Updates

Strix - Sells Billi for £110m (paid £38m in 2022)

January 2026

Investing in shares may lose you all or some of your money. Past performance is no indication of future performance. Some of the shares recommended here may be small company shares, which can be relatively illiquid and hard to trade and this makes such shares more risky than other investments.

Long-standing CEO Mark Bartlett will step down in May, following mounting institutional pressure. Concerns had grown over the group’s aggressive acquisition spree, which diluted the focus on its core kettle control business and ballooned debt levels. As at the end of September, net debt stood at £70.3m, equivalent to 2.5x. Worries over the level of debt, particularly with a £14m final instalment due on Billi (the company’s water filtration arm) in November, had earlier led to the cancellation of the dividend and the sale of inventory. But as the curtain comes down, Bartlett’s swansong has been the proposed sale of Billi for £110m, a substantial increase over the £38m acquisition price three years ago. The transaction eliminated al ...

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Naked Wines

Growth Portfolio 3 - January '26

Strix (May 2025)

Strix (November 2024)

Strix (August 2023)

Strix (January 2023)

Strix - Buys Billi for £38m (November 2022)

Strix (October 2022)

Strix (August 2022)

Strix - Faster growth from water and SDA divisions (October 2021)

Strix (August 2021)

Strix - Strategy to double sales by 2025 (May 2021)

Strix (October 2019)

Strix (August 2018)

Strix (May 2018)

Strix - Whos who of institutional buyers (September 2017)

With small companies there is an above average degree of risk compared to buying blue chips. Please be aware that we have not assessed the suitability of any of these investments for you. The newsletter simply states a personal view and diarises the editor’s investment decisions. Please speak to your stockbroker or other qualified individual to ascertain whether any of these companies mentioned would form useful additions to your own portfolios. Past performance is no indication of future success.

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