Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
I was already bo**ocks deep in CARD but I just bought more on the dip this morning and am very confident in this business and its future potential.
Todays drop makes no sense to me even though it has reasonable volume behind it with 1.5 times daily volume already traded.
This is the type of market behaviour that annoys the sh ite out of me, but it would not surprise me if we end up level on the day by market close after MMs have given this a shake.
At these prices and with the future prospects it could also make CARD an attractive proposition for a PE company to take it private!
Agreed Bhaveen, but everyone has different perspective and objectives, so I wouldn't worry too much about there being willing sellers of what appears to most LTH's to be a rock solid investment to hold for income and growth.
If someone has bought in the low 90's only a couple of weeks ago, then sold at around 111 yesterday, they will think (rightly) that they have done well.
The difference is that they will now move on to their next short term investment, will LTHs' sit it out for what we believe to be the real prize which will only become fully apparent in 6-12 months from now.
Meantime, I'm happy to enjoy the inevitable slow but steady ride upwards as this company continues to develop and grow, and I also look forward to receiving a nice chunky dividend in June, plus the promise of reinstatement of interims which would normally be payable around December.
Todays great results have not been reflected in the relatively modest 6% SP increase achieved to date but I fully expect this to continue to gradually increase in coming weeks as people get on the bandwagon.
CARD has loads of potential to significantly increase dividends over the next 6 to 12 months and it is worth comparing todays results with those back in 2018.
The figures below show how much scope there is for improvements to financial returns to shareholders especially when looking at debt, and div cover, plus the previous propensity to award shareholders with annual specials!
2018 2024
Revenue £422.1m £510.9m
EBITDA £86.1m £122.6m
PBT £72.6m £65.6m
EPS 17.1 14.4
DPS 9.3 4.5
Div cover 2.03 3.2
Special div 15 0
Net Debt £161.3m £34.4
Average FTSE250 yield is 3.38% according to google, and CARD already smashes that without including any interim.
CARD results stated the intention to pay dividends with between 2 and 3 times div cover, and this 4.5p payment is covered 3.2 times, so there is already available scope to increase the div level in the not too distant future if results continue along the same path as now.
Also remember that CARD previously had a habit of paying special dividends to distribute xs funds with 2018 and 2019 having special dividends of 15p and 5p respectively.
Great update across all areas of the business, with the reinstatement of dividends being the icing on the cake.
The 4.5p initial div is very welcome, and when the interim div for fy25 is also reinstated at a level of say 2 to 2.5p, that equates to a div yield of close to 7% at current sp.
A significant rerate is now on the cards.
Very happy!!!
Sorry BHAVEEN ignore me, I am trying to do several things at once and I am rubbish at multi-tasking!
I was right the first time and we are in FY25 now, because the results due tomorrow are for FY24 .
The only 2 financial conditions that were stopping dividend payment were that the CBILS loan had to be repaid which was done last year, plus the tranche A term loan which only had £4.4m remaining at HY24 in September and which will have been fully paid off by now.
I beg your pardon, we are actually only in FY24, but they are allowed to consider divs once the 2 stated finance and debt issues were addressed which both have been.
We are in FY25 now
Agreed Smiler.
Expectations have already been set in the Jan trading announcement that the results will be near top end of projections, so I believe the only remaining thing needing to fall into place that would cause a re-rate of the SP will be recommencement of the dividend.
I can't believe they will not announce recommencement of the div given the business progress over the past 12 months, and given their previous dividend profile an ex-div date could be in May, with payment as early as June.
My hope/expectation is that an initial div of at least 3-4p might be announced although that is purely my speculation.
Good luck all LTH
I would love to see a dividend but there is zero chance of that while they have that huge debt mountain to climb.
The best we can hope for in the results are for signs of increased footfall, a profit increase, and some debt reduction.
Oh, and a nice long range weather forecast for summer would also be welcome!
Just took advantage of the crazy price drop today to buy some more at 98.5p.
It shows how strange (fixed?) the markets are when the share can jump close to 10% one day on 7 times normal volume, then tick back down to the current SP then yo-yo between 98p and 102p and back on far lower volumes.
CARD is clearly an unloved share in the FTSE where most focus is on banking, Tech and Industrials sectors.
We are probably suffering because CARD is classed as a retail share by brokers and analysts who, as we know, treat Retail sector shares as 2nd class citizens.
Roll on the results and an announcement on dividend recommencement which should help provide an underpin to the SP that will hopefully counter some of these shenanigans.
7 times average volume traded today.
Surely the BoD should be putting out an RNS to explain the speculation.
We are moving towards EZJ busiest part of the year where they make most of their profits and the half year res are now only a month away.
These next res will not even reflect the bulk of the financial results (profits) from the summer season, so we also have that to look forward to!
I can see this easily achieving £6 prior to next res.
I hope they lose their bl**dy shorts!
I too am just over 60% down on my original SAGA investment and I have to say this is my worst ever investment by miles and miles.
Who the hell decided that Sutherland was a good candidate for CEO ffs, especially after his debacle at Superdry?!
If this company was run properly it should be doing extremely well atm, driven by the purchasing power of the "greys" in each of their key business divisions.
The only things that was stopping me selling out before now were the potential for restart of discussions for sale of the insurance underwriting business now that the insurance markets seem to have strengthened, the apparently promising cruise performance, and the possibility of a sales and leaseback of the cruise ships.
My big concern when the results are announced, other than the high debt and previous poor profitability of the business, is the status of the £150m bond that I seem to recall is due for repayment sometime in May.
If these next res do not show clear improvements on all fronts, it will probably be time for me to bail out and put this one down to (painful) experience.
It's now less than 4 weeks to go until the prelim res are announced on 30th April and I am excited to see the overall results, and particularly how they are improving the online offering.
While the SP is languishing around these levels I have had several small top-ups and am probably now as committed on CARD as I am prepared to go (it's now in my top 4 holdings).
I'm very positive about the short and mid-term prospects for CARD and I expect the SP will be >120p within the next 1-2 months on the way towards my mid-term target of 150p.
This has historically been a very good dividend payer, and as soon as the market gets a whiff of dividend reinstatement this will re-rate.
Good luck all holders!
I will be using SMDS sale proceeds to top up on PHNX, CARD, and possibly some ITV.
I also sold on Wednesday and Thursday because I didn't want IP shares, to lock in the profits, and because I don't see much more upside here.
There are plenty of other shares that look to have significant upside, so I wanted to use the funds from SMDS to move into those without delay.
Mondi only have till 7th April to confirm their offer or walk away, and this afternoons announcement of the higher IP bid has put the proverbial cat among the pigeons.
It will be nice to sit on the sidelines and watch how the Mondi and IP face-off develops.
The ball is now firmly back in Mondi court.
There are only just over 5 weeks to wait till Q4 res.
Bring it on!