Just did the sums using last month's NTA. You are getting a free option on the off-market companies at the current share price. The cash (including cash from InstantScripts deal) plus Siteminder and Straker translations (ASX listed) is equal to the current market cap. With around two thirds of the market cap effectively cash, purchasing presents a very favourable risk vs reward given the Bailador teams continued execution. Wouldn't mind if they did a buy back to increase returns in the future on a per share basis.

Agreed. BTI trading at a 33% discount to NTA (and PVL trading at a 45% discount to NTA) reflects the macro sentiment towards this asset class right now (VC). But, the cycle is bound to swing back around in time! I'm just gradually soaking up PVL offers. It wasn't that long ago that both BTI and PVL were trading at a premium to NTA! Mr Market is indeed erratic.

And to add to this comment further, the catalyst that will probably change how this asset class (and other high growth / high-risk asset classes) is/are treated is interest rates. If we see a pivot or even an ongoing pause, that is probably enough of a catalyst for money to start flowing back to these types of positions (applies to most small caps too). Could see a fairly sizeable bounce.

Given the amount of cash BTI has, I imagine they will take some time to deploy it, so from that view don't care if the market takes a while to recover (or even gets worse). Given the current environment it couldn't be a better time to be VC or VC like fund with a pile of cash in my opinion. Your power in negotiation compared to a few years ago would be much stronger. A bit of patience here should pay off very nicely over time.

That said BTI did not deploy cash for any considerable acquisitions over 2022 either when arguably the Nasdaq and other tech stocks were in a much lower position from Mr market. I guess they may be very frugal money managers which isn't a bad thing...

I do wonder how close the NTA of unlisted assets are to market value as obviously there is no listed market . They have stated instant scripts was valued at a much lower nta than realised... Would be interesting if this extends to their other NTA values being carried or if instantscripts simply received a premium above expected nta at the time.

@TEPCapital interestingly I haven't looked into PVL before. Only BTI briefly. Are PVL essentially a VC based listed company along similar lines to BTI, albeit you see a greater discount to NTA value in PVL I presume given you're happy to soak up stock. No interest in BTI as of yet?

Interesting to note the recent director but ins. Was a sizable chunk too compared to some "token" purchases you get on market.

@TEPCapital I do wonder where the balance is though on the interest rate pivot ... Versus the health of underlying investment valjes in I would presume declining business conditions ... Which themself would be intertwined (likely) with why interest rates would be pivoting and heading down in the first place I'd imagine.

I do think a well placed value accretive acquisition in some new companies to sow the seeds of the next site minder, instantscripts success stories would be a far more interesting catalyst for the share price to rerate than interest rates. Not to say that it won't help in fairness given the direct effects on discount rates and growth companies historically

PVL hadn't been on my radar at all - I'd been looking for something similar without going down the PE1 rollup model, many thanks! Will check them out.