumers, with a Buy rating and $14.00 price target, or 10.9X our 2025 EBITDA projection of $20.2 million. The company's brands include: 1) Princess Polly, focusing on 15 to 25 year-old women; 2) Petal & Pup, which offers feminine styles for 25 to 34 year-old women; 3) Culture Kings, a street wear destinatio

Domino's Pizza - Growing the base

Domino’s Pizza Group’s (DOM’s) new CEO has set an ambitious long-term growth target, including an acceleration in its net store opening programme. With better alignment between the company and its franchisees, management believes DOM should be capable of generating improved profit growth, versus that achieved in recent years, and potential higher returns.