Clough milked A$187m from latest stake sell-off

Net cash is creeping close to A$370m.

According to Nomura, CLO has sold its stake in Forge Group with gross proceeds of A$187mn.

Post the sale CLO is expected to have net cash of close to A$370mn (pre tax on sale of c. A$30mn to be paid Dec13). CLO has indicated that it will continue to pursue acquisition opportunities and/or capital management.

Here's more from Nomura:

We have reduced our FY13F EPS by 5% and FY14F by 22% with FGE out of earnings and proceeds assumed to remain in cash (no change to CLO parent EBIT forecasts).

Acquisitions/buy-backs provide material upside to forecasts (for reference net cash fully deployed to acquisitions provides 50%-60% EPS upside on acquisition multiples of 5x-6x EBIT).