Hi Brad, it’s a positive and unsurprising development. If you look at slide 5 of their corporate presentation to the market on 31 May, they mention how they’re in a process to secure more debt funding, and this is it. Their lead funder, Commonwealth Bank, have provided ZEN with a $40m corporate facility already, and CBA are comfortable with ZEN taking on up to $125m total in debt. A business like this (asset heavy but with good returns and cashflow) can bear a fair bit of debt in their capital structure. As a side note, the pipeline of opportunities that the company has is pretty substantial. If a number of these opportunities are won (as per their track record), that’s obviously a positive because the returns on capital deployed are very attractive, and will need funding, both through a combination of debt and equity. Debt funding clearly isn’t a problem, and I imagine any equity funding required will be strongly supported given the strong returns as well as the cheap valuation that the stock is currently trading at.

On Zenith Energy: Fueling Growth - August 10, 2018 7:23am

Hi AD. Flinders does hold a position in SHJ in our Emerging Companies Fund. Given the size of the class action and the several years that it has been running for, I would estimate about $20-30m is tied up in WIP and disbursements (all fully funded by SHJ, as opposed to a disbursement funder or litigation funder). So in a positive scenario, they would recoup this amount fully. Additionally, SHJ would enjoy a cut of the total proceeds of any damages awarded, whatever that may be, as payment for their services. As I mentioned, a number of similar cases globally have started to settle in the tens of millions of dollars.

On Shine: good chance of a significant positive catalyst - May 30, 2018 2:28am

Rudi, thanks for your note. I’ll have to respectfully disagree with you here on several fronts. Firstly, I think it’s incorrect to say that the charts are ‘full of noise’ as they are constructed by a reputable and well credentialed provider of indices globally (MSCI). Secondly, while you are correct that there are small cap resources and mining services companies in the Growth index, they also exist in the Value index. I cannot explicitly talk to the composition of those indices as I don’t have access, but to give you an idea, I do have access to the S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries universe and the ‘Resources’ component of that index is currently around ~23% of the index. In fact, when you add other ‘domestic cyclical’ sectors such as media and retail to the mix, cyclical companies make up ~60% of the index! That is, the small cap universe is heavily populated by cyclical companies. As an Australian small cap manager, I believe your suggestion to exclude those stocks to get a more accurate picture is incorrect. As I mention in the piece there are several drivers of growth (organic, acquisitive, and cyclical), all legitimate – we just have to be acutely aware what type of growth we’re dealing with and value these companies appropriately. As you invest in ‘non-cyclical growth’ companies only, of course your returns look different to these charts. Hope the above details clarify a few things for you.

On Growth vs Value in Australian Small Caps - March 7, 2018 2:53am