September 28, 2022

Small to medium enterprises throughout the pandemic and beyond

By Brett Craig

Small to medium enterprises (SMEs) have been underserviced in the lending market for some time, further exacerbated by the COVID-19 global pandemic. The onset of the COVID-19 Global Pandemic in March 2020 brought shock and great uncertainty for individuals and business owners.
September 27, 2022

Reporting season in review – a small companies perspective

By Michael Gollagher

Leading into reporting season this year, it felt more critical than usual from an investor’s perspective. This was driven mainly by the ever-changing macro backdrop which at this point in time could be argued is driving share prices more so than company fundamentals. The second key point to consider is the operating period over which reporting season resides.
September 26, 2022

Aura Private Credit: Letter to investors 26 September 2022

By Brett Craig

The Reserve Bank of Australia has released a renewed paper reviewing how small to medium enterprises (SMEs) access funding. This report comes off the back of a July meeting with the Small Business Finance Advisory Panel, providing an update on the current state of the SME finance market.
September 23, 2022

Why the risk-reward ratio is looking good for quality small caps

By Roger Montgomery

Since January, world markets have been selling off. As a result, a number of quality small cap businesses are now trading at very attractive multiples. Is now a good time to invest in quality small caps? Back in June, I asked the question in my whitepaper: are we there yet.
September 13, 2022

Fintech SME lending in Australia

By Brett Craig

Fintech-based lenders have emerged since the introduction of the peer-to-peer platform Zopa in the United Kingdom in 2005. Fintech lenders aim to reduce friction in the borrowing process for their customers, reducing the turnaround time from application to funding and offer products which best suit the borrowing needs of the customer.
September 12, 2022

Aura High Yield SME Fund: Letter to investors 09 September 2022

By Brett Craig

The RBA has raised rates for the fifth month in a row bringing the cash rate to 2. 35% with the expectation of reining in inflation by the end of the year. Largely in line with market expectations, the RBA raised the cash rate by 50 basis points. This is the highest cash rate since early 2015.
September 12, 2022

Why we are underweight consumer discretionary companies?

By Roger Montgomery

There are no doubts some extraordinary businesses exist in the Australian consumer discretionary sector. Names like ARB, Nick Scali, JB Hi-Fi and Lovisa jump to mind as soon as talk turns to the consumer. But as we examine the shape of our portfolios, one glaring active weight is the underweighting we have to consumer discretionary companies.
September 5, 2022

Aura High Yield SME Fund: Letter to Investors 02 September 2022

By Brett Craig

The retail trade and APRA July 2022 data released this week provided more data to support RBA hikes in the coming months. This week the ABS released data for retail trade turnover and volume. This dataset includes references to retail businesses including stores and online sales.

September 5, 2022

August reporting season wrap

By Roger Montgomery

In the wash-up of the FY22 reporting season a significant amount of focus has been directed to the proportion of companies that beat, met or missed expectations. Roughly 30 per cent of companies beat analyst forecasts, slightly more than 41 per cent were in line with estimates, and the remaining 29-odd per cent missed estimates.
August 31, 2022

The REA Group wild share price ride

By Roger Montgomery, Roger Montgomery

For a company with such high quality, REA Group (ASX:REA) has experienced an amazing share price range in the last twelve months. On 5 November 2021 REA hit a market capitalisation of $23. 9bn when somebody paid $180. 67 per share. Just seven months later, the share price hit $93. 77 giving the company a market value of $12.

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