Begbies Traynor – up to now a truly horrid business in terms of shareholder return, but
The AIM quoted business recovery group has issued the usual set of disappointing results. In an effort to diversify away from their core insolvency roots and “develop complementary service offerings” they have also announced the acquisition of Eddisons, a leading national firm of chartered surveyors with a specialism in the valuation and disposal of property and business assets. In support of this acquisition, which is expected to be earnings enhancing in the current financial year, they have raised £5.3m at 40p.
It’s tough to see the shareholder appeal of this stock. Contrary to what should be expected BEG seems to underperform in all market environments – logic suggests that they should have been doing nicely a few years ago when business re-structuring (if not full insolvency) was all the rage. At least we are aware of numerous insolvency practitioners that have done extremely nicely! Without wanting to dwell on all the negatives we suggest that investors simply focus on the derisory returns on equity (let alone capital) delivered over several cycles with peak return of a meagre 8% back in 2010…