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Both of Carclo’s larger divisions, Technical Plastics (TP) and LED Technologies, grew in line with management expectations during FY17, while the smaller Aerospace division continues to experience stable trading conditions. FY18 has started well with the announcement of a second mid-volume project for Wipac. This new award underscores the relevance of the recent FLTC acquisition, which substantially enhances Wipac’s ability to progress multiple projects simultaneously. We leave our estimates unchanged but slightly increase our indicative sum of the parts valuation.
Written by
Carclo |
All going to plan |
Pre-close trading update, contract award & acquisition |
Tech hardware & equipment |
13 April 2017 |
Share price performance
Business description
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Analysts
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Both of Carclo’s larger divisions, Technical Plastics (TP) and LED Technologies, grew in line with management expectations during FY17, while the smaller Aerospace division continues to experience stable trading conditions. FY18 has started well with the announcement of a second mid-volume project for Wipac. This new award underscores the relevance of the recent FLTC acquisition, which substantially enhances Wipac’s ability to progress multiple projects simultaneously. We leave our estimates unchanged but slightly increase our indicative sum of the parts valuation.
Year end |
Revenue (£m) |
PBT* |
EPS* |
DPS |
P/E |
Yield |
03/15 |
107.5 |
7.1 |
7.9 |
2.8 |
17.1 |
2.1 |
03/16 |
119.0 |
8.8 |
10.1 |
0.9 |
13.4 |
0.7 |
03/17e |
130.0 |
10.7 |
11.6 |
0.0 |
11.6 |
N/A |
03/18e |
140.6 |
12.7 |
13.1 |
0.0 |
10.3 |
N/A |
Note: *PBT and EPS are normalised, excluding amortisation of acquired intangibles, exceptional items and share-based payments.
TP benefiting from expansion to support customers
TP growth depends primarily on expansion of capacity to meet demand from new and existing customers. Production at the facility in Taicang, completed in H216, ramped up during FY17 to support demand for disposable medical consumables from a global healthcare customer. This was supplemented with new business wins and the drive to secure further work continues. Work doubling capacity at the Bangalore facility is ongoing and scheduled for completion this summer. The integration of the Precision Tool & Die business, acquired in October 2016 to enhance the prototyping offer, is progressing well with the first batch of synergistic projects underway. Importantly operating margin is expected to have reached management’s stated target of 10%.
FLTC acquisition supports further Wipac growth
LED Technologies’ growth depends primarily on winning and executing programmes to design and develop lighting for the luxury and supercar sector. Wipac has recently achieved its target of securing a second mid-volume programme, on a vehicle for the hybrid market. Existing programmes are running to plan. The FLTC acquisition will enable Wipac to go after additional mid-volume programmes now that it has the design capability to work on multiple programmes in parallel.
Valuation: Auto contracts to close valuation gap
Based on a sum-of-the-parts valuation, which recognises that half of Carclo’s operating profit is derived from the supply of specialist products for healthcare and pharmaceutical applications, we arrive at an indicative valuation range of 153-162p (previously 148-156p). Newsflow regarding further automotive contract wins should help close the valuation gap.
FLTC acquisition
On 30 March 2017, Carclo acquired FLTC, an independent automotive design company based in Czech Republic, for an initial consideration of c £0.9m and a deferred consideration of up to £0.5m plus a cash and working capital adjustment of up to £0.5m (net of cash). The consideration was payable in cash, funded from the group’s short-term debt facilities. The deal increases Wipac’s existing LED lighting design team by about one quarter, enhancing the division’s ability to address multiple opportunities in the low and medium volume prestige automotive segments simultaneously.
FLTC employs 35 engineers solely focused on automotive LED lighting design, ie with skill sets encompassing optical design, mechanical design, power electronics and systems integration. The FLTC team will be incremental to Wipac’s existing UK design team. By adding over 30 designers in one go, rather than attempting to achieve this through recruitment of individual people, Wipac will be able to work on more low and medium volume prestige car projects simultaneously. Wipac’s ability to expand had previously been limited by the rate at which it could find suitably qualified and experienced staff in the UK.
For the year ended December 2016, FLTC reported revenues of c £1.6m, generating c £0.4m profit before tax. Wipac currently accounts for one-third of FLTC’s revenues. Following the acquisition, FLTC will shift away from third-party activities, which are with the same customers as Wipac, and work exclusively on Wipac’s projects. Although the transaction is potentially earnings enhancing from FY18, we leave our estimates unchanged, other than balance sheet adjustments, until there is greater clarity on how well integration of the new design team is progressing. These adjustments increase our estimate of net debt at end FY17 from £24.3m to £25.6m.
Valuation
Examination of the comparators (Exhibit 1) shows that Carclo is trading on multiples that are substantially lower than those for healthcare companies. We therefore run a sum-of-the-parts calculation to determine an indicative FY18 P/E multiple for Carclo, as this methodology acknowledges that half of its divisional operating profit is attributable to the sale of products to the global healthcare industry. Where available, the P/E multiple applied to each division is the mean for each sector, as shown in Exhibit 2. There are a number of companies manufacturing high-volume medical products but the key one of relevance, which we use in the sum-of-the-parts calculation, is Gerresheimer, as its products are primarily for use in the medical/pharmaceutical test facilities, rather than for patient care (Ambu, Coloplast and Straumann). As can be seen from Exhibit 1, the latter trade on much higher multiples. This sample is therefore not used in the sum-of-the-parts calculation.
Applying a blended P/E multiple of 13.8x to Carclo’s FY18 EPS (13.1p) gives a preliminary indicative valuation of 180p. We think that Carclo’s relatively small market capitalisation merits some discount. However, the implied discount (26%) to this preliminary indicative valuation with a current share price of 133p is, in our opinion, too severe given the stability provided by long-term customer relationships combined with potential for growth in Carclo’s two main divisions. Applying a 10-15% discount gives a valuation range of 153-162p (see Exhibit 2). To cross-check, we apply the same methodology to calculate a blended sum-of-the-parts using the year two EV/EBITDA multiple from our sample of peers in the three segments. Our indicative value range of 153-162p gives a range of year 2 EV/EBITDA multiples of 7.0-7.4x (see Exhibit 1). The lower bound (7.0x) is equivalent to the blended year 2 EV/EBITDA multiple with a 10% discount applied. The upper bound (7.4x) is equivalent to the blended year 2 EV/EBITDA multiple with a 4% discount. Our valuation range was previously 148-156p/share. This modest increase reflects a substantial uplift in the average P/E multiples for aerospace companies.
Exhibit 1: Peer multiples
Name |
Market cap ($m) |
EV/sales |
EV/sales FY2 (x) |
EV/EBITDA FY1 (x) |
EV/EBITDA FY2 (x) |
P/E |
P/E |
Carclo at current price of 133p (11 April 2017) |
122 |
0.9 |
0.9 |
7.3 |
6.3 |
11.5 |
10.2 |
Carclo at indicative value of 153p |
151 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
8.1 |
7.0 |
13.2 |
11.7 |
Carclo at indicative value of 162p |
159 |
1.1 |
1.0 |
8.5 |
7.4 |
14.0 |
12.4 |
Healthcare: patient implants and disposables |
|||||||
AMBU A/S-B |
2,110 |
6.7 |
6.1 |
29.1 |
24.7 |
44.7 |
36.3 |
COLOPLAST-B |
16,653 |
7.5 |
7.0 |
20.4 |
18.6 |
28.5 |
25.7 |
STRAUMANN HOLDING AG-REG |
7,226 |
7.1 |
6.6 |
24.2 |
21.9 |
32.0 |
28.7 |
Healthcare: drug delivery and packaging |
|||||||
GERRESHEIMER AG |
2,355 |
2.1 |
2.0 |
9.5 |
9.0 |
16.1 |
14.8 |
Automotive |
|||||||
AMERICAN AXLE & MFG HOLDINGS |
1,298 |
0.5 |
0.5 |
3.3 |
3.3 |
5.0 |
5.2 |
BORGWARNER INC |
8,127 |
1.1 |
1.1 |
6.5 |
6.2 |
11.2 |
10.3 |
BREMBO SPA |
4,984 |
2.0 |
1.9 |
10.5 |
9.8 |
19.0 |
17.8 |
DELPHI AUTOMOTIVE PLC |
20,221 |
1.4 |
1.3 |
8.0 |
7.6 |
11.5 |
10.5 |
FAURECIA |
6,257 |
0.3 |
0.3 |
3.6 |
3.4 |
10.2 |
9.2 |
HALDEX AB |
587 |
1.2 |
1.1 |
13.1 |
10.2 |
29.3 |
23.6 |
HELLA KGAA HUECK & CO |
4,797 |
0.7 |
0.7 |
5.5 |
5.1 |
12.9 |
11.5 |
LEONI AG |
1,659 |
0.4 |
0.4 |
5.7 |
5.2 |
13.5 |
11.8 |
MAGNA INTERNATIONAL INC |
15,218 |
0.5 |
0.4 |
4.6 |
4.2 |
7.0 |
6.2 |
PARAGON AG |
236 |
2.1 |
1.7 |
12.6 |
10.0 |
36.6 |
26.3 |
VALEO SA |
15,512 |
0.8 |
0.7 |
6.2 |
5.6 |
14.1 |
12.4 |
VISTEON CORP |
3,110 |
0.9 |
0.8 |
7.6 |
7.0 |
16.9 |
14.4 |
Mean |
1.0 |
0.9 |
6.5 |
6.0 |
13.7 |
12.2 |
|
Aerospace |
|||||||
FACC AG |
324 |
0.8 |
0.7 |
9.9 |
7.8 |
22.9 |
15.3 |
LATECOERE |
399 |
0.7 |
0.6 |
9.6 |
7.2 |
14.7 |
11.7 |
SENIOR PLC |
1,082 |
1.1 |
1.0 |
8.7 |
7.9 |
15.4 |
13.6 |
TT ELECTRONICS PLC |
399 |
0.6 |
0.6 |
6.6 |
6.3 |
15.0 |
13.6 |
Mean |
0.8 |
0.8 |
8.7 |
7.3 |
17.0 |
13.5 |
Source: Bloomberg, Edison Investment Research. Note: Prices at 6 April 2017. Grey shading indicates exclusion from mean
The share price has picked up from the low of 110p in November 2016 as investors have begun to recognise that the withdrawal of dividend payments announced in August does not imply problems with underlying trading performance and profits. Newsflow regarding further automotive programmes should help close the valuation gap.
Exhibit 2: SOTP indicative valuation
Division |
% FY18e EBIT |
P/E (x) |
EV/EBITDA (x) |
CTP |
54.7% |
14.8 |
9.0 |
LED |
37.0% |
12.2 |
6.0 |
Aerospace |
8.3% |
13.5 |
7.3 |
Blended P/E (x) |
13.8 |
7.7 |
|
FY18e EPS |
13.1p |
||
Undiscounted indicative value |
180.1p |
7.7 |
|
Indicative value applying 4% discount |
173.2p |
7.4 |
|
Indicative value applying 10% discount |
162.1p |
7.0 |
|
Indicative value applying 15% discount |
153.1p |
6.6 |
Source: Edison Investment Research
Exhibit 3: Financial summary
£000s |
2015 |
2016 |
2017e |
2018e |
2019e |
||
Year end 31 March |
IFRS |
IFRS |
IFRS |
IFRS |
IFRS |
||
PROFIT & LOSS |
|||||||
Revenue |
|
|
107,503 |
118,974 |
130,004 |
140,617 |
155,296 |
EBITDA |
|
|
11,402 |
13,840 |
16,758 |
19,346 |
22,348 |
Operating Profit (before amort. and except.) |
7,789 |
10,034 |
12,258 |
14,346 |
16,848 |
||
Intangible Amortisation |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
||
Exceptionals |
(31,668) |
(4,857) |
(500) |
0 |
0 |
||
Other |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
||
Operating Profit |
(23,879) |
5,177 |
11,758 |
14,346 |
16,848 |
||
Net Interest |
(666) |
(1,282) |
(1,600) |
(1,600) |
(1,600) |
||
Profit Before Tax (norm) |
|
|
7,123 |
8,752 |
10,658 |
12,746 |
15,248 |
Profit Before Tax (FRS 3) |
|
|
(24,545) |
3,895 |
10,158 |
12,746 |
15,248 |
Tax |
1,772 |
(1,708) |
(2,558) |
(3,187) |
(3,964) |
||
Profit After Tax (norm) |
6,068 |
6,687 |
8,100 |
9,560 |
11,283 |
||
Profit After Tax (FRS 3) |
(22,773) |
2,187 |
7,600 |
9,560 |
11,283 |
||
Average Number of Shares Outstanding (m) |
66.2 |
66.2 |
69.6 |
73.0 |
73.0 |
||
EPS - normalised (p) |
|
|
7.9 |
10.1 |
11.6 |
13.1 |
15.5 |
EPS - normalised fully diluted (p) |
|
|
7.9 |
10.1 |
11.6 |
13.1 |
15.4 |
EPS - (IFRS) (p) |
|
|
(33.2) |
3.3 |
10.9 |
13.1 |
15.5 |
Dividend per share (p) |
2.8 |
0.9 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
||
EBITDA Margin (%) |
10.6 |
11.6 |
12.9 |
13.8 |
14.4 |
||
Operating Margin (before GW and except.) (%) |
7.2 |
8.4 |
9.4 |
10.2 |
10.8 |
||
BALANCE SHEET |
|||||||
Fixed Assets |
|
|
66,065 |
66,660 |
75,900 |
81,600 |
84,300 |
Intangible Assets |
26,000 |
20,257 |
24,177 |
24,877 |
25,577 |
||
Tangible Assets |
31,721 |
36,597 |
41,917 |
46,917 |
48,917 |
||
Investments |
8,344 |
9,806 |
9,806 |
9,806 |
9,806 |
||
Current Assets |
|
|
49,362 |
59,635 |
65,399 |
69,021 |
77,955 |
Stocks |
13,440 |
15,596 |
18,190 |
18,358 |
19,997 |
||
Debtors |
24,367 |
26,647 |
30,631 |
32,689 |
35,910 |
||
Cash |
10,855 |
16,692 |
15,878 |
17,274 |
21,348 |
||
Other |
700 |
700 |
700 |
700 |
700 |
||
Current Liabilities |
|
|
(27,515) |
(33,428) |
(34,587) |
(35,350) |
(36,950) |
Creditors |
(21,802) |
(22,732) |
(23,891) |
(24,654) |
(26,254) |
||
Short term borrowings |
(5,713) |
(10,696) |
(10,696) |
(10,696) |
(10,696) |
||
Long Term Liabilities |
|
|
(46,559) |
(60,000) |
(60,000) |
(60,000) |
(60,000) |
Long term borrowings |
(29,660) |
(30,746) |
(30,746) |
(30,746) |
(30,746) |
||
Other long term liabilities |
(16,899) |
(29,254) |
(29,254) |
(29,254) |
(29,254) |
||
Net Assets |
|
|
41,353 |
32,867 |
46,711 |
55,271 |
65,305 |
CASH FLOW |
|||||||
Operating Cash Flow |
|
|
3,549 |
13,933 |
11,020 |
17,683 |
18,889 |
Net Interest |
(650) |
(861) |
(1,600) |
(1,600) |
(1,600) |
||
Tax |
(712) |
(1,253) |
(2,558) |
(3,187) |
(3,964) |
||
Capex |
(7,912) |
(9,593) |
(9,000) |
(11,500) |
(9,000) |
||
Acquisitions/disposals |
0 |
0 |
(5,780) |
0 |
(250) |
||
Financing |
103 |
20 |
7,700 |
0 |
0 |
||
Dividends |
(1,752) |
(1,821) |
(596) |
0 |
0 |
||
Net Cash Flow |
(7,374) |
425 |
(814) |
1,396 |
4,074 |
||
Opening net debt/(cash) |
|
|
17,680 |
24,518 |
24,750 |
25,564 |
24,168 |
HP finance leases initiated |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
||
Other |
536 |
(657) |
0 |
0 |
0 |
||
Closing net debt/(cash) |
|
|
24,518 |
24,750 |
25,564 |
24,168 |
20,094 |
Source: Carclo accounts, Edison Investment Research
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Caledonia Mining (CMCL) beat its FY16 production target of 50kozpa by recording 50.4koz Au produced, with AISC costs down 12% y-o-y to US$912/oz, while C1 costs dropped 9% due to a commensurate annual increase of 18% in gold ounces produced. Investment continues at Blanket to raise production towards 80kozpa by 2021, with US$36m spent in the past two years alone, and another US$18m due in 2017 before capex drops off markedly. The central shaft is on track and on budget for completion in mid-2018 and is two thirds-complete. While this investment takes place, CMCL carries a sound cash balance of US$14.3m at end December 2016. The dividend yield is a high 3.8% and the stock is trading on a very low P/E of c 4x vs the FTSE miners index at 2.1% and 40x respectively.