Analyst: BrewDog's 'punk' crowdfunding looks way overpriced and you're unlikely to make money from it | ||
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Popular Scottish craft brewery BrewDog looks like Europe's most expensive brewery — and research firm All Street reckons you'll struggle to make money investing in it. Naturally, BrewDog — which is selling "equity for punks" in its investment fundraiser — doesn't see it that way. BrewDog is currently crowdfunding £25 million to put toward growth and has already raised £5 million in just 20 days. The funding drive puts a £305 million price tag on the Punk IPA maker and, at £47.50 a share, means it is valued at an eye-watering 115 times earnings. All Street, a start-up that produces research on crowdfunding, points out that this probably makes it Europe's most aggressively valued brewer. For comparison, Heineken trades on 27.08 times earnings, Carlsberg is valued at 21.47 times earnings, Budweiser and Stella maker AB InBev is worth 21.83 times what it makes in profit, and Peroni brewer SABMiller is at 24.46 times earnings. BrewDog, which also operates a chain of bars around the world, argues its growth story makes it worth it the hefty price tag, comparing the business to US burger chain Shake Shack. BrewDog's sales grew by 64% last year and 70% the year before that.
All Street isn't convinced this growth rate will continue, given that BrewDog doesn't give financial forecasts in its prospectus. They believe BrewDog could be being overly optimistic and reckon investors will struggle to make any money investing in the business at this valuation. All Street's founder and CEO Emanuela Vartolomei said: “BrewDog has performed exceptionally well. It is a strong company with sustainability at its heart and a talented workforce. "However, it is difficult to see how investors will make a financial return on this deal given the high valuation of £305 million. No financial forecast has been disclosed so there is very little clarity as to how the company will hit the revenue targets required to generate a risk adjusted return for investors."
Founder James Watt told Business Insider: "All investment opportunities attract a host of contrasting opinions from the supposed experts. "Opinions are partial and do not give justice to the whole story and so I would respond by advertising that the Brewdog offer for subscription to issue B shares at a price of £47.50 each is made in accordance with a Prospectus which has been Approved by the Financial Conduct Authority in accordance with the Prospectus Rules. "There are loads of details in our share prospectus and we would recommend anyone interested going to www.brewdog.com/equityforpunks to download the prospectus to find out more about the opportunity to own part of BrewDog rather than relying on what All Street or, for an alternative view, what the Motley Fool might say who offered a different opinion to that of All Street." Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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BrewDog disagrees. Egypt sentences deposed Islamist president Morsi to death | ||
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Cairo (AFP) - An Egyptian court sentenced deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi and more than 100 other defendants to death on Saturday over jail breaks during the 2011 uprising. Morsi was in the caged dock when the judge read out his verdict. Many of those sentenced were tried in absentia, including prominent Islamic cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi who resides in Qatar. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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IS presses Ramadi assault as Iraq forces mull response | ||
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Baghdad (AFP) - Islamic State fighters closed in on the last government-held positions in the Iraqi city of Ramadi Saturday after Baghdad vowed an air and ground counter-offensive. After seizing the Anbar provincial headquarters on Friday, the jihadist organisation said it unleashed another fleet of suicide car bombs on key positions in Ramadi. "Three suicide attackers in armoured vehicles tried to break into the 8th Brigade base. The attack was repelled using armour-piercing rockets," said Ramadi Mayor Dalaf al-Kubaysi, one of the last officials still in the city. He said five soldiers were wounded. Most of the Iraqi government forces and Sunni tribesmen fighting alongside them are concentrated in that base and in the Anbar Operations Command across the Euphrates river. Civilians fled en masse as the jihadists took over several central neighbourhoods on Thursday and Friday and looked on the brink of claiming full control of the city. The loss of the capital of Anbar province, which Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had said would be the next target of government forces after wresting back Tikrit last month, would be a major setback. After meeting top security officials in Baghdad on Friday, Abadi vowed his government would not abandon Ramadi. The army sent reinforcements from Baghdad and elsewhere in Anbar, with local officials saying Iraqi and US-led coalition aircraft were also in action, but there was little sign of a major counter-offensive inside the city on Saturday. "Security forces in Ramadi are taking position against the attacks of Daesh, mainly in the areas of Malaab and Operations Command," Kubaysi said, using an Arab acronym for IS. "There are no military operations to take back the areas that were captured by Daesh," he said. Jessica Lewis, research director at the Institute for the Study of War, said the government could not afford to let Ramadi fall completely. "The Iraqi security forces will not let Ramadi go to ISIS (IS) without a massive fight," she said. "It is key terrain. Not only is it Anbar's capital city, but it is also a military gap in ISIS's control line in Anbar," Lweis said. Ramadi lies about 100 kilometres (60 miles) west of Baghdad. IS holds Fallujah, about halfway between the two, and several key towns in western Anbar between Ramadi and the Syrian border. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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