value and opportunity

EVS Broadcast

Let’s start with the most disappointing update first: EVS Broadcast got slammed down after their Q1 trading statement:

I think three items spooked investors, including myself:

First, after confirming the guidance, both in the CEO and CFO statement, the press release suddenly contains this sentence in the Outlook section:

“In particular, the current situation in the Middle East may affect full-year revenue performance and could lead EVS toward the lower end of the guidance range. At the same time, given the strength of the pipeline and the opportunities currently identified, we believe there remains potential to offset this impact through execution in other areas of the business. “

Second, once again they mention that the 2026 year will be “back loaded”, i.e. investors will have little visibility how things will develop until the end of Q4.

And finally, the departure of the CFO lady without a direct replacement is also not optimal. I guess there has been some tension in the board.

Longer time EVS shareholders know that they always guide cautiously, but 2026 as an “event year” should have been a very good year and now it looks that it will not be materially better than the year before.

Anyway, at the moment I am clearly not increasing my position in EVS, rather the opposite. It was one of my larger positions and I think unless something changes (like maybe a big share buyback program), I will remain rather cautious.

Jensen Group

Luckily enough, my second Belgian stock, Jensen Group, is the exact opposite of EVS. Once again they started with a great quarter into the year and are “firing on all cylinders”.

The numbers look fantastic, the only question is why net income only rose by +10%, but maybe there was a tax effect:

They keep buying back shares ( a new 10% buyback program has been approved), book-to-bill is >1 and despite a new all time high, the stock is still cheap as earnings grow as fast as the stock price goes up. 

There is currently Absolutely nothing to complain with this company besides the fact that investors think that 11xP/E is the right valuation for such an outstanding company.

Wise Plc

Wise Plc finally listed on the Nasdaq and as a consequence, I do now have a Nasdaq listed share in my portfolio. The share price went up before the listing and actually reached its peak on the day of the listing on May 11th, only to drop significantly in the aftermath:

The listing for me was not the ultimate reason to invest, but of course it is interesting to see how much the stock dropped directly after the listing.

One factor might have been that JP Morgan seems to have reduced its price target by more than 10% following the listing.

Although not exactly so, this resembles a little bit wehn Ferguson (Wolsely) moved its primary listing to the US in March 2022. As we can see in the historical chart, the stock outperformed significantly before that move but then underperformed for some time thereafter:

Sunbelt rentals (the former Ashtead) also so a drop in relative performance a few days after its listing in the beginning of MArch 2026, but that is most likely due to the start of the Iran war:

Anyway, from a fundamental side, there hasn’t been any change with regard to Wise’s prospects, so no action there.

Installux

Finally, some of my readers might remember that I owned the French Micro Cap Installux for some time (bought in 2012 during the EUR crisis) but sold in 2021 with a decent return despite the stock being still cheap.

Yesterday, out of nowhere, Installux suddenly published that they bought out the largest minority shareholder, French Value Asset Manager Amiral at a share price of 500 EUR per share vs. 290 EUR which was the last trade before that announcement.

Interestingly, the Canty family now has ~88% of the shares and is extending the offer to all other shareholders. Interestingly the 500 EUR are almost the all time high from 2021:

Installux is an interesting case study insofar as the family clearly had very little incentive to show to the outside how good the business actually is. Their long term mission was clearly to get full control of the company. Amiral really had a lot of patience here.

At the end of the day it shows that if you invest into shares like Installux, timing and patience is really everything. You either have to get in when they are extremely cheap or be lucky to be there when the family finally wants to gain full control.

On the positive side, the Canty family never did anything fishy and the final offer seems kind of fair.