Good things to come at ASR?
Like many Australian industries, the share registry sector is dominated by two giants: Computershare and Link Market Services. The much smaller Advanced Share Registry (ASR) barely rates by comparison, but is well positioned for faster growth when the sharemarket recovers.
A weak sharemarket is a big headwind for share registries, which update and manage company share registers. Fewer initial public offerings (IPOs) and corporate actions, such as rights issues and meeting notices, means less demand for additional share registry services.
ASR’s challenge is compounded by its exposure to smaller resource companies. The Perth-based share registry might struggle if more listed explorers go into their shell, to preserve cash.
Share registries can be great businesses. Computershare’s return on equity has averaged 28.1 per cent over its last four financial years and it is capitalised at $4.2 billion, Skaffold data shows. However, its average annual total shareholder return over five years is negative 3.2 per cent.
This post was contributed by a representative of Montgomery Investment Management Pty Limited (AFSL No. 354564). The principal purpose of this post is to provide factual information and not provide financial product advice. Additionally, the information provided is not intended to provide any recommendation or opinion about any financial product. Any commentary and statements of opinion however may contain general advice only that is prepared without taking into account your personal objectives, financial circumstances or needs. Because of this, before acting on any of the information provided, you should always consider its appropriateness in light of your personal objectives, financial circumstances and needs and should consider seeking independent advice from a financial advisor if necessary before making any decisions. This post specifically excludes personal advice.
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Nir Halevi
:
Tony, welcome to the team, for years I enjoy and benefit from reading your articles in BRW.
Regarding ASW – a bit low in trading volume.
Thanks anyway
Nir
david maynard
:
A very interesting substantial shareholder notice posted today by the asx
Andrew Legget
:
Nice post to start your time here Tony. This little company popped up on my filters a while a go and i have been always wondering whether it would be worth a swing. The lack of analyst coverage due to its size, that i found made it hard and it has fallen down the pecking order considerably.
I don’t know about it now as i haven’t looked into it for a while but when i first looked at them one thing i was impressed with is they could easily communicate what their strategy was and i immediatley saw a niche for them.
Look forward to hearing more from you Tony.