European Event-Driven Analyst

Jesus Rodriguez Aguilar

Jesús is an Insight Provider (Event-driven) on the Smartkarma network, where he looks across sectors at opportunities arising from securities mispricing (both credit and equity), share classes, bid announcements, prospective bids, and special situations. He has served as Economic and Business Advisor at the Spanish Congress in Madrid. Prior to that, he has worked in the City of London: as a Credit Analyst at Bloomberg; Event-driven associate at former boutique European Research; and doubled as Special Situations and Equity-linked VP (convertible bonds) at Merrill Lynch. Jesús has an MBA from the London Business School, a BA (Hons.) degree in Economics from the Complutense University in Madrid, and a BA (Hons.) in Law from U.N.E.D., also in Madrid.

Event-Driven

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<li>Almost killed by Covid and debt burden, funeral company Dignity agreed to a 550p offer (15.5x EV/Fwd EBITDA). Shifting demographics, Baby Boomers and capex investments should provide clients and growth.</li>
<li>Unlike other takeout transactions, all shareholders may elect to partly reinvest in the bidding consortium: either unlisted non-voting Valderrama D shares or listed Castelnau (with Dignity making c.50% of NAV).</li>
<li>My base-case DCF fair value estimate is 531p, 3.5% downside vs. offer price, which seems fair. I set my TP at 550p. Spread gross/annualised is 1.1%/3.2%.</li>
</ul>


Almost killed by Covid and debt burden, funeral company Dignity agreed to a 550p offer (15.5x EV/Fwd EBITDA). Shifting demographics, Baby Boomers and capex investments should provide clients and growth.
Unlike other takeout transactions, all shareholders may elect to partly reinvest in the bidding consortium: either unlisted non-voting Valderrama D shares or listed Castelnau (with Dignity making c.50% of NAV).
My base-case DCF fair value estimate is 531p, 3.5% downside vs. offer price, which seems fair. I set my TP at 550p. Spread gross/annualised is 1.1%/3.2%.


Dignity PLC

Dignity's Last Gasps