Powered by store openings and retail expansion in the 2010-15 period, Michael Kors became one of the largest American handbag producers in sales and units. However, over the past five years, growth has stalled due to markdowns of bags at third-party retail and declining sales at company-owned stores. While Capri has reduced distribution to limit discounting of Michael Kors bags, competition in the American handbag market is fierce and growth is limited. Moreover, the company is in the process of closing more than 100 Michael Kors stores.
Capri spent a steep $3.4 billion to purchase Jimmy Choo and Versace to boost its status as a luxury house and reduce its dependence on Michael Kors. However, we do not think these deals have changed Capri’s no-moat status as the acquired brands have more fashion risk, less profitability, and narrower appeal than Michael Kors. Capri is investing in store remodels, store openings, and expanding the set of accessories for both Jimmy Choo and Versace, but we don’t think these efforts will yield the intended gains, particularly given the severe interruption we expect from COVID-19.
We believe Michael Kors lacks the brand strength (and ultimately pricing power) to provide an economic moat for Capri, rating poorly on the criteria that Morningstar uses to evaluate luxury brands, in contrast to others such as narrow-moat Tapestry’s Coach.
Financial Strength
Capri has debt, but it is very manageable. At the end of June 2021, it had total shortand long-term debt of $1.3 billion, but it also had more than $350 million in cash. Capri, though, has $1.3 billion in available borrowing capacity it amended its revolving and term loan credit agreement.Thus, Capri has no significant debt maturities prior to 2023. Capri has also recently modified its debt covenants, allowing a maximum leverage ratio of 3.75 times. Its debt/adjusted EBITDA was 2.3 times at the end of fiscal 2021, and we forecast this will decline to 1.2 times at the end of fiscal 2022. The firm averaged more than $500 million in annual buybacks in fiscal 2015-20. We now forecast its share repurchases at an annual average of about $630 million over the next decade. However, Capri does not pay dividends. We forecast its fiscal 2021 capital expenditures will rise to $205 million (3.9% of sales) from just $111 million (2.7% of sales) last year. Long term, we forecast Capri’s annual capital expenditures as a percentage of sales at 4.3% as management works to improve the performance at Jimmy Choo and Versace.
Bulls Say
- Michael Kors is one of the largest brands in terms of units and sales in the high-margin handbag market, and we think this positioning should aid its prospects as it looks to grow in complementary categories like footwear.
- Michael Kors has reduced its dependence on wholesale customers, which we view favorably as increased direct-to-consumer sales allow for better pricing and control over marketing.
- The acquisitions of Jimmy Choo and Versace afford diversification opportunities by bringing two luxury brands that maintain products with high price points into the fold.
Company Profile
Michael Kors, Versace, and Jimmy Choo are the brands that comprise Capri Holdings. Capri markets, distributes, and retails upscale accessories and apparel. Michael Kors, Capri’s largest and original brand, offers handbags, footwear, and apparel through more than 800 company-owned stores, third-party retailers, and e-commerce. Milan-based Versace (acquired in 2018) is known for its ready-to-wear luxury fashion. Jimmy Choo (acquired in 2017) is best known for women’s luxury footwear. John Idol has served as CEO since he was part of a group that acquired Michael Kors in 2003.
(Source: Morningstar)
General Advice Warning
Any advice/ information provided is general in nature only and does not take into account the personal financial situation, objectives or needs of any particular person.
The Paras Defence and Space Technologies IPO market lot size was 85 shares with a price brand of Rs. 165-175 per share. A retail-individual investor can apply for up to 13 lots (1105 shares or ₹193,375).The face value for each share is Rs. 10 per share and is listed on both BSE and NSE.
Paras Defence IPO Shares offer:
| Category | Share offers | Amount (Rs.) |
| Fresh Issue | 80,34,286 | 140.60 Cr. |
| Offer for sale | 1,724,490 | 30.18 Cr. |
| Total | 97,58,776 | 170.78 Cr. |
Paras Defence IPO Reservation:
| Category | Reservation | Share | Amount |
| QIB | 50% | 48,79,388 | 85.39 Cr. |
| NII | 15% | 14,63,816 | 25.62 Cr. |
| RII | 35% | 34,15,572 | 59.77 Cr. |
| Total | 100% | 97,58,776 | 170.78 Cr. |
Objects of the Issue:
- Fund capital expenditure requirements.
- Funding incremental working capital requirements.
- Repayment or prepayment of all or a portion of certain borrowings/outstanding loan facilities availed by the company.
- General Corporate purposes.
Summary of Financial Statement (Restated Consolidated)
| Particulars | For the year/period ended (₹ in millions) | ||
| 31-Mar-21 | 31-Mar-20 | 31-Mar-19 | |
| Total Assets | 3,627.58 | 3,423.86 | 3,297.48 |
| Total Revenue | 1,446.07 | 1,490.51 | 1,571.69 |
| Profit After Tax | 157.86 | 196.57 | 189.70 |
Paras Defence and Space Technologies IPO Subscription Status (Bidding Detail)
The Paras Defence and Space Technologies IPO was subscribed 304.26 times on Sep 23, 2021. The quota reserved for qualified institutional buyers category was subscribed about 170 times, the non-institutional investors’ quota 927.70 times and retail individual investors’ (RIIs) portion 113 times.
Paras Defence and Space Technologies shares had a blockbuster debut on the bourses on October 1, rising 185 percent to Rs 498.75 from its issue price of Rs 175 on the BSE. Since it was a 5 percent rise from the opening price of Rs 475, the share got locked in upper circuit.
Company Profile
Paras Defence and Space Technologies are primarily engaged in the designing, developing, manufacturing, and testing of a variety of defense and space engineering products and solutions. The company has five major product category offerings – Defence & Space Optics, Defence Electronics, Heavy Engineering, Electromagnetic Pulse Protection Solutions, and Niche Technologies. Paras Defence and Space Technologies is the only Indian company with the design capability for space-optics and opto-mechanical assemblies and is one of the leading providers of optics for various Indian defense and space programs. The company also delivers customized turnkey projects in the defense segment. The company has partnered with some of the leading technology companies around the world to indigenize advanced technologies in the defense and space sectors for the Indian market.
The company has 2 manufacturing plants in Maharashtra and is in the process of expanding its current manufacturing facility at Nerul in Navi Mumbai.
(Source: https://parasdefence.com/,)
General Advice Warning
Any advice/ information provided is general in nature only and does not take into account the personal financial situation, objectives or needs of any particular person.
Being an LIC, it is a close-ended fund with liquidity as it is traded in the secondary market. The total market capitalization is $328.3m and dividend yield is 3.7%.
The Company provides access to a portfolio which is managed by Cohen & Steers; it is a well-regarded asset management firm with a stable, experienced and well-resourced investment team.
The downside of the LIC is that the company has traded primarily at a discount to pre-tax NTA since listing in July 2015. Their management fees are at the higher end in comparison to the listed peer group.
The opportunities offered by this LIC is that it helps investors to diversify their existing portfolio with an infrastructure as an asset class as the returns generated by it are less volatile than the equities market. Investments in infrastructure generally acts as an inflation-hedged income stream.
The portfolio is actively managed and typically hold 50-100 securities. At least 80% of the portfolio will be invested in global listed infrastructure securities, up to 20% can be invested in global infrastructure fixed income securities and up to 5% of the portfolio can be held in cash.
ALI seeks to provide investors a total return, consisting of capital growth and dividend income, from a diversified long-only portfolio of global listed infrastructure securities that outperforms the Benchmark (FTSE Global Core Infrastructure 50/50 Index, net total return, AUD) over the long-term.
About the company:
Argo Global Listed Infrastructure Limited is a Listed Investment Company (LIC) that listed on the ASX in July 2015. Argo Service Company Pty Ltd (ASCO), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Argo Investments Limited (ARG), is the Manager of the Company and has appointed Cohen & Steers as the Portfolio Manager. Cohen & Steers is a global investment manager in long-life assets, including infrastructure, real estate securities, natural resource companies, commodity futures and fixed-income securities.
General Advice Warning
Any advice/ information provided is general in nature only and does not take into account the personal financial situation, objectives or needs of any particular person.
The benchmark is based on its parent index, the MSCI World ex Australia Index, which includes large and mid cap stocks across 22 developed countries. The top 300 ranked securities are chosen to constitute the quality index and cover around 30% to 40% total market capital as the portfolio tilts towards the large companies. No country or a sector constrains are implemented in the quality index, although a 5% limit is imposed for individual holdings.
Portfolio
The ETF fully mirrors the composition of the MSCI World ex Australia Quality Hedged Index its large holding is Microsoft account for 5.4% of assets, which is effectively diversifies firm-specific risk. Information technology has been the largest sector exposure 38.9%, reflecting the dominance of tech stocks over the developed markets quality growth spectrum. Financial Exposure 4.7% is discernibly underweight compared with the MSCI World ex Australia Index.
People
Chesler is an industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience across Sunstone partners, perpetual limited and liberty. Hannah joined VanEck investment in 2014 source ETF, where he was part of the investment management team.
Performance
QHAL has delivered superlative performance since its launch till August 2021. Its lack to exposure to small and mid-caps, paired with the quality growth orientation of the portfolio stemming from overweighting in information technology and healthcare, have been the drivers of outperformance since inception. However, currency hedging has been the prime contributor to robust performance as the AUD appreciated against the USD over the trailing two years till August 2021. Launched in early 2019, the ETF has outperformed the category index and category average rival by 4.8% and 6.6% till 31 July 2021, ranking in the in the first quintile of its category.
About the Fund
QHAL gives investors exposure to a diversified portfolio of quality international companies from developed markets (ex Australia) with returns hedged into Australian dollars. QHAL aims to provide investment returns before fees and other costs which track the performance of the Index.
General Advice Warning
Any advice/ information provided is general in nature only and does not take into account the personal financial situation, objectives or needs of any particular person.