Sangoma Technologies

I recently took a position in Sangoma Technologies (STC.v). Here is a very brief explanation of my thoughts on the company.

I have followed Sangoma ever since it was mentioned by Nate at Oddball Stocks here. It fell onto mine (and his) radar due to it being cheap, see below.

The plunge in valuation was not without merit.

You can see that the company really started struggling in 2011. Margins and ROC went one way while the capital invested in the company went the other. It looks pretty ugly.

I can’t really speak to the products themselves and their spot in the marketplace. What I am hoping for is enough margin of safety that I don’t need to know much.

Margin of Safety – Asset Value

*here is what I used to calculate liquidation value

You can see that the NCAV hasn’t changed much. That’s because most of it has been cash rolling into inventory. So you need to get comfortable with that if you are looking at Sangoma. But there is $0.12 in net cash on the balance sheet. When the CEO took over in 2010, he made it clear he is focusing his effort on growing the company and said that many costs will be incurred now while revenues recognized later.

Risks

As Saj Karsan points out in this post, there are risks involved. He is 100% correct in identifying them. They have been there for at least 2 years and for at least 2 years business owners have been disappointed.

Why Am I Buying?

I keep hearing a sentence in my head from The Manual of Ideas, “Acceptance of discomfort can be rewarding in investing…”. Many net-nets aren’t liquidated, but are turned-around (even temporarily). Annual results should be out very soon and a recent news release has pointed to growing revenue. Hopefully we will be free from write-downs, or at least only a small write-down if there is one.

Lastly, as with any investment position sizing should be taken into consideration. This company would likely fit into a basket of asset based valuation stocks as a portion of your portfolio. If Sangoma does turn out to be a winner, don’t get greedy. This is not a wonderful company at a wonderful price.

Dean

Disclosure: Long STC.v