Shareholders in technology group Checkit (CKT:55p), formerly known as Elektron Technology, are on course for bumper £81m cash return in November following the recently completed disposal of Bulgin, a world-class designer and maker of hermetically-sealed (air and watertight), fail-safe circular connectors. Documents will be sent to shareholders in the coming days that will offer them the chance to tender their shares at 65p on the basis of two shares repurchased for every three held. That’s a 48 per cent premium to the 44p entry point in my November Alpha Report.
Checkit will retain net cash of £14m to develop its business, a sum that will be augmented when its non-core Elektron Eye Technology (EET) business, a developer of portable analysers that are used to detect age-related macular degeneration, is sold off. That unit has just reported operating profit of £100,000 on revenue of £1.2m in the half year to 31 July 2019, so it could perhaps fetch £1.8m in the current market.
Based on 62m shares in issue post the tender offer, Checkit’s pro-forma market capitalisation of £21.7m (using a share price of 35p) will be two-thirds backed by cash (22p a share post tender). Also, Checkit acquired Fleet-based Next Control Systems (NCS), a leader in high-end service-based temperature monitoring for healthcare and life sciences within the UK, and data-related building energy management system services, for a net consideration of £8.8m (14p a share) in May 2019, representing 6.6 times its annual cash profit.
This means the value in NCS – which has now been renamed Checkit UK – and retained cash back the company's market capitalisation in full, implying shareholders are getting a free ride on Checkit’s proprietary work management ‘software as a service’ (Saas) business that has been designed to replace paper-based systems with a centralised, interactive cloud-based way of managing the multitude of tasks that staff have to carry out on a daily basis. Analyst Paul Hill at Equity Development estimates that more than £15m (24p a share post tender) has been invested in developing the system, thus creating “a wide competitive moat against UK rivals such as Crimson Tide (TIDE), Trailsuite and Kelsius”.
Admittedly, Checkit is lossmaking, but it is growing quickly and is targeting a near £6bn market for work management software, remote wireless sensing and remote building energy management in both the UK and the US. The client list already includes a roll call of blue chips including John Lewis, Center Parcs, BP, British Land and the NHS, highlighting how the company’s exciting suite of mobile apps, wireless sensors and data analytics can be deployed across multiple sectors including retail, healthcare, leisure and hotels both to monitor and enhance the operational performance of clients’ businesses.
Moreover, the directors are expanding their geographic reach. Chairman Keith Daley revealed during our results call this morning that the company “hopes to sign a multi-branch contract with a large European food retailing group shortly”. The focus is increasingly on the largest national and multinational customers. They are exploiting cross-selling opportunities with Checkit UK’s client base, too.
True, Checkit is lossmaking and is expected to rack up cumulative cash losses of £6m in the three financial years to 31 January 2022, by which time annual revenue (excluding EET) should have ratcheted up from £11.6m to £20.5m, according to Mr Hill. But the point is that this is a business that should be able to maintain that underlying sales growth rate of 20 per cent a year and is highly operationally geared, so once it turns cash profitable (Equity Development has a £1.3m cash profit forecast in the 2022/23 financial year on revenue of £25m), it will become increasingly profitable thereafter.
The shares look underpriced to me so, although I would recommend tendering two-thirds of your holdings to bank a hefty profit on part of your holding, thus giving yourselves a free ride on the balance, I would certainly advise holding onto the rump. Tender shares.
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