gretel
10 Dec 2014
New article from Beaufort Securities Here's Beaufort Securities on the latest news:[link] "Fox Marble, the AIM listed company focused on marble quarrying and finishing in Kosovo and the Balkans region, yesterday announced that it has entered into a long term offtake agreement with Banyan Stone Limited headquartered in Gibraltar. Banyan has agreed to purchase €1.5m worth of block marble from Fox Marble in three tranches over the next eighteen months with €500,000 worth of stone being purchased every six months. Under the terms of the agreement Banyan will make a prepayment on the first instalment of €250,000 to Fox Marble immediately and the balance of €250,000 upon the completed delivery of the first tranche of stone, expected in early 2015. Banyan will select blocks of marble from the company’s range of stone. Banyan’s market is largely focused on the Far East with particular reference to Singapore and the surrounding region. Our view: Yesterday’s news marked an important step towards the Group’s stated aim of developing a global distribution network with strategic and well positioned partners. The announcement reconfirms the fact that marble the Group produces is desirable and sought after around the world. This agreement with Banyan, together with the MGI agreement announced earlier this year, provides a solid start to the Group’s revenue figures for 2015. Moreover, it is realistic to expect further sales contracts to be put in place early in the New Year as product availability and market reputation for delivering premium quality and volume becomes apparent to international buyers. Fox Marble’s cash balance at 30th November 2014 was €5.0m, which is more than adequate to finance remaining capital projects on mines being prepared for production, including the more recently acquired Sivec ‘white marble’ prospects. The global market opportunity available to Fox Marble is absolutely huge. Worldwide trade in dimensional stone is estimated to be worth in excess of US$15bn annually, with an outlook for uninterrupted, long-term demand growth in a stable and progressive pricing environment. Coming with a very substantial, high quality JORC-compliant resource, elementary open pit working, low-cost labour and excellent infrastructure against a backdrop of Kosovo’s prospective EU accession, Fox Marble dispels most of the fears normally associated with early stage producers. Adopting prudent assumptions into our DCF model, Beaufort’s NPV12% calculation for Fox Marble presently stands at €143m, whilst retaining further gearing to the upside. Beaufort rates Fox Marble as a Speculative Buy with a one year price target of 31p/share."
