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Research: Industrials
Marshall Motor Holdings (MMH) has announced that it will sell its vehicle leasing activity to Bank of Ireland for £42.5m. The net proceeds equate to 33% of the market cap and will leave the company ungeared. The strengthened balance sheet provides increased financial resource with which to pursue its growth strategy in vehicle retail, both organic and acquired, which should reverse the initial dilution. On completion, the net asset value should rise by nearly 25% to around 254p per share, further underpinning the shares.
Written by
Marshall Motor Holdings |
Leasing disposal augments strategic resource |
Disposal |
Automotive retail |
21 September 2017 |
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Business description
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Marshall Motor Holdings is a research client of Edison Investment Research Limited |
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Marshall Motor Holdings (MMH) has announced that it will sell its vehicle leasing activity to Bank of Ireland for £42.5m. The net proceeds equate to 33% of the market cap and will leave the company ungeared. The strengthened balance sheet provides increased financial resource with which to pursue its growth strategy in vehicle retail, both organic and acquired, which should reverse the initial dilution. On completion, the net asset value should rise by nearly 25% to around 254p per share, further underpinning the shares.
Year end |
Revenue (£m) |
PBT* |
EPS* |
DPS |
P/E |
Yield |
12/15 |
1,232.8 |
15.8 |
15.8 |
2.98 |
10.1 |
1.9 |
12/16 |
1,899.4 |
25.4 |
26.2 |
5.50 |
6.1 |
3.4 |
12/17e |
2,271.1 |
28.3 |
28.6 |
6.45 |
5.6 |
4.0 |
12/18e |
2,296.5 |
28.9 |
29.2 |
6.90 |
5.5 |
4.3 |
Note: *PBT and EPS are normalised, excluding amortisation of acquired intangibles and exceptional items.
Marshall Leasing disposal
MMH has announced that it is to sell the Leasing Division to Bank of Ireland for £42.5m, representing a substantial gain over book value. Completion is subject to regulatory clearance and is expected before the year end. The leasing business should benefit from its transfer to a financially oriented parent, and lacked scale under MMH’s tenure. For MMH the disposal will reduce risk and focus the business on the strategic development of the vehicle retail distribution operations in the UK.
Strategic and financial implications
The disposal represents an exit P/E of 12.1x (12m trailing), and an EV/EBITDA multiple of c 8.0x. With net assets expected to be minimal at completion following settlement of intra group obligations MMH should book a profit of just under £40m after allowing for deal costs. It is important to recognise that as the deal leaves MMH with net cash (pro forma £4.6m at the 30 June 2017 vs reported net debt of £101.1m), we fully expect the company to utilise the resource to invest in additional assets for the continuing retail businesses when suitable opportunities arise. As the division was expected to contribute approximately £5.3m to underlying FY18 EBIT of £37.7m, there is initial EPS dilution of around 17% in FY18. The disposal also considerably improves the clarity of the company, without a need to explain how the leasing debt and operations work financially, and removes the residual value risk of the business.
Valuation: Reinvestment should outweigh dilution
We have not adjusted out forecasts to reflect the disposal, but will do so when the transaction completes. The earnings dilution caused by the disposal will temporarily align the P/E rating with MMH’s peers until the company starts to reinvest the proceeds and generate increasing returns. Nevertheless a relatively high dividend yield, the property supported asset base and the enhanced ability to pursue its growth strategy should provide support in the meantime.
Exhibit 1: Financial summary
£m |
2015 |
2016 |
2017e |
2018e |
||
Year end 31 December |
IFRS |
IFRS |
IFRS |
IFRS |
||
PROFIT & LOSS |
||||||
Revenue |
|
|
1,232.8 |
1,899.4 |
2,271.1 |
2,296.5 |
Cost of Sales |
(1,087.5) |
(1,678.9) |
(2,003.1) |
(2,025.5) |
||
Gross Profit |
145.3 |
220.5 |
268.0 |
271.0 |
||
EBITDA |
|
|
22.8 |
38.7 |
44.8 |
44.9 |
Operating Profit (before amort. and except). |
|
|
18.7 |
32.3 |
37.1 |
37.7 |
Intangible Amortisation |
(0.2) |
(0.3) |
(0.4) |
(0.4) |
||
Exceptionals |
(0.5) |
(3.2) |
0.0 |
0.0 |
||
Other |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
||
Operating Profit |
18.0 |
28.8 |
36.7 |
37.3 |
||
Net Interest |
(2.9) |
(6.9) |
(8.9) |
(8.8) |
||
Profit Before Tax (norm) |
|
|
15.8 |
25.4 |
28.3 |
28.9 |
Profit Before Tax (FRS 3) |
|
|
15.1 |
21.9 |
27.9 |
28.5 |
Tax |
(3.6) |
(4.4) |
(6.2) |
(6.3) |
||
Profit After Tax (norm) |
9.4 |
20.2 |
22.0 |
22.5 |
||
Profit After Tax (FRS 3) |
11.5 |
17.5 |
21.7 |
22.1 |
||
Average Number of Shares Outstanding (m) |
59.4 |
77.2 |
77.2 |
77.2 |
||
EPS - normalised (p) |
|
|
15.8 |
26.2 |
28.6 |
29.2 |
EPS - normalised and fully diluted (p) |
|
|
15.3 |
25.5 |
27.9 |
28.4 |
EPS - (IFRS) (p) |
|
|
19.3 |
22.6 |
28.1 |
28.6 |
Dividend per share (p) |
3.0 |
5.5 |
6.5 |
6.9 |
||
Gross Margin (%) |
11.8 |
11.6 |
11.8 |
11.8 |
||
EBITDA Margin (%) |
1.8 |
2.0 |
2.0 |
2.0 |
||
Operating Margin (before GW and except.) (%) |
1.5 |
1.7 |
1.6 |
1.6 |
||
BALANCE SHEET |
||||||
Fixed Assets |
|
|
150.0 |
326.4 |
353.7 |
380.3 |
Intangible Assets |
40.8 |
122.0 |
122.2 |
122.2 |
||
Tangible Assets |
109.2 |
204.4 |
231.6 |
258.1 |
||
Investments |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
||
Current Assets |
|
|
307.5 |
475.2 |
483.1 |
476.1 |
Stocks |
240.6 |
380.0 |
386.1 |
382.6 |
||
Debtors |
28.9 |
71.0 |
68.1 |
64.3 |
||
Cash |
24.1 |
0.1 |
0.1 |
0.1 |
||
Other |
13.9 |
24.1 |
28.8 |
29.1 |
||
Current Liabilities |
|
|
(290.1) |
(584.9) |
(525.0) |
(535.5) |
Creditors |
(263.4) |
(507.2) |
(525.0) |
(535.5) |
||
Short term borrowings |
(26.7) |
(77.7) |
0.0 |
0.0 |
||
Long Term Liabilities |
|
|
(37.6) |
(71.1) |
(149.1) |
(141.1) |
Long term borrowings |
(24.7) |
(41.4) |
(119.5) |
(111.5) |
||
Other long term liabilities |
(12.9) |
(29.7) |
(29.7) |
(29.6) |
||
Net Assets |
|
|
129.9 |
145.7 |
162.7 |
179.9 |
CASH FLOW |
||||||
Operating Cash Flow |
|
|
29.6 |
98.9 |
65.7 |
75.4 |
Net Interest |
(1.1) |
(1.4) |
(2.9) |
(3.8) |
||
Tax |
(3.0) |
(17.3) |
(6.2) |
(6.3) |
||
Capex |
(39.6) |
(61.9) |
(66.4) |
(65.1) |
||
Acquisitions/disposals |
(21.5) |
(91.4) |
1.0 |
0.0 |
||
Financing |
66.9 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
||
Dividends |
(15.4) |
(3.3) |
(4.5) |
(5.1) |
||
Other |
8.6 |
(15.5) |
13.0 |
13.0 |
||
Net Cash Flow |
24.5 |
(91.8) |
(0.4) |
8.0 |
||
Opening net debt/(cash) |
|
|
51.7 |
27.2 |
119.0 |
119.4 |
HP finance leases initiated |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
||
Other |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
||
Closing net debt/(cash) |
|
|
27.2 |
119.0 |
119.4 |
111.4 |
Source: Marshall Motor Holdings accounts, Edison Investment Research
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