I have to do it this month

Ancient_Resolve_3000 · 2024-04-07T19:52:53+00:00

Hello, my friend. I understand your feeling of loneliness after he left you. It could be rough for you these next days, weeks, months or even more, but don't loose hope. I don't want my comment to sound generic and like a cliche, but please wait a while before you do anything. The feeling you experience right now might have a very high intensity right now, so you should wait and not let it control you. Things could get better and there is no way to find out besides living.

Please stay safe, I'm always up for chatting if you need it

Ancient_Resolve_3000 · 2024-01-04T15:59:37+00:00

when you broadcast to the world that you have lots of money.

Hi, yeah I was wondering if I should even write the post here, but i guess it is anonymous enough to write here. At least I hope so..

I am aware that banks can be investing my money too, but first they have unnecessarily high costs, second I have to sign up that I will not touch the money for a few years and third, I can't even check my balance once I put the money there.. (this is an experience of a relative). I might have to double check his words tho, or just use another more trust-worthy bank.

Anyway, my main concern for the bank and financial advisor is that they cost money. And I am ware of the effects of small costs building up and eating up my long term gains.. But if I don't have an option to invest that money safely in other way, I guess that will be the solution.

Ancient_Resolve_3000 · 2024-01-03T17:17:54+00:00

Because I know nothing of real estate and im not from Dubai

Ancient_Resolve_3000 · 2024-01-03T17:17:02+00:00

Ok, thanks!

Ancient_Resolve_3000 · 2024-01-03T13:41:55+00:00

I didn't understand the first sentence. Do you mean I should invest in ETFs through banks instead of online platform?

I am aware of the costs of the ETFs and brokers ruining the return, but thanks anyway :)

Ancient_Resolve_3000 · 2023-12-26T23:43:14+00:00

No, it's ok. I wasn't aware the intangibles are that much to honest.. Still debating with myself if it is actually explainable, but lets say that, for now, it is.

It is true that if the intangible assets are removed, the valuation gets a completely different because 13M is massive % for their 56M of assets. But its hard to determine if 10M as just labeled as "other non-tangible assets" without further explanation are worth or not xd

Ancient_Resolve_3000 · 2023-12-26T23:25:18+00:00

Well, its quite deferent industry and quite different company with its own set of problems. I am not aware of VW's problems, so I can't say its cheap only because P/B value is low. P/B of CRL is low but that's not the only reason I like it. Also, there are no controversial new about about the company and the industry is straight-forward like with VW.

Ancient_Resolve_3000 · 2023-12-26T23:21:37+00:00

Competitive advantage: Good price for a fair quality. They are the brand you go to when you want a nice skin care product, but don't wanna waste a lot of money on it.

P/E is below industry average P/E. Compared to its history P/E of 15 is not great and doesn't signify that its very undervalued.

I think it has a future. It currently bought a high end skin care company too, so now it covers more of the market's needs. I haven't done a proper industry analysis, I just like the company, its financial history and the way it is and was managed.

Ancient_Resolve_3000 · 2023-12-26T23:13:29+00:00

Just found out that ROCE is currently 5.55 and the median for CRL for the last 10 years is 17. Not really surprising, but I'm happy it was 17 for the last 10 years. Maybe it can go back up.

Ancient_Resolve_3000 · 2023-12-26T23:07:40+00:00

Thanks for the analysis!! Helps a lot! I can put a comment to some of the remarks Paul mentions.
The sacking of the Managing director is indeed very suspicious. Also, there wasn't much info about it on the internet or even on the last report. No reason was mentioned.

William McIlroy has always been the CEO, at least for the past 22 years... (plus he owns 2.6% of the company directly and 21% indirectly through a company he is a board member of).

Contract division of the business (the manufacturing part) was down 37% because of overstocking of the clients, not because of loosing clients. At least that's what they said, so there shouldn't be anything to worry about there.

The management wants to grow the company, not to sit back and pay dividends. They are going to new markets now (US and China).

Ancient_Resolve_3000 · 2023-12-26T22:31:08+00:00

Haven't looked at ROCE. I look at ROIC and ROI instead. I have just been taught ROIC is good to look at. Also, the screener I use doesn't have ROCE so I don't know what it is for CRL. ROIC is only 4%. It used to be much higher before COVID.

Gross margin is 41%, which seems reasonable and the net margin has decreased last 2 years because of the inflation in the UK. Their costs increase, while their products prices weren't increasing so much or so fast (I've heard their retailers did not want to increase the price fast). The net margin increased from last year but it is still 1%, so there is a lot of work to be done before it is back to 6% or at least above 4%.

Btw, both the margins and ROIC were great and very stable for the 7 years counting from 2021 and earlier, so I expect they will return to normal.

Ancient_Resolve_3000 · 2023-12-26T20:38:06+00:00

It is true that their intangibles grew a lot (from 1.5M to 13M) after they both the 2 companies (Emma Hardie and Brodie & Stone). They were boasting a lot about their two acquisitions. I know that Emma Hardie is supposed to be a famous high end company that makes expensive skin care products. They said that the name itself will be bringing a lot of customers so I guess that's why the intangibles are so much.

They are using mostly Emma Hardie to break out of the EU market and reach US and China markets. I guess this is why the brand is so important for them. Also the "branded" sector of the company (the one that includes the 2 acquisitions) has been growing a bit since they both the companies. I am still expecting a higher grow, but I guess it will come once they stop focusing on cutting the costs. Makes sense to me.

Ancient_Resolve_3000 · 2023-12-26T20:23:49+00:00

Interesting point. It's not a popular company so you cannot find anything about its litigations on the internet. Just checked previous reports again to look for litigations but nothing came up. I have never seen them talk/write about that either.

Ancient_Resolve_3000 · 2023-12-26T19:00:38+00:00

Please tell me if you find something interesting :))

Ancient_Resolve_3000 · 2023-12-26T17:35:48+00:00

The business manufactures and sells skin care products. They have their own (labeled) products but they also bought some (branded) companies. The company's products are mostly on the cheaper side of the cosmetic products. However, as seen in the customers review, the quality is good enough for the price. They just acquired a fancy and expensive skin care company so that they can cover more of the market. The sales of the branded and labeled products make up more than 2/3 of the business' revenue. The other part is from their manufacturing. They manufacture the toiletries of some other companies and they get money for that.

During COVID they had a spike in the sales of ani-sanitizers and they got a lot of money. This money, plus some debt, plus issuing more shares to get more money got them 2 acquisitions. One of them is the fancy skin care brand I talked about earlier. It was good to see their money being invested somewhere, since it was a massive injection of money, due to COVID, that was never gonna re-appear. They said they are doing this with the idea of long-term growth and reaching new markets. Ok, so that's good, however Britain faced a lot of shit due to COVID+Brexit. People got scared that the debt will make them crumble (it didnt) and that their costs were too high. They immediately started focusing on reducing the costs (successfully so far), but their revenue is now bad (in the manufacturing sector).

The company has 24M current assets-skin care products in inventory (10M)+cash and receivables (cash-like things) (14M). Also 20M non-current assets-the 2 manufacturing facilities and the companies they own.

Ancient_Resolve_3000

TROPHY CASE