IPH - IPH Limited

[System]

On Listing, IPH Limited (IPH) will wholly own Spruson & Ferguson, one of the leading intellectual property services firms in the Asia-Pacific region, offering a wide range of services for the protection, commercialisation, enforcement and management of IP.

These services are provided across Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Pacific Islands and Asia from offices in Sydney, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and supported by a representative office in Shanghai.

http://www.iphltd.com.au

 

[Miner]

Hi
Noticed since the introduction November 2014, there was no posting on this thread.
With a recommendation from Motley Fool and Bell Potter, I analysed the stock in my useless way, and presenting some of the research notes with my purchase at $6.9.
As always DYOR based on your circumstances and I have burnt myself a lot many times.

BP Recommendation dated 1 June 2016
Buy (unchanged) Price $6.98 Target (12 months) $8.60 (previously $8.75)

 

[fanger]

Hi
Noticed since the introduction November 2014, there was no posting on this thread.
With a recommendation from Motley Fool and Bell Potter, I analysed the stock in my useless way, and presenting some of the research notes with my purchase at $6.9.
As always DYOR based on your circumstances and I have burnt myself a lot many times.

BP Recommendation dated 1 June 2016
Buy (unchanged) Price $6.98 Target (12 months) $8.60 (previously $8.75)

I bought in roughly around the $6 mark before it reported. Just looking at bell direct now there target price is $8.15 after reporting season.
I'm happy to hold.

 

[fanger]

Poor results, looks like most brokers downgraded the price to around the $4.30 mark.

 

[Ann]

I guess everyone forgot IPH, it has been traveling quite well recently. Twiggs weekly Money Flow appears excellent. The daily Twiggs Money Flow appears a bit choppy but still positive. The Positive and Negative Volume Indicators are both in very bullish territory.
There is a bit of FA happening regarding IPH trying to take over XIP and XIP is trying to merge with QIP. Too messy for me to assess, I will leave it to the smarter FA folks here.

 

[Knobby22]

I guess everyone forgot IPH, it has been traveling quite well recently. Twiggs weekly Money Flow appears excellent. The daily Twiggs Money Flow appears a bit choppy but still positive. The Positive and Negative Volume Indicators are both in very bullish territory.
There is a bit of FA happening regarding IPH trying to take over XIP and XIP is trying to merge with QIP. Too messy for me to assess, I will leave it to the smarter FA folks here.

View attachment 93217

I gave up on this company. Good to see it going well now.

 

[Cam019]

 

[finicky]

IPH @ $6.17, "the leading intellectual property (IP) services group in the Asia Pacific region", went off my radar due to poor performance over a couple of years. It seemed to carry the curse of R Montgomery approval.

I hadn't clocked that Xenith IP (ex ASX: XIP) was taken over by IPH in 2019.

Increasing IP filings in China and Hong Kong. Work steady in Singapore where it is the biggest IP operator.

Seems a decent H1 result against the drags of Covid disruption and higher AUD (Asia earnings) that they plead. Worth a watch I guess as the monthly chart is still downtrending. Pays a decent 50% franked dividend. ROE was 15% in fy20, might be a little lower this year, carries some debt, book value = $2 fy20. Currently only looks fair value to me.

 

[Dona Ferentes]

IPH jumped after reaching an agreement to acquire Canadian intellectual property firm Smart & Biggar for total consideration of $387 million.

The company said Smart & Biggar will significantly extend the group’s network beyond the Asia Pacific region for the first time.

 

[MovingAverage]

Another SGH in the making

Thing that I hate about this company is that is growing merely through acquisition of others and the space it operates in (patent and trade mark filings) is flat at best and in decline in many countries. As for the recent acquisition, some interesting stat's below regarding the Canadian market: patent applications are pretty much flat but last few years as seen modest growth in the trade mark application space. See below charts taken from the IP Canada Report for 2020. IPH is far from moving into a growing market and is not the stuff of a market of future growth. Wouldn't be the first company to make an acquisition or two to prop up their share price and distract from any real underlying growth in their operating space. Anyway, good luck to all holders.

 

[finicky]

Still only worth about $6 to me. For a less than exciting half franked yield at that price. I wouldn't have noticed, but I take MovingAverage's point that it doesn't seem to grow organically, as the book value rose in fy20 at the same time as the number of shares jumped. At the same time the ROE dipped and has just crawled back to median level of ~17%. Carries the R Montgomery mark of doom.

The share price chart has made a higher high but there's still a chance that it topped out in August where it made a double top with Feb 2020? Although no strong sign of decline yet and has held up well considering the general malaise. Of no interest to me anyway at anything like this price.

Not Held

Monthly

 

[divs4ever]

previously i held rival XIP ( where i did very nicely , after buying in that savage dip ) before it was taken over and more recently i have bought into the relatively illiquid QIP

IPH has yet to be attractive to me , price-wise

is fairly low priority on my shopping list other sectors hold more appeal currently

 

[Dona Ferentes]

there must be a lot of these small players out there. I'm not sure who benefits more. Not shareholders?
.. in TH, now $6.08
.
> IPH Limited has entered into arrangements to acquire 100% of Bereskin & Parr LLP for an enterprise value of CAD 82.5m (approximately AUD 90.2m)
> The acquisition represents an implied multiple of:
– 8.2x pre-IFRS 16 EBITDA of Bereskin & Parr for the last 12 months to 31 December 2023 of CAD 10.1m (excluding any net synergies)
– 6.0x pre-IFRS 16 EBITDA of Bereskin & Parr for the LTM Dec-23 inclusive of expected full run-rate synergies of CAD 3.7m

Overview of Bereskin & Parr
> Founded in 1965, Bereskin & Parr is a leading Canadian full-service IP firm across patents, trademarks and IP litigation
> Bereskin & Parr is headquartered in Toronto with additional offices in Mississauga, Kitchener and Montreal
> Bereskin & Parr will be integrated into IPH’s existing Smart & Biggar business on financial close of the transaction

Strategic rationale and investment highlights
> Highly complementary to Smart & Biggar with similar core competencies (full suite of IP services), strong reputation, and highly regarded professionals
> Improves scale in Canada and further expands IPH’s presence in secondary IP markets
> Attractive financial profile with strong historical growth
> Diverse business offerings across patents (~70% revenue), trademarks (~25% revenue) and IP litigation (~5% revenue)
> Various cost synergy and cross-selling opportunities by leveraging the IPH network effect

Transaction funding and equity raising
> Purchase consideration is to be via 70% cash and 30% scrip
> IPH is launching a fully underwritten AUD 100m Institutional Placement and non-underwritten Share Purchase Plan targeting up to AUD 25m
> The proceeds from the equity raising will be used to fund the cash consideration of Bereskin & Parr and reduce debt
> IPH is also issuing approximately 4.5m new IPH shares to Bereskin & Parr (approximately AUD 27.0m) to fund the remaining partof the acquisition, which is subject to escrow arrangement of two years

Financial impacts
> Expected to be low single-digit underlying earnings per share accretive on a pro-forma FY24 basis (including full run-rate synergies) and EPS neutral on a pro-forma FY24 basis (excluding full run-rate synergies)
> Equity raising and acquisition funding to result in net debt / pro forma FY24 EBITDA of approximately 1.7x