Ocado - comment

The '30s should be a little lower on these results. UK solutions outperformed our expectations in revenue and EBITDA, but with £256m of revenue, Technology, once adjusted, fell short quite significantly of our £309m expectations. Predictably, its EBITDA fell short by the same amount, so that overall EBITDA of £81m (adjusted for closure fees) was some £15m below expectations. Cash flow was poor when stripping out the £263m payments received from Kroger and Sobeys. On a positive note, the Jan'27 convertible (our long-running long position) is now fully cash funded, and we will consider trading out. Not sizeable enough to shift numbers materially, the recently announced ASDA partnership is a confidence boost to the Ocado story.