Lifestyle Communities Limited (ASX: LIC) develops, owns and manages residential land lease communities (RLLCs) in Victoria and was founded in 2003. Its share price is up 29.3% since I first wrote about it back in August 2015.
The company is currently struggling to build new parks quickly enough to keep up with demand. The average age of its residents is 72 years old and so Lifestyle Communities benefits from Australia's ageing population. There is also a relative shortage of RLLCs in Victoria with 82% of communities currently located in New South Wales and Queensland.
Unlike retirement villages, upfront costs for customers are low with RLLCs but both charge ongoing rental fees to provide services and maintain communal areas such as club houses and swimming pools. Lifestyle Communities charges between 75% and 85% of local median house prices upfront, but residents must also pay up to 20% of sale proceeds when they move out.
Although deferred fees have attracted some controversy, they are good for people who want to free up some equity in their homes. Management says that 33% of sales are referred by existing customers and that on average new developments are selling more quickly than the company's earlier projects.
Lifestyle Communities has reached a size where its rental income now exceeds the cost of running its parks. It pays dividends from this growing earnings stream and uses the cash received from settlements to develop new communities.
Just 53% of Lifestyle Communities' existing homes under planning, development or management are settled. Even if the company stopped developing new sites, it would experience strong growth in recurring revenues just from completing and selling its existing inventory.
MNF Group Ltd (ASX: MNF) is one of the best performing stocks on the ASX over the past five years with shares rising by a whopping 2,150% over this time. However, it is still a small company with a market capitalisation of $273.4 million and so there is plenty of scope for further gains in the future.
MNF Group owns and operates Australia's largest Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network as well as a global network with Points of Presence (POPs) in Los Angeles, New York, Hong Kong, Singapore, London, Frankfurt, Sydney and Auckland. It sells IP telephony services to consumers, businesses of all sizes, governments and resellers.
Although VoIP has been around for some time now, it is still only responsible for 34% of global call time. That percentage is likely to continue rising due to the cost and flexibility advantages of VoIP over traditional telephone networks. Growth is likely to be particularly strong for mobile phones where usage has doubled every year since 2010.
Thanks to some astute acquisitions and strong organic growth, MNF Group has lifted earnings-per-share from 1.9 cents in 2011 to a forecast 12.6 cents in 2016. Similarly, dividend payments have risen from 1.3 cents in 2011 to 6.75 cents in the last year.
MNF Group has little net debt and is forecasting net profit after tax (NPAT) of $8.4 million this year. This figure includes amortisation related to the 2015 TNZI acquisition and therefore potentially understates the company's true profitability by $1 million to $2 million.
The stock isn't cheap based on current earnings, but the company has an excellent track record. It also owns international and domestic VoIP networks that are becoming increasingly valuable due to the continuing transition away from traditional telephone networks.
