Argent: Where there’s muck there’s still money
Argent Industrial is arguably the JSE’s poster child for 'ugly value’
Argent Industrial is arguably the JSE’s poster child for "ugly value". It is an array of grubby little cogs and wheels that turn in industrial niches locally and abroad.There’s not really a dominant operation, but every little segment kicks in profits in an unpredictable fashion. This has made it fairly difficult to build a central value premise.However, its track record over many years will show it is capable of compiling solid bottom-line profits and paying out fairly generous dividends. Operational cash flows, in spite of the disparate operations, have been fairly reassuring too.The financial year results (to end-March) show revenue was fairly static at around R1.83bn, which translated into a bottom-line loss of over R180m and dividend of 20c/share.The bottom-line loss needs to be put in perspective. Argent lost R70m on the disposal of a property as well as impaired property, plant and equipment to the value of R73m. What’s more, intangible assets were impaired by a hefty R130m.A...
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