Member Info for Virdi

Brian Kelly back at it. Purchased 1,1% of the company, adding 510K shares, on the 15th of January.

Then all the three major holders have all increased their positions in recent months:

1. Regent Gas Holdings

Holding: ~12.2%

Last position increase: 12 November 2025

2. Brian Kelly

Holding: 11.1%

Increased from 10.0% on 15 January 2026

3. VN Capital Fund I, LP

Holding: 9.077%

Increased from 8.0% on 3 December 2025

Combined, these three shareholders now control roughly 32-33% of the company.

Based on that newsreport it's Restitution Litigation Limited not Burford.

Fair point on margins holding up. What really concerns us is how management communicates about competition. The messaging has shifted from calling Somero a monopoly to now citing “80% market share” in core markets, without much supporting data. It comes across as downplaying competitive threats. That raises the question: is management content to cede revenue to rivals as long as margins remain intact, rather than actively defending share?

Somero’s “engineering & product development” spend was ~$2.69m in FY24 (~2.5% of sales), ~$2.68m in FY23 (~2.2%), and ~$2.60m in FY22 (~1.9%)—essentially flat in dollar terms for years. That doesn’t reflect the posture of a company determined to fend off new entrants. It increasingly feels like dividends and margins are being prioritized over long-term growth.

Looking at the LinkedIn of John Yuncza, former CFO and later President (2015 - 2023), it’s notable that he describes one of his key achievements as “shifting the company paradigm from monopolistic to competitiveness.” That’s quite a contrast to how Somero used to position itself. His bio tells us that Somero already saw its monopoly fading years ago.

Encouraging to see that cash generation remains strong, even with lower sales. The company’s lean cost base continues to support healthy operating cash flow, which gives some reason to believe the dividend could be held, at least in the near term.

That said, I’m increasingly concerned about how Somero presents its market share.

Back in 2015, the company described itself as having 99% market share globally in the non-residential, horizontal concrete flooring industry. In the latest filings (FY24 results), this has dropped to an anecdotal estimate of "over 80%":

"The Company is aware of one domestic competitor active in the US and a handful in Europe. Based on limited information from field activity and customer input, we believe that the competitors' laser screeding businesses are relatively small compared to Somero. Therefore, the Board anecdotally estimates that Somero has over 80% market share."

The cautious wording here suggests they’re referring to share of new units sold in the U.S. and EU, not the global installed base. Still, it feels like the estimate lacks hard data—and it’s notable that just last year the company was still citing a 90%+ share in its core regions.

For context, independent market data (e.g this report [LINK REMOVED] ) uggests Somero held ~31% global share of laser screed units sold in 2023. That’s a significant discrepancy, and it raises questions about competitive dynamics.

It would be helpful to see more transparency on how their market share is being calculated—and how it’s trending over time. The language shift over recent years implies growing competition, even in core markets.

With margins still strong (54%), the business is holding up well, but if competitive pressure continues, we may need to brace for margin compression before top-line growth resumes.

Would welcome any thoughts from others tracking this closely.