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18 September 2025
By Maynard Paton
I am once again looking for ‘value bargains’ and revisiting a screen that identifies companies trading at less than book value.
Importantly, this screen attempts to avoid ‘value traps’ by demanding the shares offer net cash, dividend payments and a history of trading above book value.
The exact filter criteria I redeployed were:
- A price to net tangible assets of no more than 1;
- A dividend being paid during the most recent year;
- A 10-year average price to net tangible assets of at least 1;
- Net borrowings less total leases of no more than 0 (i.e. a net cash position excluding IFRS 16 lease obligations), and;
- A share price denominated in pounds sterling.
This time ShareScope returned 14 companies:
I selected Churchill China because, among the 14 shortlisted companies, its shares had previously traded at the highest average multiple of net tangible assets.
Sure enough, Churchill’s 430p shares are priced at 21% less than the 545p per share net tangible asset value:
And yet the shares have in the past traded at beyond 5x net tangible value.
Let’s take a closer look.
Read my full CHURCHILL CHINA article for ShareScope >>Maynard Paton
