EVS Broadcast
EVS Broadcast reported 2024 numbers this week. After raising their 2024 guidance 2 times during the year, they came out at the upper und of the projected range. The Highlight page speaks for itself:
I think the major positive surprise was the relatively bullish outlook. On the mid point, they expect ~+2% to +3% sales growth in 2025. That doesn’t sound like much, but as 2025 is an “uneven” year without large sporting events like the Olympics or a football Worldcup, the analysts had expected a significant lower number. According to EVS, around 8% of 2024 sales were driven by this events, so the assumed “underlying” organic growth rate is ~10%. This outlook is supported by a boo-to-bill ratio of clearly above 1. In the past, EVS always guided conservatively, so there might be still more room for surprises.-
The growth in the business in 2024 mainly cames from the US where they seem to be successful in winning new clients.
With regards to US tariffs they don’t seem too concerned as most of their competitors are from outside the US:
With Net Cash of around 5,55 EUR per share, a trailing EPS of 3,02 EUR, the shares are in my opinion still ridicuously cheap compared to the quality of the company.
Sixt AG
Sixt released 2024 numbers yesterday. At first sight, the decrease in EPS from 7,14 EUR to 5,20 EUR per share looks unpleasent. However, declining residiual car values especially in the US were the major dirver of this. Sixt gave a pretty optimistiv outlook for 2025. With an expected Top-line growth of 7,5% in the midpoint and an expected EBT margin of 10% in 2025, this would translate into EPS of around 6,70 EUR and a P/E of 9x for the Pref shares.
One interesting question is clearly, how tariffs would influence both, rentals and used car prices in the US. I think the influence of used cars would be clearly positive as new cars would get (much) more expensive. The effect on rentals as such is not so clear and depends a little bit on the overall economic situation in the US.
Amadeus Fire
There was no news on Amadeus Fire this week, but I wanted to mention that I sold my remaining position to create liquidity for new ideas. My investment case for Amadeus was unfortunately far away from reality and my conviction on the stock has suffered. I will continue to watch it, but for the time I see more convincing opportunities elsewhere.