November-9th…What An Historic Day!?

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absolute return, benchmarking, Brexit, diversification, Donald Trump, portfolio allocation, portfolio performance, relative performance, track record, value investing, Zamano, ZMNO

Trump.

Trump..?

Donald Trump..?!?!

No, just no, it can’t be…

How did he…how could they?

This isn’t what anybody expected…

Who does he think he is trying to steal a place in history from…

ME?!?

Because Nov-9th was destined to be MY day…which, I’m assuming, faithful readers already knew? ‘Cos five years ago, to the day, I first clicked the Publish button & launched the Wexboy blog into the wild blue yonder of the internet! And at the time, who in their right mind would ever have imagined the Donald being announced as President-elect to celebrate the 5-year anniversary of this blog?!

Though I’m sure he’d approve of my first post – a real estate investment write-up on Nov-9th, 2011: Sirius Real Estate (SRE:LN). More recent readers will marvel this post was a trifling 1,300 words long (note the last para of the post!?). Not to mention my insane pace initially – I clocked an astonishing seventeen more posts for the rest of that month – I guess I was finally learning, like many writers, to channel the rage in a more creative & productive manner…

If you’d asked me to look five years ahead to this day, I’d have laughed. And if I’d actually envisioned publishing hundreds of thousands of words since, maybe I’d have mapped out a killer-trilogy of bondage, vampires & bad metaphors, and lived off the royalties instead! [Though I suspect I’d have then started a blog to document my investments…so perhaps this was my destiny all along!] Ask me last year, and I’d probably have promised a rash of posts – some serious, some frivolous – to mark such an anniversary. But now we’re here, the urge to celebrate seems to have dissipated – I have to wonder if the Brexit referendum vote, followed by a Trump election victory, has something to do with that? In their wake, the blog certainly feels more like an unfinished story…

But looking back, I have to admit I’m amazed at this body of work to date. The investing advice I’ve offered along the way still (pretty much) makes sense to me – in fact, there’s little I’d change at this point, let alone go back on. As for the macro perspectives & investment themes I’ve elaborated on over the years, I’ve always tried to focus on the longer-term horizon & filter out the current market noise – the fact that much some of it still appears to offer a useful macro framework, plus a road-map for some interesting secular investment opportunities, would hopefully suggest I’ve achieved that.

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Zamano – Time For A Dividend & Your Support…

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dividend coverage, dividend payout ratio, dividend yield, Irish value investing, John Rockett, Pageant Holdings, Ross Conlon, shareholder activism, shareholder value, Zamano, ZMNO

Here’s a recent letter I sent the board of Zamano plc (ZMNO:ID, ZMNO:LN) – it proposes the company now commence paying an annual dividend. I’m also now actively seeking the support of my fellow shareholders:

‘27-Feb-2016

FAO:   John Rockett, Chairman
            Ross Conlon, CEO

Cc:      Pat Landy, NED
____- Colin Tucker, NED
______Fergal Scully, NED

zamano plc
3rd Floor
Hospitality House
16-20 South Cumberland St
Dublin 2

Gentlemen,

Pursuant to my last Zamano post, I want to thank Ross for responding to the shareholders who contacted the company regarding my annual dividend proposal. A number of shareholders have also contacted me directly to confirm their support – I now speak for 13.1% of Zamano’s outstanding shares. Noting this support & the upcoming Mar-10th release of Zamano’s final results, this is a good opportunity to write to you more formally & reiterate my dividend proposal:

– Zamano’s been profitable for the past four years now. Since 2011, the company’s revenue has increased by 55% to a €23.3 million annual run-rate, annual EBITDA has averaged €2.6 million, while annual free cash flow has averaged €2.5 million (for FYs 2012-14). This has now resulted in net cash of €5.4 million on the balance sheet, versus €4.4 million of net debt in 2011, a near-€10 million swing in the company’s financial position.

Zamano…So, What Now?!

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Irish shares, Irish value investing, mobile content, mobile payment, Pageant Holdings, Ross Conlon, shareholder activism, takeover offer, Zamano, ZMNO

It’s 18 months since my original Zamano (ZMNO:ID, or ZMNO:LN) write-up:

‘Zoom, Zoom…Zamano!’

Maybe I should kick off with an update…but if you’re a current (or potential) shareholder, how can we avoid the elephant in the room? Yeah, I’m talking about the early-Aug announcement of a possible EUR 0.20 per share offer for Zamano. The one where investors were subsequently left in the dark for nearly three months, only to learn in late-Oct bid discussions had actually been terminated (no further details were provided). I’m sure plenty of shareholders have been experiencing the five stages of grief since, and who can blame ’em really…it must feel a lot like getting jilted at the altar!

So, What Now..?!

Well, less than a fortnight later, the company released news of the Chairman’s upcoming resignation, plus a 9 month trading update which (while excellent) consisted of a single sentence… This appears to draw a line under the failed bid, and signals it’s business as usual, which I really don’t find acceptable. Shareholders deserve better. Whatever the merits/likelihood of the bid, it’s a frustrating reminder of the obvious value gap between ZMNO’s share price & its intrinsic value. I’m quite sure a majority of the company’s shareholders (i.e. its bloody owners!) now feel like they’re owed at least a strategic review, laying out in detail how the board intends to close the current value gap & grow shareholder value. Let’s map out the available strategies (and forgive a more jaundiced view):

Organic Growth

My last post relied on FY-2013 figures – since then, the company’s enjoyed consistent revenue momentum of +24% in FY-2014, +19% yoy in H1-2015 & an accelerated +37% yoy in Q3-2015, while net cash increased over 150% to €5.4 million. The recent trading update now pegs the revenue run-rate at €23.3 million, a 45% increase in less than two years! Maybe ZMNO finally deserves a growth stock re-rating?! Let’s hope so… Here’s updated financials to end-June 2015, focusing (again) on cash flow:

It’s encouraging to note recent (& historical) growth clearly doesn’t require increased cash investment. But let’s not fool ourselves, management’s enjoyed some attractive tail winds here. With 80% of the business now coming from the UK, sterling strength is a significant top-line contributor. The EUR/GBP rate averaged 0.8491 in 2013, and now it’s 0.7046 – that probably accounts for 25-30% of the post FY-2013 revenue increase. And with the UK & Ireland being two of the best economies in Europe (in terms of GDP growth/recovery & declining unemployment), increased consumer spending is another substantial tailwind. Plus, there’s a renewed emphasis on B2B – and while that delivers a more stable/durable revenue stream, it also means lower margins & a lagging EBITDA (which increased 19%, to €3.1 million) over the same period.

Zoom, Zoom…Zamano!

Tags

activist investor, Irish shares, Irish value investing, mobile content, mobile marketing, mobile payment, Pageant Holdings, Ross Conlon, Zamano, ZMNO

Zamano plc (ZMNO:ID, ZMNO:LN) is a leading Irish/UK provider of games, videos, music, apps & other digital content to mobile users (D2C, Direct-To-Consumer), and mobile messaging/marketing solutions for businesses (B2B, Business-To-Business). It’s also terribly misunderstood & neglected – the share price is down 25% in the past six months (vs. the ISEQ up 4%). So, loath as I am, we should first tackle some:

Risks & Misconceptions

i) ‘They just sell ringtones?!’:   No, they sell all kinds of digital content. Especially to Millennials, whose attention span’s as fleeting as Lee Evans between twitches – which means they’re a perfect target for the cheap impulse buys Zamano offers.

ii) ‘Oh, and porn!’:   No. No. No, they bloody well don’t…

iii) ‘What about smartphones?’:   Zamano primarily interacts with users via SMS (plus MMS, WAP, etc.), so smartphones must be killing them, right? Er no, as Portio Research points out: ‘SMS is not dead. SMS is still the king…’. For Zamano, smartphones represent more opportunity than threat:

– The SMS share of the pie may shrink, but the pie keeps growing. More & more people are forgetting their laptops & and are now living online 24/7 via phones (& tablets) – they’re all a potential target market for Zamano. And smartphones have allowed the company to upgrade & customize its D2C content, and to migrate its advertising online, thereby enabling more effective customer acquisition. Like so many tech companies, ZMNO’s really a sales & marketing company – so management’s ultimately agnostic, they’ll embrace whatever technology(s) deliver the best revenue/profit opportunities.

– If that’s via apps, that’s OK too… Because people have to get paid eventually, free/dollar apps won’t hack it, especially when it comes to regularly updated content. Maybe in-game/app purchases & advertising become the norm, but I suspect we’ll see an inevitable migration (back) to a subscription model – a far more stable/valuable revenue stream for companies. Just look at the evolution of online music: Downloading’s dead now, streaming’s where it’s at…maybe even Apple’s finally got the message!

– As for Zamano’s B2B business, SMS will be an attractive marketing tool for years to come. I mean, when did you last read your spam email? But we all still love that little dopamine fix when a new text message pings…we can’t help reading it! For companies, SMS is a simple, immediate & compelling medium for reaching out & marketing to customers. Combine it with geolocation and/or mobile payment technologies, and it offers intriguing new opportunities.

iv) ‘Don’t they have a crap reputation?’:   Sure…if you want to believe the trolls. Yes, how dare they charge for that sub. you forgot about? Why don’t you complain about the skinny jeans you bought last week too, or the hangover you spent good money on last night? I blame the chattering classes – they tut-tut over the hoi polloi buying such chavtastic tat. Then we have nanny regulators like Comreg, who act like they’re waging a holy war to atone for the sins of the Irish banking regulator… Yes, Zamano has to compete with some dodgy rivals, but it also has a fiduciary duty to its investors. Shady practices might appear tempting, but when you consider the risks for a listed company…it’s never worth it. And because ZMNO’s listed (& highly visible), the regulator inevitably targets them first. I’m confident we can rely on management to maintain standards & compliance accordingly.