National Express23 Aug 2020 18:58
I live in the USA and would appreciate some UK local color to the following questions:
1. Do you consider that NEX has suffered permanent impairment to its operations?
2. If not, and think that at come point in the next 3-24 months people start riding buses again, do you think that NEX will again generate GBP150 - 200m of FCF?
3. If so, why wouldn't any of the PE groups who have had an interest in the business step up now? On these basic metric NEX can generate an IRR of 25% + even at a 300p a share?
4. Was the relatively downbeat interim report more reflective of the CEO void and management not wanting to create a vision of recovery until new CEO appointed than anything else?
5. Should the group be broken up?
6. Does the ESG angle, move away from diesel to electric, matter to anyone?
7. Is NEX an interesting stock in the UK or just another old economy boring business on 4x normalized EBITDA / 5x levered FCF?
8. what could the company do to stimulate investor interest?
9. Are there any obvious negatives other than not knowing when normal service will be restored? If that's all it is then this looks like one of the cheapest stocks in the global leisure/transport universe.
Genuine questions seeking intelligent answers please.