I have to admit complete defeat! I have read and re-read today’s maiden FY results for ‘brand extension’ company, Quindell Portfolio, and I still can’t make head or tail of what it really does.
We have been writing about Quindell since mid-last year when the erstwhile AIM-listed Mission Capital reinvented itself, re-listed, and rebranded as Quindell (see here). The focus of our commentary has been mainly around its insurance business process services (start here and work back) – a not entirely unsurprising activity given that Quindell’s founding chairman and Group CEO, Rob Terry, was part of the founding team of The Innovation Group. Indeed, according to Terry, all bar one of TIG’s founders are now part of Quindell, and the ‘bar one’, Richard King, is CEO of Ingenie, a ‘digital brand based insurance broker’, and the ‘charter’ client for Quindell’s insurance software. You may take what comfort you can from this as you wish.
But this is just part of the story. Since its (re)formation, Quindell has made no fewer than ten acquisitions, and I can only suggest you go through them and see if you can work out the master plan. But I do get worried when I read statements like “We fully utilise our unique selling point, being our 'Champion / Challenger' processing based software solutions using the principles of cognitive interviewing and neuro-linguistic programming…”.
That aside, the numbers are ‘interesting’, with revenues for the 15 months to 31st Dec. 2011 (in effect the 33 weeks since re-listing) at £13.7m, gross margins at 64% and an operating margin of 30.2%. I cannot quite work out how they do this. Rob Terry advises that the revenue run rate is now some £50m and EBITDA ‘over £20m’.
Quindell (then as Mission Capital) was re-admitted to AIM in May 2011 at 2.47p. It’s shares are up 6% today as I write, at 8.75p. I guess there must be those out there who ‘get it’. I just wish I did too.