Monday, October 14, 2013

Oroton in the toilet?

Oroton, the luxury goods brand has come onto the Goat's ROC tracker as a possible undervalued company, but I'm starting to think it looks more trash than treasure.
A few reasons :-

Firstly, being a luxury goods company, generally not recession proof. In Australia, unemployment is predicted to rise and economic growth to reduce, not ideal conditions for a high end retailer.
Secondly, they just lost the Ralph Lauren Licence which provided close to 50% of revenue. The replacement, Brooks Brothers has come on line, true, but lets be honest, Brooks Brothers is no Ralph Lauren.
Thirdly, take out discontinued operations and the 12 million they received from Ralph Lauren and the profits look to be falling and cash flow starting to turn south again.
Fourthly, they have limited exposure to Asia (just 3% of group sales)
Lastly, the board has no women on it, since the departure of the CEO last year. Not a good look for a company that caters primarily to women.

So all, up I won't be investing. Better options out there is you want to invest in a Retailer.

Disclosure: Not a recommendation to invest/not invest in Oroton. Please see a Financial advisor

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