Not to my mind @DrPete123. Others might think differently but it's not as if they upgraded guidance (they hadn't given guidance previously). What they had said in their half year reporting was that FY22 was shaping up to be a "strong year". Their announcement this week is good but I don't think it's that special. They're guiding this half to the same NPAT as 1H FY22 (and 2H FY21), good but not great. To my way of thinking, in this case if there is a variance in expectations it's on the analysts and not the company.

The other thing is you constantly hear is how narrow the buying window is for insiders. Also, Alf is new to the company and we constantly talk about how we want insiders to have incentives aligned to shareholders. He bought on 10 May (WD8) so maybe he had April results by then, but I wouldn't assume that's the case. I dunno - there's enough else in the world to be angry about that I'm going to give him a leave pass on this one.

[Held]

Codan's first half trading update was released this morning to an appreciative market. I've highlighted some of the pertinent bits below but suffice to say it's a record result, according to their internal metrics the recent acquisitions are ahead of schedule, the supply chain issues are being well managed and net profit is super strong. Kudos for them for highlighting net profit and not EBITDA or PBT.

The market has been particularly bearish on Codan over the past 6-7 months, halving their share price. Reasons given for this have included the retirement of their CEO/MD - Donald McGurk, and unrest in some key markets in Africa as well as the return of Taliban rule in Afghanistan. We probably have to wait a little while longer before we see if these fears turn out to be realised. However, in the meantime Codan isn't saying anything, it's just pointing at the scoreboard, which is probably the best argument it could make.

[Held]

Codan Limited’s (ASX:CDA) subsidiary Domo Tactical Communications (DTC) Limited (DTC) has acquired 100% of the shares in UK-based company, Broadcast Wireless Systems Limited (BWS) from BWS’ founders.

• funded by Codan’s existing debt facility, which consists of an upfront payment of $3.7 million, with the possibility of an additional payment of up to $4.8 million if certain earn-out targets are achieved over 3 years.
• BWS’ technology portfolio consists primarily of wireless video camera links and a newly developed range of high-quality video broadcast products.
• Recently acquired businesses, DTC and Zetron continue to make good integration progress and remain on track to deliver FY22 EBITDA targets. The acquisition will be earnings-per-share accretive from day 1 given that BWS delivered an EBIT of approximately $0.6 million in the financial year ended 30 June 2021, a year in which financial performance was adversely impacted by the pandemic.
• As a result of the transaction, Codan will acquire total assets approximately equal to the purchase price with no change to Codan’s shareholder equity.

According to Paul Sangster, (President, Tactical Communications), “the quest for improved production quality, cost efficiencies and the challenges caused by the pandemic are fuelling the transition of broadcasters to adopt remote production capabilities and the combined offering of DTC and BWS will enable this. DTC’s customers will now be offered a low-latency, high performance solution which has been validated in critical and challenging operations such as the opening ceremony for the Olympic Games in Japan and some of the world’s most prestigious and demanding motor racing events.” Codan has a strategy of investing and strengthening our core businesses by developing new products, entering into new geographies and leveraging our IP into other adjacent markets. While this acquisition is not of the same scale (as other recent acquisitions, it is strategically important, as it broadens DTC’s technology offering and enables access to the growing remote broadcast industry more quickly than developing this technology internally.

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A relatively small acquisition that leverages Codan's still significant multiple to be accretive from day 1. Perhaps this will arrest Codan's SP slide...probably not if it turns out to be Omnicron Wednesday...

[Held]