Professor Glen Arnold

Having been through a long period of tough trading conditions, when the managers of TClarke (LSE:CTO) were forced to cut tender prices to the bone, they learnt to live with a leaner organisation. Loss-making operations have been cut. Despite the harshness of the recession they maintained their long tradition of building the organisation from the […]

I bought into TClarke (LSE:CTO) in November at 79.16p. Since then the company has raised prices for the work that it does for customers. How can it do this? Because there are few electrical and mechanical installers for fancy new commercial buildings who can deliver the level of sophisticated manpower required by developers – yer […]

Currently Mr Market values PV Crystalox (LSE: PVCS) at 13.5p or £22m. It has the possibility of receiving a court settlement of “multiple of the Group’s market capitalisation…..[the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce] judgement expected before the end of this year.” (Preliminary Results 2015) It also has net current assets of […]

PV Crystalox (LSE:PVCS) is a curious company. Everything started out fine twenty-odd years ago. A bunch of physics/chemistry PhDs initiated an MBO of a division focused on taking the raw material of polysilicon and then growing 2ft-long crystals. The crystals were then cut into wafers, and sold to makers of photo-voltaic solar cells around the […]

I suppose I shouldn’t complain at a time when the majority of private investors and fund managers have lost money, but the share portfolio has been pretty boring recently – no shooting the lights out, just steady plodding on. Oh well, I suppose it’s better than being down, but I hope for more movement in […]

Deep value investing is not risk-free. Premier Farnell (LSE:PFL) comes with considerable risks. Profits have more than halved over five years In addition, gross profit margin has declined by 5% points to 34.4%, and return on assets is down significantly. Something seems to have affected the industry because the arch-rival, Electrocomponents has also experienced profit […]

Premier Farnell’s share price has dropped a lot largely because of concerns over its reduced profits in recent years, managerial upheaval and high debt level. A share that is on a low cyclically adjusted price earnings ratio is a prime candidate for financial distress, especially when debt is so high. So today I’d like to […]

Premier Farnell (LSE:PFL) is what is known in the trade as a “high-service distributor”. The high service bit was discussed in yesterday’s post (fast delivery, very broad range, small fiddly orders, knowledgeable staff, etc.). They are mostly focused on the R&D market – electronic design engineers – but have branched out. The core business is […]

Top marks for those of you who figured out that the companies I’ve writing about, Company A and B, are Electrocomponents (LSE:ECM) and Premier Farnell (LSE:PFL). Being a deep value investor it is Premier Farnell, Company B, I’m most interested in. It stands on a cyclically adjusted price earnings ratio, CAPE, of 8.5, measured by […]

The loss of £7.2bn of shareholder wealth at Tata neatly illustrates the importance of using a very simple tool to analyse industries. The framework was provided by Michael Porter of Harvard decades ago. It provides a simple check list for assessing the pressures causing persistent low pricing, resulting in poor returns on capital employed in […]