While inflation has gone up everywhere since 2020 due to supply chain issues, COVID-19-related fiscal programs and the Ukraine war, Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has been hit particularly hard. The Baltic countries Lithuania (24.1%), Estonia (23.7%) and Latvia (22.2%) lead the ranking of those with the highest inflation rate in the EU. In the main CEE economies Poland, Czechia and Hungary, inflation reached 17.9%, 18% and 20.7% respectively in September 2022. Over the last quarters, their central banks have increased interest rates from almost zero to 6.75%, 7% and 13% respectively. This means that in all these countries real interest rates have become strongly negative and money expensive, which is bad especially for real estate and growth stocks.

Given that the end of the interest rate increases is not in sight, which makes investments in bonds still risky, the best choice for investors seem to be fundamentally strong dividend-paying companies with reasonable net gearing. Below is a list of stocks from the CEE region with a long history of dividend payouts. The two companies with the longest track record of uninterrupted dividend distributions are the Hungarian and Slovenian pharma wholesalers Gedeon Richter (www.gedeonrichter.com/en) and Krka (www.krka.biz). They only have a net gearing of 3.4% and -11.8% respectively and are trading at P/E 2022E ratios below 10x. The stocks, which currently offer the highest dividend yield, are the Romanian natural gas producer Romgaz (12.2%, www.romgaz.ro) and the Polish manufacturer of aluminum products Grupa Kety (10.8%, www.grupakety.com).

All of the companies below can also be traded on a Western stock exchange e.g. in Frankfurt.

Company (Industry)	Market cap (EUR)	FCF Yield so far in 2022	Net income CAGR (3y)	DYield 2022E	Years of consecutive dividend payments
Asseco Poland S.A. (Software)	EUR 1210m	20%	12%	4.8%	16 years
Richter Gedeon Rt. (Pharma)	EUR 3648m	3.2%	58.1%	3.5%	28 years
Krka d.d (Pharma)	EUR 2779m	-5.9%	21%	6.6%	23 years
Grupa Kety S.A. (Aluminium Industry)	EUR 987m	1.5%	30.4%	10.8%	13 years
Asseco South Eastern Europe S.A. (Banking & Payments Software)	EUR 460m	3.6%	32.5%	4%	13 years
Ambra S.A. (Alcoholic Beverages)	EUR 106m	1.5%	16.3%	4.8%	14 years
Budimex S.A. (Construction)	EUR 1274m	7.8%	47.1%	7.4%	14 years
SNGN Romgaz SA (Natural Gas Producer)	EUR 2945m	26.6%	11.9%	12.2%	9 years
Mo-Bruk S.A. (Waste Management)	EUR 216m	11.4%	77.6%	10.8%	4 years
Cyfrowy Polsat S.A. (Telco & Media)	EUR 2305m	55.3%	74.2%	6.4%	4 years

With 163.3% vs. -23.3% for WIG index, Polish Votum S.A. (www.votum-sa.pl) has significantly outperformed the broad market index over the last 12 months. Nevertheless, given its business performance so far in 2022 and sell-side expectations for 2023E-2024E, we believe that the stock is still undervalued by >40%.

Business description

Votum, which was founded in 2005, helps individuals that are clients of financial institutions to obtain compensation for personal and asset damages as well as abusive clauses in foreign currency loans. Other segments are the provision of rehabilitation services as well as photovoltaic installations, eco-friendly heating systems and Smart Energy Management for private households and corporate clients. With >300,000 customers, Votum is the largest company in its segment in Central and Eastern Europe. To date, the company’s clients received PLN >2.4bn of compensations.

After the decision by the Court of Justice of the European Union in 2019, the fastest growing and most promising segment of Votum’s business is however the one related to abusive clauses in FX loans. The court stated that agreements for loans that are denominated in foreign currencies could be declared illegal if they contain abusive clauses and the borrower requests it. It excluded the possibility that these agreements could be amended.

According to the Polish Financial Supervisory (KNF), at the end of 2018 Polish banks had 555.9k loans that were denominated in foreign currencies. Their value equalled PLN 128.6bn/EUR 26.7bn, thereof PLN 104.8bn/EUR 21.8bn were CHF loans. According to bankier.pl, until Q1/22 the total volume of CHF denominated loans declined to PLN 61.7bn/EUR 12.8bn, of which by far the most had the Polish state-owned bank PKO BP. What is relevant for Votum: In the second quarter of this year, the number of legal cases related to CHF-denominated mortgage loans equalled 67,000 and was >7,000 higher q-o-q.

Financials

In 2021, Votum, whose sales increased at a CAGR of 19.2% in 2007-2021, generated revenues of PLN 195.6m (+29.4% y-o-y), of which 37.1% stemmed from the segment Personal damages, 21.4% from Banking claims, 16% from Rehabilitation, 12.3% from Vehicle damages and 11.2% from Renewables. The most profitable segment was Banking claims, which generated a net margin of 24.5%. Last year, Votum generated a net profit of PLN 10.1m (+16.1% y-o-y; CAGR 2007-2021 = 9.3%). Operating and free cash flow equalled PLN 205k and PLN -2.1m respectively and ROCE 15.6%.

For Q1/22, Votum reported revenues of PLN 55.7m (+30.2% y-o-y), whereby Banking claims (+173% y-o-y to PLN 35.2m) accounted for 63.1% of the total. EBIT advanced by 464.8% y-o-y to PLN 18.8m and net income by 549.5% to PLN 16.2m. The two most profitable segments were Banking claims (net margin of 42.1%) and Personal damages (15.4%). At the end of March 2022, Votum had interest-bearing debt of PLN 26.8m, thereof 55.2% short-term. Net gearing equalled 24.8%.

On July 15, Votum reported its preliminary Q2/22 figures for the Banking claims segment. In Apr-Jun, revenues reached PLN 43.7m and net income PLN 27.5m. In Q1/22, revenues and net income, which relate not only to the remuneration for first instance court rulings but also upfront payments and binding court decisions, amounted to PLN 35.2m and PLN 14.8m respectively.

Between 15 June and 14 July 2022, there were 667 court rulings for legal cases of Votum’s clients. That compares to <100 such rulings in June 2021 and c. 260 in Jan 2022. The number of new contracts for legal support related to abusive clauses in FX-denominated loans reached 722 compared to c. 480 in June 2021 and c. 720 in Jan 2022.

Summary & Conclusion

Votum is a company with a strong majority shareholder – Wroclaw-based financial group DSA Financial and its founder Andrzej Dadello – and leading market position in CEE in its segment. Members of its management team own >3.2% of the company’s shares and have been buying stock over the last months. Since 2007, the company has shown very solid growth on top and bottom line. Given that abusive clauses in loan agreements constitute a significant issue for Poles and the decision in 2019 in this regard by the Court of Justice of the EU was clearly in favor of consumers, we believe that Votum will report significantly improving results at least in the next two years. This should also allow the company to pay out attractive dividends to its shareholders.

Sell-side analysts seem to be of the same opinion. Their latest estimates for 2022E assume a net profit of PLN 60.4m, which however given the company’s recent news flow is very conservative, in our view. We believe that for full-year 2022E Votum will report a net profit of at least PLN 70m (+593.1% y-o-y) which despite the very strong share price performance since January 2022 would still imply a P/E 2022E of just 6.8x at present. In 2022E-2024E, sell-side analysts expect a net income CAGR of 21.5%.

Regarding DPS, the current sell-side estimate for 2022E is PLN 2.52, which implies a DYield of 6.4% at present. For 2023E, the company is expected to pay out 50% of its yearly net profit or PLN 3.32 per share.

Disclaimer: The author of this blog post owns shares of Votum S.A.

Business description

The founder-managed MedTech company Genomtec (www.genomtec.com) was established in 2016 by scientists from the Wroclaw Medical University. It has developed a molecular diagnostic device, which compared to standard PCR devices costs 6 times less, is mobile, much faster and energy efficient. We believe that given its already announced distribution contract in Greece, Genomtec will likely generate first revenues of PLN >1m in 2022 upon receipt of CE/IVD certification in the EU for its molecular diagnostic device Genomtec ID within the next two months. The global PoC Molecular Diagnostics Market, which the company targets, is worth USD 2.8bn and growing at a CAGR of 8.2% (Source: MarketsandMarkets)

Genomtec, which already has international shareholders, is listed in the NewConnect segment of the Warsaw Stock Exchange but can also be traded in Frankfurt. Its founders own >33% of the total shares outstanding, while its largest shareholder is the major Polish VC fund Leonarto VC (www.leonarto.vc). The team includes Polish scientists, but also foreign experts incl. Charudutt Shah (Chief Business Officer), who previously worked in Business Development at the major global MedTech company biomerieux; and Jason Reece (Chief Technology Officer), who has previously been in charge of several IVD (In-Vitro Diagnostics) systems e.g. at Novartis and Perkin Elmer. In its UK-based facility, Genomtec employs several experienced production engineers.

Genomtec’s products

Genomtec ID is GMT’s flagship molecular diagnostic device for the analysis of DNA. Compared to stationary PCR devices, it is small, much more energy efficient and faster (it only needs 30-40 min to deliver results), but also offers 10-100 times higher reaction efficiency. It can be used everywhere and does not need to be handled by skilled personnel with laboratory training.

Genomtec ID includes an analyzer and a reaction card with integrated genetic tests and provides multiplexing capability of simultaneously up to five genetic targets. One of the diagnostic panels, which is supposed to cost c. EUR 45 and will generate recurring revenues for Genomtec in the future, is for respiratory diseases and includes SARS-CoV-2. Others, which are however still under development, cover e.g. Sexually-transmitted infections and SEPSIS.

Apart from Genomtec ID, the company also offers rapid genetic tests, including two-gene SARS-CoV-2 tests. In the future, it also plans to develop Genomtec Tumor, another SNAAT-based device that could be used to quickly identify neoplastic mutations.

Financials

We estimate Genomtec current cash position at c. PLN 5m. This should allow the company to launch production of the Genomtec ID device after certification in Q3/22. However, in order to grow its sales team and ramp up production it will likely have to conduct another capital increase soon. We estimate Genomtec’s current monthly cash burn at c. PLN 1m.

Valuation

We have strong faith in Genomtec’s management and its technology, which in our view offers significant advantages compared to the current PCR standard. In particular, we believe that the track record of Charudutt Shah and Jason Reece significantly increases the probability of a successful commercialization of Genomtec ID.

Given the sales potential of its Genomtec ID device, the company is currently very attractively valued, in our view. Its current market capitalization equals USD 12.8m, while similar companies have been sold for at least 15 times higher valuations in the last years. For example, in 2014 Swiss Roche acquired US-based company iQuum (provided the Liat Analyzer and the Liat Influenza A/B Assay) for USD 450m including milestone payments. In another M&A deal in 2018, German Qiagen bought Spanish STAT-Dx (offered the DiagCORE system, an easy-to-use platform that consolidates molecular and immunoassay techniques in a single PCR device) for in total USD 191m.

Disclaimer: The author of this blog post may own shares of Genomtec

Something, of which Polish politicians have been warning since at least 2008, became reality on February 24: on this day, Russia launched its attack on Ukraine. After it had initially tried to conquer the capital Kiev, since recently the Russian army has focused its activity on the Eastern part of Ukraine, with the apparent objective to create a land corridor between the Crimean Peninsula and Russia. There are speculations that Putin wants to end the “Special Military Operation” against Ukraine until the annual Russian Victory Day on May 9. However, despite the superiority of its army, Russia has not made any significant military advances in Eastern Ukraine yet. 

Several scenarios are possible for Ukraine after the fighting stops, which will happen sooner or later. In our view, the country will most likely be forced into a kind of neutrality but will not become a member of EU and NATO. On the other hand, due to the current conflict NATO will probably further strengthen its eastern border including a significant presence of the US army in countries such as Poland and the Baltics. In our view, given the experience from Germany during the Cold War, this could positively impact the GDP in regions, where these troops are/will be located. In 1985, >240,000 US soldiers served in military bases in Western Germany and this created 16,500 jobs for Germans. Also, it is estimated that they spent 40% of their salaries in local German shops or restaurants and not just on American products  https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/amerikanische-streitkraefte-welche-bedeutung-us-truppen-in-deutschland-haben-1.4035390

The above shows that military bases can indeed be a significant economic factor, especially in regions with a weak industrial base. In Poland, there are currently c. 9,000 US soldiers, which are mainly based in relatively poor parts of the country e.g. the South-East. https://forsal.pl/swiat/bezpieczenstwo/artykuly/8386335,wojska-usa-w-polsce-obecnie-nad-wisla-przebywa-ok-9-tys-amerykanskich-zolnierzy.html In the Baltic countries, where between 6% and 27% of the population are Russians, there are in total >3,000 NATO troops. We expect that in the whole CEE region the number of NATO soldiers will significantly increase in the next three years. Apart from Poland and the Baltic countries, Romania will particularly benefit from this, in our view.

While the stronger permanent presence of NATO troops in CEE will likely positively impact the demand for local goods and services, the economies of the respective countries should also benefit from joint (R&D) projects with NATO partners. In addition, as all NATO countries will grow their military spending to at least 2% of GDP in the short term, there will be higher demand for military equipment and technology. Thus, we expect that such listed companies as e.g. VIGO Photonics S.A. www.vigo.com.pl (Market cap EUR 104.5m), Protektor S.A. www.protektorsa.pl (EUR 13m) and Lubawa S.A. www.lubawa.com.pl (EUR 81.6m) will be among the biggest winners. Moreover, we believe that especially the public sector and the armed forces will invest much more in IT security as cyber attacks will become a growing threat. This should be positive for e.g. Comp S.A. www.comp.com.pl (Market cap EUR 61.6m), Asseco Poland S.A. www.asseco.pl (EUR 1.4bn) and Passus S.A. www.passus.com (EUR 17.3m). Additionally, retailers such as Pepco Group NV www.pepcogroup.eu (EUR 5.2bn) and Jeronimo Martins SGPS, S.A. www.jeronimomartins.com (EUR 12.5bn) could benefit from increased purchasing power in regions with military bases.

Since the global financial crisis, the world’s major central banks have pumped USD >25tr into the financial system Global QE Tracker – Atlantic Council. Because of record-low interest rates the only asset classes, which have provided attractive returns in the last years, have been stocks, real estate and startups. Nowadays, Western VC funds have significant capital to invest, but according to our experience only c. 5% of them are allowed to invest locally in countries such as Poland or Romania. While especially Poland has a vivid startup scene – according to PFR, the value of VC transactions in Poland reached a record of PLN 3.6bn/EUR 798m in 2021 after PLN 2.1bn/EUR 466m one year earlier and only PLN 156m/EUR 34m in 2018 Transakcje na polskim rynku VC w 2021 (pfrventures.pl) – CEE-based startups usually have to look for money among local business angels and VC funds, which often use EU funds.

Lack of “smart money” is the main reason, why there are still not many unicorns in CEE

The main problem, which startups in CEE are facing, is that these investors usually do not have experience how to scale up businesses on international markets and have relatively small tickets of EUR <1m, which corresponds to pre-seed or seed phase of startup funding. Thus, CEE-based startups are able to finance product development, but often have problems with raising financing for the market roll-out.

While many startups choose to conduct a capital increase and list their shares in the alternative NewConnect segment instead, during the next funding round they often realize that they are in a “death trap”, meaning that most institutional investors are not allowed to invest in them as they are too small in terms of market capitalization and still do not generate revenues. We believe that all this is a major reason, why in CEE and in Poland in particular there are still almost no unicorns, which is a description of startups with a market value of at least USD 1bn.

Solution: Establishing a holding company in Western Europe

In our view, a solution may be establishing a holding company in Western Europe. This would become an owner of the local operating company, which usually benefits from still 4-5x lower salaries in CEE and EU R&D grants. In our view, the Western holding company could raise “smart money” from Western business angels or VC funds much easier. In addition, it could ultimately be listed on one of the Western European stock exchanges such as Deutsche Börse, Stockholm or Euronext. Especially the Swedish and Amsterdam stock exchanges are considered the best ones in Europe for innovative Tech and Biotech companies.

The process of establishing a holding company in Western Europe is relatively easy. For example, in Germany there are two kinds of limited companies, which require EUR 25,000 (GmbH) and EUR 1 (UG) of initial capital respectively GmbH und UG (haftungsbeschränkt) – IHK Rhein-Neckar (ihk24.de). Set up costs equal max. EUR 900 and yearly costs of accountants and tax advisors c. EUR 2,000. A Dutch BV requires at least EUR 0.01 7 Things you need to know about the Dutch BV – FIRM24 initially, with likely similar founding and yearly costs as in Germany.

We at East Value Research have gained significant experience with consulting for startups over the last years and have built a strong network of brokers, consultants and investors. We stand ready to assist CEE-based startups with the establishment of a holding company in Western Europe and fundraising.

The EU is dependent on Russia, but this also holds vice versa

Over the last months, Russia has deployed at least 100,000 troops and heavy military equipment to its border with Ukraine. In addition, it has sent c. 30,000 soldiers to Belarus and 20 war ships to the Baltic Sea. While the Russian government denies that it plans to attack the Ukraine, Western politicians are very nervous and threaten Russia with sanctions. Many Western commentators fear that as retaliation state-owned Gazprom could stop gas deliveries to the EU, which would hit the European economies hard. According to ec.europa.eu, in 2019 Russia accounted for 41.1% of EU’s gas, 26.9% crude oil and 46.7% coal imports. Germany, where in 2021 gas and coal power plants still generated 10.5% and 29.7% of the country’s energy production, imports c. 36% of its oil, c. 51% of gas and c. 56% of coal from Russia (Sources: destatis, BAFA, Handelsblatt). In our opinion, this dependence will become even stronger in the coming years as the current German government plans to shut down all nuclear and coal plants by the end of 2022 and 2030 respectively and wants to build more gas power plants in order to cover periods when renewable energy sources will not be able to fully cover the domestic energy demand.

Although a conflict with the Ukraine and NATO seems totally irrational as Russia is strongly dependent on exports of oil, gas and coal and imports of technologically-advanced goods, the risk of a war has unsettled investors and has hit the Russian stock market hard. The Moscow Exchange Broad Market Index (RTS), which includes 100 companies, has declined by >30% to a level last seen in April 2021. Many blue chip companies, which even before the recent declines traded at single-digit P/Es and double-digit dividend yields, are now even more attractively valued.

While the recent share price declines created many opportunities, investors should be selective

However, despite bargain prices we recommend to be selective. In our opinion, the biggest losers in case of a conflict with Ukraine and NATO will be companies, which are controlled by the Russian government or oligarchs that are close to Mr Putin. We also believe that it is wise to omit Russian banks and industrial conglomerates as they would likely be hit hard by a restricted access to foreign capital and technical equipment, which the President of the EU Commission has recently threated to introduce in an interview with German Handelsblatt.

We prefer companies that are controlled by investors without ties to Russian politicians, target Russian/CIS consumers and are not cyclical. Russia, which has grown its GDP at a CAGR of 6.7% since 1990 (Source: World Bank), has 142.3m inhabitants (Source: CIA World Fact Book), of which c. 75% in the Western part of the country and only 6% in the Far East. The whole CIS regions has a population of c. 240m people. In contrast to major Western economies, the Russian retail market is still very dispersed, with the 10 largest retailers accounting for just 37.4% of total food retail sales worth RUB 17.5tr (Source: X5 Retail Group). The E-Commerce sector is large and rapidly growing, with an estimated CAGR 2020-2024E of 6.9% from USD 21.6bn in 2020 (Source: esw.com). However, at the same time the share of online shoppers still equals only c. 52% compared to an EU average of 74% (Source: ec.europa.eu), which shows the tremendous growth potential of this sector in Russia.

Our Russian top picks

We recommend to take a closer look at PAO Magnit, Ozon Holdings PLC and Yandex NV, which can all be traded on Western stock exchanges.

Magnit Magnit at a glance – PJSC «Magnit», which has a free float of 61.1%, is the No 1 retailer in Russia when it comes to the number of stores and geographical coverage. As of 31/12/2021, the company, which has an expected DYield of 10.9% for 2021, operated in total 26,077 stores (supermarkets, drugstores, pharmacies, convenience stores, “ready-to-go“ & “ready-to-eat” shops with basic grocery and non-food items) and 45 distribution centers in 67 Russian regions. Apart from its activity in retail, Magnit also operates 4 agricultural and 13 food production sites for growing vegetables and production of dry food and confectionery. In 2021, the company’s revenues grew by 19.5% y-o-y to RUB 1.86tr (+7% Like-For-Like growth; 2,036 net store additions), gross profit by 20.1% to RUB 439.2bn (gross margin: 23.7% vs. 23.5% in 2020) and net income by 36.8% to RUB 51.7bn. The implied P/E 2021 equals 11.7x compared to a 3y historical average of 22.8x.

Ozon Holdings Ozon – about the company is the No 1 E-Commerce platform in CIS with >80m products, >90,000 active merchants, >25m buyers and c. 1m sqm of warehousing space across Russia. Apart from the online marketplace Ozon.ru, the company also operates the largest online travel company in Russia Ozon.Travel and owns a stake in the largest Russian digital book platform LitRes. It also develops FinTech services (Ozon FinTech) and is expanding into quick commerce and online grocery sales (Ozon Express). In 2021, Ozon grew its GMV (Gross Merchandise Value) by >125% y-o-y to RUB 445bn and the number of orders by c. 200% to 220m. However, adj. EBITDA and free cash flow strongly deteriorated due to the rapid growth, which is expected to reach at least 80% in 2022E. While in 9M/21 adj. EBITDA and free cash flow reached RUB -25.3bn (9M/20: RUB -8.1bn) and RUB -41.9bn (RUB -10.4bn) – for full-year 2021, they are not yet available – net cash as of 30/09/2021 equalled RUB 23.3bn, which makes a capital increase likely this year, in our view. Current cons. EV/Sales 2022E multiple is 1.1x compared to a 2y hist. average of 3.1x. 

Yandex Yandex, which is controlled by the family of its founder Arkady Volozh and the company’s staff, is the No 1 search engine in Russia and CIS. In addition, it provides services such as classifieds, food delivery, ride hailing and video & music streaming and conducts R&D in the area of autonomous driving. Thus, Yandex can be considered a Russian version of Alphabet. Apart from Russia, the company is also active in Turkey, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and the Ukraine. In 9M/21, Yandex generated revenues of RUB 245.8bn (+53.4% y-o-y), an adj. EBITDA of RUB 22.4bn (-28.6%) and adj. net income of RUB 5.4bn (-55.8%). The reason for the hefty decline of profitability were high investments in e-commerce, cloud and fintech services and self-driving business. At the end of September 2021, Yandex had net cash of RUB 4.3bn. Based on consensus estimates, the company’s stock is currently trading at an EV/Sales 2021E of 3.4x compared to a 3y hist. average of 5.5x.

Company description

XTPL, whose founder and CEO Dr. Filip Granek made his PhD in the German city of Freiburg and previously worked for Fraunhofer Institute, has developed an additive printing technology, which allows to print ultra-fine (up to 1 micrometer thin) transparent conductive and non-conductive lines. This technology has the potential to revolutionize various multi-billion USD industries e.g. Printed Electronics, Smart Glass, Displays, Semiconductors, Photovoltaics, Biosensors in terms of cost and resource efficiency, miniaturization and flexibility, among others. So far, XTPL has filed 24 international patent applications, which cover e.g. the formulations of its nanoinks, its printing heads and a method of printing conductive structures for the Electronics sector. Since its IPO in 2017, the company has been supported by German ACATIS Investment and Deutsche Balaton, which hold 9.6% and 11.8% respectively of its shares. However, its largest shareholder is CEO Granek with a stake of 15.6%.

While in the first two years after IPO it did not meet investors’ expectations, in 2020 XTPL changed its commercialization strategy and started to search for international distribution partners. Since then, it has signed contracts with Bandi Consortia in South Korea, Yi Xin Technology in China, Semitronics Sales in UK & Ireland and most recently with merconics in the DACH region & France. Moreover, the company has initiated sales of proprietary nanoinks (e.g. based on silver) and own Delta Printing Systems (highly precise system for printing microelectronic systems), which have so far been sold to research facilities in Stuttgart, Karlsruhe, Glasgow, Wroclaw and Brescia. XTPL’s strategy foresees the implementation of its technology into industrial scale applications and serial production in a licensing or strategic partnership model.

Financials

In 9M/21, XTPL had revenues from sales of products of PLN 213k (9M/20: PLN 44k), thereof PLN 45k from nanoinks and PLN 161k from Delta Printing Systems (require nanoinks). Operating and net loss remained at a similar level y-o-y of PLN 6.4m each (PLN 2.1m/c. EUR 470k per quarter on average). At the end of September 2021, XTPL had cash of PLN 4.8m and (long-term) interest-bearing debt of PLN 3.3m.

New contract with Nano Dimension & Valuation

On January 10, 2022, XTPL announced the signing of a contract with the Israeli provider of additive electronics Nano Dimension Ltd. Both parties agreed that XTPL would develop a conductive nanoink based on metallic nanoparticles for use in the devices of Nano Dimension that target the PCB segment. While details of the contract have not been revealed, we believe that the yearly revenues from this contract will cover XTPL’s current operating expenses and thus allow the company to reach the break-even already in 2022E.

A comparison with Nano Dimension, which currently has a market capitalization of USD 977m, indicates a significant undervaluation of XTPL, despite the recent share price rally. Based on marketscreener.com data, Nano Dimension is expected to generated revenues of USD 30m in 2022E, which implies a P/Sales 2022E of 32.6x. If we multiply this P/Sales multiple with a conservative revenue estimate for 2022E of USD 2.5m/PLN 10m, we arrive at a fair equity value of XTPL of PLN 326.5m or PLN 160.90 per share. Thus, our calculation derives an upside for XTPL’s shares of 140.2% at current level.

Apart from the Main Market of the Warsaw Stock Exchange, interested investors can buy XTPL’s shares on the stock exchanges in Frankfurt, München and Stuttgart.

* The author of this blog post owns shares of XTPL S.A.

Since roughly two years, we have seen significant growth of interest among Western investors for Eastern European equity markets and for the Polish one in particular. The reasons have been significant lower valuations than on Western stock exchanges, especially NASDAQ, where stock prices have been fuelled by the expansive monetary policy of central banks, and much better possibilities for retail investors to trade equities e.g. on the Warsaw Stock Exchange than only five years ago.

Due to a lack of alternatives and trust in government pension schemes an increasing number of retail investors from Western countries nowadays invests on the stock market on own account and many focus on dividend stocks. However, not many are aware, which great opportunities Eastern European equity markets offer in this regard. In Poland, Czechia, Russia or Romania, listed companies often offer yearly dividend yields close to 10%, which is particularly attractive given current inflation rates in major Western economies. There are various reasons for such high dividends e.g. (1) in many companies, the state is a controlling shareholder and needs the cash to be able to finance investments or social programs (2) pension funds are dependent on regular cash inflow to be able to fulfill their obligations towards retirees, and (3) investment funds often prefer to receive high dividend payouts as they guarantee that cash surpluses of companies are used in the interest of minority shareholders.

For dividend investing in Eastern Europe, we prefer stocks of larger companies with leading market positions, strong track record and sustainable business models. The following table provides an overview of our top picks: 

Company	Description	Market cap	DYield 2021E
PZU	Largest insurance and banking group in CEE and Top 3 provider of private healthcare services in Poland.	EUR 6.7bn	7.5%
Asseco Poland	6th largest IT company in Europe with c. 80% share of revenues from outside Poland.	EUR 1.6bn	3.0%
Grupa Kety	Manufactures and sells aluminum products to Polish and international clients with an export share in total sales of c. 41.2%.	EUR 1.2bn	9.8%
Moneta Money Bank	Leading Czech bank for retail and SME sector that considers itself a digitisation leader.	EUR 1.9bn	6.6%
Magyar Telecom	Provides fixed-line and mobile telecommunication services for residential and small business customers in Hungary.	EUR 1.1bn	3.7%
OMV Petrom	Is the largest energy company in Southern and Eastern Europe. Produces oil & gas, refines and distributes fuels and generates power.	EUR 5.4bn	6.4%
Mobile Telesystems	Largest provider of fixed-line, mobile telco and pay-TV services in Russia and CIS.	EUR 5.7bn	10.2%
X5 Retail Group	Largest grocery chain in Russia and market leader in the area of e-food.	EUR 6.6bn	9.6%
Magnit	2nd largest provider in the area of food retail in Russia.	EUR 6.6bn	9.9%

* members of East Value Research’ team my hold some of the above mentioned shares

Business description

Pepco is a multi-national retail chain, which is indirectly owned by the South African company Steinhoff and which is currently in the process of conducting an IPO on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. The original offering comprised 102.7m shares (17.9% of the total) of Pepco’s management (1.2% of the offering) and Pepco Holdco (98.8%), which is controlled by Steinhoff that needs cash in order to repay debt. Pepco, whose first day of trading on the Warsaw Stock Exchange is scheduled for May 26, was valued during the bookbuilding at PLN 40 per share (initial IPO price range was PLN 38-PLN 46) or PLN 23bn/EUR 5.08bn. The final number of sold shares equals 80.4m and is worth PLN 3.2bn. Given its market capitalization, Pepco will likely become member of the Polish WIG20 bluechip index soon.

Pepco was founded in 2014 as a subsidiary of the South African company Pepkor SA and is currently 98.8%-owned by Pepco Holdco, which is controlled by one of the largest furniture companies worldwide, Steinhoff. The company is a discount variety retailer and its target group are families, who care about their wallets, meaning those with below-to-average incomes.

The company’s operations can be divided in four segments:

(1) PEPCO

PEPCO was established in Poland in 2009 and offers various products in the “all for one dollar” format e.g. clothing, pet food, toys and household goods. Apart from Poland, it also operates in 12 other countries including Romania, Hungary, Czechia, Slovakia, Croatia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Latvia, Estonia, Bulgaria, Italy and Serbia. PEPCO’s >2,100 stores are located in small and medium-sized cities and have 350-550 sqm. In 2021 and the coming years, it plans to open new stores and enter new markets e.g. Spain.

(2) Poundland

Poundland opened its first store in 1990 and has since then expanded its network to c. 920 shops in the UK and Ireland. Its offering comprises everything from food, health & beauty, cleaning & pet products and clothing. The retail chain’s pricing ranges above and below one pound.  

(3) Dealz

Dealz is a brand of Poundland and through currently 150 stores is present in Ireland, Spain and Poland. The chain mainly offers basic necessities such as food, drugstore products and clothing.

(4) PGS

PGS provides sourcing, product development and technical services for Pepco’s brands. It is present in mainland China, Hong Kong, Bangladesh, Pakistan and India, from where it supports PEPCO, Poundland and Dealz stores with USD 1bn worth of goods every year. It also has contracts with external retailers from around the world.

Financials

With total sales split almost evenly between PEPCO and Poundland, in fiscal-year 2019/20 Pepco generated EUR 3.5bn of revenues, which corresponds to a y-o-y growth of 3% and LFL (same store) decline of 5.2%. While UK accounted for 42.7% of total sales, Poland and Rest of Europe contributed 25% and 32.3% respectively in 2019/20.

In 2018-2020, Pepco’s top-line grew at a CAGR of 7.6%. Last year, gross margin declined from 42.3% in 2018/19 to 40.7% and EBITDA (pre-IFRS 16) reached EUR 228.9m (-31.2% y-o-y; 2y CAGR = -9.1%). The EBITDA margin equalled 6.5% compared to 9.7% in 2018/19. Due to lower EBITDA and higher net financial costs net income was negative (EUR -0.5m vs. EUR 210.4m in 2018/19). However, positive was the strong increase of the operating (EUR 579.6m vs. EUR 182.1m in 2019) and free cash flow (EUR 414.2m vs. EUR 51.3m). At the end of September 2020 (end of fiscal-year 2019/20), net debt amounted to EUR 328.3m (2019: EUR 460.6m) or 1.4x of EBITDA (pre-IFRS 16).

Summary & Conclusion

We believe that at PLN 40 per share Pepco is an attractive investment in the long run. Based on information in the IPO prospectus, we expect that in 2020/21 total sales will increase by 7% y-o-y to EUR 3.8bn, but at a higher gross and EBITDA margin y-o-y. In 2020/21, Pepco plans to open 450 new stores, thereof 320-350 Pepco, 30 Poundland and 100 Dealz, with expected CAPEX of c. EUR 250m and EUR 200m per year in the medium term. Based on our estimate, the implied EV/Sales would be 1.4x compared to 2.2x for Dino Polska (fast-growing grocery chain in Poland), 1.5x for CCC (Polish shoe retailer) and 1.9x for LPP (Polish fashion retailer).

We are optimistic that Pepco will continue to develop well going forward. We like the focus on the “thifty” consumer with below-to-average incomes, who e.g. in Poland will have more spending power from 2022 due to tax reductions and subsidies for families that are foreseen in the recently published “New Order” government program. In our view, the planned opening of new stores in mainly CEE/SEE is positive as consumption in these countries will likely continue to increase at higher levels than in Western Europe due to rapidly growing GDP and incomes.

Business description

Mo-Bruk (Market cap PLN 1.36bn / EUR 302.2m) is the market leader of the Polish waste management sector, which is highly promising as Poland is still far behind other EU countries when it comes to waste processing (e.g. 42% of Polish waste is dumped on waste landfills vs. 1% in Germany) and has to comply with the EU “Green Deal”. In order to increase the share of processed & recycled waste, the government is increasing the Marshall Fee, which is the price per tonne of dumped waste (the higher it is, the more waste management companies can charge for their services). The Marshall Fee currently equals PLN 301.84/tonne and since 2018 has increased at a CAGR of 29.2%.

Compared to its listed peers Geotrans, Krynicki Recycling and Grupa RECYKL, Mo-Bruk is able to process c. 95% kinds of waste. Also, as the only listed company in Poland it provides waste incineration, solidification and stabilisation in own facilities and sells alternative fuels and construction material. Mo-Bruk, whose roots go back to 1985 and which is controlled by the Mokrzycki family, has grown its sales and net income at a CAGR of 35.2% and 164.8% respectively since 2016. After investments of c. PLN 200m in the last few years, it operates own facilities in 5 locations in Southern Poland, where most of Polish industry is based.

In 2019, Mo-Bruk’s segments had the following share in the company’s total sales:  (1) Solidification and stabilisation of inorganic waste (mainly from chemical and construction companies) – 45.4% (2) Production of alternative fuels (mainly from car manufacturers) – 22.2% (3) Incineration of toxic waste (mainly from hospitals, drug producers and refineries) – 32.3%. The end products of waste incineration/solidification/stabilisation – heat, alternative fuels and cement granules – are sold e.g. to cement producers, utilities, construction companies and mines. Thus, the company’s business model perfectly fits into the concept of the so-called “circular economy”, which is the main objective of the EU “Green Deal”.

Financials

In 2019, Mo-Bruk generated revenues of PLN 130.6m (+41% y-o-y), an EBITDA of PLN 58.7m (44.9% margin) and net income of PLN 40.1m (30.7% margin). 7.5% of sales stemmed from abroad compared to 6.3% in 2018. In 2019, the company employed 233 people on average.

Between January and September 2020, the company’s sales reached PLN 122.6m (+40.9%). EBITDA equalled PLN 69.8m (+102.2% y-o-y; 56.9% margin) and net income PLN 52.9m (+122.2%; 43.2% margin). Operating and free cash flow reached PLN 41.5m and PLN 47.7m respectively. As of 30/09/2020, Mo-Bruk had net cash of PLN 11.9m.

Summary & Conclusion

Mo-Bruk is a market leader in a sector, which requires high initial investments. Moreover, as the shadow economy still accounts for 30-40% of the waste management sector in Poland, companies, which want to provide respective services, need government permissions. In addition, public clients usually prefer to work together with companies, which have a good track record. Thus, we believe that in Poland Mo-Bruk will remain the undisputed market leader at least in the next 3 years.  

Another reasons, which make Mo-Bruk an attractive investment, are the low capacity utilisation of its facilities (c. 40% currently); the increasing Marshall Fee in Poland, which in our view will continue to increase by 5-10% over the next 2-3 years; and its prices, which are >2x below those in Western Europe. All of the above should allow Mo-Bruk to grow its revenues significantly in the near future and to maintain a very high profitability and cash generation. The volume of waste, which is produced in Poland every year, equals 114.1m tons and grows roughly in-line with GDP.

Our expectation for net profit in 2020 is PLN 79m (+197.1% y-o-y), which implies a P/E of 17.1x at present and PEG ratio of 0.09. While in our view the current broker estimates for 2021E (Revenues: PLN 240m; Net income: PLN 92.9m) are realistic, we believe that the market forecasts for 2022E (Revenues: PLN 273m, Net income: PLN 101m) are too conservative. We expect that Mo-Bruk will pay out a dividend both for 2020 (exp. DYield = 3.6%) and the following years. The company’s dividend policy foresees the pay out of 50-100% of its yearly net profit.

Disclaimer: The author of this analysis owns shares of Mo-Bruk himself