Good thought.
Printable View
Point is Serko is still thinking regional Aust/NZ and acting that way. This new deal means the risks and reward are multiplied. Governance will be crucial.
Thank you for your input Schrodinger.
This type of background is nice (ATPI Board Member):
Andrew Waller
Chief Executive Officer
http://www.atpi.com/assets/Uploads/H...-Group-002.jpgWith a career spanning international leadership roles in the business and leisure travel sectors, Andrew brings experience from multinational brands such as Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT), Walt Disney Travel Company, Norwegian Cruise Line, Hertz and British Airways.
Outside of the travel sector, Waller held a senior position in UK Motorsport as managing director of the five leading circuits including Silverstone and Brands Hatch. He has also served as Deputy Chairman of the UK Guild of Travel Management Companies.
Someone help me out here with the announcement as my coffee hasn't kicked in. 1,927.571636 shares for $4,125 under the Non-Executive Director Fixed Trading Plan. That means 1927 shares @ $2.14 and the rest are just the decimal points right?
@ Schrodinger
Any views on Murray Warner previous with Concur (https://www.theceomagazine.com/business/murray-warner)?
Sounds good assuming he was poached and not forced from Concur =) This is an Australasian appointment which is a market of strength of Serko so making that region more solid is a good move.
I am more worried about them performing in UK/USA and building a great team to execute. A lack of people with deep travel tech experience in both of these markets is a weakness within SKO.
Thanks Schrodinger!
In a sea of red Serko stands out like a sore thumb today. Up 6.1% to $2.25
On the road again, somefings up , whatsup ?
Serko Expands North American Presence with Industry Veteran Tony D’Astolfo
Serko today announced the further expansion of its North American operations with the appointment of Tony D’Astolfo, as Senior Vice President, NORAM.
Serko CEO, Darrin Grafton said, “With Tony joining, we welcome arguably one of the most influential executives in corporate travel in the North American market. This is another key milestone in Serko’s global expansion and we’re thrilled to add someone of Tony’s caliber to the team. His experience, track record and extensive network will propel our efforts to launch Zeno in the world’s largest business travel market.”
D’Astolfo is a 30-year travel industry veteran with deep expertise in business travel and technology. His successful track record in the corporate travel technology space began at GetThere, where he led the pre-IPO startup as Vice President of Sales. D’Astolfo then moved to Deem, where he assembled and led a team that added over 7,000 customers, before leaving to lead Phocuswright, the travel industry’s premier research firm, as Managing Director.
“The North American market is looking for alternatives to the status quo, and Zeno, the state-of-the-art travel and expense technology platform that Darrin and team have built at Serko is perfectly positioned to make an impact”, said D’Astolfo. “I’m excited to join a team with a proven history of execution and look forward to leading the efforts here in North America”.
Grafton added “Our entry into the U.S. market is gathering momentum and we’re excited to give the U.S. and Canadian markets a sorely needed new option.”
D’Astolfo joins former Amex and NuTravel exec Rich Miller, and former Concur exec Murray Warner as the newest members of the leadership team at Serko. The new look executive line-up, along with Serko’s new flagship product, Zeno, will be introduced to the industry at the upcoming ACTE Conference in New York, April 29- May 1, and the BTTB-GTBA conference in Sydney on May 8-9.
I seem to be quite happy with this development. US markets seem to benefit from those that know the culture and territory so hopefully he can connect the right eyes and ears to this initiative. Good luck. Good NY mafia name too (is that racist?)
https://www.nzx.com/announcements/317352
ASX listing applied for.
Given that Serko derives most of its revenues in Australia, it is a very logical step in the company's evolution into a truly global entity.
Sp heading back towards its previous high of $2.56 - next stop has to be $3.00 as most of the flippers must be just about gone by now.
Happy holder.
I hold a few as well. Good move listing in Australia, should boost awareness.
$ for performance is better on ASX. If they deliver the goods this will be very good for SKO as the company will be more appropriately valued and if they really perform this its $$ (look at A2M).
btw the Board is still awful - very weak.
I'm genuinely excited about the FY result to be announced this month. Looks as if a new all-time high will be broken in the run up to it. Also very good move to seek a dual listing on the ASX.
Happy holder.
Just another point: they usually wouldn't pursue a second listing unless the results are going to be good. Why load on another $300K+ in compliance fees. Fingers crossed.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU180...ry-listing.htm
Any share which goes from record high to yet another record high inevitably draws institutional attention.
I understand that Serko will be making presentations to investors & brokers prior to and post the ASX listing so here's hoping a few Aussie institutions get onboard.
So far, they have Milford, Harbour and ACC onboard as shareholders.
Shares starting to get tight - which is good as the story becomes better and better.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/business/01...e-of-them-all/
Shortlisted for Kiwibank Hi-Tech award for 2018.
PPH was the winner last year and its share price has moved from $1.66 to $4.00 since the award.
Be happy to see Serko put on the same quantum of gain!
$6 billion of corporate travel booked and managed via Serko's platform annually - plenty of upside ahead as Serko switches to a %tage fee charging model rather than a transaction fee model.
Imagine if they can achieve 1% fee = $60m!
Wowza! Up around 30c today. Nice day for holders.
Well, I am putting my money where my mouth is.
Bought some more shares* - not easy to fork out at these levels but ...
https://www.nzx.com/announcements/314742
I suspect most of the market is not aware of just how significant the deal with ATPI - sp went from $2.10 to $2.50 on that announcement.
The smart money has obviously been buying.
*DYOR
Now that the market is waking up to the true upside potential of Serko, here's another lovely little bit of information which was largely ignored by the market at the time.
https://www.nzx.com/announcements/316669
Appointment of Tony D’Astolfo - acknowledged by travel industry as one of its profile corporate movers and shakers.
Examples from travel industry publications:
The Dime : "Since recreating the self-booking and ground tech company in 2016, Deem’s leadership was unabashed about taking on Concur. It’s hard to picture Deem having the same moxie without Tony D’Astolfo, an industry celebrity who served as face of the company and chief commercial officer."
The Beat : "After seven years of slogging and blogging for Rearden Commerce, Tony D'Astolfo is hanging up his team jersey. Truly one of corporate travel's own, a huge personality in his own right, Tony brought with him a new legitimacy as well as quite a few GetThere alumni to Rearden when he joined it around the time I started The Beat."
https://skift.com/2018/04/23/the-ski...novators-list/
Serko identified as one of the industry's corporate travel innovators list.
Next step likely to be M&A in the sector to gain scale to take on the big boys of the industry - Concur & Amex.
Or a case of the big boys taking over the likes of Serko?
Interesting times ahead!
CTD would make a fine parent for SKO...
https://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/201802...14d39dj896.pdf - S/22
M&A Discipline
Targets must possess:
- Strong Market Reputation/Market Leader *YES/NOT YET*
- Excellent Management Team *YES*
- High Historical Client and Staff Retention *YES*
Targets must fit strategic rationale:
- Builds Scale, Geographic Footprint, Builds upon Niche *YES*
- Highly EPS Accretive *NOT YET*
DISC: shareholder in both
Possibility.
Let's be ambitious though and wish Serko to do a Xero equivalent - grow really big and successful, rather than just be another NZ company which is gobbled up before it can realize a global potential.
Failing which, be better for Serko to be taken over by a really big boy like Concur SAP - for a really big price.
https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/09...r-8-3-billion/
Prefer SKO to buy them out=p. CTD multiple times larger and growing slightly faster. Tells me that SKO is not firing on cylinders and its either a tech issue or management. Cant see a great difference between both offerings. SKO need to be more obvious about their space as they both pitch to the same customers. I assume they arent a direct substitute (fropm the customers perspective not their own). If this is the case then get better at telling the story. Corporate travel is an extremely complex business so simplify it.
Good exposure through presentations for Serko in the month ahead :
"D'Astolfo joins former Amex and NuTravel exec Rich Miller, and former Concur exec Murray Warner as the newest members of the leadership team at Serko.
The new look executive line-up, along with Serko's new flagship product, Zeno, will be introduced to the industry at the upcoming ACTE Conference in New York, April 29-May 1, and the BTTB-GTBA conference in Sydney on May 8-9."
Lifted from homepage. Clearly they arent the market leader in Australasia. and the 50% claim is misleading. Do they mean all organisations , top 200, one sector? If they are claiming superior tech then say so and show the tech. Btw CTD has $50M revenue in Australasia (edit: this may include other "non tech" divisions not enough time to check). The 20% reduction in spend is nice but is this common i.e. CTD also reduces spend by 20%??
Also not keen on the "growing globally" wording either. Maybe wait a few month till they actually get some customers. Expenses are growing globally..They will need this sorted out before they go USA as that market wont put up with it.
Assumed angle: Integrated Travel and Expense Platform. Why is this better??? Speed? Please market better get a marketing team on it. Too many features not enough benefits.
Corporate Solution
Serko is the leading online travel booking and expense management provider in Australasia, that's growing globally.
Over 50% of Australasian organisation use Serko Online as their Online Booking Tool (OBT) to help manage travel programmes and reduce the cost of business travel - by as much as 20%.
http://yankeeanalysts.com/serko-limi...e-week/169673/
"Serko Limited Ordinary Shares (SKO.NZ) Climbs 27.80% For the Week"
https://arcadiacaller.com/unusual-ac...00/314076.html
"Unusual Activity Spotted in Serko Limited Ordinary Shares (SKO.NZ)"
Getting the attention - but not the right attention just yet.
Wait for the ASX listing.
See that Xero is now almost at its all time high again? That's what happens when a good story gets into the right market.
Agreed.
The point really is that the big movement in Serko sp in the last week is drawing attention - certainly many fund managers who keep technology type stocks on their watch list will be taking note.
I think Serko will be presenting a receptive audience when they start talking to the Australian institutions and investors.
A couple of directors have bought more shares under the non-executive directors fixed trading plan. Hopefully bodes well for the result announcement.
Is there a leaky boat here what with the results due soon ?
Good buying opportunity if they meet/exceed targets... Plus with the upcoming Aus listing
Good on you!
One of my brokers sent me a note on a presentation done by Serko yesterday. Key points to come out of the presentation:
1. No financials discussed as Serko is reporting next week.
2. Company is obviously going well with the Zeno platform being used by the majority of big corporate users in Australasia > 50% market share.
3. Solid platform in place to scale the business.
4. Serko very confident now about taking on the States & other markets - hence the build up of key personnel and operational base.
5. Darrin Grafton (who presented) said institutions had been concerned and kept asking about how Serko is going to get its global and US customers from.
He said that was what Serko has been focusing on in the last 2 years as a public listed company - firstly, the alliances and agreements that Serko has made with the likes of APTI will see Zeno rolled out to over 55 countries, and secondly, many of the existing clients are global anyway.
6. The industry is going through massive M&A with the likes of Amex setting the pace. Amex bought KDS, Mezi and Hogg Robinson in the same space as Serko.
7. Serko is a much bigger player, a more complete and multi-dimensional travel technology company than the three that Amex acquired and yet Amex paid US$160m for one of them!
Happy holder and happy to buy more if I was around yesterday when the sp dropped to $2.71!
Thanks Balance..... part of my motivation was keeping my buy button busy so I didn't sell any of my ATM holdings at yesterday's crazy prices.
Feeling much better today both on the ATM and SKO fronts! :t_up:
ps thanks for the update from your broker. Sounds like a rare wise broker!
Not sure about wise!
But certainly good at providing information.
In this case, not research but a brief summary of the company's presentation.
I suspect Darrin will be making the same sort of presentations after the results are announced next week (23 May) to institutions and investors in Australia.
Hard to see the company not getting a good reception with such a good story.
PS. As usual, DYOR. I do put my money where my mouth is and of course, hope it does not turn sour!
https://www.gep.com/mind/blog/big-sh...x-acquires-hrg
A bit more information on the massive consolidation and race to adopt technology-oriented strategy rather than the traditional service-based model.
So Amex paid US$575m (vs Serko's US$150m current market cap) to bulk up in the sector.
Seems to me that Serko is in a great position to help the industry consolidation!
I recently purchase some shares in the company. I originally said I was intending to hold off purchase anything until I saw a correction in the market after selling my shares in Xero, but I have a good feeling that Serko has a promising future after doing my own research.
I'm looking forward to the results on Wednesday and the Australian listing in June
The full year results have been released https://www.nzx.com/announcements/318318
Serko delivers maiden annual profit, sales up 28%
Full year net profit before tax of $2.0 million, representing a $5.3 million turnaround on the prior year loss.
Good progress is being made on Northern Hemisphere expansion.
Serko targeting Foreign Exempt Listing on the ASX in June.
Highlights:
• Total operating revenue1
rises 28% to $18.3 million with recurring product revenue rising 27%
to $16.4 million. Total income (including grants) rises 25% to $19.3 million.
• Profit before tax rises to $2.0 million from a $3.3 million loss in the prior year, representing a
$5.3 million turnaround.
• EBITDA2
rises to $2.2 million from a $2.5 million loss in the prior year, representing a $4.7
million turnaround.
• Online transactions grow 20% on the previous year.
• Annualised Transactional Monthly Revenue (ATMR)3
, an indicator of future recurring product
revenue rises 24% to $18.4 million.
• Operating expenses decrease by 6% to $17.7 million.
• Cash flow positive with an increase in cash balances of $0.8m to $5.2 million from $4.45 million
in the prior year
I can't see anything in profit announcement or outlook statement that would make current holders sell out. However it will bring in more potential investors who may have waited whether Serko can fulfill on their promise to become profitable in 2018 (they have broken that promise once before). I can see a little bit of a squeeze happening with the SP being pushed slightly higher.
ASX listing will be interesting - I only own one share in this industry (RXP) on the ASX but valuations are low.
Very nice, can't find anything to complain about! Growth could be higher, but that is always the case. A software company with a profit at this stage is a stand out!
Happy with the results.
Noteworthy :
1. Recurring revenues now 90% of total revenues.
2. Operating leverage now evident - any increase in revenues mostly fall to bottom line.
3. Revenue forecast to increase by 15% to 30%. On that basis, NPAT should at least double.
Looking like Diligent when it moved from loss to profit.
Happy holder.
Happy with that, can't complain :)
Good results. I just wonder whether theres a segment of investors who expect Xero like growth trajectories who will shake out over the next couple of days, which could provide good buying in next 48-72 hours. Expect a sharp recovery when the bottom seems to be hit. Im positioned to increase my holding when it does.....
All those positive replies yet the SP tanked on the announcement. I guess in NZ a tech company becomes unattractive the moment it becomes profitable.
Can't help what the market wants to do, Silu - we are but minnows compared to some of the big boys but we can decide as individuals how we react to results and respond according to what the market does.
Serko is probably the best performing stock in the market so far this year - up 37% at its peak and still up 28% after yesterday's 'tanked'.
Happy to pick up a few more of this great story (stock global exposure with huge profit potential and corporate takeover appeal) if it reaches my top-up point of $2.50.
Putting my mouth where my money is.
Suspect many are still unaware of just how significant the ATPI deal is for Serko :
"Peter Muller, international board director at ATPI, added: “As a leader in the corporate, energy and marine sectors, we’ve been amazed at how quickly Serko can solve the challenges others have not been able to address within our markets.”
Just over 1 million shares traded so far, which seems unusual. I wonder who is selling and buying?
A question for those that know. When I look at the ASB details on SKO I see this
Prices Sell Quantity Sellers $2.900 10,975 2 $2.950 600 1 $3.000 30,500 3 +u
My question is what is the +u under the number of sellers?
Its an undisclosed sale. If memory serves you have to be selling a minimum of 100k to do it. Could be substantially higher though.
Thanks for that. I am sure that is a good way to not spread fear and panic. Hopefully the 25th will be kind to me.
Serko listing on ASX - commences trading next Monday 25th June.
There was a short 5 minute interview with CEO Darrin Grafton on Sky News yesterday https://www.news.com.au/video/id-534...sts-on-the-asx
Thanks for sharing Everwood. I also shared it on HC - extra marketing doesn't hurt. In case you're interested Darrin rang the opening bell at the ASX yesterday and gave a little (for NZ audiences rapturous - for US understated) speech. https://twitter.com/SerkoOnline/stat...12544492224512
Could someone give me a brief overview what was written in this NBR article that was published today? https://www.nbr.co.nz/subscribe/216678 Especially if there is anything noteworthy.
There is 7 minute interview with CEO Darrin Grafton on NBR radio https://m.soundcloud.com/nbr-radio/nbr-radio-the-best-interviews-updated-daily
You will need to fast forward to about 2hrs 40mins 30secs to find the beginning of the interview.
Well that is an awkward development.
So much for the ASX listing - all the buyers must have headed over there?
Serko has taken a major loss this week over 8%. Good time to invest or wait to see what develops here? I can't see anything wrong with this stock. I thought that listing in AU would give it a boost, not a trampling.
Quite often happens with an Aus listing. Nobody really covering it their yet so not much interest. As long as their story doesn't change, not sure why you would sell? Seems to be just churning through the traders at the moment, not huge volumes. I wouldn't worry about short term lightly traded drops when fundamentals haven't changed. Some weakness in global tech stocks isn't helping.
Pretty, pretty good:
MKTUPDTE: SKO: Serko Updates Market Guidance on Signing Flight Centre LOI
Serko Updates Market Guidance After Signing Letter of Intent with Flight
Centre Travel Group
Serko Limited (NZSX:SKO, ASX:SKO, 'Serko'), a leader in online travel booking
and expense management for business, today announced it has signed a Letter
of Intent (LOI) with Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG) and raised its FY19
guidance range for revenue growth to 20% - 30% above FY18 (from 15% -30%
previously).
The LOI commits the parties to endeavour to negotiate a contract variation
incorporating the agreed principles set out in the LOI, intended to be
effective 1 September 2018, which would extend the existing partnership with
FCTG's corporate brands across Australia, New Zealand and Asia through to
April 2022 at a minimum, and also includes an expansion in territory across
North America to include USA, Canada and Mexico.
Under the LOI, Serko is immediately entitled to receive an ongoing
development contribution from FCTG through to April 2019, at a minimum. This
will enable FCTG to launch a unique product based on Serko's latest online
travel management technology.
This commitment, along with other Travel Management Company (TMC) agreements
previously signed by Serko and announced to the market, is expected to result
in an uplift in revenue in the second half of FY19. As a result, Serko raises
its FY19 guidance range for revenue growth to 20% - 30% above FY18 (up from
previous guidance of 15% - 30%).
In the event that a binding contract variation is agreed based on the
principles set out in the LOI, we expect that the FCTG relationship will
deliver further revenue growth in FY20 year as we recognise the full trading
benefit of the geographic expansion and implementation of the new technology.
Serko will provide a further update on performance and progress for the FY19
year at the Annual Shareholder Meeting to be held on 22 August 2018.
Ends
That is excellent news. Flight centre also growing nicely so Serko should stand to cintinue to benefit. A close friend works in one of the top performing flight centre offices and sounds like they’re really on the ball and know how to motivate their sellers.
Disc; Not a holder, just like watching from the sidelines
Getting cosier with Flight must be good
Suppose new guidance is an ‘update’ but not an ‘upgrade’ except it’s obviously not going to be 15%-20%. They said - raised its FY19 guidance range for revenue growth to 20% - 30% above FY18 (from 15% -30% previously).