Better Capital has released its interim management statement and this has provided some colour to BCAP’s announcement on 4 February which cautioned that the NAV would fall on the 2009 cell. It is not immediately obvious which two companies are going to be written down however. The negatives highlighted in the IMS are:
Gardner has been generating sales and EBITDA well ahead of the previous year but deliveries of a new product programme to a key customer are behind plan which will adversely affect profits. Spicers is shifting more of its business online but growth of online sales is running behind the fall in physical sales. Also Spicers’ new automated distribution facility has been experiencing teething problems. m-hance is now loss making, partly due to problems integrating an acquisition. Fairline has been affected by de-stocking in its dealer network but Better Capital is more optimistic for 2014.
In addition, Better capital 2009 has just sold Readers Digest for £1.
Better Capital 2009’s share price fell from 153.5p to 122p on 4 February. the shares are now trading at 115p