1/12 Valuing a Disruptive Businesses: Naked Wines ($WINE) Case Study. In my intro last week, I promised examples of using ROIIC & reinvestment rate to value disruptors. $WINE is an eComm D2C wine model with SaaS-like outcomes. EXCELLENT DISCLOSURE makes it a good case study

It began as an online wine retailer with many SKUs/low loyalty, but then pivoted at a pivotal moment when a top exec realized a cohort of consumers were super loyal – those that enjoyed supporting independent winemakers. @_inpractise Feast your eyes on this glorious disclosure:
Naked Wines is forecast to report approximately zero EBIT this year. As we will see, the company is not worth zero, nor does it mean Value Investors are allowed to cavalierly toss it in the “too hard” pile. Here’s a way to value Naked Wines with discipline:
Variable (1): $WINE discloses Standstill EBIT, boosted by COVID. Loyalty of $WINE’s “angels” makes EBIT stickier than some other eComms. Astute SaaS observers will note revenue retention (I assume ~78% on avg) is below B2B SaaS (95-130%). My standstill NPV implies 6.3x EV/EBIT.
Variable (2): A disclosure triumph. If slides could talk, “we reject simpleton requests to under-invest & produce 123% IRR for shareholders that truly like value creation.” Value investors, note what the V stands for in LTV. PV it. I assume payback holds 5 yrs, then slow decay
Variable (3): Do they have a chart for fixed costs along with a medium-term guidance that seems logical? Yes…yes, they do! They target fixed cost growth to be half of revenue growth.
Variable (4): As for the full maturity stub, be very careful with double-counting the value already within your high IRR CAC spend valuation in (2), but this is the smallest component in my appraisal of $WINE’s value, so let’s use our time wisely.
My output: (1)+(2)-(3)+(4) = 303m + 486m - 130m + 53m = 713m EV. This implies a warranted multiple of 6.3x EV/GP on current year. If you tend to viscerally avoid researching zero EBIT companies, consider that the high IRR CAC spending program (2) is largest part of my value!
123% IRR (2016 cohort actual) AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE PLEASE. Even insufferably holier-than-thou value investors wielding “doesn’t make any money” gibberish (I’m guilty) might agree that $WINE chooses to spend. Or would we rather they under-invest to make our models simpler?
“So, great, one scaling small cap gives you enough detail to value it. Congratulations, champ. Wake me when you’ve found a way to replicate this on other names,” says Mr. Dinosaur Value Guy, irritated after a call with a decade-long client asking for a $200m redemption.
Cheer up, Dino, and WAKE UP, we can replicate this on many names. Your valuation discipline is rightfully non-negotiable. See that meteor in the sky that looks like a @blackrock hellbent on creative destruction? Let’s do something about it: https://t.co/Wyr7F0EQK7
12/Upcoming research: Value Investors, I write provocatively to rattle some cages that need it, including my own. But a simple cheap stock can still be attractive in this market, especially with catalysts. Next is a cheap global #1 with 40-50% market share w/ 2 catalysts. /end
@Greenbackd @Symmetry_Invest @modestproposal1 @mjmauboussin @mario_cibelli @SuperMugatu @Post_Market @aaronvalue @goodinvestingc @marketplunger1 @MarcRuby @CCM_Ryan @ruth_proactive @proactive_UK
@IPafbahia @pommelhorse9 @jesperhenrikson @still_ill______ @antoniofbahia @NorthmanTrader @trailmakercap @Lawbitrage

More from Trading

1/ Feels like a good time to tell the story of how I went from broke to a millionaire to broke again in 2017/18 again...

Yesterday was brutal for some people...

Losing life-changing money sucks, losing any money sucks...you can chase the market or you can change your strategy.

2/ The original thread is gone but you can read it here.

https://t.co/cLLNs75rB0

tl;dr
- Traded $32k to $1.2m
- Thought I was a genius
- Made poor investments
- Didn't conserve capital
- Peaked at 150 BTC
- Lost nearly all of it

2 weeks from losing my house + no income. Oops.

3/ I am going to assume you are in it for the money rather than the tech. Yeah, you might Tweet about the amazing blockchaining of cross-border payments and oracles yadda yadda...really, you are in it to make money.

If you are really in it for the tech, go and build something.

4/ Okay, so if you want to make money, trading is super hard, you are trading against:
- Better traders than you
- People who can move markets
- Unknown information

And if you are trading with leverage you might blow up your account with the volatility.

5/ If you are not trading, you are investing. Okay, so what are you investing in?

I made the decision that the crypto with the best opportunity of existing in 10 years is #Bitcoin:
- Solves a genuine problem
- The right tech
- A proven track record

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I'll begin with the ancient history ... and it goes way back. Because modern humans - and before that, the ancestors of humans - almost certainly originated in Ethiopia. 🇪🇹 (sub-thread):


The first likely historical reference to Ethiopia is ancient Egyptian records of trade expeditions to the "Land of Punt" in search of gold, ebony, ivory, incense, and wild animals, starting in c 2500 BC 🇪🇹


Ethiopians themselves believe that the Queen of Sheba, who visited Israel's King Solomon in the Bible (c 950 BC), came from Ethiopia (not Yemen, as others believe). Here she is meeting Solomon in a stain-glassed window in Addis Ababa's Holy Trinity Church. 🇪🇹


References to the Queen of Sheba are everywhere in Ethiopia. The national airline's frequent flier miles are even called "ShebaMiles". 🇪🇹