Business
Angling Direct Plc new investment
Angling Direct Plc new investment.
About this update from Kelso Group Holdings Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n\nKelso Group Holdings Plc (\"Kelso\" or the \"Company\")\nAngling Direct Plc new investment\nMello conference\nKelso, the main market listed investment company, is pleased to announce that it will be speaking on Thursday 30 November at the Mello conference at the Clayton Hotel Chiswick, Chiswick High Road, London, W4 5RY Chiswick, where the Company will be outlining its views on current market conditions and its investment case.\nIn the year to date over 30 companies, with a market capitalisation between £50 million and £1 billion have exited the UK market via acquisition to trade or private equity, in many cases yielding high exit premiums. This highlights the current low valuations and the short-term opportunity for investors, but if the lack of investor interest in UK listed companies is unabated, we see this trend continuing. Kelso will benefit from this current extreme under-valuation but, as a strong supporter of the UK listed market, believes there will continue to be attractive investment opportunities for the medium term, particularly at the smaller end of the market.\nNew investment in Angling Direct Plc (\"Angling\")\nKelso is pleased to announce that it purchased 2.32 million ordinary shares in Angling, at an average price of 35.1p, representing 3.0% of the total issued share capital in the company.\n \nAngling is the largest specialist fishing retailer in the UK with an estimated UK market share of 12%, according to the company, being approximately 8x larger than any other UK competitor. From IPO in 2017 to today, Angling has grown its stores from 15 to 46, with revenue growth from £21 million1 to £83 million1 expected for the year ending January 2024, with EBITDA growth from £0.8 million1 to an expected £2.7 million1. Despite the fact that revenue is expected to have grown 4x since IPO and EBITDA is expected to grow c.2.4x to the current year end, Angling's current share price of 40p is less than two thirds of the issue price of 64p. Its current market cap, of which c.60% (£17.6m) is in net cash, is almost exactly the same market cap as on IPO, and lower than the capital raised since IPO. Angling has also grown their online revenue to c.40% of total revenue creating an effective omni channel distribution model. Angling is currently trading on a 5.0x EV/EBITDA to January 2024 (pre IFRS 16) and 4.2x for the f...