Tuesdata: How Enero’s shareholders had the worst quarter on The Unmade Index, while Domain was top

April 3, 2023 11:10

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Today: We reveal the winners and losers of The Unmade Index for the financial quarter which ended on Friday, and we’ve an update on a strong start to the quarter for the index yesterday.

The companies covered are: Aspermont, Domain, Enero Group, HT&E, IVE Group, Motio, Nine, Ooh Media, Pureprofile, Seven West Media, Southern Cross Austereo, Sports Entertainment Group, and The Market Herald.

Unveiling the CEO of the quarter – Domain’s Jason Pellegrino

Domain outperformed the rest of the Unmade Index by growing shareholder value by $520m in the last financial quarter, our analysis reveals.

The real estate platform, led by CEO Jason Pellegrino, grew its share price by 33.1% in the first three months of 2023 – a jump of $520m in market capitalisation.

Meanwhile, the CEO who oversaw the greatest destruction of shareholder value was Enero’s Brett Scrimshaw. Enero’s market cap lost $98.8m in the first quarter.

Our ranking of the 13 media and marketing companies which make up the Unmade Index appears below, based on the amount that market caps have risen or fallen in the last quarter.

At the top end of the table, Nine, led by Mike Sneesby was second, growing its market cap by 8.2% for the quarter, or $250m.

Ooh Media, led by Cathy O’Connor was third, growing the company’s value by $187m.

At the bottom of the table, Southern Cross Austereo, led by Grant Blackley, did second worst, losing $48.6m. The third biggest fall in market cap came at The Market Herald, run by Tommy Logtenberg.

Across the quarter, The Unmade Index peaked during February, then declined once companies began to share their results from the second half of 2022, and offered gloomier outlooks.

Overall, the index improved slightly during the quarter, opening on 610.32 points and closing on 662 points.

Starting from this new quarter, we have commenced coverage of a further three media and marketing businesses on The Unmade Index – IVE Group, Sports Entertainment Group and Aspermont.

Here’s how the quarter unfolded for each company on the Index, in descending order of size:

Nine

Nine saw growth in its market cap over the quarter, rising by 8.2%.

Analysis of OzTam data shared by Nine over the weekend underlined that the company’s ratings momentum continued through the quarter driven by strong Australian Open audiences, and the return of viewers to Married At First Sight.

In early February, Nine topped the bidding for the Olympic Games broadcasting rights through until 2032.

However, Nine’s share price is still down by a third over the last 12 months.

Domain

Domain, majority owned by Nine, is heavily exposed to the vagaries of home prices, particularly when this feeds through to reduced listing volumes. The company had a better quarter than many were anticipating.

Ooh Media

The out-of-home bounceback has begun to materialise, evidenced in Ooh Media’s $186.9m growth in market cap in the last quarter.

Ooh’s share price began to creep back upwards last year after taking a beating during the height of Covid, but the 2023 outlook improved. The company’s revenue from digital screens has seen a 7% jump on last year, currently sitting at 64%.

Yesterday, Standard Media Index said that in February outdoor revenue grew by 11.9% compared to the same quarter a year earlier.

The main challenge now facing CEO Cathy O’Connor, who has been at the helm since the start of 2021, is to navigate the company through a difficult advertising market in the coming months.

Seven West Media

Seven West Media, led by James Warburton, delivered a rise in market capitalisation over the quarter amounting to $38.5m, or 3.8%.

Despite the leaner advertising market, Seven managed to edge forwards during the quarter, although its share price is still down 38% on the same time a year ago.

IVE Group

IVE Group has fared reasonably well so far this quarter. With its heritage in catalogue and magazine printing, the organisation has since repositioned itself as a ‘holistic marketing company’. It includes the former businesses of Salmat and Blue Star.

IVE Group’s results have been positive for the quarter. The $24.3m leap in market capitalisation comes off the back of stronger HY22 results aided by its $16 million acquisition of print post mailer Ovato.

Here There & Everywhere

Ciaran Davis has positioned HT&E as Australia’s biggest pure play audio company.

HT&E’s $37m uplift in market capitalisation came on the back of the takeover of regional operation Grant Broadcasters, and the sale of its stake in software company Soprano on Friday, which leaves the parent company of ARN virtually debt free.

Southern Cross Austereo

The second largest drop in market capitalisation this quarter – $48.6m – was seen by Southern Cross Austereo.

In February, SCA had its worst ever start to the first half of a financial year. SCA remains a reluctant owner of regional TV assets, after being unable to achieve a decent exit price. The company is expected to renew its affiliation deal with Paramount’s Ten when the current arrangement expires in July.

SCA’s reduced EBITDA – earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation – profits are partly explained by its ongoing investment in streaming audio platform Listnr, which hasn’t yet produced a profit. But the main challenge has been falling revenues.

Enero Group

Enero Group had a disappointing quarter with its 39.8% fall, eating into most of the progress the company has made over the last three years.

Enero is the only agency holding company listed on the ASX, and more vulnerable to the economic headwinds being faced by communications agencies globally.

Enero boss Scrimshaw faces global headwinds

Enero’s agencies include BMF and Hotwire.

The results this quarter are a far cry from the quadrupling in share price the company enjoyed through to the first half of 2021.

This morning Enero announced a three year extension on Scrimshaw’s contract, and kicked off a share buyback program in an attempt to shore up the price.

The Market Herald

The Market Herald’s quarter of chaos is reflected in its $26m loss in market capitalisation. After Enero Group and SCA, it was the bigger loser this quarter.

CEO Tommy Logtenberg – former managing director of Gumtree Australia – took over after the Argyle family ousted former MD Jag Sanger.

In mid-March, Logtenberg instated a slew of cost-cutting measures, including dozens of redundancies and the closure of underperforming arms of the business.

The company – which is yet to pay for its acquisition of Gumtree, Carsguide and Autotrader – is currently being scrutinised by The Takeovers Panel, which has been tasked with resolving legal questions around control.

Sports Entertainment Group

The Craig Hutchinson-led Sports Entertainment Group, which owns the Sports Entertainment Network and Bravo Management, saw a drop in value of $4 million since the start of the year.

Aspermont

Aspermont, which owns B2B publications in mining, energy, and agriculture saw a fall in market capitalisation for the quarter, dropping by $2.4m or 10%.

The lightly-traded Aspermont is Perth-based with global arms across Europe, South America and Asia.

Its FY22 earnings saw a 17% uptick in revenues and a debt-free balance sheet.

Pureprofile

It was a disappointing quarter for research house Pureprofile with its modest $54.5m market capitalisation at the start of the quarter declining by 47.7% to $24.1m.

In the last days of the quarter last week, the PPL share price continued its tumble, hitting their lowest point in nearly two years.

Motio

Motio is one of only two ASX-listed out-of-home advertising companies in Australia. Motio is comprised primarily of previous Ooh Media businesses, including their cafe and venue network (which was bought for $2.35m).

The smallest company tracked on The Unmade Index, Motio reported revenues of $2.8m for July to December last year – up from $2m in the same period in 2021.

Unmade Index on the up for first day of the quarter

The Unmade Index kicked off the quarter with an upwards jump yesterday. The rise of 3.36% took the index up to 684.3 points.

Among the larger stocks, Seven West Media had the best day, rising by 3.61%.

Just one stock on the index – Southern Cross Austereo – fell yesterday, falling back to 87c, close to last month’s low of 86c.

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