2014 – The Great Irish Share Valuation Project (Part IV)

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CPL Resources, Glanbia, Grafton Group, Irish shares, Irish Stock Exchange, Irish value investing, ISEQ, ISEQ 20 UCITS ETF, Papua Mining, Petroceltic International, Petroneft Resources, San Leon Energy, TGISVP, The Great Irish Share Valuation Project

Continued from here:

Company:   Grafton Group

Prior Post(s):   2012 & 2013

Ticker:   GFTU:LN

Price:   GBP 665p

Revisiting last year’s post, I see this prediction: ‘don’t be surprised to see Grafton suggesting a GBP re-denomination later this year…they might just go the full hog & dump their Irish listing in favour of the UK.’ Six months later, that’s exactly what they announced! Which makes sense really – over 75% of Grafton’s revenue now comes from the UK. On the other hand, you’d think the bloody Celtic Tiger was back, considering how the share price has behaved – a triple in just 18 months!? I was pretty bullish originally on Grafton, but my valuation estimate’s certainly been marking time ever since…

In the latest trading update, FY-2013 revenue reached GBP 1.90 billion & like-for-like sales were up nicely across the board. Recent reports suggest the 4.2% operating free cash flow (cash generated from operations, less net capex) margin’s still running well ahead of underlying operating profit – let’s assume that’s still the case on a FY basis. And I continue to believe Grafton will, in time, revert to its prior 7.0% peak operating FCF margin. For valuation purposes, averaging the two seems fair – a margin of 5.6% still deserves a 0.5 Price/Sales multiple, in my opinion. With net interest hovering ’round 15% of operating profit, no further debt/cash adjustments are necessary. [At this point, I don’t believe a P/E multiple’s a practical (or effective) valuation alternative to also incorporate here]. Which gives us:

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TGISVP – 2013 Portfolio Performance

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Alpha Portfolio, Beta Portfolio, Great Western Mining Corp, Independent News & Media, Irish shares, Irish value investing, ISEQ, Karelian Diamond Resources, Papua Mining, portfolio allocation, portfolio performance, Prime Active Capital, Smart Alpha Portfolio, Smart Beta Portfolio, TGISVP, The Great Irish Share Valuation Project, US Oil & Gas

OK, a second year of The Great Irish Share Valuation Project is now complete – for reference, here’s my mid-year review, now it’s time for the real post-mortem!  Let’s take care of a little housekeeping first:

– Between Jan & May last year, I published individual reviews/valuations for 73 different Irish companies, and kept a file recording each share price (at time of evaluation) & price target to properly assess performance.

– Post mid-year, in Aug-Sep 2013, I published (& recorded) some additional reviews/valuations for 3 new Irish IPOs:  Green REIT (GRN:ID), Keywords Studios (KWS:LN), and Ardmore Shipping (ASC:US).

– Since mid-year, I’ve made no other changes to my TGISVP file, except: i) Donegal Creameries (DCP:ID) changed its name to Donegal Investment Group (DCP:ID), while United Drug (UDG:LN) became UDG Healthcare (UDG:LN), ii) Kedco (KED:LN) changed its name to REACT Energy (REAC:LN), and also consolidated its shares on a 1-for-50 basis, iii) Grafton Group (GFTU:LN) migrated to a London-only listing, iv) Elan Corp (ELN:US) was acquired by Perrigo Co (PRGO:US), and finally v) TVC Holdings (TVCH:ID) paid its shareholders a EUR 0.495 special dividend.

– Since the (major) review/valuation phase was spread over 4 1/2 mths, my benchmark (the ISEQ) needs to be adjusted accordingly. I’m going to reference the mid-point (in terms of companies valued) of this phase – i.e. Feb-25th – as the most appropriate start date for the index.

2013 – The Great Irish Share Valuation Project (Part IV)

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Conroy Gold & Natural Resources, DCC, FBD Holdings, Irish shares, Irish value investing, Kingspan, New Ireland Fund, Paddy Power, Pageant Holdings, Papua Mining, TGISVP, The Great Irish Share Valuation Project, Zamano

Continued from here. If you’re only joining the series now, I recommend you first read my first TGISVP post this year. And so, without further ado, let’s dive straight into my next (random) bunch of Irish stocks:

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Company:   New Ireland Fund

Prior Post:   Here

Ticker:   IRL:US

Price:   USD 9.919

The New Ireland Fund is the only closed-end fund now investing in Irish shares. [Hopefully, when general Irish sentiment is sufficiently improved, Gervais Williams might see fit to launch a new Irish investment trust]. The share’s made decent progress in the past year, slightly exceeding my price target. This was really due to NAV appreciation, however, as the NAV discount remained steady around 12%. With Phillip Goldstein, of Bulldog Investors, selling much of his 13% stake in the past year, that’s a pretty creditable performance.

The Great Irish Share Valuation Project X

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Fiomi Diagnostics, Galantas Gold, George Soros, John Teeling, Lisa B, Minco, NAMA, New Ireland Fund, Norish, O'Donoghues, Oisin Fanning, Orogen Gold, Papua Mining, Papua New Guinea, Petrel Resources, Phillip Goldstein, Rathdowney Resources, Raven Russia, Real Estate Opportunities, San Leon Energy, shorting, Strongbow Capital, TGISVP, Trinity Biotech

Continued from here:

OK, we’re in the home straight now, at least within the original valuation stage of TGISVP. Eight companies left, mostly junior resource companies, so that should be fun..! I’ve booted Real Estate Opportunities (REO:LN), as trading was suspended in January. And please, let’s not bother talking about NAMA, court cases etc… For years now, REO’s had terrible corporate governance, far too much leverage, and pretty much promised to totally fuck investors... And so it has come to pass, and shareholders don’t even have a luxury Moroccan get-away to show for it…

I’ve no desire to short shares usually – a value mindset is far too dangerous an attribute to possess if you want to play that game. But watching REO fly far too close to the sun, and not even notice its wings were melting, I just got far too itchy… I really wasn’t worried what the price was – GBP 20p, 5p, 3p…who cares when it’s going to zero anyway. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a spread-better who would deal in it – even Worldspreads (and their zero spreads…), if I recall..!? Perhaps I didn’t ring around/push hard enough? If anybody managed to do this successfully, I’d love to hear more details?