ACL - Australian Clinical Labs

Australian Clinical Labs is a leading private provider of pathology services in Australia. ACL annually collects, analyses and reports on 8.3 million episodes via its national network of 995 collection centres, 30 clinics and 86 accredited laboratories.

ACL is one of the largest private pathology providers to hospitals nationally, servicing over 90 private and public hospitals. In its four established regions of Western Australia, Victoria, South Australia and the Northern Territory, ACL has an equivalent market position in community pathology to Sonic Healthcare and Healius. ACL also has a growing presence in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory and has recently expanded into Queensland.

ACL had pro forma revenues of $595.1 million and pro forma EBITDA of $178.6 million for the 12 months to 31 December 2020.

It is anticipated that ACL will list on the ASX during May 2021.

another overpriced IPO?

Priced at 4.00, opened on Friday 14 May at $3.80 and a steady decline most of the trading day, to close at $3.42

Covid testing is an amazing cash cow for the labs (SHL, HLS, ACL).
The omicron variant has seen testing numbers explode. I'm in for the feast while we can get it. Sold half on today's spike.



I missed HLS as the rally started too low.

Sale of shareholding in Australian Clinical Labs Limited (ACL) (ASX:ACL)

We are writing to inform you that Crescent Capital Partners Management Pty Ltd (CCPM) in its capacity as manager of the interests held by the Crescent Entities and Crescent Co-Investors1 (together the Crescent Interests), has entered into a block trade agreement with Goldman Sachs Australia Pty Ltd providing for the sale of 14.3% of the Crescent Interests’ shares (being 28,888,889 shares) in ACL today, via an underwritten block trade.
On completion of the sale, the Crescent Interests will hold 30.1% of the issued shares in ACL. Attached is a media release from CCPM in relation to its holding in ACL.

Yours sincerely CRESCENT CAPITAL PARTNERS MANAGEMENT PTY LTD

DYOR

i do not hold this share

movement at the station ??

Update on Crescent Entities and Crescent Co-Investors’ Shareholding
Crescent Capital Partners Management Pty Ltd (“Crescent”) in its capacity as manager
of the interests held by the Crescent Entities and Crescent Co-Investors1
(“Crescent
Interests”) today announced that it has entered into an underwriting agreement to sell
14.3% of the issued shares outstanding in Australian Clinical Labs Limited (ASX:ACL)
(“ACL” or the “Company”).
On completion of the sale pursuant to the underwriting agreement, the Crescent Interests
will hold 30.1% of the issued shares outstanding in aggregate.
29.9 million shares held by the Crescent Interests will be released from the final tranche
of voluntary escrow at IPO at the release of the 31 December 2022 interim report in
February 2023.
It is Crescent’s view that the Crescent Interests’ holding to date has constrained ACL’s
trading liquidity and index inclusion. The primary purpose of the sell-down is to enhance
liquidity and ACL’s eligibility for inclusion into the S&P/ASX 300 index at the upcoming
September quarter rebalance.
Crescent remains supportive of ACL and has a high level of conviction around the ongoing
performance and value of the Company. Crescent is committed to maintaining its
representation on the Company’s Board of Directors.
Following the sell-down announced today and outside of any corporate activity associated
with ACL, Crescent has no intentions to seek further liquidity of the Crescent Entities’
remaining shareholding at this current time. This position will not be reviewed before the
release of the 31 December 2022 interim report in February 2023.
For and on behalf of Crescent

DYOR

i do not hold this share

SECOND LETTER RECEIVED FROM CRESCENT CAPITAL PARTNERS Australian Clinical Labs Limited (ASX: ACL) (ACL or the Company) provides the market with a copy of a second letter which it has received from a shareholder, Crescent Capital Partners.


Partial sale of Crescent Entities and Crescent Co-investors’ Stake in Australian Clinical Labs Further to its announcement dated 12 August 2022, Crescent Capital Partners Management Pty Ltd (“Crescent”) today announced that the sale of 14.3% of issued shares outstanding in Australian Clinical Labs Limited (ASX:ACL) (“ACL” or the “Company”) by Crescent Entities and Crescent Co-Investors 1, has been completed. The aggregate sale proceeds to be received by Crescent Entities and Crescent CoInvestors are A$130.0m, representing A$4.50 per ACL share. Crescent Entities and Crescent Co-Investors retain in aggregate 30.1% of the issued shares outstanding. For and on behalf of Crescent,

crikey .. almost pen-pals

divs4ever said:

Sale of shareholding in Australian Clinical Labs Limited (ACL) (ASX:ACL)

We are writing to inform you that Crescent Capital Partners Management Pty Ltd (CCPM) in its capacity as manager of the interests held by the Crescent Entities and Crescent Co-Investors1 (together the Crescent Interests), has entered into a block trade agreement with Goldman Sachs Australia Pty Ltd providing for the sale of 14.3% of the Crescent Interests’ shares (being 28,888,889 shares) in ACL today, via an underwritten block trade.
On completion of the sale, the Crescent Interests will hold 30.1% of the issued shares in ACL. Attached is a media release from CCPM in relation to its holding in ACL.

Yours sincerely CRESCENT CAPITAL PARTNERS MANAGEMENT PTY LTD

DYOR

i do not hold this share

movement at the station ??

Click to expand...

Crescent did float them May last year so they are probably coming off escrow and progressively liquidating the remainder.

I tend to put specialist buy out firms as savvy as Crescent in the bucket of "Don't buy what they're selling. They're getting out for a reason and they're experts in this space."

from memory GS are quite willing to short-sell ( and lend out to short-sellers )

so that would certainly help liquidity ( but maybe not the SP )

the talk about potential inclusion in the XKO ( ASX top 300 ) are they trying a pump ??

will check ( over the weekend ) if they crunch numbers attractively , lord knows how many new mystery illnesses are coming in the next two years , but will keep my caution level high

there is bound to be some scandals leaking out of labs sooner rather than later

one view of ACL : (Not all that convinced, myself... depends on the entry point, I guess )

ACL is relatively new on the ASX, listing in May 2021. However, as a pathology operator, the earnings history of the other listed pathology operators indicate that this sector of the market is attractive for investors. Blood testing volumes tend to grow c5% pa over time driven by an ageing population and the ability to test more diseases via blood samples. This underpins a recurring and growing income stream as cost growth tends to be less than 5% as more tests can be run through the same fixed-cost lab network.
Its earnings grew strongly through the pandemic as it processed very large numbers of Covid tests.
While this demand has abated, its business-as-usual volumes have increased as the backlog of medical procedures put off during Covid continues to work through the medical system. The reduction in Covid testing volumes has seen the share price fall as investors try to assess the level of underlying earnings.

ACL used the cash generated from Covid to pay down debt, pay 63c in fully franked dividends for the financial year 2022 (well above the dividend forecast at the time of listing of c10c) and acquire Medlab - all in its first full financial year as a listed company.

.... It is trading at an attractive valuation of less than 14 x FY24 earnings [based on business as usual (BAU) volumes] and a yield over 4% with a strong balance sheet. It also has:
1. Competitive advantage. ACL has invested significantly in its national laboratory footprint, which allows it to flex its costs up and down as volumes fluctuate. This unified national laboratory system enables it to process samples in any laboratory around the country, so maximising the efficiency of its fixed-cost, laboratory network.
2. Growing earnings. At its latest AGM, ACL stated that BAU volumes are returning to normal and are growing faster than the market so far this financial year. The recent acquisition of Medlab is a significant development for the company as this provides ACL with a presence in the Queensland market for the first time, meaning it is now able to offer a national footprint to customers and tender for national contracts. It is one of only three national pathology providers.
3. Capable management team. We believe the management team at ACL are highly capable. They have a long history in the industry and have demonstrated since IPO, through a very volatile period, an ability to meet volume demands in a timely manner while keeping costs in check.


well-established small-cap companies with a competitive advantage, recurring earnings and capable management should be the focus for investors on the ASX...

ACL trending towards being another IPO flash in the pan and dividend trap. They warned revenues would plummet as Covid revenue dropped off which is fair enough, however todays half year report has some very concerning numbers.

$63m in operating cashflow on about $360m of revenue sounds ok, except there was also $52m in leases and $4m in capex leaving $7m left by my calcs for dividends and debt repayment. So what did they do? They added $65m of debt and are paying ~$14m for an interim dividend (7cps). I assume debt is going to grow even more to cover the dividend, and presumably profits will also continue to drop a little with covid testing continuing to fall.

It looks like they have weaseled out of providing a specific H2 guidance as well. They've also started talking about acquisition synergies... Which is on my list as being a warning sign.

The future is not looking bright for these companies which continue to load up on debt to pay dividends based on an assumption of growth from an economy which is being pushed into recession.

Australian Clinical Labs saw a sharp increase in short interest, rising to 9.9% from 8.4% in early June, signaling growing bearish sentiment. This shift comes amid broader sector headwinds, as evidenced by Healius' recent earnings guidance cut. Healius downgraded its FY24 earnings guidance to $60-65 million from the $70-80 million range provided in February. The company cited "improving pathology volumes for the half-year to date have been offset by lower than expected average fees due to the softer GP market and general inflationary pressures."

- from Market Index

Australian Clinical Labs major shareholder Crescent Capital exits full position (30.1%) stake at $3.20 a share.
.
( haven't seen that yet )
.
FY 24 ..Highlights
• Total Revenue of $696.4M, in line with FY23 despite 59% decline in COVID-19 Revenue
• Underlying EBIT of $62.6M in line with FY24 guidance
• Strong improvement in performance in H2 with $39.1M Underlying EBIT at an 11% margin compared to $23.4M in H1 at a 7% margin
• Adjusting for the earnings impact of decline in COVID-19 revenue, FY24 underlying EBIT grew by 23.4% on pcp driven by a combination of BAU revenue growth, operational efficiency initiatives and some full period Medlab synergies
• ACL expects stronger EBIT result in FY25 compared to FY24 with guidance of $65M to $73M, based on revenue growth assumption of 4-8%
• FY25 has started strongly, with Revenue per working day growth of 7.6% in July on 5.9% volume growth.

..and a 9c ff dividend

>>> went from around $2.50 to $3.30 when results came out