RE: Thoughts13 Jun 2024 15:54
Dropping the dividend and buying a profitable business with it is what they ought to be doing. The easiest way to deal with debt is to increase one's income. Through that lens there is little wrong with that acquisition.
The furore caused by the recent broker's note seems rather overblown to me. 80% of the debt is fixed till 28/31, a resolution for the 20% will not be overly difficult for a business with growing revenues, recovering margins and healthy underlying profitability and FCF. Exceptional fuel and wage cost inflation is now consigned to last year's books, and things have already begun to normalize this year. Plenty of companies have terrifying debt burdens that they will likely ultimately succumb to, but this isn't one of them. Ocado (with no disrespect to holders of that) has more debt, less revenue, an expanding operating loss at half a billion a year, and is still holding onto a 2.8bn mcap, 10 fold that of Mobico. On paper, Mobico is a far better business. This is one of the market's bargains this week. An exceptional takeover tarket.