Report
Richard Gill, CFA

Obtala - Interims and Q3 update

Obtala Limited is an Africa focussed forestry and agriculture company with a goal of becoming one of Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest sustainable food and timber producers.

Interims show period of investment & Woodbois value made apparent

Obtala posted an operating loss of $3.8 million for the six months to 30th June 2017 but a statutory profit of $22.7 million following a gain on the acquisition of Woodbois. An independent valuation of the forestry and timber trading firm added $53.3 million to Obtala’s biological asset value. This compares to a revised purchase price for Woodbois of $12.2 million.

Q3 update shows further progress and additional funds raised

The three months to September 2017 saw the end of the forestry close cutting season in Mozambique, the first significant harvests from the agriculture division and the first contribution from the Woodbois acquisition. An additional $2 million has also been raised to support growth via a further preference share in the forestry subsidiary Argento Limited.

Corporate structure re-organised with new Boards appointed

Obtala will now report to the markets via the three divisions of Timber Trading, Timber Production (together the Forestry division) and Agriculture Production. To support this, new boards have been appointed to the Argento (forestry) and Montara (agriculture) subsidiaries.

DCF derived target price of 38.18p suggests 117% upside

Obtala is now seeing a step change in revenue and profit growth across the three divisions of the business. Nevertheless, the shares trade at a substantial discount to net assets, with the market cap c.90% covered by Obtala’s stake in Argento alone. Our DCF analysis suggests a target price of 38.18p, therefore we retain our stance of Conviction Buy.

Underlying
Woodbois

Obtala is engaged the development of agricultural, food processing and timber projects. These activities are undertaken through both Co. and its subsidiaries.

Provider
Align Research
Align Research

Align Research is a commissioned research company founded in November 2015 in order to provide the under-served smaller company space with high quality analysis. We have an initial focus on the natural resources sector, in which we see significant opportunities given the current once in a generation bear market, however all undervalued small caps (sub £100m) are considered by our team. Align was founded by industry professionals with decades of experience in the stock markets, headed up by highly qualified individuals from both fund management and analytical backgrounds.

Analysts
Richard Gill, CFA

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