Professor Glen Arnold

Holders Technology’s (LSE:HDT) share price has been held below its net current asset value, NCAV, for many years. Clearly, Mr Market does not trust the directors to stop losing money in the Lighting markets where it has little pricing power, nor to stop generating low returns on capital employed in the printed circuit board materials/components […]

Holders Technology (LSE:HDT) is a candidate for my net current asset value, NCAV, portfolio. Even after deducting one-third of its inventories and one-fifth of its receivables it has a NCAV significantly larger than its current market capitalisation (4.224m shares x 45p = £1.9m). It is a relatively stable company with no debt, £0.67m of cash, […]

The chairman and CEO have a great deal of experience in the motor trade, so that is reassuring.  However, the CFO and most of the NEDs do not have any hands-on experience of this industry.  At least Alan Ferguson, Senior Independent Director, spent 22 years at Inchcape and eventually became FD there.  Also, the Operations […]

Conventional earnings numbers generally do not adequately allow for the fact that with some companies profits cannot be taken out if they are to maintain their unit volume of output, spend enough to maintain its economic franchise (e.g. on working capital, new machinery, marketing, service quality, employee training, etc.) and invest in all value enhancing […]

Marshall Motor (LSE:MMH) has an impressive profits record, and its shares are modestly priced relative to average earnings per share over the years. Even taking the lowest estimate of profit, the “basic” EPS, the average over the last seven years is 16.36p, giving a cyclically adjusted price earnings ratio of 150p/16.36p = 9.2. Dividend yield […]

By the time Marshal Motor (LSE:MMH) floated on AIM in 2015 it had been led by Daksh Gupta for seven years. He was hired by the controlling family to accelerate its growth using its base of dealerships spreading out from Cambridgeshire into the East of England and the east Midlands. When he joined in 2008 […]

In the last few days I’ve been analysing a company with an impressive profits history and a sound balance sheet, Marshall Motors (LSE:MMH).  It shares have gone nowhere since it launched on the stock market in spring 2015 at 149p, being held back by widespread fear over the retailing of cars in the UK.  Indeed, […]

Last week I purchased some more put options on the Dow Jones Industrial Average.  These instruments rise in value as the US stock market falls. In previous newsletters I’ve explained why I think the US markets are in extraordinarily high territory and what might trigger a fall there (For example, see newsletters dated: 8th Feb 2019, […]

Kingfisher (LSE:KGF) has a very poor-quality board, even though it contains names of the great and the good from the European business world.  There is no one on the board who learnt his/her trade through Kingfisher trading.  There isn’t anyone who has worked in home improvement or DIY retailing. How are they supposed to know […]

Conventional earnings numbers do not generally adequately allow for the fact that with some companies profits cannot be taken out if it is to maintain its unit volume of output, spend enough to maintain its economic franchise (e.g. on working capital, new machinery, marketing, service quality, employee training, etc.) and invest in all value enhancing […]