MKT - The Market Limited

[greggles]

Serious drama continuing to play out over at TMH. There appears to be serious disunity and trust issues between management and a certain major shareholder (Uil Limited) and it is getting messy and is being played out publicly.

This ugly situation is certainly not going to help confidence in TMH moving forward.

 

[Dona Ferentes]

Serious drama continuing to play out over at TMH. There appears to be serious disunity and trust issues ...

I'd reckon wanky Gothic font is enough to ring a few bells.

This ugly situation is certainly not going to help confidence in TMH moving forward.

Nor is a financing structure like a boa constrictor.

All settled, though. Peace returns to the valley.

 

[System]

On November 17th, 2023, The Market Herald Limited (TMH) changed its name and ASX code to The Market Limited (MKT).

 

[Dona Ferentes]

Serious drama continuing to play out over at TMH. There appears to be serious disunity and trust issues between management and a certain major shareholder (Uil Limited) and it is getting messy and is being played out publicly..

nothing to see here.
.

Market Herald ditches plans to become major publisher, doubles down on classifieds​

The new management team behind the owner of the HotCopper share trading forum and classifieds site Gumtree has done a dramatic about-face, scrapping plans to become the “Financial Times of South-East Asia” and instead says it will target Carsales, Seek and real estate.

Tommy Logtenberg, the new chief executive of The Market – known as The Market Herald until this month – said the turbulence that had plagued the company for the past year was over.
“Our spend on our corporate credit cards dropped by 63 per cent. And that’s almost the only thing that I want to share about the previous management team,” he said in his first interview since formally taking the reins of the company in March. “The business is now in a much better state. We have less costs, and we spend it wisely, and we invest in the business.”

The Market owns business news sites The Market Herald (soon to be The Market Online), HotCopper and Stockhouse, as well as the former Gumtree Group – Gumtree, CarsGuide and Autotrader.

Former The Market Herald managing director Jag Sanger was ousted in December last year in a shareholder coup led by mining father-son duo David and Gavin David Argyle. A major shareholder, Duncan Saville, then complained to the Takeovers Panel..

That turmoil came after Mr Sanger acquired Gumtree, CarsGuide and Autotrader from Norway’s Adevinta for $87 million last year, a deal largely funded by a $60 million vendor loan. Mr Sanger had grand plans to become a global force in business journalism. The company’s share price has fallen 33 per cent since January – though it has jumped 28 per cent this past month.

“We are not a newspaper publication, We are not publishing any newspapers, we are not going to publish any newspapers,” Mr Logtenberg said. “We are not going to compete with the AFR. What we do is capital markets, and we do classifieds, and that’s it."

 

[greggles]

MKT is currently $46 million dollars in debt in a high interest rate environment. The loan repayments must be crippling and this debt will hang over the company like the sword of Damocles. Management says $5 million of that debt will be paid down by the end of this year, making them only $41 million in debt. Whether or not that happens remains to be seen.

Gumtree is under threat from Facebook Marketplace and I would not be betting on the former over the latter. Facebook will be pulling out all stops to grab as much market share as they can and over time I believe this will come at Gumtree's expense.

Too many risks here. i can't see any compelling reasons to invest in this business.