SKO - Serko.com

[tango]

Strangely even tho' I sold my SKO, I still received an email saying I was eligible to participate in the cap raise!? ( I guess it was a timing thing.) I still chose not to participate.

That said, I think SKO has a great product and exciting place in the travel industry. I wish it well and expect to be back when the timing is right and/or when Covid is just a memory. GLH.

I also think SKO has a great product and I spent a lot of time researching before deciding to invest more $$$

• Partnership with booking.com is a positive. I checked into BKNG financials and felt they would survive coronavirus
• Fisher Funds are bullish on SKO and believe the moat is intact
• An analysis of market size (YouTube video below) showed a huge addressable market. I believe his predictions are massively optimistic. Zoom breakout rooms are awesome, online virtual conferences are the way of the future and I expect them to grow. But, even if you halve the estimates it's a large addressable market
• Auckland airport are forecasting 2 years for domestic travel to recover, 3 years for international travel to recover
• Air New Zealand say international travel may not return to former levels in the foreseeable future
• The approval of remdesivir for treatment of coronavirus will help raise confidence in travel (even though the benefits are thought to be mild)

Overall, I decided the long term prospects are strong. The offer price was a sticking point. I think $4.55 is fair market value right now. I don't think it represents a discount on fair market value. I know the shares are selling for 10% more but I think the vaccine is a long way away. That's why I didn't go for the whole $50k. I don't have enough conviction to throw that money in when there are other opportunities out there. Plexure Aussie IPO could be a nice Christmas present

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgOZ0wojigk

[Timesurfer]

Depth of support looks like it might be tested in the immediate future.
I cashed up some earlier and invested back into the offer, with a few more for luck.

If the borders open up around the world I don’t anticipate it taking long to return some resemblance of business as usual. The novelty of attending meetings in your PJs has gotten pretty tiresome so although there will be a loss to video conferencing I can’t see it being a deal breaker. With a move for Zeno to cater to all aspects of travel booking I think the growth potential is still significant.

Disc still holding if not the same volume once held.

[tango]

I thought about selling down some shares to buy in at the lower price but I priced my shares too high so the order wasn’t filled.

I agree that when travel resumes Serko is in a good position but it could be a few years and who knows what will happen in the meantime. Maybe a competitor will have developed something better while they were stuck at home in their PJs !!!

[daveypnz]

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/123...ur-private-jet

Interesting article, this sums it up for me:

“If you’re trying to close a multi-million dollar deal it’s a few thousand to get to your meeting and back again quickly.”
"Corporates were also entertaining clients by taking them to the likes of Queenstown instead of doing trips overseas."

While Zoom is great for taking care of mundane meetings, it will never cut it for attracting big clients and closing large deals.

[tango]

$10 million share offer
$25 million applied for
Oversubscriptions accepted. Total capital raised $20 million. Balance to be refunded

———-

OFFER: SKO: Share Purchase Plan Oversubscribed

Share Purchase Plan Oversubscribed

Serko Limited (NZX/ASX:SKO) ("Serko"), a leader in online travel booking and
expense management for the business travel market, is pleased to announce
that its NZ$10 million share purchase plan ("SPP") has closed oversubscribed.
The SPP received strong shareholder support with Serko receiving
applications totalling approximately NZ$25 million.
Serko has elected to accept NZ$10 million of oversubscriptions, bringing the
total amount of capital raised under the SPP to NZ$20 million.

Serko Chief Executive Darrin Grafton said: "We are delighted with the strong
support we have received for the SPP and the underwritten placement.
"The success of the capital raising is an endorsement of our strategy to move
more quickly on the opportunities arising from the changing business travel
market, including those that have emerged from the disruptions caused by the
COVID-19 pandemic.
"We are now even better placed to help our resellers, partners and business
customers worldwide to manage this disruption and help them prepare for a
recovery.
"Serko has elected to accept oversubscriptions to take advantage of the
growth opportunities available and, in so doing, we have reduced the need to
scale our supportive retail shareholders", Mr Grafton said.
Applications will be scaled on a proportionate basis in accordance with the
number of Serko shares held by applicants on the Record Date (30 September
2020). Refunds of the surplus application amount paid will be made to
applicants on or before 5 November 2020.
The SPP was offered to all eligible existing Serko shareholders with a
registered address in New Zealand or Australia, enabling them to each apply
for up to NZ$50,000 / A$46,500 of new Serko shares. The new shares under the
SPP will be issued at the same price as the Placement of NZ$4.55.
The SPP is part of Serko's equity raising initiative announced on 1 October
2020, whereby Serko also undertook a fully underwritten placement of NZ$47.5
million of new shares.
Settlement of the SPP is expected to occur on 28 October 2020 and 29 October
2020 for the ASX and NZX respectively, with allotment of all shares on 29
October 2020. Trading of the SPP shares is expected to commence on NZX on 29
October 2020 and on ASX on 30 October 2020.
The new shares to be issued under the SPP will rank equally in all respects
with Serko's existing ordinary shares.

[pierre]

Great result for SKO. Plenty of cash in the bag - now all they have to do is find profitable ways to use it. Looks like instos and retail investors are backing them strongly to do just that.

[tango]

I applied for less shares than I currently own.

I expect there will be some people who applied for a lot more shares than they currently own so I think I will get all that I applied for. It will be interesting to see the results of the scaling...

[tango]

Great result for SKO. Plenty of cash in the bag - now all they have to do is find profitable ways to use it. Looks like instos and retail investors are backing them strongly to do just that.

There's also nowhere else for cash to go in this environment unless you want to tuck it under your mattress.

The announcements from Fauci and Oxford on vaccinations are promising. Hopefully my investment pays off sooner rather than later

[daveypnz]

Also on a somewhat related note, does anyone watch JRE? The episodes where his guests are on Skype rather than in studio are nowhere near as good.

[tango]

Also on a somewhat related note, does anyone watch JRE? The episodes where his guests are on Skype rather than in studio are nowhere near as good.

Graham Norton and the other chat shows don’t work as well on zoom. There will always be a market for business travel. The questions are when will it resume and are there some types of business travel that won’t return or will drop off significantly, even when we have a “normal” world