How is the chairman also being a director a problem? Is the chairman of any UK company not literally a director by law?
Also, share count has more than doubled since 2020. Are you sure we’re not just looking at two brothers using shareholder’s capital to build an empire? I know profitability has massively improved in that time, but not sure how much of this was a result of the acquisitions versus just improvement at the core business? Have they overpaid for prior acquisitions?
Also, can we really trust those acquisition and restructuring costs aren’t more underlying than they suggest?
Sorry for question spam - thanks for answering! Very interesting company.
Hello Matt, great set of questions, let me try and address each below (incidentally I did start writing all this stuff in the original article, but it started getting far too long so I cut to focus on the bull case)
Apologies on the confusion on the first part, I should have written it as 'Oli Green serves as both chairman and executive i.e., an Executive Chairman'. This means he has effective oversight and operational control and I would prefer to see them seperated so as to avoid marking their own homework.
The increase in share count is coming by way of equity funded acquisitions. Obviously the key is not to over pay and then, even if you can't find many synergies, you can still extract value. I would say that the company is not overpaying based on the multiples they are paying. Social Chain is the outliers because it was loss making, but appears to be contributing now. Another point that is both a negative and a positive is that the brothers are diluting themselves if/when they don't particupate in equity raisings. Obviously a positive insofar that it aligns them with shareholders. The only nagging negative is that they have options on 12.5% of the equity, which vest at a price higher than 3p, however they are capped at owning more than 29.9%, because the shares are held through Tangent. So they can afford to dilute themselves a little and providing the share price goes up, they end up at the same ownership percentage i.e., 29.9%. Overall though, I think the fact they only hit a decent pay day once the share price hits a higher level is a very good thing and far better aligns them than a lot of other managers.
On the acquistion and restructuring costs, I think I addressed it a little in the article, but this is a perrennial concern in acquisitive businesses. ultiamtely, its a whites of their eyes question and I personally felt satisfied - albeit I attached a luke-warm 'amber' to my comfort with restructuring costs.
To seed, build, and nurture timeless, intangible human capitals — such as resilience, trust, truth, evolution, fulfilment, quality, peace, patience, discipline, relationships and conviction — in order to elevate human judgment, deepen relationships, and restore sacred trusteeship and stewardship of long-term firm value across generations.
A refreshing take on our business world and capitalism.
A reflection on why today’s capital architectures—PE, VC, Hedge funds, SPAC, Alt funds, Rollups—mostly fail to build and nuture what time can trust.
“Built to Be Left.”
A quiet anatomy of extraction, abandonment, and the collapse of stewardship.
"Principal-Agent Risk is not a flaw in the system.
Hi Paul, the USP is operational excellence in a market replete with companies ran in much more baggy way. NIce, but not flash or overly expensive offices, apprpriately paid staff etc. For such a flashy industry, it really is just meat and potatoes type stuff where they sweat the resources better than most of the competition.
Thanks very much, they're just done in excel. The earnings bridge one is a basic chart you can do but i cant remember what its called. The valuation and upside one is a stacked barchart.
I don't know how you are viewing them but they are designed to look better on a desk top. On a desk top, the background colour is matched to that of my substack theme, the colours of the bars are matched to the font colour of my substack theme and the font is Segoe UI, which is close to the font in substack. The idea is that the blend into the piece seamlessly. Unfortunately in the App? The theme defaults to black writing white background so the charts stick out a little bit.
Hi Graham, I haven't seen anything. We still have the conclusion of this Mini MBA fundraising round but that ought to act as a share price suppressant. I'm keeping an eye out and will update if I see anything.
Seems there has been an extension to the exclusivity agreement with Centaur regarding Mini MBA. Quite why that would have affected the share price is anyone's guess
Nice article! I’m subscribing! Please do the same! Fascinating times in the financial markets
How is the chairman also being a director a problem? Is the chairman of any UK company not literally a director by law?
Also, share count has more than doubled since 2020. Are you sure we’re not just looking at two brothers using shareholder’s capital to build an empire? I know profitability has massively improved in that time, but not sure how much of this was a result of the acquisitions versus just improvement at the core business? Have they overpaid for prior acquisitions?
Also, can we really trust those acquisition and restructuring costs aren’t more underlying than they suggest?
Sorry for question spam - thanks for answering! Very interesting company.
Hello Matt, great set of questions, let me try and address each below (incidentally I did start writing all this stuff in the original article, but it started getting far too long so I cut to focus on the bull case)
Apologies on the confusion on the first part, I should have written it as 'Oli Green serves as both chairman and executive i.e., an Executive Chairman'. This means he has effective oversight and operational control and I would prefer to see them seperated so as to avoid marking their own homework.
The increase in share count is coming by way of equity funded acquisitions. Obviously the key is not to over pay and then, even if you can't find many synergies, you can still extract value. I would say that the company is not overpaying based on the multiples they are paying. Social Chain is the outliers because it was loss making, but appears to be contributing now. Another point that is both a negative and a positive is that the brothers are diluting themselves if/when they don't particupate in equity raisings. Obviously a positive insofar that it aligns them with shareholders. The only nagging negative is that they have options on 12.5% of the equity, which vest at a price higher than 3p, however they are capped at owning more than 29.9%, because the shares are held through Tangent. So they can afford to dilute themselves a little and providing the share price goes up, they end up at the same ownership percentage i.e., 29.9%. Overall though, I think the fact they only hit a decent pay day once the share price hits a higher level is a very good thing and far better aligns them than a lot of other managers.
On the acquistion and restructuring costs, I think I addressed it a little in the article, but this is a perrennial concern in acquisitive businesses. ultiamtely, its a whites of their eyes question and I personally felt satisfied - albeit I attached a luke-warm 'amber' to my comfort with restructuring costs.
Best
Jamie
Thanks for the questions, Matt! You are ahead of me by a full hour. ))
Hello there,
Huge Respect for your work!
New here. No huge reader base Yet.
But the work has waited long to be spoken.
Its truths have roots older than this platform.
My Sub-stack Purpose
To seed, build, and nurture timeless, intangible human capitals — such as resilience, trust, truth, evolution, fulfilment, quality, peace, patience, discipline, relationships and conviction — in order to elevate human judgment, deepen relationships, and restore sacred trusteeship and stewardship of long-term firm value across generations.
A refreshing take on our business world and capitalism.
A reflection on why today’s capital architectures—PE, VC, Hedge funds, SPAC, Alt funds, Rollups—mostly fail to build and nuture what time can trust.
“Built to Be Left.”
A quiet anatomy of extraction, abandonment, and the collapse of stewardship.
"Principal-Agent Risk is not a flaw in the system.
It is the system’s operating principle”
Experience first. Return if it speaks to you.
- The Silent Treasury
https://tinyurl.com/48m97w5e
Many thanks Jamie for the excellent post.
One quick question though: Other than the 'Two brothers', what are Brave Bison's USPs amid a very crowded advertising/marketing services sector?
From an outsider's perspective - the group's 3 core divisions (re ecommence, media & social chain) all appear to be pretty standard stuff?
Hi Paul, the USP is operational excellence in a market replete with companies ran in much more baggy way. NIce, but not flash or overly expensive offices, apprpriately paid staff etc. For such a flashy industry, it really is just meat and potatoes type stuff where they sweat the resources better than most of the competition.
Thanks very much, they're just done in excel. The earnings bridge one is a basic chart you can do but i cant remember what its called. The valuation and upside one is a stacked barchart.
I don't know how you are viewing them but they are designed to look better on a desk top. On a desk top, the background colour is matched to that of my substack theme, the colours of the bars are matched to the font colour of my substack theme and the font is Segoe UI, which is close to the font in substack. The idea is that the blend into the piece seamlessly. Unfortunately in the App? The theme defaults to black writing white background so the charts stick out a little bit.
Best
Jamie
Today’s RNS…BRAVE BISON GROUP PLC - EXTENDS EXCLUSIVITY PERIOD FOR MINIMBA ACQUISITION UNTIL 26 JUNE 2025
Big jump this morning on no news. Anyone know why?
Hi Graham, I haven't seen anything. We still have the conclusion of this Mini MBA fundraising round but that ought to act as a share price suppressant. I'm keeping an eye out and will update if I see anything.
All the best
WS
Seems there has been an extension to the exclusivity agreement with Centaur regarding Mini MBA. Quite why that would have affected the share price is anyone's guess
I like your charts. How did you make them?
Thanks very much, they are just done in excel