Bob Morton is an activist investor worth following. Here are 12 companies he's put money into.
Arthur Leonard 'Bob' Morton, aged 67, is a well-known serial entrepreneur, reputed to be worth around £100m.
Unfortunately, this former Chartered Accountant (who used to offer clients tax advice) can be rather media shy and was unwilling to comment on his business interests -- despite my efforts to contact him. What is known about him is that he has a string of investments in private and quoted companies. He is also the Chairman of quite a few of them.
Strategic approach
Morton has been very successful over the past 40 years by investing in business start-ups and turnarounds.
Euro Exhaust Centres was his first big success, which he built up from scratch in the 70s, before it was reversed into Kwik Fit in 1979 for £11m. In the 80s he took the publicly quoted Burgess Group from a market cap of £1m to £100m in three years, eventually selling it for £350m. These are just a couple of his many success stories.
In the quoted sphere he has recently specialised in quoted companies that are in difficulty or he believes are not being managed properly. Certainly, because of the inherent risks involved in such companies, some of these holdings haven't performed that well. However, who is to say that he won't eventually turn a profit on most of these investments.
Criteria for investment
Morton has previously outlined what he looks for in an investment. It can be summarised quite simply as:
- The financial position -- he looks at the numbers and decides whether the company is a basket case, incapable of being helped or not.
- The management -- is the management any good, as he puts it "at the end of the day people make money, money does not make people."
He tends to see things in pretty black or white terms, people are either 'winners' or 'losers' and, as you'd expect, he is single-minded in protecting his investments. For example, he is currently attempting to oust the chairman of Media Square and has called a General Meeting.
Quoted investments
Aside from buying into a company directly, he also uses two Jersey-based investment vehicles, Southwind and Hawk Investment Holdings, in which to make strategic investments.
I've managed to put together the following list of quoted companies in which he currently has an interest, although it is probably not comprehensive:
- Vislink (LSE: VLK) -- A total of 14.9% of the issued share capital through Southwind (11.3%) and Bob Morton (3.6%).
- Media Square (LSE: MSQ) -- 7.1% of issued share capital through Hawk Investment Holdings.
- St Peter Port Capital (LSE: SPPC) -- 3.7% of issued share capital through Hawk Investment Holdings (0.4%) and Southwind (3.3%). Chairman of the Board.
- CustomVis (LSE: CUS) -- 23.8% of issued share capital via Hawk Investment Holdings.
- Tenon Group plc (LSE: TNO) -- 7.1% of the issued share capital through Southwind. Southwind 7.12%. He is Chairman of this company too.
- Armour Group Plc (LSE: AMR) -- Via Southwind he holds 19.2% of the issued share capital and is also Chairman.
- PSG Solutions (LSE: PGS) -- 18.5% via Southwind.
- Servoca (LSE: SVCA) -- As Chairman controls 29.9%, 20.6% via Southwind and 9.3% via Hawk Investment Holdings.
- WFCA (LSE: WFCA) -- He is Chairman and via Southwind has 16%.
- Clarity Commerce (LSE: CCS) -- via Southwind he has 14.9% of the issued share capital.
- Adili (LSE: ADIL) -- He owns 48.0% via Hawk Investment Holdings. Special permission was sought from the Takeovers and Mergers Panel to waive Rule 9 of the Takeover Code back in October 2008, so that Hawk didn't have to make a takeover offer to all holders of the shares.
- Daniel Stewart Securities (LSE: DAN) -- Owns 3.7% via Hawk Investment Holdings.
Unfortunately, to ascertain the price at which he bought is a piece of detective work that I've been unable to complete in the time at my disposal. However, I reckon it's worth your while if you considering buying one or more of these companies. This is one investor I'm sure is going to continue to make money!
More from Chris Menon:
Chris owns shares in Vislink.
