RE: f c a p29 Apr '22
Small Cap Life just did a fairly balanced write up about the new joint venture:
finnCap announces that it has, today, acquired a 50% interest in Energise Limited ("Energise") a net zero and sustainability consultancy, based near Cambridge…
Mark doesn’t know quite how to feel about this one. It is clearly a big growth area where reporting etc. is now mandatory due to the influence of larger shareholders. Many companies will be struggling with this and welcome the help. I can see finnCap with their contacts driving lots of business in this area for the JV. On the other hand, the price they've paid isn't obviously cheap, and not all shareholders or managements value this sort of reporting.
We don't like JVs in principal, but today's deal is not the typical arrangement where the other company has a continuing business not part of the JV. The main concern is the price paid. £1.1m revenue / £0.1m EBITDA indicates it is subscale, presumably due to being early stage. An EBITDA valuation doesn't make much sense. Assuming 25% EBITDA margins at scale, EBITDA would be £0.3m, they are still effectively 15x EBITDA for 50%. So, a lot of the cost is option value on this growing strongly and has a sufficiently good outlook such that 6-8x EBITDA for the other half is good value.
Still, it aligns with the finnCap core mission of doing the right thing and helping clients to do the right thing. And it potentially looks very cheap having retained (in some form) the exceptional profits of recent years on their balance sheet and are now looking to use this to expand into complementary areas. Companies that do this well often get earnings growth and a multiple re-rating. We really need to see some 2023 forecasts to make any further judgement on this, though.