Member Info for ByeHi

If MONY had seriously declined, I may agree about Go Co. Even Barclays with their £2.85 valuation had GoCo at market,6xs earnings, with B2B at1 and B2C@1.5x EBITDA.

Get the debt back to 175-200m, stabilise the bottom line, be that 80m, but if so this should trade at 5x EBITDAsay 150-160m or 10x earnings, each way thats about 800m, if share count has taken advantage of low share price, say 50m to get to 80m shares, thats £10 a share, debt 100-125m +50m buybacks, 175m +Divis for 2 years. 200mcost. Suggests 2028ye,[30months] unless they sell small under performing titles.

If only life was that straight forward.

I'm certainly not in total disagreement with either of you about his persona,[wallflower] and to date not an inspirational speaker.

But my assumption is his promotion from CTO to CEO was due to his input,knowlege and insight of the direction [platform effect] that the board agreed was the way forward.

So parking the leadership issue, i'm intrigued with this business and it's situation, Should they

1 Buyback and deleverage.

2 Throw caution to the wind and look to acquire more google zero business.

3 Sell part off to do both the above

4 Break the company up completely

I've taken it as a given the CEO has gone!

JG68. Apologies in advance for nitpicking, I'm really not on this forum for wind ups but The CEO was appointed 31/03/25, that's 13months.

I have no great admiration for the guy,and do find their naivety regarding the speed of google search drop off surprising, but after the previous Ceo left after 18months, a road map set out. If the company replaces him after a year, this share price will be closer to £2 whether it's justified or not. Musical chairs at the top of a company creates deep mistrust, and panic.

I'm not saying i'm pleased, just not aligned with your negativity.

For someone so negative about this CEO and company, you have topped up on a few occasions during this fall. Surely you should never invest in a company you don't believe in.

Sh*t implies a business that is not profitable, not aware and adapting to the changes going on within its industry. Misuse of funds.

The company has set out their goals, how they are looking to get there. They've brought out tools to monetise AI, Bought a Google Zero business that will help diversify income. Bought back all the shares the previous board issued to buy all these businesses, at far less than they were floated at. Raised the dividend by 5x.

The market won't stick this back at £4-5-6 overnight, as they need clarity as to how much profit is going to come off the top line, while new revenue is developed.

80/90/100m per year for 18months wipes 50% debt off. selling B2B for 70m 5x EBITDA , but only 7-10% of Futures EBITDA .

Because decisions have to be made doesn't make the company sh*t.

In that webinar, for the trading update in April, When quizzed by the Barclays analyst, the CFO did reiterate they expect 100m profit this year, that's with cautious -20% on e-commerce and digital ads.

This company isn't a pile of sh*t, but there are far more exciting stable industries to invest in atm. Anything with AI attached, should have seen you nicely over the last 12months.

Future have to navigate the google search issue, they have bought a lot of businesses a few years back that need trimming, 175 brands, 1/2 of which will probably disappear.

But they also have to start reducing debt, S&P global downgraded them to BB+ negative, suggesting if they remain above a 2x leverage they would consider futher downgrades. S&P doesn't include cash in the bank, and also includes the 40m full payment for Sheerluxe in their debt calculations.

est 420m debt, over 175m EBITDA 2.3x.

The board has to decide how to play this, Fidelity hasn't jumped ship, with +14% of voting rights, them a a couple of others will definitely be pressuring the board to realise value, selling peripheral assets at real market valuations could really transform this business.

With Pentland holding 2.7B shares and not selling, the free float is 2.1B. 2B after buybacks. take out, a few sticky institutions, and the real number of shares available is shrinking fast. Pentland will be all for buy backs with the company effectively financing their possible takeover, and being the loadest voice in the room with 56% buybacks IMO will continue aggressively.

As this pool shrinks, the possible up move from any good news could be nicely amplified, just on illiquidity of shares availabe to buy.

I can't agree with the idea that money has been wasted repurchasing at higher prices, 12months and 24m ago this was trading at 5x adj profit. Thats value.

If shares hadn't been bought back, the share price at this market cap would be £2.10. I would look at some of the purchases that were made only a few years ago, that are not standing up to AI.

With a number of institutions, and the likes of Peter Wood being major share holders I am sure there is an awful lot of behind the scenes discussions with the board about share price and the ways to improve it.

Aquisitions cost 8x Ebitda, to much cash is wasted sitting in the bank just to make net debt look good. Buybacks at 2.5x earnings seems the obvious place to park cash, every share saves 17p div so buying at 6.25% discount.

Looks like last Monday was as previous, about 20-23k shares, so 180 bought next 3 days at about 500k, I think they are spreading this 21.5m tranche to end on year end date. that may enable them to reduce net debt slightly as well.

Hopefully they will Approve an increase to the 9.6m annual bb cap as of 1/10/26, as we should be somewhere close to limit by Sept30 if prices stay similar, with 4+ months left before next AGM.

Look at Ziff Davis sale of its connectivity vertical to ACCENTURE, mach 26.

Pre sale ZIFF DAVIS market cap $1.1b, 1.45b rev, Connectivity 16% of revenue $231m, sold for $1.2b. 5.2x rev. That's releasing value.

This business is prime for break up, without the need for fire sale. Debt is tied up, cash flow is still good. Keep buying the shares cheap, while you put feelers out

Tech/gaming

Fashion/sheerluxe

B2b

GoCompare

Even sell the new tech initiatives Optic, Helix, Hawk etc

sounds like fun

Investing.com has new target @ 285

Yes, assume that FY26 with buyback complete, 300m bonds and 10m cash in hand, so net 290m

The words realising , unlocking value seem to be used alot. Think pressure from institutions to sell parts will be very high now, and it was implied in the presentation yesterday.

research on AI suggests that B2B division should command premium with 8-12x ebitda 13m I think, so 100-150m for 7-8% of revenue.

Buyback this remaining tranche to get down to 86-88m then sell B2b , approve 30m bb limit, allocate that 100+m to Buybacks, the on going profits to debt repayment, if share price didn't fly then you wipe off 25-35% of remaining shares for 7% of revenue. Debt down to 200m.

at £5 repurchase that's 67m shares left =335m +200m debt EV £535m. Ebitda may be 140m but that's still less than 4x EV/EBITDA and you still have GO CO.

Not sure all is lost just yet.

FY25

cash 27m

debt -304m

net debt -277m

Buybacks

last tranche - 27m

this tranche - 8m

dividend -16m

Sheerluxe -40m

remaining BB -22m

total -390m

FCF 2026 100m

Net debt -290m shares approx 87m[saving 1.5m dividend payments @17p]

With £300m tied up in bonds till 2030 it seems wasteful to allocate too much to reducing net debt.

say EBITDA is 180 then it's 1.6x as long as that ratio is kept buybacks would appear to make sense.

Would be interesting if they sold B2B, 54m rev, possibly 15m EBITDA. with no debt attached could get 75m[30% of todays mcap], that would reduce debt, and only reduce revenue by 7%.

I assume when they say accelerating buybacks they will use 22m left by FY26

Seems from webcast they expect low single digit organic revenue decline FY26 but 6 months Sheerluxe. that suggests approx £739-25m+7m=720m

at 25-27%= 180-195m EBITDA(-15%), wipe 7m shares off and at least shares will also have reduced by 14-15% in the year. EPS wouldn't be that far off last year, while Market cap would be down from 650m to 260m [£3x 87m] -60%, and 1.25-1.4 x EBITDA.

Debt needs addressing, but while the market is in panic mode, and bonds don't mature for 4yrs, use FCF to buy what the BOD seemed to think was undervalued at £4 testerday

Surely wiping out 22m of buybacks at these prices would be the first thing. 7m 8%.

If they renamed the company GoCompare and the rest of the business was a bonus it would be £5 minimum.

I'm just guessing that revenue will take a hit. Pessimistic 700m 25% 175m.

Still 175-180 A/D- 157m -22m interest-20m tax 115m net profit. 110-115/94=£1.17-20 EPS

So EBITDA could be 175-180m Looks like Jefferies were conservative.

At least they are speeding up the buybacks, and Go Compare its holding up.

I don't see it as Mr Li Ying impacting my finances, Future PLC yes.

My view rightly or wrongly is that those 12 months

Half year results 2025, not his to own particularly, New to position

Full Year 2025 slightly disappointing results, rev down 6%, organic down 3%.

Introduced Helix, Collab, Signal, Future+ all of which are being introduced to the platform and should show their worth in H2 26

Bought Sheerluxe, caused initial spike in price. then confirmed they are largely inline with 2026 estimates, though net debt will be above 2025 as divs, Sheerluxe and buybacks are front loading annual cashflow. Estimates are much as 2025 results, though a series of recent updated forecasts have weighed extremely heavy on the price.

He has set out his strategy, [The Platform Effect] and is in the process of following through with it. Not even reached a 2nd H1 set of results yet.

I'm not happy where price is, but I don't see that as a CEO he deserves the Incompetent clueless clown title until his vision is proved woefully wrong.