Diary: KIO

Dividends

Carrying on with my theme of steady dividend growers, I've been able to produce a table of dividend growth rates. They span a period of at least a decade, and include projections as well. Here's the list I produced, which has filtered out some of the junk from yesterday:

    EPIC D001     D002
4    ABF TRUE 1.069044
12   AGK TRUE 1.158246
17  AMEC TRUE 1.131922
35   AVV TRUE 1.306032
39   BAB TRUE 1.240291
40   BAG TRUE 1.098031
42  BATS TRUE 1.152424
44   BBY TRUE 1.122745
48   BG. TRUE 1.183927
55   BLT TRUE 1.230515
58  BNZL TRUE 1.094876
96  CLLN TRUE 1.148205
97   CNA TRUE 1.168868
102  CPG TRUE 1.118597
103  CPI TRUE 1.243734
107 CRDA TRUE 1.175611
114  CWK TRUE 1.102375
120  DGE TRUE 1.059755
125  DLN TRUE 1.129090
128  DNO TRUE 1.171795
129  DOM TRUE 1.369654
131 DPLM TRUE 1.162500
157 FDSA TRUE 1.217958
159  FGP TRUE 1.089025
163  FSJ TRUE 1.114708
164 FSTA TRUE 1.074836
176  GNK TRUE 1.080341
184  GRG TRUE 1.115695
186  GSK TRUE 1.062259
194 HILS TRUE 1.127068
197 HLMA TRUE 1.061268
208  HSX TRUE 1.240077
214  IAP TRUE 1.152070
224  IMT TRUE 1.127836
234  IRV TRUE 1.043480
243  JHD TRUE 1.161381
246 JMAT TRUE 1.073016
284  MER TRUE 1.244401
309  MTO TRUE 1.190080
313  NG. TRUE 1.106575
337  PHP TRUE 1.080437
342  PNN TRUE 1.082607
346 PSON TRUE 1.065418
349  PZC TRUE 1.109271
368  RPC TRUE 1.113094
369  RPS TRUE 1.148004
375  RTN TRUE 1.108101
391  SGE TRUE 1.235762
412  SPX TRUE 1.333527
413  SRP TRUE 1.165958
414  SSE TRUE 1.095391
422  SXS TRUE 1.109053
423  SYR TRUE 1.219902
431 TLPR TRUE 1.174420
435 TSCO TRUE 1.109814
441  ULE TRUE 1.145565
442 ULVR TRUE 1.086471
446  VCT TRUE 1.482120
452  VOD TRUE 1.229207
455 WEIR TRUE 1.115412
463  WTB TRUE 1.104917

You'll need to look at column D002. You'll see, for example, that WTB has been growing dividends at about 10.5% pa over the last decade. That's excellent. Even yawnworthy TSCO (Tescos) has been compounding at double-digit rates. Fascinating reading, I'm sure you'll agree. I should have been a quant!


KIO - Kiotech International - Pharma and biotech - 88.5p/£16.5m

I wrote about KIO about a week ago, and saw what I thought was a balanced post on it that I thought I would share. It was on 16-Nov-2011 over on Interative Investor:

Kiotech was kindly pointed out to me by another discussion board user as I was looking for profitable UK microcap companies with major exposure to emerging markets and experienced management, as I reckon this combination is likely to provide good opportunities for growth. I must admit I have not read any broker reports on Kiotech but, having done some internet research, I can see that Kiotech is jumping on the bandwagon of companies saying that they are looking to benefit from the increasing demand for food as the world population grows. This is actually a good strategy but some companies, such as major seed producers, have found that competition increases as more companies follow this approach and margins are difficult to maintain. Kiotech is a tiny fish swimming in a pond full of multinational sharks so it is very important that it can avoid direct competition for its specific products from larger companies - this must be a big danger. While I would hope and expect its fish pheromone technology to be well protected by patents I'm not sure the degree to which its animal feed additives use intellectual property to protect against competition but their prospects look quite good to me, particularly as the company would be able to collaborate, rather than compete with some larger companies. The multibillion pound market for feed additives is certainly large enough to provide Kiotech with massive growth opportunities, though of course Kiotech is not involved in all the sectors, but is already expanding into emerging markets. One negative point is the fairly recent sale by board member, Richard Scragg of much of his holding in Kiotech. He was the founder of Optivite, a company recently acquired by Kiotech, and I would have thought he would have wanted to keep his stake at this exciting time for Kiotech, unless he knows something that we don't! On the other hand Kiotech's lack of debt and decent dividend does give confidence for the future. In fact I was going to purchase a small investment until I saw that, at the time I looked, the spread on Kiotech shares was a ridiculous 9%. I have an aversion to spreads over 5% and will not be buying any unless the marketmaker decides to be a bit less greedy. This is why I buy most of my holdings in small companies on overseas stock exchanges, such as the Canadian and US exchanges, because the spreads for small companies are so much smaller and there is no stamp duty to pay. However, Kiotech looks quite an attractive speculation to me.