Good morning. A share that I previously held (but currently do not, as I felt the valuation was starting to look a tad stretched) is Snoozebox Holdings (LON:ZZZ) - an innovative company which turns standard metal shipping containers into portable hotel or lodging accommodation.
They have raised £8.4m (before costs) at 55p a share, not bad considering that's a 13% discount to a fairly buoyant market price. Before the Placing the mkt cap was £34m. After the Placing the enlarged share capital will be 66.6m shares, so if they ease back to say 60p, that will be a £40m mkt cap. That looks a bit scary considering the company is still in its first proper year of trading, and profits are as yet unknown.
So I shall continue watching from the sidelines. My experience of exciting small growth companies is that it nearly always takes longer and costs more, to get where they want to go. Hence at some point a buying opportunity will probably arise from a profits warning. So Snoozebox is currently on my watch list, but I'm not interested in paying up at this price. Halve it to 30p or less on some bad news, and I'd look again.
A share I do hold is Scottish TV outfit STV (LON:STVG). It's a typical old media type of company - on a very cheap forward PER (of only 3!), but has lots of debt & a pension deficit.
I'm a bit rusty on the numbers, but from historical & broker forecasts, I came to the conclusion that the debt is manageable, and that the shares could easily have a nice run from around the 100p level to say 150-200p if we're lucky. Hence why I bought some around the current price.
They've put out a Q3 IMS this morning which sounds reassuring on every KPI that they mention, apart from the most important one which they don't mention, namely profit! So not a very well constructed IMS at all. It should have been shorter, and just said whether or not they're on plan with profit expectations. However, I suspect enough can be inferred from this IMS to assume that profits are on track, so could see a bit of a lift in STVG, although the futures are pointing to…
About the Author
Paul Scott
I trained as an accountant with a Top 5 firm, but that was so boring that I spent too much time in the 1990s being a disco bunny, and busting moves on the dancefloor, and chilling out with mates back at either my house or theirs, and having a lot of fun!Then spent 8 years as FD for a ladieswear retail chain called "Pilot", leaving on great terms in 2002 - having been a key player in growing the business 10 fold. If the truth be told, I partied pretty hard at the weekends too, so bank reconciliations on Monday mornings were more luck than judgement!! But they were always correct.I got bored with that and decided to become a professional small caps investor in 2002. I made millions, but got too cocky, and lost the lot in 2008, due to excessive gearing. A miserable, wilderness period occurred from 2008-2012.Since then, the sun has begun to shine again! I am now utterly briliant again, and immerse myself in small caps, and am a walking encyclopedia on the subject. I love writing a daily report for Stockopedia.com on most weekday mornings, constantly researching daily results & trading updates for small caps. Cheese! more »
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