?。
180度资本公司(TURN)报告称，在2023财年结束时，该公司的总回报率为7%，每股净资产值(NAV)增加至5.02美元。在2023年第四季度财务业绩更新电话会议上，该公司总裁丹尼尔·沃尔夫和首席执行官凯文·伦迪诺强调，该公司将转向小型股激进模式，旨在释放投资组合公司的内在价值。180度资本特别关注Potbelly(纳斯达克股票代码:)、Comscore和Synchronoss等公司，希望利用建设性的行动主义来推动财务业绩和股东价值。该公司还强调了其折扣管理计划(Discount Management Program)，该计划旨在缩小资产净值与股价之间的差距，更贴近股东利益。展望未来，2024年预计将是关键的一年，多种催化剂准备创造材料价值。
截至2023年，180度资本公司的总回报率为7%，每股资产净值为5.02美元。
公司正处于转型期宁转向小型股维权模式，以提升其投资组合的价值。
投资了Potbelly、Comscore和Synchro等公司鼻子是他们策略的关键。
贴现管理计划已经实施，以减少资产净值对股票价格的折扣。
财报电话会议期间没有提出任何问题。
TURN预计2024年将以co .为标志建设性的行动主义和重要的价值创造。
电话会议中没有讨论看跌的亮点。
公司是乐观的关于其投资组合的增值潜力。
资产净值的增长现在与上市公司股票的表现更加紧密地联系在一起。
电话会议没有提及任何具体的失误或表现不佳。
财报电话会议在没有任何参与者提问的情况下纳入。
在财务业绩更新中，180度资本概述了其战略支点以及为提高其投资价值所做的努力。该公司对其投资组合的信心，特别是对Synchronoss这样的公司的信心，是由其积极参与和建设性的行动主义所支撑的。资产净值增长与公开股票表现的一致性表明，该公司的财务健康前景良好。
投资组合更新包括Comscore与Nexstar的新协议，Brightcove在巴西的新流媒体协议，CVG Equipment剥离非核心资产，Mama's Creations的分析师日，以及D-Wave Systems宣布新的合作伙伴关系和量子计算机。随着公司的折扣管理计划在优化股东价值方面发挥作用，这些发展预计将成为TURN公司来年增长的催化剂。电话会议期间没有提问，可能表明与会者对公司的战略方向和财务状况有共识的理解和信心。
180度资本公司(180 Degree Capital Corp)在投资管理方面表现出积极主动的态度，从其积极的年终业绩和向小盘股激进主义的战略转变中可以看出这一点。该公司对提高股东价值的关注是显而易见的，但重要的是要考虑各种财务指标和InvestingPro提示，以更深入地了解该公司目前的状况。
InvestingPro数据显示，该公司市值为4230万美元，表明该公司在金融市场上的规模。截至2023年第四季度，过去12个月的收入为0.05万美元，同期毛利率为100%，表明公司有能力从其收入中产生利润。然而，目前的市盈率为-3.15，反映了近期盈利能力面临的挑战。
以下是两个InvestingPro的建议:
1. 180度资本的流动资产超过其短期债务，这可能是其财务稳定和支付即时负债能力的标志。
2. 在过去的12个月里，该公司一直没有盈利，也没有向股东支付股息，这可能是关注收益的投资者的担忧。
对于想要深入了解TURN财务和战略分析的读者，可以在https://www.investing.com/pro/TURN上找到更多的InvestingPro Tips。使用优惠券代码PRONEWS24，读者可以获得一年或两年一次的Pro和Pro+订阅额外10%的折扣，以获得这些见解。
财报电话会议期间没有出现问题可能反映了投资者的信心，但InvestingPro提示指出，TURN可能需要关注哪些领域，以改善其财务业绩和对投资者的吸引力。由于预计2024年将推出多种催化剂，TURN的价值创造之旅值得密切关注。
丹尼尔·沃尔夫:欢迎来到180度资本公司2023年第四季度财务业绩更新电话会议。这是丹尼尔·沃尔夫，180度资本的总裁兼投资组合经理。我们的首席执行官兼投资组合经理凯文·伦迪诺和我欢迎您今天上午来我们的电话会议。所有参与者当前都处于仅听模式。在我们准备好的发言之后，我们将开始接受提问。[接线员说明]我想提醒与会者，本次通话正在录音，我们将参考我们在投资者关系网站ir.180degreecapital.com上发布的财务业绩幻灯片。请翻到幻灯片2的安全港声明。本陈述可能包含与未来事件有关的前瞻性陈述。本报告中包含的前瞻性陈述旨在根据1995年《私人证券诉讼改革法案》的安全港条款作出。这些前瞻性陈述在预测未来结果和条件时存在固有的不确定性。这些陈述反映了公司目前的信念，许多重要因素可能导致实际结果与此处所表达的结果存在重大差异。请参阅我们提交给美国证券交易委员会的文件，了解与180度资本业务相关的风险和不确定性的更详细讨论，这些风险和不确定性可能会影响我们的实际业绩。除非联邦证券法另有规定，180资本公司不承担更新或修改这些前瞻性陈述以反映新事件或不确定性的义务。现在我想把电话交给凯文。
Kevin Rendino: Thank you, Daniel and good morning, everyone. Let me start with the conclusion before diving into the details of the quarter. I've been managing money for over 30 years and have been an investor portfolio manager since 1988. Never in my life I have been more convinced that we own a collection of companies that I believe have the potential to rise materially in value as much as the portfolio TURN has put together as we start 2024. We're also at a point where I believe our constructive activism will make a difference in this value creation. While the last 2 years have been incredibly frustrating and disappointing, I'm grateful it's over and we are off to a flying start in 2024. Just look at what we own at the end of the quarter and look at the performance of those names, companies like Synchronoss. Having had the 30-year experience of knowing that challenging performance periods happen, during these periods it is crucial that you don't shy away from talking about them, you don't become over emotional about them and you stick to your knitting and process no matter how painful the period can be. Somebody sent me a quote once and it said, "The one willing to look the stupidest the longest wins." Over the last 2 years, we feel stupid, on the one hand, yet, on the other, we couldn't be more optimistic about what we own, that significant value appreciation is possible in the next few years. The fourth quarter of 2023 we hope was a start of what we believe will be a return to risk asset classes, including the microcap stocks in which we invest. Our 7% gross total return in our public portfolio was the primary contributor to the growth of our NAV per share from $4.91 to $5.02. Our assets on our balance sheet are now almost 100% comprised of investments in public companies and cash. You can see those slides and we posted them on our website for details of the sources of change in our portfolio during Q4 2023, the full year and inception to date. On the macroeconomic front, the resilience of the U.S. economy combined with the apparent end of the Fed's tightening cycle and potential future reductions in interest rates should be one tailwind for our investments in general in 2024. For 180, we believe 2024 will be a year defined by our constructive activism and by long awaited catalysts at certain of our portfolio companies that together could lead to material value creation for 180 Degree Capital's stockholders. On Slide 4 — this will be the very last time we show you this chart. 7 years ago, we embarked on a program designed to recreate ourselves and we did just that. Just to remind everyone, when we started, 75% of our assets were in private companies. During the last 7 years, through good markets and bad, we incurred losses from that private portfolio of $25 million, while at the same time generating $31 million in gains from our public portfolio. As we start 2024, that headwind is gone. No longer do I have to sit on pins and needles at the end of a quarter hoping our VC investments and the marks we take wouldn't offset good public stock performance. We worry no more. That chapter is shut. And in 2024, we're off to a great start. We're a pure-play markets small-cap activist. In terms of what helped and hurt in the quarter, please turn to Slide 5. Potbelly had the biggest positive effect as the company delivered yet another strong quarter of same-store sales growth and record weekly sales per store. On the franchising side, the company has announced nearly 200 new shop commitments to date. Comscore went up by 36% in the quarter, because although missing the top line, the company did exceed estimates for EBITDA. We have continued our activism there and we'll have more on that in a few minutes. Despite selling its noncore messaging and digital assets, Synchronoss stock declined in the quarter by 28%. We joined the Board late in the year. And as you can see, the performance of the stock since that time through yesterday has been stupendous. We're very excited about the potential to work with the management team and the board there and we'll talk about that involvement shortly also. Arena reported weaker-than-expected results due to softness in the advertising market and changes in search display information that reduced click-through rates. Subsequent to the report, B. Riley sold its stake in Arena to the owner of Bridge Media Networks, who previously announced an agreement to buy 65% of the company. There's been a series of management changes, delays in completion of the S-4 and the potential end of the partnership with ABG to license the Sports Illustrated brand. This has become a work in progress all over again but one with significant opportunity to create value. Look at this chart on Slide 6. This "recession" which has been one of the drivers of capital away from risk assets to perceived safer assets has been the most fun and awesome one ever. Every recession should look like the one that everyone has called for or said we're in. But sarcasm aside, persistent predictions of a return to arguably more normal interest rates have absolutely not led to an economic calamity. Instead, GDP rose 3.1% in 2023; wages and salaries grew 4.7% which is good for consumer spending; real private fixed investment in manufacturing structures reached all-time highs; and employment remains strong. I didn't live through the 1929 recession but I did experience 1990, 1998, 2000 and the near depression in 2008 as well as 2020. And 2023 I'm comfortably saying looks absolutely nothing like those recessions. Despite strong macroeconomic trends in 2023, somehow a basket of microcap companies that comprise the Russell Microcap Index underperformed the Nasdaq-100 by over 4,600 basis points. In our last shareholder letter, we incorporated a plethora of chart showing that microcap companies are historically inexpensive and undervalued relative to larger-sized companies. While substantially all of this data and charts remain applicable today, I'm not going to regurgitate them. You can see them from my last letter and you can visit that on our website. Instead, I'll note commentary regarding Q4 2023 from Royce Investment Partners, who we hold in very high regard. They talked about the valuations for small-caps and how highly attractive they are versus large caps. We think "it bears repeating that even with the terrific fourth quarter '23 and a positive return in 2023, the finished the year well shy of its 11/8/21 peak, while large caps continue to establish new highs in the fourth quarter of '23." In fact, it's been 563 days since the current cycle low for the Russell 2000, the third largest span without recovering the prior peak on record. Fallout from the investment bubble — Internet Bubble, saw small-caps need 456 days from their trough to match their previous peak, while it took 704 days for small-caps to recover their prior peak following their trough in the 2008, 2009 financial crisis. Each of these periods saw dramatic developments: the implosion of high-flying technology stocks in 2000 and a global financial catastrophe in 2008. This current period has seen ample uncertainty for sure but — and a record pace of interest rate increases, yet it lacks the existential threats that characterized the Internet Bubble and even more so, the financial crisis. The latter period also saw less bifurcation between small and large-cap returns, yet based on our preferred index valuation metric of enterprise value to earnings before interest and taxes, or EV to EBIT, the Russell 2000 finished 2023 not far from its 25-year low relative to the Russell 1000. On Slide 7; even with the increases in small and microcap stocks that we saw in Q4, the IWM to SPY ratio remains at historical lows. We continue to believe that the ratio says nothing about the fundamentals of the businesses that comprise each index given those fundamentals have held up better for many microcap companies than the index performance would suggest. We think we're at the end of the Fed hiking cycle. We are not in the camp that the Fed will be cutting rates anytime soon because we believe the economy will continue to show the resilience that it showed last year. That in our view is a positive, not a negative. Our portfolio companies do not require lower rates to execute and build value for shareholders. They benefit from the types of positive economic trends we saw in 2023 and continue to see in the beginning parts of 2024. And against that backdrop, we expect many of our holdings which are trading at historically low valuations, have a long runway to rise in value and help us increase our net asset value per share. Let's look at a few of our current names. But before that, I thought I'd do something a tad different this call and review what we believe is a distinct part of our investment process, that is our constructive activism. Turn to Slide 8. A few investors are willing to spend the time and energy identifying, conducting diligence on and actively engaging with companies to unlock intrinsic value. We believe the opportunity for value creation in U.S. microcapitalization [ph] publicly traded stocks exists because management teams and boards often prioritize revenue growth over operating profits, favor the status quo versus change, lack the understanding of buy-side investors and the workings of the public markets in general, do not appreciate the impact of flawed capital structure on shareholder returns and entrench themselves to protect their jobs and positions. To be clear, we are not corporate raiders. Our ultimate goal is to engage constructively with existing boards and management teams to unlock value through resolution of capital structure or other overhangs that we believe inhibit growth or shareholder value — of shareholder value; the realignment of financial performance to achieve growth of operating profits, not just revenues; the improvement in investor relations strategies and outreach; the evaluation of strategic options, including M&A, sales, divestitures; the identification of complementary talent and expertise; and the alignment of interest with and support from large shareholders. There's many ways that we can add value. We're not adverse, however, to pursue changes through other routes, including private and public shareholder communications, proxy solicitations and/or joining boards of directors of our portfolio companies. All efforts, however, will be grounded and based on our fundamental research and diligence. We have different levels of activism, as you can see on Slide 9. Level 1 doesn't require substantial time or involvement. Level 2, our suggestions start to become active. And Level 3, we work directly with management teams on specific outcomes, whether that's board seats or specific overhangs that exist that are hurting the stock price of that company. On the next slide, you can see the types of specific ways we have utilized our activism. The companies we own and the type of activism that we have utilized are listed on this slide. Sometimes our activism is outward and apparent like Comscore. In other cases, it's quiet and behind the scenes. In no way, however, will we ever get involved in a company unless we have identified ways in which we think we can help a company and its share price recover. That is the opportunity. It could be suggested improvements to presentations and transparency; recommending various potential paths towards improving financial performance; as I said, developing structures and providing financing that results in simplifying capital structures; or joining boards. And in many cases, we've run strategic alternative processes for companies that have led to the sale of the company or certain of its assets. My point in all of this is, never has the need been greater for the type of assistance that we can provide. And finally, on Slide 9, are 2 examples. Our involvement with Synchronoss has been one of collaborations since our initial investment. Synchronoss provides white-label technology that enables large corporations to offer customers cloud-based storage of personal data. Synchronoss' platform powers the personal cloud offerings of a number of Tier 1 companies like Verizon (NYSE:), SoftBank (TYO:), AT&T, Assurant (NYSE:), British Telecom and Tracfone under long-term contracts. We first invested in Synchronoss as part of an underwritten financing in June of 2021 that allowed Synchronoss to pay off its punitive preferred stock and recapitalize the company with reduced interest expense, while also providing flexibility going forward to execute on the strategic options for the business. The first of these strategic alternatives was completed in Q4 of 2023 with the sale of Synchronoss' noncore messaging and digital businesses. Synchronoss is now a pure-play cloud-focused business with high margins and is on the cusp of generating significant free cash flows. Our bullish view for 2024 is centered around a number of catalysts that we believe will improve Synchronoss' balance sheet and demonstrate the operating leverage of the business. First, Synchronoss has stated that it expects to generate free cash flow and have other cash flows in 2024. That inflow of capital will allow Synchronoss to delever. Second, Synchronoss is expecting to return to top line revenue growth after the runoff of its historical deferred revenue and its continued growth in subscribers as largest customer, Verizon and its newest customer, SoftBank. Third, the end of nonrecurring charges related to restructuring and prior litigation and corresponding settlements, coupled with revenue growth and a material reduction in interest paid on its outstanding debt should lead to material free cash flow generation in 2024 that we believe will grow substantially in 2025. Lastly, we should note that in December of '23, we were asked to join Synchronoss' board of directors to help with the company's execution on its next phase of growth. We couldn't be more excited. As we look at what that means for the stock price of Synchronoss, it ended last year at $6.21 which equated to a multiple of enterprise value to estimated 2024 EBITDA of approximately 5.6x. This multiple declines to approximately 5.2x if Synchronous receives the kinds of inflows it should receive this year from its tax refund. We do not believe a cloud focused business with 85% to 90% recurring revenue, 70% to 75% gross margins and 25%-plus EBITDA margin that also generates positive free cash flows should command such a low multiple. In our opinion, a more appropriate multiple would be in the double digits. And if so, the stock has a chance to go to well north of $20 a share and approach $30 a share just based on that valuation change. We believe this is just the start of Synchronoss and 2024 will be a turning point for Synchronoss, both in terms of its business and how investors value the stock. While our investment with Comscore started out as a collaboration, the continued gridlock on the Comscore board towards resolving capital structure issues and other governance issues has led to another level for us of activism as we embark on a potential proxy contest that we are 100% prepared to launch this spring. Our initial investment in Comscore took place in 2021 following its recap by Charter, Cerberus and Liberty. Our original thesis for our investment was centered on multiple factors, including our belief that Comscore was a company with uniquely competitive media management offerings and proprietary data; Comscore's new investments would help with improved execution, financial performance and overall growth; and Comscore traded at a significant discount to its peers. While Comscore's business has improved dramatically under new management with 33% EBITDA growth over the last 2 years, the stock has declined precipitously. We believe this is due to poor corporate governance and uncertainty around Comscore's capital structure. As a result, we have ramped up our activism significantly through the nomination of Matt McLaughlin as a director nominee for consideration at Comscore's upcoming Annual Meeting of Stockholders. Matt is a retired advertising technology executive and naval officer. Most recently, he served as chief operating officer of DoubleVerify (NYSE:) Holdings, a software and platform company for digital media measurement and analytics. He served there from 2011 to 2022. As COO of DoubleVerify, Matt directed its product engineering and sales operations activity, including managing over half the company's employees. Given Comscore's struggles with and focus on improving its digital offerings, we can think of nobody more useful to this Comscore board and management than Matt. He has been available to speak with Comscore stockholders. ones that wish to speak with him can reach us directly. While we actively are preparing to run a competitive proxy campaign to support his candidacy, we certainly hope that Comscore's board will realize the complementary skill set that we believe he can bring to help build value for all of Comscore's stakeholders and that a competitive proxy contest will not be required. Let me stop there and turn it over to Daniel.
丹尼尔·沃尔夫:谢谢你，凯文。请翻到幻灯片13。正如我们在24年2月1日的新闻稿中所指出的，截至24年1月底，我们的资产净值与股价的折扣约为26%。这一折扣相当于1月底的资产净值比2023年底高出约8%。我们建立了折扣管理计划，以明确180度资本的管理层和董事会对我们缩小折扣的意图是认真的。在每个计量期结束时，我们的董事会将考虑所有可用的选择，包括但不限于比目前授权的500万美元更大的回购，将被视为资本回报的现金分配或要约收购。管理层和董事会与我们的股东完全一致，我们共同拥有180度资本12%的流通股。而且这种所有权仅通过公开市场购买继续增长，主要是税后资金。我们专注于为180的所有股东创造价值，通过增加我们的资产净值和缩小这个折扣。请翻到幻灯片14和15。上个季度我们提供了类似的幻灯片，并认为这一季度也会很有用。在2013年底之后，我们的许多投资组合公司发布了新闻稿，提供了各自业务的最新情况。我们在这些幻灯片上总结了一些这样的发布。Potbelly继续报告了超出预期的强劲增长，并宣布了一项新的信贷安排，为增长计划提供有意义的利息节省和财务灵活性。Synchronoss宣布完成了其成本削减计划，达到了最初目标范围的上限，并在2013年第四季度取得了强劲的业绩。Manoj Bhargava现在是Arena Group的大股东，他投资了1200万美元，远远高于投资当日该公司的交易价格。Arena还提交了与巴尔加瓦的Bridge Media合并的S-4表格注册声明。Comscore宣布与Nexstar达成一项新协议，我们相信Nexstar将成为Comscore的十大客户之一。Ascent公司任命该部门的总裁兼首席财务官为新任首席执行官和首席财务官，专注于化学品业务。Brightcove宣布与巴西第二大电视网络达成新的流媒体协议。在新任首席执行官的领导下，CVG设备正在通过剥离非核心资产来实现业务合理化。Mama's Creations最近举办了一个分析师日。虽然你不能亲自品尝活动中的食物，但你可以从Mama的网站上订购产品，并在家里享用它们，同时听亚当·迈克尔斯(Adam Michaels)和他的团队描述他们认为未来将大幅增长的产品。就连我们的传统私人控股公司D-Wave Systems也宣布了新的合作伙伴关系，并通过其量子云产品推出了一款新的量子计算机。这些公告只是我们认为，24年可能出现多种创造价值的催化剂的一个例子，如果他们这样做，将推动TURN及其股东的有意义的增长。最后，我想指出的是，我们在网站幻灯片最后的附录中添加了额外的幻灯片，其中包含了从季度、年度和成立至今的指标。我们不会在今天的准备讲稿中讨论这些幻灯片但我们很乐意随时回答有关它们的问题。我们现在可以开始提问了[话务员说明]
Kevin Rendino:在我们等待问题的时候，我再做最后的评论。现在基本上我们100%的资产都在上市公司你们大多数人都知道我们是投资者而不是交易员，你们应该能够通过查看我们在上个季度末持有的股票来计算出我们在季度中任何给定时间点的资产净值。现在，这不是一门精确的科学因为有时我们显然会交换硬币。当然，你还得减去费用。但是你应该对我们的现状和我们在这个季度的表现有一个更清晰的认识。这是我们在过去7年的任何时候都不可能说的。我们现在的资产净值增长几乎100%与我们的上市股票表现一致。正如你所知道或看到的，考虑到年初至今的情况，如果我们继续持有上个季度末持有的股票，我们的资产净值将大大高于上个季度末，接近6，远离5。丹尼尔，我就讲到这里，看看大家有什么问题吗。
丹尼尔·沃尔夫:
Kevin Rendino:很好，没有问题。我的意思是，我们要么给出了一个完整的性能分析，但没有人问任何问题，要么没有人打电话。不管怎样，我祝大家有个美好的一天，一个更好的2024年。正如我所说，我们有了一个良好的开端。我们对此感到兴奋。我们对拥有的股票数量感到兴奋，因为我们有可能增加资产净值，并缩小未来的折扣。祝你2024年愉快。谢谢。
Daniel Wolfe:如果有人有任何问题，请随时联系我们。非常感谢，现在可以断开连接了。
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