The reason is because Catcha's iCar in Australia has reached all time high price of AUD1.39 on the back of today's (5 Mar 2014) announcement that carsales.com has bought another stake in iCar at AUD1.00 to bring its total shareholding to 22.9%.
Most analysts have written that Catcha is worth their target price is because Catcha's stake in iCar is already more than cover their target prices. This argument is very misleading because of the below:
a) Firstly, the monetization of the stake in iCar is not so simple to begin with as Catcha owns about 30% of iCar. I tend to believe there is only a limited number of buyers that will be interested and has the financial muscles to do so. This is because iCar has a market cap/revenue multiple of nearly 120 times, whereas Facebook's revenue/market cap multiple is only about 22 times, Google's is about 6.8 times and Twitter's is about 64 times. Even iCar's main competitor in Australia, carsales.com is only about 12.5 times. Talk about 'valuation through the roof'... more about carsales.com at below (remember to read it).
b) Secondly, even if Catcha do managed to sell its stake in iCar, will Catcha return the sale proceed to its shareholders? Please bear in mind that Catcha can still go on with its current business because iCar is not its core business. The sale proceed of iCar would then get stuck in Catcha (and Catcha can continue to lose money without any serious ramifications). The minority shareholders has limited influence on how the sale proceed should be used, remember that!
Draw your own conclusion on iCar :-
a) iCar's revenue in FY2013 was only AUD1.75mil despite being in so many countries and a trail of acquisitions.
b) Loss in FYE2013 was at a staggering AUD6.9mil.
c) The operations bleed AUD5.6mil in FY2013.
d) If not for the issuance of shares to carsales.com in Apr 2013, iCar would have gone cash deficit of AUD1.54mil...cash deficit less than 1.5 year after IPO!
e) Now the million dollar question is carsales.com going to buyout iCar? For your information, carsales.com cannot increase its current shareholding of 22.9% without making a mandatory general offer for the rest of the shares.
I believe the more insightful question is does carsales.com needs to buyout iCar? Remember that iCar is trading at a much much higher valuation that carsales.com and iCar would have gone into deficit cash flow if not for carsales.com. The way I see it is carsales.com does not have to buyout iCar because at the current situation, carsales.com is already having the upper hand. At 22.9%, carsales.com is in the "control" seat to stop/deter any unwanted attempt to buyout iCar. Furthermore, if iCar's share price goes bust, carsales.com can pick them up cheaply. If iCar's share price goes up a lot, only the brave souls or brave fools would dare to consider a buyout. If some fools really want to buy, carsales.com can sell its shares and laugh to the bank. You see with only a cost of about AUD20.4mil for 22.9%, carsales.com has built a hedge over its competitor. Fyi carsales.com's market cap is AUD2.5 Billion and last audited profit was AUD83mil. Who is being smart now?
To be continued (...the next chapter is about Catcha)....
Sorry, forgotten to mention one more very important point:
iProperty (sister company of iCar) has sold off all its shareholding in iCar. Mmm, why sell so soon? Maybe it is because iProperty needs to report a profit for FY2013? Do you know that if without the sale of its stake in iCar, iProperty will report a loss for FY2013 (it would have been the sixth consecutive year of losses).
IPP Sep 2013 around AUD1.25: no good no good, don't buy 1st week Oct 2013 around AUD1.65: no good no good, don't buy 2nd week Oct 2013 around AUD1.50: i told you guys it is no good 3rd week Oct 2013 around AUD2.00: no good no good, don't buy 4th week Oct 2013 around AUD1.80: see, i told you so.. Jan 2014 around AUD2.30: no good no good, don't buy Feb 2014 around AUD 2.50: no good no good, don't buy End Feb 2014 around AUD2.80: no good no good, don't buy Early Mar 2014 around AUD2.93: no good no good, don't buy today, 5 Mar 2014 around AUD3.09........ Sep 2013 to Mar 2014 : Capital gain of around 145% in 6 months
ICAR Sep 2013 around AUD 0.65: no good no good, don't buy 1st week Oct 2013 around AUD 0.78: no good no good, don't buy 2nd week Oct 2013 around AUD 0.88: no good no good, don't buy 3rd week Oct 2013 around AUD 0.98: no good no good, don't buy 4th week Oct 2013 around AUD 0.92: see, i told you so.. mid Dec 2013 around AUD 0.76: see, i told you so.. Jan 2014 around AUD 0.92: no good no good, don't buy Feb 2014 around AUD 0.82: see. told you so.. End Feb 2014 around AUD1.05: no good no good, don't buy Early Mar 2014 around AUD1.07: no good no good, don't buy today, 5 Mar 2014 around AUD1.33........ Sep 2013 to Mar 2014: Capital gain of around 104% in 6 months
CATCHA Sep 2013 around RM0.58: no good no good, don't buy 1st week Oct 2013 around RM0.585: no good no good, don't buy 2nd week Oct 2013 around RM0.565: no good no good, don't buy 3rd week Oct 2013 around RM0.62: no good no good, don't buy 4th week Oct 2013 around RM0.725: no good no good, don't buy Early Nov 2013 around RM0.82: no good no good, don't buy Dec 2013 around RM0.645: see, i told you so.. Jan 2014 around RM0.67: no good no good, don't buy Feb 2014 around RM0.62: see, i told you so.. End Feb 2014 around RM0.73: no good no good, don't buy Early Mar 2014 around RM0.76: no good no good, don't buy today, 5 Mar 2014 around RM0.88........ Sep 2013 to Mar 2014 : Capital gain of around 50% in 6 months
i am not laughing my way...i am just happy with the gain, i am sure some going to say wait till it down "you will cry"... my answer is yes, may be! but i am not sure i can be "up" all the time, can you?
if not happy, join me for drink, will use some of the gain to buy you guys drinks, especially those putting in so much effort to say these counters are no good, guess, you didnt earn any from it...come, let me buy you some drinks...(cos it is you guys keep saying no good in here, making no one interest in it, which therefore easier to collect at lower prices)
Congratulations to you for making money on your Catcha shares. Good job.
Please don't be mistaken that my postings are telling the readers that Catcha is a not profitable counter for trading. It never did so. I hope you have had the opportunity to read my previous postings on Catcha as I have been emphasizing that a trader should know why he/she makes money and why he/she losses money. I mentioned if before and I will mention it again here, when you make money out of trading a counter, please sit back and reflect why you managed to make money.
A lot of traders blame bad luck, share manipulation, unforeseen economic situations, untruthful tips and etc etc, when they lose money. But when they make money because of pure good luck, riding on the coat tails of big sharks manipulating the markets, capitalizing on knee jerk reaction to economic situations, having really good tips and etc etc, they claim that they are the ONE who knows it all (i.e. I have the real skills in stock picking, reading price trends and knowing what kind of business will thrive and etc etc). You have to decide whether you are such type of trader or not. Be honest to oneself is a good starting point in becoming a "more success, less failure" stock trader.
For a smart reader, when they read about my analysis on Catcha, they would digest it, think about it and then make their own conclusions. Using their own conclusions, they would make their next move (either load up more, dump to take profit or hold on for more profit).
Nobody can predict accurately share prices all the time...absolutely nobody. The most depressing part is when some traders do not even realize that their counters are actually "play" counters. They think their counters are fundamental stocks after reading some analyst' "fundamental" analysis. Tragic so tragic.
So for insearc85, please give yourself a good pat on the back for making a profit out of Catcha counter. You deserved it.
All IT company will not made any profit for the first few years of operation because of the high development cost, the most importating thing is that the revenue must be increasing at a very fast rate. Look at telco , initial all of them loss money, now they reap good profit, same as Catcha Media , business will start to roll in after few year from the start-up. Carsale.com will not put money in icar if the business is not variable. The see the growth rate in icar
1) There is a misconception that online businesses such as online classified business like iCar are "IT" companies. They are not. As for Catcha Media, it is a combination of online advertising, online + offline publisher, e-commerce and online classified businesses. Again not exactly an "IT" company.
2) While it is true that telco's upfront infrastructure cost is heavy, do remember that most telcos are quasi monopolies (i.e. their infrastructure costs are safeguarded by having exclusive spectrum licenses).
3) Fyi, iCar's "infrastructure" cost is not high by most means. Their consolidated property, plant & equipment book value is only AUD670k while intangibles are AUD6.7mil (with about AUD4.7 as goodwill arising from acquisitions). The bottomline is that the upfront investment cost for businesses like iCar and Catcha Media (to a large extent except for its e-commerce business) is minuscule when compared to businesses like telcos, cable & satellite media network operators, data warehouses and e-commerce (e.g. Amazon, Rakuten) businesses.
4) The main issue with online classified business is the amount of money spent to acquire listings, eyeballs and sales leads. This is the "break or make" number for most online classified businesses. If you look at iCar's numbers in detail, the topline growth figures do not tell the whole story. Below are some figures of iCar for everyone to think about:
- Revenue per listing has increased from AUD2.04 to AUD3.80 (increase of 86.4%) - Very good - Revenue per audience has increased from AUD0.26 to AUD0.38 (increase of 49.5%) - So far so good. However....
- Revenue per lead has decreased from AUD9.90 to AUD2.24 (decrease of 77.4%). This is a very negative situation because the lead generated through iCar is either getting less effective in terms of converting to actual sales OR the lead generated through iCar is fetching lower classified fees.
The story gets more interesting (sorry in a more negative manner):
"Advertising and marketing expenses" is the best estimate to gauge the amount of money spent to acquire listing, audience and leads.
- Cost to acquire one listing has increased from AUD0.73 to AUD3.60 (increase of a whopping 390.6%). - Cost to acquire one audience has increased from AUD0.09 to AUD0.36 (increase of a staggering 293.6%). - Cost to acquire a lead has suprisingly dropped from AUD3.56 to AUD2.12 (decrease of 40.5%). This is not consistent with the immediate above. Therefore, it could mean the lead generated by iCar in FY2013 is of lesser quality (due to lower payment for each lead) as compared to FY2012 (this could be the likely case because of each lead was actually generating less revenue in FY2013- refer to above).
- Do take note that each listing was acquired using AUD3.60 and each listing generated a revenue of only AUD3.80 (a margin of only AUD0.20). Take note that HR cost, overhead cost and other costs have not even been included yet! HR cost was nearly 3 times of advertising & marketing expenses. This was why iCar suffered a massive loss in FY2013. One could argue iCar is spending money to "land grab" but is this viable for the long term when the competiton is so great and the land could be just shifting sands? Only time will tell.
As to the statement by whkwoon - "Carsale.com will not put money in icar if the business is not variable..". Please refer to my earlier posting with the section on "...You see with only a cost of about AUD20.4mil for 22.9%, carsales.com has built a hedge over its competitor....."
reply to halia - No, I don't have any Catcha share at the moment.
reply to whkwoon - Agree with you. That's why most of the time I take analyst research report (and target price) with a pinch of salt. Some companies are extremely good in "selling" the future prospects of their businesses, therefore try your best to read in between the lines (and of course some knowledge of the industry/sector and business domain will be very helpful).
carsales.com bought iCar shares at AUD1.00 yesterday (the new shares were officially issued on 5 Mar 2014). On today, the share price has increased to AUD1.425 (increase of 42.5% in one day). Don't you think this is strange? For everybody's info, at AUD1.425, iCar's market cap/revenue multiple has reached 180 times! To put into perspective - Facebook's market cap/revenue multiple is about 22 times, Google's is about 6.8 times and Twitter's is about 64 times. Enter iCar only if you can afford to take shocks (and in return you might have a chance to gain more but how much more? Only time will tell).
As for Catcha Media, FY2013 financial results are a big letdown. Revenue decreased and the company went into the red again (loss of RM3.7mil). The losses would have been bigger if not for the gain from the sale of a small stake in a subsidiary for the amount of RM1.7mil. By the way, FY2012 would had been red as well if not for the sale of a subsidiary to guess what! iCar (to facilitate the IPO in case you have forgotten about it). The gain for the disposal was RM18.8mil! So without the RM18.8mil, FY2012 would be a loss of RM13.6mil! Isn't this company an interesting company?
But having mentioned all the above, there is a positive development in Catcha Media. The Company has finally decided to kill off its e-commerce business which has been bleeding for a while (e-commerce business was the one that dragged down Catcha's profits). This is good news but if iCar continues to bleed, Catcha Media's profit will again be affected because iCar is an associate of Catcha Media (folks, we are talking about accounting stuffs here). On more important note is that Catcha Media's traditional & core businesses (online media and publishing) are declining in terms of revenue. This is not good.
if the rumours of acquisition are true, then this sudden surge is just to push up the prices to get a better value for the company. Dressing up exercise. On the plus side, those long suffering from shares bought during IPO have a chance to cash out and make some money. Their ecommerce business has closed down, and they have lost the lowyat.net business for 2014. Next couple of days should be interesting to watch.
ASX STATEMENT carsales.com Ltd to acquire additional 3% of iCar Asia Ltd
March 4, 2014 carsales.com Ltd (ASX: CRZ) (carsales) and iCar Asia Ltd (ASX: ICQ) (iCar Asia) today announce that carsales has agreed to acquire a further 3% stake in iCar Asia, taking its total holding in iCar Asia from 19.9% to 22.9%. The acquisition represents carsales' maximum permitted 'creep' under section 611 of the Corporations Act. carsales has subscribed for 7,179,240 shares at a price of $1.00 per share, equating to a total consideration of approximately A$7.18 million (with all proceeds remaining in the iCar Asia business). The issue of shares to carsales is expected to be completed on 5 March 2014. iCar Asia owns and operates the leading network of online automotive sites in ASEAN with operations in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia reaching more than 4.5 million unique visitors every month. iCar Asia's brands include Carlist.my and LiveLifeDrive.com in Malaysia, Thaicar.com and Autospinn.com in Thailand and Mobil123.com in Indonesia. carsales CEO and Managing Director, Greg Roebuck said: "We're pleased to be continuing to deepen our relationship with the iCar Asia team. This further acquisition of iCar Asia shares sees carsales grow its strategic stake in the leading portfolio of online automotive businesses across the high growth ASEAN region." iCar Asia CEO, Damon Rielly said "The relationship iCar Asia has had with carsales to this point has been exceptional. carsales is a global leader in automotive classifieds and brings vast experience and knowledge to our business. Their further investment in iCar Asia is a testament to the tremendous success the iCar Asia team has had over the past 12 months in establishing market-leading positions in each of our markets of operation." "The company will use this additional capital to strengthen its balance sheet to support the ongoing development of its market leadership positions." The key terms of the agreement entered into by carsales and iCar Asia on 14 March 2013 remain in effect, with limited amendments being made to:
extend the top up right to give carsales the option to maintain its 22.9% holding if a diluting event occurs;
require carsales to "stand still" and not increase its stake in iCar above 22.9% (unless permitted by iCar or in circumstances where the standstill has expired); and
- Catcha Media has disclosed the closure of their e-commerce business in their Q4 2013 financial report. Excerpt from the report: "The Group ceased its E-Commerce Business in the first quarter of 2014..."
query to jbhotleo:
- Where and when did this "Catcha Media has lost the lowyat.net business" come about?
- The article that you have posted is definitely useful for the readers. - Just want to point to you and others on the last few sections of the article. The terms of carsales.com entry into iCar. Do you think the terms are suggesting that carsales.com might want to buyout iCar in the very near future? If you want to buyout or to buy a controlling stake, it is not favorable to have those terms.
- Thanks for info. Certainly heard about the shakiness of that account but didn't hear about actual confirmation. Anyway, thanks again for enlightening the readers. - I presume you are from the industry?
Catcha Media (CHM MK) -----------------------dated 19//03//14 Technical BUY with +30.3% potential return Last price : RM0.900 (RM0.850~RM0.900) Target Price: RM1.06, RM1.14 Support : RM0.810 Stop-loss: RM0.805 BUY with a target price of RM1.14 with stop loss placed below RM0.805. CHM’s share price strongly rebounded from the immediate support level of RM0.810 and closed above the 10-day SMA yesterday. The “gap up” on the back of a slightly higher volume of 0.5m shares (vs 5-day average of 0.2m) suggests the creation of a new up-leg. Given the bullish crossover in Stochastic and an uptick in +veDI line, we expect an upward movement hereafter as the share price might retest the previous high of RM0.930 in the near term. We peg our upside target at the 1.61x Fibonacci extension level of RM1.14 over the medium term. Conservative investors can try to accumulate in the RM0.850-0.900 region on expectations of profit-taking activity aimed at reducing the overall risk.
-Increase in share price of Catcha Media for the past few days was on the back of very low volume.
-Yesterday's sharp increase was because of the release of iCar's annual presentation. iCar went up yesterday but today the share price slid down again. In the presentation, iCar is expected to be profitable only in 2016!
reply to bjdila123 - Are you referring to the story in The Edge about Catcha Group buying LivingSocial South East Asia's business?
Fyi, this news is not directly related to Catcha Media because Catcha Group is only a shareholder of Catcha Media. Also, the company that buys LivingSocial South East Asia's (SEA) business is actually iBuy (another Catcha Group company) which is listed in Australia. Catcha Media has already "transferred" its e-commerce businesses to iBuy. Btw, the e-commerce business was bleeding badly. Also, LivingSocial SEA is well known to be a "sink-hole". The origin of LivingSocial SEA is a company called Ensogo (a Thai company started by two brothers). The brothers laughed off to the bank after selling Ensogo to LivingSocial. You get the picture...
The most likely reason for the share price movement lately is the mopping of shares by this so-called fund, Absolute Investments Australia. A name not often heard. A rather dodgy name to be precise.
This book is the result of the author's many years of experience and observation throughout his 26 years in the stockbroking industry. It was written for general public to learn to invest based on facts and not on fantasies or hearsay....
hueyyng27
298 posts
Posted by hueyyng27 > 2014-02-24 18:08 | Report Abuse
better sold for now and buy in when there is favourable news later.