Busy day for updates in the CISP.

A busy day for announcements from holdings in the Compound Income Scores Portfolio (CISP) today, so much so I had to check the calendar to make sure it wasn't Thursday today. So any way here in brief is a summary of the relevant news announcements.

Alliance Pharma (APH) - the acquisitive group which buys mature licences to drugs and medicines etc. has, in line with this strategy, announced that it has agreed to acquire the marketing rights in the Asia-Pacific region for an anti-dandruff shampoo (Nizarol) for £60 million  ($79.5 million). This is being acquired from a subsidiary of J & J & is being funded by an underwritten placing of shares at 91p which will therefore raise £34 million with the balance of the cost being funded from their existing debt facilities. They say that it had a Pro Forma EBITDA of £7.1m in 2017 on sales of £18.5m, so it seems quite profitable and the multiple they are paying does not seem too high. Consequently they say that it expected to generate material earnings enhancement in the first full year of ownership. This is quite helpful as the shares were starting to look a little stretched in valuation terms, although the placing and the recent rapid rise in the share price resulting in a re-rating may mean the shares are capped out for a while now. Thus I suspect they may go back into one of their customary sideways trading ranges, but I could be wrong of course.

Ferguson (FERG) - the specialist plumbing and heating distributor announced its Third quarter results for the 3 months to 30 April 2018 which saw revenues up by just over 10% in total and 7% on an organic basis. Most of the growth was driven by the strong US economy while the UK operations are undergoing a restructuring. They also said that the fourth quarter has started well with organic revenue growth in line with the third quarter and that given the third quarter out turn, the Group is well positioned for a successful outcome for the year.

Taptica (TAP) - the data-focused marketing solutions company announced a trading update which, after the profits warning from XL Media (XLM which was sold back in March on a deteriorating Score prior to their warning) was a pleasant surprise as they said they expect to report adjusted EBITDA for FY 2018 moderately ahead of market expectations and revenue growth in line with market expectations demonstrating a moderately higher-than-expected EBITDA margin.

This was helped by the fact that they  have also continued to work closely with the Tremor Video DSP team to implement operational and cost efficiencies and have been able to achieve further improvements in gross margin in that unit. They also said that they continue to evaluate acquisition opportunities, which remains a key element of the Company's growth strategy. Thus with the current trading going OK and the integration of Tremor Video DSP delivering improved margins if they can do some more successful add ons then this should help them to continue their more recent successful growth streak, which the rating of around 9x PE doesn't seem to give much credit for.

Alliance Pharma (APH)

Ferguson (FERG)

Taptica (TAP)