Xaar manufactures specialist industrial and commercial digital printheads, used in a variety of applications.
Xaar (XAR)
Board additions emphasise scale-up expertise
c Ms Braunschmidt has international board-level experience in electronic engineering, digital innovation and transformation. Board ‘upskilling’ has been a theme at Xaar, with new appointees well-versed in governance, stakeholder management, finance, investment and having practical ‘coal face’ expertise in the international engineering and manufacturing industry. This appointment follows Alison Littley’s decision to step down as a NED, to be replaced by NED Richard Amos as the Senior Independent Director on 1 July. These moves follow FY23 results that were ‘in line’ and featured adj. EBITDA at £6.4m, up from £6.2m in FY22. The profitability uptick was achieved despite a weak end market where product debuts were delayed, affecting H2 23 and Q1 24 revenue. CEO John Mills concluded that while the external trading environment ‘remains challenging’ the product portfolio was generating ‘strong interest from customers’. Our investment view is that the medium-term outlook is nudging better and the inventory unwind boosts FY24 working capital. Shares have responded positively, up 33% since finals, and the 1.5x sales multiple illustrates a pedestrian valuation.
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