Pinned straw:
Hey Greenblatt, good extraction of the performance of acquisitions to date. But one needs to consider the 3/7 update in terms of the actual v acquired EBITA multiples. 5.95x was their acquired multiple but actual is coming in at 7x - 15% diff to the negative. So either they aren’t consolidating as they expected or there was some rubbish in the initial acquisition.
Have they been too eager in their acquisition program and as you point out, they are overly relying on organic growth to hit their future targets. Surely there has to be some clawback for over representation by the sellers. Alternatively we aren’t doing well enough to stem the client leakage. 15% difference is material.
Further, whilst they say the 2H results will be materially better, the definition of ‘material’ is greater than 10%. Call me cynical and steal my lunch, but I think FY23 will come up short. I will wait to see the results before buying here.
final comment: always appreciate your analysis.