r21442
27 Mar 2017
Man, this is a quiet board! Another IC update...It was difficult not to be impressed by the first-half results from Arbuthnot Banking Group (ARBB:1,459p). The bank's net asset value per share rose by 23 per cent to 1,534p last year and that's after paying out special dividends of 325p in 2016. The bumper dividend was funded from some of the £148m proceeds from last summer's sell down of the bank's stake in challenger bank Secure Trust Bank (STB:2,149p). Arbuthnot still retains an 18.6 per cent shareholding worth £72.5m, a sum equating to a third of its own market capitalisation, and is using the remainder of the cash realised to bulk up its banking operations. The 51 per cent increase in full-year profits to £9.1m from Arbuthnot Latham, its private banking arm, was eye-catching too, and that's before factoring in upside from a number of recent acquisitions. These include the purchase of a private banking loan portfolio worth £44.9m from banking group Duncan Lawrie. The loans are secured on property worth £104m, so have a low loan-to-value ratio, and offer an attractive yield of 5.2 per cent. Arbuthnot also managed to negotiate a £2.2m discount on the deal.In the coming weeks, the company will complete the acquisition of Renaissance Asset Finance (RAF), a provider of finance for a range of specialist assets including vintage cars, which adds £55m of customer loans to the portfolio. Arbuthnot has also used £53m of its cash windfall to acquire a prime property in the West End of London, comprising 22,500 sq ft of office space and 7,000 sq ft of retail space. The property generates an annual rental income of around £1.8m and will be used by Arbuthnot Latham to develop a presence in the West End in the future.Importantly, Arbuthnot is very well funded as £1bn of its customer deposits cover the loan book about 1.3 times over which is highly supportive of the ongoing growth in loan balances. Moreover, assuming Arbuthnot Latham continues to recycle customer deposits into lending at an economic net interest margin, it will be value accretive to shareholders which is why analysts at Hardman & Co expect Arbuthnot's adjusted EPS to more than double to 55.4p in 2017, rising again to 93p in 2018.If these targets are hit then it should generate further upside on the shares which I included in my 2015 Bargain Shares portfolio at 1,459p, since when the board has paid out total dividends of 383p excluding the recently declared final dividend of 18p which goes ex-dividend on 13 April. So, having last advised running profits around the current price ('A quartet of small-cap value plays', 28 December 2016), I feel a price target closer to book value of 1,534p is in order. Run profits.
r21442
28 Dec 2016
Another update Last week, Arbuthnot Banking Group (ARBB:1,459p) acquired a private banking loan portfolio worth £44.9m from banking group Duncan Lawrie. The loans are secured on property worth £104.4m, so have a low loan-to-value ratio, but still offer a decent yield of 5.21 per cent and that’s before taking into account the £2.2m discount Arbuthnot negotiated on the acquisition price.The company also announced the acquisition of Renaissance Asset Finance (RAF), a provider of finance for a range of specialist assets including vintage and expensive cars and SME business assets. RAF has customer assets of £68m. Arbuthnot is funding both deals from its own cash resources which got a £148m boost earlier this year after it sold down its stake in Secure Trust Bank (STB:2,249p). Its remaining holding is still worth £77m, a significant sum in relation to its own market capitalisation of £220m. Arbuthnot used £53m of the cash windfall to acquire a prime property in the West End of London, comprising 22,500 sq ft of office space and 7,000 sq ft of retail space. The premises will in time enable its private banking arm Arbuthnot Latham to develop a presence in the West End, but in the meantime it’s generating annual rental income of over £1.8m.The plan is to use the balance of the cash from the Secure Trust share sale to develop Arbuthnot Latham. The unit posted half year pre-tax profits of £4.5m on a 15 per cent hike in operating income to £19.4m. It’s well funded as customer deposits cover loans and advances more than 1.4 times over and this significant liquidity and balance sheet strength supports the bank's ongoing growth in loan balances. Moreover, assuming Arbuthnot Latham can continue to recycle its £1bn of customer deposits into high quality lending - impairments represent a tiny 0.12 per cent of loans on an annualised basis - and at an economic net interest margin, then it will be value accretive to shareholders. This anticipated ramp up in lending explains why analysts at Hardman & Co expect Arbuthnot’s adjusted EPS to increase from 24.4p in 2016, to 55.4p in 2017, rising again to 93p in 2018. It’s proved a rewarding holding since I included the shares in my 2015 Bargain share portfolio at 1,459p as the company has so far paid out total dividends of 383p. So, having last advised running profits around the current price ('Riding small-cap bumper gains', 24 Oct 2016), I still feel that Arbuthnot’s shares should be trading closer to book value of 1,552p. Run profits.
TX2
25 Oct 2016
Re: Latest IC comment Do you think we should reinvest our £3 divi back into buying more shares on the basis Sir Henry is going to find more money making ideas in the future?
r21442
24 Oct 2016
Latest IC comment Investors have been cottoning onto the value on offer in the shares of Arbuthnot Banking Group (ARBB:1,449p). Arbuthnot realised £148m of cash proceeds at the end of May by selling down its stake in Secure Trust Bank (STB:2,380p), but its remaining holding is still worth £82m, a significant amount in relation to its own market capitalisation of £220m.Arbuthnot used £53m of the cash windfall to acquire a prime property in the West End of London, comprising 22,500 sq ft of office space and 7,000 sq ft of retail space. The premises will in time enable its private banking arm Arbuthnot Latham to develop a presence in the West End, occupying part of the property for client purposes, but in the meantime it’s generating a useful annual rental income of over £1.8mShareholders are seeing some of the cash too. Having paid out cumulative dividends of 83p since I included the shares in my 2015 Bargain share portfolio at 1,459p, the board have declared a special dividend of 300p a share, payable on 18 November and at a cost of £45m. Please note that the shares have gone ex-dividend which is why the price adjusted at the end of last week. The directors can afford to make the bumper payout without impacting the bank’s financial position given that Arbuthnot has a core Tier 1 ratio of 40.5 per cent and a modest equity to assets ratio of 22.4 per cent.The plan is to use the balance of the cash raised from the Secure Trust share sale to develop its private and commercial banking business, Arbuthnot Latham. The unit posted half year pre-tax profits of £4.5m on a 15 per cent hike in operating income to £19.4m. It’s well funded as customer deposits cover loans and advances to customers more than 1.4 times over and this liquid funding and balance sheet strength is highly supportive of the ongoing growth in loan balances. Deposits increased by 23 per cent in the 12 months to end June 2016 as the bank continues to attract new clients and at a lower deposit rate of 0.87 per cent. As long as Arbuthnot Latham can recycle its £1bn of customer deposits into high quality lending and at an economic net interest margin, then it will be value accretive to shareholders. This ramp up in lending explains why analysts at Hardman & Co expect Arbuthnot’s adjusted EPS to increase from 24.4p in 2016, to 55.4p in 2017, rising again to 93p in 2018. Maintaining credit quality will be critical, so it’s reassuring that impairments represent a tiny 0.12 per cent of loans on an annualised basis, highlighting the quality of the book.The bottom line is that if you followed my advice to buy in February 2015 you will have now banked 383p a share of dividends and still own shares worth around your buy in price of 1,459p. I still feel that Arbuthnot’s shares should be trading closer to book value of 1,552p. Run profits.
r21442
13 Oct 2016
Surprise, surprise Virtually all the rise this week prior to the special divi announcement.City as per.
TX2
12 Aug 2016
Re: A tip of the week in tomorrow's IC I don't think that Sir Henry is going to start doing anything "silly" after all these years!He has put about a third of the surplus capital into a prime property which should more than hold its value & provide a useful income stream.Opening up in Manchester is an interesting move.Manchester based private client wealth manager W H Ireland has got itself in a very bad place with deserved fines from FCA for improper conduct.Should be a good opportunity for a reputable business like Arbuthnot.....
r21442
11 Aug 2016
A tip of the week in tomorrow's IC Bull points•Shares trade below book value•Lots of capital•Growing loan book•Cross-selling opportunitiesBear points•Capital may be used unwisely•UK recession won't helpWith the proceeds of the sale of most of its stake in Secure Trust (STB) at its disposal, Arbuthnot (ARBB) is on a mission to ratchet-up the progress of its mini merchant bank, Arbuthnot Latham. With plenty of capital to play with, Arbuthnot's bosses also plan acquisitions in the longer term. Despite this, its shares are trading at almost 10 per cent below net asset value (see table), which leaves plenty of room for a re-rating once management starts to deploy its sizeable windfall. Private bank Arbuthnot Latham looked in fine fettle even before the sale of the majority of its parent's stake in Secure Trust in June. Management has been ramping up its investment in the business during the past 18 months. Within that time the private bank has opened up an office in Manchester and expanded its premises in London and Exeter. Its Dubai office turned a small profit last year, ahead of plan and just two years after opening. This has helped propel Arbuthnot Latham's solid loan book growth. During the 18 months to the end of June, customer loans have grown by almost a third to £657m. And in the first half of 2016 pre-tax profits rose 22 per cent to £4.5m, even though expansion meant some one-off spending upfront. Arbuthnot has a balance sheet sturdy enough to take its private and commercial banking businesses to the next level - research house Hardman & Co believes it has about £150m of surplus capital. In relation to its size, that's almost certainly more than any other bank in the UK. This arises from, first, the sale of Everyday Loans to sub-prime lender Non-Standard Finance (NSF), which generated a book profit of £117m; then, in May, it sold about two-thirds of its stake in Secure Trust, cutting its holding to 18.9 per cent.Management is concentrating on growing its commercial banking operations in the near term. This has meant hiring more commercial bankers in London, with plans to set up teams in the north and the south west, too. Starting with its clients within the media industry, commercial lending has extended to real estate and professional services sectors. This should boost Arbuthnot's asset base and propel earnings even further. Its wealth management business is also growing nicely - assets under management rose 14 per cent to £797m in the year to end-June. As Arbuthnot already has the customer base, there should be cross-selling opportunities to increase fee income. The timing and pace of the bank's profits growth will ultimately depend on when management can deploy its extra capital. Analysts at broker Numis estimate that with a 40.5 per cent core tier-one ratio, there is plenty of room for acquisitions. True, that brings risks as well as potential. Even the best-led businesses make mistakes when they have oodles of cash to spend, though Arbuthnot's chief executive, Sir Henry Angest, has been running Secure Trust since the early 1990s.True, if the UK dips into recession then Arbuthnot's lending business will be hit both by rising bad loans and slowing demand. Yet with the shares trading below book value, arguably that risk is fully taken into account. Buy.
r21442
04 Aug 2016
Another It’s not often that a company reports a profit as high as its own market capitalisation, but that’s exactly what Arbuthnot Banking Group Arbuthnot Banking Group PLC (ARBB:LSE) (ARBB:1,530p), a company I included in my 2015 Bargain share portfolio, announced a fortnight ago while I was on annual leave.Just before the half year end the company sold off 6m shares of its holding in fast growing unsecured lender Secure Trust Bank (STB:2,130p). The shares were sold at 2,500p each and realised £148m of cash proceeds after expenses, representing a net gain of £100m. The share sale has reduced the company's stake in Secure Trust from 51.9 per cent to 18.9 per cent and means its remaining holding of 3.43m shares is worth £73m at current prices. In addition, Secure Trust’s disposal of its Every Day loans business at the end of 2015 generated a gain of £117m which, together with Arbuthnot’s £9.1m share of Secure Trust’s ongoing profits up to mid-June 2016, meant that the bank’s profits from discontinued operations of £228m exactly match Arbuthnot’s own market capitalisation. A consequence of the hefty gains made was to deliver EPS of 1,111p and boost net asset value by over £100m to £282m, a sum worth 1,852p per Arbuthnot share or 21 per cent more than the current share price.Shareholders have been rewarded with a special dividend of 25p a share which was paid at the end of last month, and a raised interim payout of 13p a share (ex-dividend date of 1 September). This means that the bank has also paid out total dividends of 70p a share since I included the shares in my 2015 Bargain shares portfolio at 1,459p. I last updated the investment case in early June at the time of the Secure Trust disposal when the price was 1,597p (‘Banking on solid gains’, 1 June 2016), since when it has paid out that 25p a share special dividend. The fact that the shares are only down fractionally since then tells a story in itself given the far heftier falls post Brexit in the share prices of the UK's challenger banking sector.Scaling up operations The plan now is to use the cash raised to develop its private and commercial banking business, Arbuthnot Latham. Bearing this in mind, the division posted half year pre-tax profits of £4.5m on a 15 per cent hike in operating income to £19.4m. It’s well funded as customer deposits of £939m cover loans and advances to customers more than 1.4 times over and this liquid funding and balance sheet strength is highly supportive of the ongoing double digit growth in loan balances. Deposits have increased by 23 per cent in the past 12 months as the bank continues to attract new clients and at a lower deposit rate of 0.87 per cent in the first half this year, down from 1.04 per cent in the same period in 2015, reflecting the desperate search for yield on deposits by customers in the current low interest rate environment. As long as Arbuthnot Latham can recycle these deposits into high quality lending and commercial and private banking activities at an economic net interest margin then this it will be value accretive to the bank’s shareholders. Impairments were a miniscule 0.12 per cent of loans in the first half on an annualised basis, highlighting the quality of the book.Also, assets under management have risen by 14 per cent to just under £800m in the past 12 months, and increasing penetration of wealth management products is a target area for the bank to boost related fees. Arbuthnot Latham already has the customer base, so expanding the product range and cross selling to them should be good source of incremental growth.Investment in additional private bankers, and the establishment of a presence in Manchester and Exeter to augment the teams in London, means that headcount will hit 30 by the end of the third quarter including 17 relationship managers with more than 20 years commercial banking experience.Property deals to boost profits I would also point out that Arbuthnot has ma
Simbr
03 Jun 2016
conservative valuation "Following the recent sale of Everyday Loans Group, Arbuthnot Banking Group (ARBB) has provided further strategic flexibility to Secure Trust Bank through the proposed sell down of its majority stake to 18.9%. The move also opens a new chapter for ARBB simplifying its corporate structure and generating substantial capital for redeployment, including the development of its commercial banking business. For the moment, the market appears particularly conservative in its valuation of the group and we see the book value of over £1 ..." Edison's note from this morning, pulled from Research Tree
Simbrad
03 Jun 2016
"Following the recent sale of Everyday Loans Group, Arbuthnot Banking Group (ARBB) has provided further strategic flexibility to Secure Trust Bank through the proposed sell down of its majority stake to 18.9%. The move also opens a new chapter for ARBB simplifying its corporate structure and generating substantial capital for redeployment, including the development of its commercial banking business." Edison's note from this morning, it's free to download/view on Research Tree
r21442
01 Jun 2016
and another Arbuthnot BankingArbuthnot Banking Group PLC (ARBB:LSE) (ARBB:1,597p), a company I included in my 2015 Bargain share portfolio, has announced the conditional sale of 6m shares in fast growing unsecured lender Secure Trust Bank (STB:2,650p) to realise £148m of cash proceeds after expenses.The share sale will reduce the company's stake in Secure Trust from 51.9 per cent to 18.9 per cent and means the bank's remaining holding of 3.43m shares is worth £88m at current prices. The disposal was made at 2,500p a share, representing a 10.7 per cent discount to Secure Trust's share price, and the purchasers of the stake will be entitled to the 165p a share special dividend previously announced, but not yet declared by Secure Trust, following the company's £235m disposal of its Everyday Loans business which completed on 13 April 2016.Having spun off Secure Trust on the Alternative Investment Market (Aim) in 2011 and retained a 75.5 per cent equity interest at the time, Arbuthnot subsequently sold 580,000 shares at a net price of 2,483p in December 2013 to raise £14.4m, and a further 1.041m shares at 2,400p in July 2014 to raise £25m. The latest share sale means that the company has realised £187m of net cash proceeds from the investment and still retains an equity stake worth £88m.The rational for the disposal is to reduce the holding to a non-controlling interest and recycle the cash proceeds in order to grow Arbuthnot's commercial and private banking operations. Seven weeks ago Arbuthnot appointed a new chief executive to its private banking arm and plans to develop services for clients in commercial real estate and professional services as part of an initiative to build a wider commercial banking business.However, the 3.43m shares retained by Arbuthnot will still receive Secure Trust's proposed special dividend of 165p a share, a sum worth £565,000. The company also banked a £519,000 final dividend of 55p a share from Secure Trust in early May and will continue to benefit from the company's progressive dividend policy. Secure Trust will now seek a listing on the premium segment of the London Stock Exchange which, given its market capitalisation of £480m, should put the company on the radar of more small cap funds including trackers.Arbuthnot shares undervalued To put the transaction into some perspective, it will lead to a consolidated net profit on disposal of £110m, or 719p a share, a hefty sum in relation to Arbuthnot Banking's last reported net asset value of 1,253p a share at the end of 2015. In other words, by my calculations Arbuthnot's pro-forma net asset value is now around 1,972p a share, or £300m, which means the shares are priced on a discount of 19 per cent to book value. That seems a harsh valuation considering that Arbuthnot still retains a £88m stake in Secure Trust and one that is hardly overvalued on a price-to-book value ratio of 2.1 times given that the company increased underlying EPS by 9 per cent to 170p in 2015 and analyst James Ash at Canaccord Genuity is expecting earnings growth in excess of 30 per cent in the current financial year. On this basis, Secure Trust's shares are rated on a modest forward PE ratio of 11.9 and offer a healthy 2.7 per cent dividend yield. Furthermore, Arbuthnot is generating decent growth of its own. For instance, private bank Arbuthnot Latham increased profits by two thirds to £6.1m in 2015, a performance that reflects a substantial increase in new clients opening accounts, an improved outcome from its Dubai office, a contribution from the Dunfermline Building Society residential mortgage book, acquired from its administrators in December 2014, and the benefits of hiring more private bankers. Arbuthnot Latham was also well funded for future growth even before the Secure Trust share sell-down: customer deposits of £897m at the end of 2015 supported customer loans totalling £619m, implying a loans-to-deposit ratio of 69 per cent, and suggesting a
mcescher
27 Mar 2016
Solid dividend player with healthy balance sheet. At least that is the view on here [link]
r21442
23 Mar 2016
Yet another... Arbuthnot Banking Group (ARBB: 1,340p), a company I included in my 2015 Bargain share portfolio, has produced the storming set of full-year results I anticipated when I last updated the investment case (‘How the 2015 Bargain share portfolio fared’, 5 February 2016).The company owns a 51.8 per cent stake in fast growing unsecured lender Secure Trust Bank (STB: 2,850p) and the performance of that company was a major contributing factor in Arbuthnot reporting record pre-tax profits of £32.4m, a rise of over 50 per cent year-on-year. Secure Trust reported a 42 per cent hike in its own profits in the same period, reflecting robust growth in its motor, retail and business finance lending. In fact, total lending by Secure Trust shot up by over 70 per cent to £1,075m, funded almost entirely by retail fixed term deposits and bonds of £1,033bn. These deposits have fixed terms and Secure Trust has been able to offer best buy rates to income seekers, so has had no problem matching its loan growth with deposit funding in a low interest rate environment where investors struggle to make worthwhile returns without putting their capital at risk.Importantly, the surge in lending has not been at the expense of credit quality as Secure Trust’s impairments of £16.8m, albeit up from £8.6m in 2014, were not out of line with the sharp rise in loan balances and a customer base of 570,000. Secure Trust remains well capitalised, boasting a core tier one ratio of 13.6 per cent. Moreover, having agreed to sell its Everyday Loans business to sub-prime lender Non-Standard Finance (NSF: 75p) for £232m, its core tier one ratio is set to increase to 24 per cent. A price-to-book value ratio of 2.3 times doesn’t seem harsh for a company that grew underlying EPS by 9 per cent to 170p last year and is expected to increase EPS by almost a third to 223p in the current financial year, according to analyst James Ash at Canaccord Genuity. On this basis, the shares are rated on a forward PE ratio of 12.8 and offer a 2.5 per cent dividend yield.Secure Trust’s raised payout per share of 72p includes a final dividend of 55p, but excludes a special dividend of 165p to be paid on the completion of the Everyday Loans transaction. The forward PE ratio will drop a point to only 11.8 after this capital return. I remain positive on the investment case.I also remain positive on Arbuthnot’s shares. That’s not only because its £200m market capitalisation is well below the £268m open market value of its holding in Secure Trust, despite the fact that Arbuthnot has been able to sell shares easily in Secure Trust, but also because the company is generating decent growth on its own. For instance, private bank Arbuthnot Latham increased profits by two thirds to £6m in 2015, a performance that reflects a substantial increase in new clients opening accounts, an improved outcome from its Dubai office, a contribution from the Dunfermline Building Society residential mortgage book, acquired from its administrators in December 2014, and the benefits of hiring more private bankers. Arbuthnot Latham is well funded and a loans-to-deposit ratio of 69 per cent suggests there is ample funding available to continue to grow lending here. The bottom line is that the private bank is in the price for free. There are income attractions too. In fact, with Arbuthnot set to receive a £22m dividend from Secure Trust on its 9.48m shareholding in that company, its board have declared total dividends of 54p a share including a special of 25p a share. Also, its pro-forma net tangible assets will rise to £220m as soon as the Everyday Loans sale completes which means that the company’s equity is trading on a 10 per cent discount to tangible book value. The shares are also trading on only 10 times earnings estimates of 130p according to analyst James Hamilton at broking house Numis Securities. Needless to say, I continue to rate Arbuthnot’s shares a buy at 1,340p.
Tetleybitterman
01 Mar 2016
Secure To realise value why don't they demerge Secure? We seem to be making little share price appreciation and I read somewhere that the valuation of Secure alone constitutes the large part of the Arbuthnot capitalisation.
r21442
09 Dec 2015
Another IC article I noted with interest the sale of Everyday Loans by Secure Trust Bank (STB: 3,389p) to Non-Standard Finance (NSF: 89p), a newly listed finance company I recommended buying shares in earlier this year ('A non-standard investment', 2 March 2015). The disposal also has implications for shares in Arbuthnot Banking Group (ARBB: 1,530p), a company I included in my 2015 Bargain share portfolio and which has a 51.9 per cent stake in Secure Trust Bank.Led by the former chairman of subprime consumer lender Provident Financial (PFG: 3,541p), John Philip de Blocq van Kuffeler, Non-Standard Finance's board is in the early stages of creating a niche-finance company focused on the consumer unsecured lending market. To execute this strategy the company is specifically targeting acquisitions that generate an annual return on equity of between 20 per cent and 30 per cent, have potential to grow lending balances by at least 20 per cent a year, offer strong yields underpinned by APRs of between 50 per cent and 100 per cent, and with impairment levels implying an attractive ratio of risk to the APR. The company’s first acquisition, Loansathome4u, the home credit division of finance company S&U (SUS: 2,399p), completed during the summer (‘Value judgements’, 3 August 2015), and the purchase price of £82.5m equated to 12.5 times net profit and 2.5 times tangible book value. Everyday Loans is a much larger deal altogether and commands an enterprise value of £235m. It’s more expensively priced at 18 times net operating profit after tax, but importantly it’s faster growing too. In the first half of 2015, Everyday Loans increased operating profit by 10 per cent to £7.6m on revenues and a loan book up 12 per cent to £21.2m and £102m, respectively, having previously delivered annualised growth of 17 per cent in its net loan book between 2012 and 2014 which in turn boosted annual operating profit by 90 per cent to £15.5m over the two-year period.Mr van Kuffeler believes that the fast growing business can deliver even more with Non-Standard Finance’s financial backing. To achieve this the plan is to ramp up its branch expansion programme (Everyday Loans has only opened seven branches since 2012 to take the estate to 35 shops); accelerate its guaranteed loans operations by improving lead generation through its broker network; and by targeting a broader customer base and offering a wider range of products. It’s worth noting too that given the funding structure of the acquisition it will be immediately earnings accretive.Funding structure That’s because of the £235m consideration, £215m is payable in cash of which £108m will be used to settle intercompany debt with Secure Trust Bank. The vendor is also accepting £20m of equity in Non-Standard Finance shares. To fund the balance of the consideration, Non-Standard Finance will drawdown £35m of a new £55m three-year revolving credit facility with Royal Bank of Scotland and Shawbrook Bank. Secure Trust Bank is providing a £30m term loan to the company over the same term.In addition, the company is raising £160m through a placing and open offer at 85p a share. Qualifying shareholders on Non-Standard Finance’s share registrar on Thursday, 3 December are entitled to participate in the open offer by subscribing for 59 new shares for every 33 currently held. This means that if you followed my original advice to buy the shares at 103p in March, then this brings your average buy-in price to 91.5p, marginally above the current share price which has adjusted downwards to reflect the change in share capital. The company’s pro-forma net asset value is about £266m post the acquisition and capital raise which based on 311m shares in issue equates to a book value per share of 86p.In the circumstances, I would recommend you take up your open offer allocations at 85p a
