Long4Life (code: L4L) published surprisingly good H1:22 results and, importantly, beat many FY 19 high-water marks. The Group has done well over a difficult period. Founder and CEO, Brian Joffe, has also decided to step backwards and into the Chairman’s role (article).
Most importantly and probably key to the recent share price rally, the Group disclosed that it “…has received an unsolicited expression of interest to acquire all the shares in Long4Life.”
Despite the Group’s good results and before this announcement, the Group’s share price remained languishing below its listing price with only a single small dividend received years ago. At some point and contrary to the Group’s anti-climatic “strategic review”, value had to be unlocked here somehow.
This potential bid may be that catalyst, but who could the bidder be?
What follows here is pure speculation and probably wrong… That said, let me walk you through my thought process:
Firstly, what size could this deal be?
Long4Life’s R3.6bn market cap is below its book value of R4.6bn. A c.20~40% premium to the current share price would bridge this gap and place the Group’s takeover price at just under R5bn or approximating the Group’s current NAV.
Who can (and would be interested to) write a R5bn cheque?
There is always private equity (domestic and offshore) along with a range of other large pools of capital that we do not have line of sight to. Any of these could be the bidder, but few of these would find strong operational reasons to do this (i.e. their decisions would be purely financially motivated and looking to generate a return on their capital).
In terms of operational fits, only one possible suitor comes to mind: Mr Price Group Ltd (code: MRP).
Long4Life’s major underlying business is its Sports & Recreation segment (a.k.a. Holdsport) that houses Sportsmans Warehouse. This segment—driven mostly by Sportsmans Warehouse—generated R148m of the Group’s R213m trading profits.
Perhaps more importantly, Sportsmans Warehouse would fit snuggly into Mr Price Sport offering, likely boosting buying power on the back-end and extending geographic reach on the front-end. Also, as retail is a broad category, the ever-invasive Competition Commission would not likely block the deal.
Now, if you look through Slide 44 of Mr Price’s newly launched growth strategy, you start to see the clear blank spaces that the Group has identified to grow into as it becomes “…the most valuable retailer in Africa”.
Something that is interesting about Mr Price’s “most valuable retailer” ambition is that the Group does not define what type of retailer. In other words, we can expect Mr Price to start to fill the above noted “blank spaces” and grow into other retailing niches and product offerings.
For example, like DIY, gardening, beverages and personal care… Enter Long4Life’s Outdoor Warehouse, Chill Beverages and Sorbet businesses, amongst a number of others tucked into its folds.
Then consider the fact that Mr Price recently acquired Yuppie Chef, showing that the Group is indeed making acquisitive moves.
Conveniently, at the last reporting date, Mr Price noted that it had R4.9bn of cash on balance sheet and earmarked for future growth. This war chest correlates closely with the potential NAV-driven price tag for Long4Life.
But why hasn’t Mr Price put out a cautionary then? Indeed, Long4Life hasn’t even put out a cautionary…
Well, firstly, there is no deal on the table. Only an “expression of interest”, which is far from any binding offer. Therefore, Long4Life is considering this approach and, if things move beyond there, I expect a cautionary to be issued by Long4Life.
JSE regulations, though, only force Mr Price to issue a cautionary is the deal size is larger than 10% of the Group’s market cap. Mr Price’s market cap is R52bn, thus if the offer for Long4Life is greater than R5.2bn, we’ll might see a cautionary coming out from Mr Price.
Therefore, if Mr Price goes and issued a cautionary too, then it not only confirms my speculation that Mr Price tabled the expression of interest, but it also then tells us that Long4Life may be delisted at a price greater than NAV.
Or, I could just be wrong, and Mr Price is not the party that expressed interest in acquiring Long4Life. We will see…
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARING ON MONEYWEB.