Money Week - UK (2021-10-08)

MONEYWEEK 8October 2021 moneyweek.com

8 Shares

IPOwatch

Mitchells &Butlers
TheMailonSunday
M&Bhas had“a torridtime”
in th elast 18 months. Butnow
that theeconomyis reopening,
“punters aremakingupfor
lost time”. Resultsfor thelast
eight weeksshowedthatsales
reached104%oftheir
pre-pandemic levels for the
same peri od. Thefirmalsohas
£64m less debt than two
monthsago.Notethat
majority shareholder Odyzean
intends to override thewishes
of othe rinvestors andbackthe
re-electionofachairmanthat
aquarter of total shareholders
votedagainst.Ify ou canget
past that,“thesharesare worth
asip”.251p

Serica Energy
Investors’Chronicle
Thesun is shiningfor Serica
Energy.The oiland gas

producer hadenjoyed amajor

increase in prices compared

with 2020even before thejump

in gaspricesinr ecentweeks.

Thecompany is responsible

foraround 5% of theUK’sgas

output,and this figure will

only g oupinthe coming years

as Serica develo ps production

faciliti es.Seric ahas also

benefitedfromthe rise in crude

oilprices; cr udeaccount sfor

afifth of it sproduction, while

therestisg as. Prices averaged

nearly 150pper thermin

Septembercomparedwith56p

in thefirst half of theyear. If

this continuesin2 022,the

companyshouldsee an in crease

in cash flow.214p

HenryBoot

Shares

HenryBootgrewtobea

“prime contractor”for military

buildings andhospitalsduring

WorldWar I. Todayitinvests in

land andproperty, develo ping

sitesand erectingbuildings.The

growingdemandfor homesand

officesinc itiesand suburbsall

bodewellfor thefirm. Results

forthe sixmonthstoJune

showed it possessed alandbank

capableofd elivering more than

92,000 resi dentialhomes and

build-to-rentsites across the

countr y. Therewas an 18%

increase in salesto£129m and

a220%riseinp rofits to £23m.

Thefoundingfamilyhas a

46%stake in th ebusinessand

astrongrecordonsocialand

corporate-governance issues,

anothe rattractive trait.281p

BluefieldSolar IncomeFund

TheSundayTeleg raph

BluefieldSolar IncomeFund

owns andoperatesone of

theUK’slargest po rtfoliosof

solarpower,with106 projects

throughout thecountry.It

recently raised£103m in

equity to acquire109 smaller-

scaleonshore wind turbines

andbattery-storage asse ts

aftershareholderscalledfor

diversification. It cannow hold

up to 25%ofits portfolio in

rene wabl es othe rthansolar

asse ts.Justunder two-thirds

of it srevenue stemsfrom

governmentsubsidies,which

proved beneficialwhen

energy prices slumpedduring

thepandemic andcould

imply amorestableand

consistentdivid endoutlook.

It planstod iversi fy into other

rene wabl es,and therising

appeal of environmental,

socialand governance

(ESG )-relatedinvestments

lookspositive.122p

Playtech

TheSundayTimes

Playtech is responsiblefor

thesoftwarethatrunsonline

gambling forbetting companies

andnationallotteries.The

recent sale of Finalto, its

financialtrading unit,for

£185mbrought in somecash

and“removeswhatwas... a

spong eonits balancesheet”.

Thefirmhas struggl ed in

recent yearsthankstopoor

performances in Asia andItaly,

but“it is clearly on theturn”.

It haslucrative contractsin

“gaming-mad” LatinAmerica,

under which it gets ashare of

therevenue s, servicefees and

profit s. It does notdeserve to be

valued at just seventimes this

year’s profit s.476p

SharesinTeladocHealth,avirtual -healthcarecompany, have
slumpedby60% this year.New competitors, notabl yAmazon,
have enteredthe sector andthe economy’sreopeningmeansthat
in-persondoctorvisits areonthe ri se.Teladoc’s totalvisits forthe
year ar en’t predictedtogrowasmuchastheyhaveinprevious
years. Butthe firm wasn’t just“aone-timepandemic winner”. It
wasanexpanding business before Covid-19,and itsshareshave
jumped by 600% over thelastfiveyears.The companyis “way
ahead” of thevirtual -carecurve,with52milli on payingmembers
in the US alone. The digitalisationofhealthcare“is only ju st
gettingstarted”, andthisisagoodway to cash inon it.

An American view

MoneyWeek’scomprehensive guide to this week’sshare tips

Investors’ C
Card Factor
relia nceoni
purchasesm
for adifficul
pandemic.
Recently,
however,
customers
have been
spending more than before
Covi d-19,which hashelped
narrow losses.There couldbe
plenty of upside if thegroup
canmakeits online offering
work,but that remainstobe
seen.Hold(55p).Motor-finance

&Uis

on track.

as se en a

crease in

pairments

nedmore

to its

thiness.

e-tax

year to

July 2022 hasalready been

booked. Buy(2,890p).

TheMail on Sunday

WatercompanyUnited Utiliti es’

latest update waspositiv e.

Hybridworking hasbenefited

thefirmaswecontinueto

turn on thetapsath omebut

arealsousing morewater in the

office now. However, higher

inflation is raisingoperating

costs. The4.4%yield makes

thesharesworth holding, but

they look abit pricyatt hislevel.

Hold(969p).

TheDaily Telegraph

It hasbeenalousy fewmonths

forLondon’s commercial-

property market, andGreat

Portland Estateshassuffered.

Butfootfall in th eWestEnd

increasedby12% in th emonth

of August,while London’s

growingworkforce andthe

returnoftouristswill mean a

rise in activi ty.The group

boas ts asolid balancesheet.

Buy(754p).

Shares

Quixant,which makesdevices

that control pay-to-playdigital

gambling machines,has profited

from therise in casino andslot

machineuse.Sales in th efirst half

of 2021 jumped by an annual

31%and lossesnarrowe d.

Plentiful cash sh ould prot ectit

from rising costs. Buy(174p).

Fivetobuy

...andtherest

Hotel-bo okingplatformOyo is hoping to raise$1.1bnthrough an

initialpublicoffering(IPO).Iti sthe latestin aseries of loss-

making Indian start-upslooking to cash in on thecountry’s

“red-hot equitymarkets”,saysBenjami nParkininthe Financial

Times. Technology investor SoftBank owns 47%ofthe

company; it is oneoft he Japanese company’slargestbetson

India’ stechmarket. Oyo, whichsigns up independentbudget

hotels to itsplatform, had1.2 millionroomsin 80countriesat

itspeakbut began “retrenc hing” in late 2019,pulling back

from internati onal marketsand cuttingits workforcetostem

mountinglosses. ©iStoc

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