Professor Glen Arnold

Yesterday I attended Caffyns AGM (LSE:CFYN) in Eastbourne, and, I have to say, I was impressed by the managers and the direction they are taking the company. I bought into Caffyns a year ago, but this was the first time I had the opportunity to chat with the directors. They were very generous with their […]

I’ve shown in previous newsletters that Dewhurst (LSE:DWHA) has a strong profits history as well as a strong balance sheet. It has very experienced managers in the niche businesses where it operates, with some good pricing power due to the economic franchises it created over decades combined with shrewd acquisitions.  Using Warren Buffett’s discounted owner […]

Dewhurst (LSE:DWHA) has a lot of assets (and no debt) backing its 8.4m shares.  When viewing the key numbers below consider that the “A” shares (non-voting) are current trading at £5.70 – £6.10. Balance sheet strength (March 2017) Net asset value in total £30.9m Net asset value per ‘A’ non-voting share: £3.67 Net tangible asset […]

Dewhurst (LSE:DWHA) has a number of niche manufacturing and distribution business with many of them displaying high market shares, strong reputations and long-standing relationships with customers and the agents of clients (e.g. architect specifying Dewhurst lift components for new high rise building). The UK and Europe businesses Dewhurst UK Manufacturing What it does: Pushbuttons, e.g...

In April 2014 I bought Dewhurst “A” (non-voting) shares (LSE:DWHA) for £3.18 as a Warren Buffett style investment, which means I judged the company to have a strong economic franchise, managers who are both competent and behave with high integrity toward all shareholders, excellent accounting numbers and the shares are available at a reasonable price. […]

I’ve sold all my shares in Arden Partners.  The reasons for my change of heart are first, Luke Johnson resigned as Chairman.  He is a veteran of many company boards, and an entrepreneur, and I put a lot of weight on his ability and his attention to Arden to justify investing in this company in […]

At the May Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting Buffett and Munger were asked about missing out on Google and Amazon.  While, of course, with hindsight they should have bought shares in these entities, at the time they had to stick to their investment principles.  Their responses teach us much about the correct approach to investing – […]

At the end of the second quarter of 2018 it’s time to review where the shares I’ve written about in my Newsletters have got to.  On the whole I’m quite pleased, but Connect Group fell a lot in the quarter (following which I trebled my holding) In the tables below I present the returns after […]

Generating a good return on net tangible assets is an important determinant of returns to shareholders over a span of years, so today I’ll examine the returns MS International (LSE:MSI) over the last seven years to try to gauge likely future returns. £’000s  Year end April 2018   2017   2016   INCOME STATEMENT Profit […]

Today I want to look firstly at the make-up of MS International’s (LSE:MSI) balance sheet, secondly at the consistency of its cash flow and finally at its vulnerability to financial distress using Piotroski analysis. The balance sheet The 3.5% dividend yield is backed by a very strong balance sheet with over £15.87m in cash and […]