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My money on TST bought the lot. Not sure there are any others.
Nice - 1.775m shares traded today! I'm assuming that's Chelverton's 670k now gone to safe hands, so the only question is whether TST bought a load back or whether we have institutional buyers in the frame (or a combination).
TST were "initially" budgeting for a max of £300k of buybacks, but had permission to buy back 850k shares.
TST did say they would RNS any buy back so agree unlikely, unless they issue another RNS shortly. So yes question is who bought them off book.
Chelverton have declared they now have 670k shares left, so as they had 850k before they must have sold 180k.
Interesting that the transactions took place on 4th and 26th July - if they'd been buybacks I'd have thought TST would have had to RNS them immediately, so perhaps there's a large buyer out there sweeping up the stock?
Https://uk.advfn.com/stock-market/london/touchstar-TST/share-news/Touchstar-PLC-Holdings-in-Company/91683890
Nope. No volume. Just MMs fishing for trades.
Patience.
Price has fluctuated today based on no trades... I wonder if there has bee na news leak somewhere?
Nice 17,857 buy at 112p just reported - looks like someone's filled their ISA for this year with £20k of TST shares.
Bought a few more as it does seem very cheap. If they move towards 2.5 x's dividend cover then DPS could be nearer 4p for FY25.
An EV:EBITDA of 3.1 says it all really - the UK markets are kind of broken for micro caps, but value will out eventually.
FYI here's WH Ireland's conclusion today - imo their 120p valuation is extremely undercooked, especially given the 41p per share of cash:
"Today’s announcement follows the successful completion of Touchstar’s capital reduction (announced on 26 April 2023), which enabled the company to increase its distributable reserves and capacity to carry out share buybacks and pay dividends.
For FY2022, Touchstar reported a year-end net cash balance of £3.5m (41p per share), with strong free cash generation of £1.1m (FY21: £0.6m) and EPS of 6.6p for the year.
We update our forecasts this morning to account for the commencement of a dividend payment and buyback of 0.279m shares in FY23 (a budget of £300,000 at the current share price). For FY2023, we look for DPS of 1p (was 0p), EPS of 6.7p (was 6.7p), and net cash £3.3m (was £3.6m), for FY2024, DPS of 2.0p (was 0p), EPS of 8.7p (was 8.4p) and net cash of £3.4m (was £3.8m), and for FY2025, DPS of 2.5p (was 0p), EPS of 10.0p (was 9.7p), and net cash of £3.8m (was £4.3m).
WHI view: While the company’s intention to return value to shareholders has been well flagged for some time, today’s announcement is a positive development, firming up the company’s plans for an attractive programme of distributions. With £3.5m of net cash on the balance sheet at the year end (making up 38% of the group’s market cap), putting the company on an FY24E EV/EBITDA of just 3.1x, we view the strategy announced today as a sensible approach to realise value in Touchstar’s underlying business – which has, in our view, been undervalued up to this point.
As demonstrated in the most recent full year results, Touchstar has continued to make good progress as it executes its strategic objectives, with an increase in the share of recurring and software revenues and the effects of the previous restructuring driving increasing margins and strong cash generation. Our estimate of fair value for the shares stands at 120p."
WH Ireland have this morning raised their forecasts for the next couple of years.
They note that have TST have 41p per share in cash (£3.5m) against the £9.1m m/cap.
Given the 1p interim dividend now announced, I'm not sure why but they go for a 1p divi in total this year rising to 2p next year and 2.5p after that - surely the clue is in the word "interim"!
Their new forecasts are:
this year - 6.7p EPS
2024 - 8.7p EPS (up from 8.4p EPS)
2025 - 10p EPS (up from 9.7p EPS)
BodRuncie, I agree that TST's liquidity isn't exactly ideal - of course that should exacerbate share price moves upwards given the positive trading!
However, I hope that TST will do what MWE are doing and have done for some time. Firstly it takes large blocks of shares from sellers off of the market - and it may be that Chelverton will want to top-slice some of their large holding at some point - , and then those shares can be re-sold to institutional buyers who want more stock but can't buy in the market in an illiquid (for them) stock. Not only that, but along the way TST may be able to re-sell those shares at a profit.
Great news today. I like the cheeky trading update they snuck in there to give investors confidence.
Assuming interim dividend is at least equal to the final dividend, then we're looking at minimum 2p annual divi to begin with.
Share buybacks show great confidence in their own business, but my only concern is that the stock isn't hugely liquid at the moment so soaking up some sells might further decrease liquidity in the short term.
Excellent news today:
- confirmation that "Trading conditions and trends remain positive and are consistent with market expectations"
- the commencement of dividends. The 1p interim suggests an overall 3p dividend for the year at the usual interim/finals proportions
- £300,000 of share buybacks, which will help to take out any sellers out there (Chelverton?). Of course it's possible that TST could then re-sell the shares in blocks to other institutional buyers, thus improving liquidity and perhaps netting a nice little profit in the meantime.
Tican Chilled Foods select Podstar - quite a large global company too:
Https://www.touchstar.co.uk/blog/ticanchilled
Given TST's overseas expansion I wonder if this may lead to further substantial business?
"Tican Chilled are part of the Tönnies Group a family owned company that has its head office in Germany. Tönnies operates a highly diversified international food business and is active around the world with its eight divisions of Meat Pork, Meat Beef, Convenience, Sausages, Ingredients, Logistics, International and Central Services."
"The work that Touchstar has done for Tican has been fantastic. We presented them with some feature requests that they had not encountered before but they came up with viable solutions to ensure the use of Podstar was as simple as possible for all concerned. The proof of delivery system immediately reduced our paper usage by at least 70 per cent. The PODStar mobile app is very easy to use with very minimal driver training on the handhelds required. I have rolled the system out to all my drivers with very minimal disruption to our operation and I would highly recommend the PODStar solution to anyone looking to move away from a paper-based delivery system."
Yes. All very encouraging. It feels as if an RNS is imminent.
On relatively large buying by TST's usual standards.
After £8k of buys today, so hopefully not much stock around. There should be news of the decision on either buybacks or dividends soon.
It might need another couple of pieces of good news to push up to a £15 mil valuation, but surely it deserves to sit at £10-12mil mcap at present.
Excellent new article on TST from AIM Prospector - free to download. A £15.6m m/cap would give 90% upside from here:
Https://www.aimprospector.co.uk/
Conclusion:
"Before post-COVID interest rate hikes, when sentiment was elevated, software companies were typically valued at three times recurring revenues plus non-recurring income. To that we can add net cash. Using the most recent full year figures, gives a rule-of-thumb valuation of £15.6m. While Touchstar isn't an outright software play, it is growing, suggesting my quick appraisal isn't outlandish."
Many thanks to the Private Punter for this excellent new write-up - great to see TST attracting some attention now. Here's a direct link:
Https://martinflitton1.wixsite.com/privatepunter/post/touchstar-is-aiming-high-19-05-23
Both dated 12th May:
https://www.touchstar.co.uk/blog/ngfeurope-upgrade
https://www.touchstar.co.uk/blog/nymas-upgrade
Sounds like the rollouts of both contracts are are set for the near future, so should likely benefit both this H1 and the forthcoming H2.
The rate of contract win news announcements has certainly increased recently!
Low volumes of shares traded, so MMs put up a wide spread. No reason to worry.
Any idea why, odd!
Excellent news just out today. Looks like a relative biggie - DCC are a "a nationwide energy company distributing massive volumes of fuels every day".
Great to see the expansion to Denmark, and this should nicely benefit this year's results:
Https://www.touchstar.co.uk/blog/dccenergi785
"DCC ENERGI MAKE SIGNIFICANT INVESTMENT IN TOUCHSTAR’S ANDROID FUEL DELIVERY EPOD TECHNOLOGY
09 May 2023"
"The company currently operates with a fleet of ninety vehicles, all of which will be upgraded to the new solution"
"CONCLUSION
The DCC Energi move to TouchStar’s Android solution signifies their intent to stay at the forefront of innovation in the fuel delivery space. The partnership will provide ample opportunity for continued development, streamlining of processes and the elimination of paperwork leading to a more agile, efficient service for customers. Roll out of the new system will begin shortly.
Michael Olesen, DCC Energi Distribution Manager, concludes: “TouchStar’s Android solution provides DCC Energi with a highly flexible, streamlined and cost-effective operation, eliminating mistakes which arise from a paper-based system and ensuring staff spend their time providing excellent customer service.”
Hi STL, sorry, I can't see the presentation anywhere on TST's web site. Perhaps in a few weeks' time.
Hopefully my post distilled most of the useful info!