Tag: OTC

How did Grayscale grow its AUM so fast?

When I write this, Grayscale Investments has about $9.8 billion in Assets under Management. This undoubtedly makes Grayscale one of the fasted growing asset management companies in history.

Established in 2013 by Digital Currency Group, Grayscale operates trusts that allow investors to invest in various cryptocurrencies. Trusts are open-end, which means that the number of units will change as investors move in or out of the funds.

The units in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) and the Grayscale Etherium Trust (ETHE) are that are quoted on the OTCQX market. Both trade at a significant premium to the net asset value (NAV) per share. That in itself is intriguing, since Grayscale charges a 2% management fee on assets.

Why does the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust exist?

The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust is passive, as opposed to being an active fund. The investment policy is simply to hold Bitcoin. Passive funds are usually set up to track and index or some other benchmark. So you might ask yourself what is the point of setting having a fund that only holds one asset?

Why would somebody buy this as opposed to buying the underlying asset directly? How come that investors are willing to buy Grayscale Bitcoin Trust units at a premium to Bitcoin per unit and pay Grayscale a 2% annual fee, instead of just buying Bitcoin directly?

The answer is two-fold:

  1. Most institutional investors are simply not allowed to invest directly into Bitcoin. They have a strict mandate on what they are able to invest in. So, they can’t, even if they want to, get exposure to Bitcoin unless it is through a security, such as a trust unit. Eventually, we can expect the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust to convert into an ETF and the management fee to go down.
  2. Most investors into the Grayscale trust are not buying investing through the open market. They participate in something called an Offered Product. Accredited investors participate in the Offered Product and receive an allocation that values the trust units they receive on a NAV-basis, or Bitcoin per share. By participating in the Offered Product, they are also bound to selling restrictions and subject to significant limitations on resale and transferability.

More on Cryptocurrencies

Stock Report | OTC Markets (OTCM)

OTC Markets (OTCM) is an American Financial market providing price and liquidity information for Over-The-Counter securities. The company was founded in 1913 as the National Quotation Bureau since the company has changed many names. The company operates in the Financial Services space.

Business Segments

The company primarily provides 3 services:

OTCQX

OTCQX is the trading platform that connects clients to broker-dealers, providing liquidity and execution solutions.

OTCQB

OTCQB is the new reporting and market data compiling service. It grants access to various channels like Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters, etc.

OTC Pink

This is the corporate services pack, which helps companies to better engage and inform investors.

OTCIQ

Apart from these primary services, OTCM provides a service to other businesses called OTCIQ. OTCIQ serves as an investor relation portal for the company to monitor security market activity and transmit information to investors.

Management

The top brass of OTCM is highly qualified and rich with experience. The CEO, president and director, Cromwell Coulson took over in 1997 when the private company was nothing more than a publisher of quotations. Coulson and his team have transformed OTC into a publicly-traded company, operating in 3 markets and seeing an annual trading volume of just under $200 billion. 

CFO, Bea Ordonez, has over 20 years of experience in the financial services segment; she is also a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. Jason Paltrowitz, Executive Vice president of Corporate Services, has served had held management positions in renowned companies like JP Morgan Chase and BNY Mellon. 

The company’s management is more than qualified and has a great track record; OTCM has not received any warnings or penalties for non-compliance with rules and regulations in the past few years.

Market Statistics

  • Simple day moving averages 50 days: 33.72
  • Simple day moving averages 200 days: 32.1
  • 52 week Range: 25.37 – 40
  • Lifetime high: 39.95

Valuations and Competitors

  • P/E – 25.32
  • EPS- 1.36
  • NOA- $13,972
  • NOPAT- $16,148.19
  • RNOA- 1.15

Business Model

OTCM lacks any direct competitors, and therefore enjoys an almost monopolistic operation. This makes it hard to determine the exact value of the business is the lack of comparison with other publicly traded stocks. News Corp-owned MarketWatch is a close rival of OTCM in the news and press segment. Both companies publish investor reports and function in the financial service space.

However, News Corp currently trading at 12.6 has been in losses for the past 2 years. Its share has shed nearly 22% over the past year and hence can’t be considered as a comparison. On the Exchange side of things, OTCM would be dealing with the likes of NYSE and Nasdaq. Both of these exchanges are considerably beyond OTCM’s reach as of now. Hence OTCM enjoys a niche that is unlikely to change in the near future. This while making OTCM harder to value could also be seen as the advantage of the business having a unique business model.

Key Financials

(all $ figures are in thousands) 

  • EBIT: $19,645 (up 7.32% from 18,304, in 2017)
  • Net income from operations: $16,237 (up 28.8% from 12,599, in 2017)
  • Cash and Cash Equivalents: $28,813 (up 21.66% from 23,683)
  • Total Assets: $41,649 (up 14.6% from 36,317)
  • Total liabilities: $25,240 (up 12% from 22,526)
  • Net cash from operating activities: $22,590
  • Net cash from financial activities: -$15,882

Operating expenses for the company have grown at a steady rate signalling a steady expansion in the business. Net income from operations grew by 19.2% from 2016 to 2017. In 2018 it’s up 28.8%. However, that’s not the whole story because of a one-off item in the company’s gross revenue. In 2018 there was a one-off licensing deal with Bloomberg LP contributing to 10% of gross revenue from licensing, amounting to $2,338.

The model of the company allows it to be heavy on cash almost at all times. Therefore the cash and cash equivalents are larger than all other assets combined. Both the Cash and cash equivalents and the Total assets have increased. The total asset growth is faster than the total liability growth and there has been a sharp spike in the other liabilities item. 

This is causing the growth rate difference between the 2 to seem close however this will not repeat in the next quarter causing the difference highlighted more clearly. One of the most important items to notice in the balance sheet of the company is that its short and long term debt is 0. Being debt-free is always a big positive for any company.

The net cash from investments has been low, signalling that profits are simply being reinvested in the core business. However, the company has stated that it would make further acquisitions in FY 2019. The financing activity in question has been dividend payout and the operating profit has increased by nearly 37% from the previous year.