In this weekly column, Stockhead overviews all substantial holder filings of ASX small-caps. Substantial shareholders are those holding 5% or more and these could be directors, individual investors or institutional investors such as fund managers and super funds.

Companies are required to announce when new substantial holders have come on board, when they have ceased to be shareholders or when they change their holdings. At first glance, some of these may seem minor, especially because companies don’t have to clarify why. But upon closer examination of the companies and their circumstances these transactions may show the confidence (or lack of) that those investors hold in the company.

 

Been and Gone

There has been a lot of turnover at Xenith IP Group (ASX: XIP) in light of the looming takeover by IP investor QANTM. Perpetual, Fidelity and the Commonwealth Bank sold their stakes which totalled nearly 16% between the three of them.

But it was not QANTM that took this up. It was rival investor, IPH, who bought a 19.99% stake in Xenith. IPH are ASX listed and have a successful track record of acquisitions in recent years that have made it a billion-dollar company.

While IPH have made clear it will vote QANTM’s offer down, it has not said if it will seek to acquire Xenith itself. While Xenith has continued to recommend shareholders vote in favour of QANTM’s offer, it is unlikely IPH will stay silent having forked out $33 million in debt to facilitate this transaction.

Newly listed Uniti Wireless (ASX: UWL) were another company with significant activity with Chase Nominees, IOOF Holdings, Copia Investment Partners and Vibumum Funds buying 12.56%, 15.38%, 5.52% and 7.64% respectively, equating to more than 40% of the Company.

Yet the only news out of this company since listing was the departure of two directors, and prior to these purchases, no holder held more than 8% and only four held over 5%.

Perhaps these institutions were inspired by Splitit’s (ASX: SPT) listing, which was significantly over-subscribed leading to the stock price rising nearly 5 times as investors who missed out on the IPO scrambled to buy a piece of the buy-now pay-later company.

Global Energy Ventures (ASX: GEV) welcomed Regal Funds as a shareholder, which bought 6.97% as part of its recent $4.7 million placement in which GEV’s directors contributed $210,000. 

City Chic Collective (ASX: CCX) saw small cap fund manager Spheria Asset Management acquire 6.14% of the company. The share price of this fashion retailer is nearly 4 times higher than a year ago and up 35% this month.

Maybe the catalyst was its first half results which left CEO Phil Ryan, “extremely pleased”. With revenue of $75.4m and EBITDA of $15.8m, there’s no sign this company is slowing down any time soon.

Here is a wrap of all becoming or ceasing to be substantial holder notices lodged with the ASX in the last week, among small cap companies.

Swipe or Scroll to reveal the full table. Click headings to sort.

Company Code Market Cap Buyer Stake Becoming or Ceasing
MSL Solutions MPW $20.5M FMR Investments 0.0512 Becoming
Uniti Wireless UWL $27.0M Chase Nominees 0.1256 Becoming
Chorus Ltd CNU $436.0M Accident Compensation Corporation 5% (to 4.958%) Ceasing
Uniti Wireless UWL $27.0M IOOF Holdings 0.1538 Becoming
IncentiaPay INP $19.2M New Gold Coast Holdings 0.0548 Becoming
Xenith IP Group XIP $141.9M IPH Ltd 0.1999 Becoming
Uniti Wireless UWL $27.0M Vibumum Funds 0.0764 Becoming
Global Energy Ventures GEV $52.0M Regal Funds 0.0697 Becoming
Hammer Metals HMX $6.4M Zenith Pacific 0.0636 Becoming
Orthocell OCC $13.6M Qi Xiao Zhou 0.05 Ceasing
Xenith IP XIP $140.2M Perpetual 0.0456 Ceasing
Xenith IP XIP $140.2M FIL Ltd 0.055 Ceasing
XTD XTD $4.0M SG Hiscock & Co 0.0521 Ceasing
Xenith IP XIP $142.0M CBA 0.056 Ceasing
City Chic Collective Ltd CCX $259.2M Spheria Asset Mgmt 0.0614 Becoming
IVE Group IGL $337.9M AustralianSuper 0.0502 Becoming
Virtus Health Ltd VRT $332.8M Allan Gray Australia 0.0509 Becoming
Peninsula Energy Ltd PEN $47.8M Pala Invstments 7.90% Ceasing
Uniti Wireless UWL $27.0m Copia Investment Partners 0.0552 Becoming
Wordpress Table Plugin

Changers

After crossing the 90% threshold, Ramelius Resources has continued chipping away at Explaurum (ASX: EXU) with the intention of fully acquiring the company. It now owns 93%.

While Ramelius has made an offer to remaining shareholders to sell, this closes on Friday and it seems it will move to compulsorily acquire shares afterwards.

Only a week after announcing it wanted to grow industrial hemp in Oregon, LTL Capital has increased its stake in CropLogic (ASX: CLI) from 5% to 8.37%.  

Despite Spheria Asset Management seemingly believing City Chic Collective’s (ASX: CCX) run will continue, Wilson Asset Manager is hedging its bets, reducing its 9.14% stake to 7.38%.

Although Adam Smith Asset Management did not follow Perpetual, FIL and CBA completely out the door of Xenith IP (ASX: XIP), it reduced its stake from 7.34% to 5.69%.

IOOF was another active fund manager this week reducing its stake in Pacific Energy (ASX: PEA) from 12.22% to 11.06%; whilst hiking its stake in RedBubble (ASX: RBL) from 5.04% to 6.05% and in Primero Group (ASX: PGX) from 8.95% to 10.34%.

Among the other notable ‘top ups’ were Vibumum Funds’ hike of its 20.99% stake in Coventry Group (ASX: CYG) to 26.1% and Immersion Capital’s increasing of its 14.17% stake in ELMO Software (ASX: ELO) to 15.58%.

 

Here is a wrap of all changes in substantial holder notices lodged with the ASX in the last week, among small cap companies.

Swipe or Scroll to reveal the full table. Click headings to sort.

Listed Company Code Market Cap Purchaser or Seller Previous Stake Current Stake
Adherium ADH $4.0m FIL 0.0846 0.0712
Lifestyle Communities LIC $530.0m Washington Soul Pattinson 0.061 0.071
LiveTiles LVT $214.2m Karl Redenbach 0.2018 0.1833
LiveTiles LVT $214.2m Peter Nguyen-Brown & NIA Tech 0.1785 0.1499
CropLogic CLI $3.9m LTL Capital 0.05 0.0837
Adairs ADH $316.8m Brett Blundy 0.153 0.141
Indoor Skydive Australia Group Ltd IDZ $2.6m Challenger 0.1266 0.1126
1414 Degrees 14D $49.6M Harold George Tomblin 0.0949 0.0627
Coventry Group CYG $64.2M Vibumum Funds 0.2099 0.261
Explaurum EXU $84.7M Rameulis 0.9092 0.9321
Global Energy Ventures GEV $52.1M Fletcher Maurice Brand 0.0655 0.062
Gas2Grid GGX $4.3M Dennis James Morton 0.1989 0.1575
IncentiaPay INP $20.5M Sinetech Ltd 0.1095 0.0876
Paragon Care Ltd PGC $161.8M Karst Peak Capital 0.0724 0.0596
PureProfile Ltd PPL $4.1M EFM Global Growth Fund 0.107 0.135
Reece Pharmaceuticals RCE $16.6M Graham & Olga Melrose 0.3552 0.2835
Xenith IP Group XIP $140.2M Adam Smith Asset Mgmt 0.0734 0.0569
8IP Emerging Companies 8IC $30.0m Mason Stevens Ltd 0.1205 0.1105
Black Rock Mining BKT $40.4m Copulous Group 0.2038 0.2152
Hillgrove Resources HGO $48.0m Munro Family Super Fund 0.085 0.0966
Pacific Energy PEA $275.0m IOOF Holdings 0.1222 0.1106
Incentia Pay Ltd INP $19.2m New Gold Coast Holdings 0.0548 0.1367
Red 5 Ltd RED $143.0m Ruffer LLP 0.0839 0.0692
1414 Degrees 14D $49.6M Harold George Tomblin 0.0949 0.0627
Coventry Group CYG $64.2M Vibumum Funds 0.2099 0.261
Global Energy Ventures GEV $52.1M Fletcher Maurice Brand 0.0655 0.062
Gas2Grid GGX $4.3M Dennis James Morton 0.1989 0.1575
IncentiaPay INP $20.5M Sinetech Ltd 0.1095 0.0876
Paragon Care Ltd PGC $161.8M Karst Peak Capital 0.0724 0.0596
PureProfile Ltd PPL $4.1M EFM Global Growth Fund 0.107 0.135
Xenith IP Group XIP $140.2M Adam Smith Asset Mgmt 0.0734 0.0569
City Chic Collective CCX $259.2M Wilson Asset Management 0.0914 0.0738
Celamin Holdings CNL $7.1M Lion Selection Group 0.2149 0.1926
ELMO Software ELO $283.9M Immersion Capital Master Fund 0.1417 0.1558
GBST Holdings GBT $115.1M Spheria Asset Mgmt 0.0758 0.0909
Gas2Grid Ltd GGX $4.2M David Munns 0.0619 0.0531
RedBubble Ltd RBL $254.9M IOOF Holdings 0.0504 0.0605
Primero Group PGX $64.4M IOOF Holdings 0.0895 0.1034
Wordpress Table Plugin

While all these were reported to the ASX this week, the change may have occurred several days earlier. This is not intended to be a comprehensive list and although investors’ outlooks in these companies may be implied from these decisions, they should not be relied on to make your own investment decisions.