Safecharge (SCH) continued its impressive growth story in 2018, delivering a 47 per cent increase in the number of transactions – to 255m – along with a 45 per cent increase in transaction value, to $13.9bn (£10.5bn), split evenly between new customer wins and existing clients.
Investors might question how long the secure payments specialist can maintain such growth, but transaction values have consistently increased since it floated on the Alternative Investment Market (Aim) in April 2014, and the group said it has “enjoyed an excellent start to 2019”. Management said the size of the addressable market is $3trn-$4trn, and though there is no shortage of players in the sector, there is still plenty of room for growth.
It now plans to do this by focusing on new markets and verticals, as well as continuing to sign up large “tier one” customers to its fully serviced payments platform. In the year, Safecharge opened offices in Shenzhen and Mexico and signed up tier one clients in a range of industries. But this came at cost, as the gross margin deteriorated by 450 basis points to 53.3 per cent.
Bloomberg puts the consensus adjusted EPS forecast at 20.9¢, an increase of 24 per cent from the 16.8¢ achieved in 2018.
| SAFECHARGE (SCH) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 288p | MARKET VALUE: | £ 438m | |
| TOUCH: | 285-290p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 355p | LOW: 225p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 4.8% | PE RATIO: | 23 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 110¢* | NET CASH: | $93.1m | |
| Year to 31 Dec | Turnover ($m) | Pre-tax profit ($m) | Earnings per share (¢) | Dividend per share (¢) |
| 2014 | 76.9 | 16.3 | 10.4 | 8.16 |
| 2015 | 100 | 22.7 | 15.1 | 11.30 |
| 2016 | 104 | 28.0 | 17.6 | 16.47 |
| 2017 | 112 | 26.2 | 16.1 | 16.89 |
| 2018 | 139 | 27.2 | 16.7 | 18.31 |
| % change | +24 | +4 | +4 | +8 |
| Ex-div: | 02 May | |||
| Payment: | 24 May | |||
| *Includes intangible assets of $39m, or 26¢ a share. £1 = $1.32 | ||||
