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So the advertising arm has no value going forward despite generating �600m EBITA profit? Advertising goes in cycles and the 5% decrease of last year will in my opinion reverse to some degree this year with WC and provisional deal on Brexit transition. What people seem to forget is that the talk of the death of TV and advertising is nothing new, been going on since the invention of the betamax if you are old enough to remember that! Keep growing the studios side and try to improve margins there. Advertising will continue to bring in circa �600m + for the immediate future. Takeover a nice bonus if it were to come. My major concern is we embark on some mad spending spree in an attempt to grow too quickly. Mind you the ETO deal had it gone through would have made us a much larger production beast today. Anyway good luck whatever
A very different company today though and different market dynamics. Always find the constant talk about the death of TV due to streaming odd. Netflix et al have a place but for the foreseeable will be a supplement to the main TV habits of people, look at people's viewing habits, and oddly those below 30 watching more commercial TV than ever. The need to reach mass market for certain product groups will always be there and as long as ITV keep their entertainment offering popular the need for those slots is not going anywhere. The only route of survival for large media groups these days is consolidation and scale, and hence the constant takeover rumours. The collar LG via GS have on the company is there for a reason. Let's see if they or others come out of the woodwork, but in my opinion current share price movements don't seem to fit market position if the company. Liberty said would be if interest on a lower multiple, well we are now close to 9 . How much love wear can a FTSE 100 go to be more attractive, not much I would suggest?
Possibly but am in here. Consolidation in the media sector continues apace and in the 5th biggest market there is only one major commercial player. There is no doubt ITV is a potential bid target but as others say has been for a long time now. The question is does the current market cap provide such a good opportunity for LG or others, that they feel obliged to act? If ITV is to go now certainly seems a very attractive time for a potential suitor. Whatever you think regarding the future of advertising (and I don't think TV advertising is going anywhere soon) to pick up this company for 6bn + debt and a 30% premium still seems a genuine bargain at the moment. Anyway time will tell and such bids always seem to come out of the blue, so my view is you need to be in if that bid comes. In the meantime a FTSE 100 on 9x earnings yielding 6% with a 2x dividend cover looks cheap to me.
The way this is trading there seems to be a ding dong between whoever GS have lent shares out to and the broader market. Given volumes would hope the short players will be out of amo soon enough. Now just a nice short squeeze to make things perfect!
To be honest when the great Ponzy scheme fails I think there will be few hiding places. Don't think we are there yet though. Kept thinking this must have bottomed but something still does not feel right. Pension defecit, Jacob as PM, who knows. Still feels a mad valuation unless something is very rotten we do not know about. Let's just hope Conn and cronies are thrown out soon.