The 8I Holdings Ltd (ASX: 8IH) share price has spiked today. 8I shares are up 8.33% to 20 cents a share at the time of writing, after surging as high as 22 cents a share earlier in the trading day. 8I shares closed at 18 cents a share yesterday and opened at 20 cents this morning, where they have trended back to after this morning's spike.
It's been an interesting year for this company, share-price wise. It started 2020 at 9 cents a share, where it has hovered for most of the year, with occasional swings to 10 cents and 12 cents a share. Last month, 8I shares briefly spiked as high as 36 cents a share, but have trended lower since.
8I has had a rough trot since the company's initial public offering (IPO) on the ASX back in November 2015 (almost exactly 5 years ago). 8I hit the ASX boards at $1 a share and briefly rose as high as $1.38 over the subsequent month or two. But it has been downhill ever since, with the shares reaching a low of 5.5 cents last year.
So why is the 8I share price spiking today?
Who is 8I Holdings?
8I is a Singapore-based company that claims to have a vision to "change the financial education landscape". It was founded in 2006 when (in the company's words) "8 individuals decided to come together to analyse companies in the stock market using the principles of value investing, a concept that was not known to many back then."
As you might have gathered, 8I is in the funds management business. It has one flagship fund – Hidden Champions Capital Management – which is based in Singapore and invests in public companies in the Asia-Pacific region. According to the company, its strategy is based on "value-adding, nimble and scalable growing 'Hidden Champions' that are typically at the forefront of their markets to achieve long-term investment returns."
In addition to this fund, 8I also offers a financial education technology by the name of VI. VI is a proprietary stock analysis tool that analyses traditional financial data and claims to simplify "the complex stock analysis and decision-making process for equity investors into easy-to-use visuals".
This technology is operated through a separate company called 8VI Holdings Ltd (ASX: 8VI), of which 8I is the majority shareholder.
Why are 8I shares spiking today?
Today's dramatic share price move can likely be put down to two reasons.
First, the company's half-yearly interim report, covering the 6 months to 30 September 2020, which was released on Monday night. In this report, 8I told investors that revenue and investment income came in at S$17.88 million, up 272% from the same period last year. That helped profits after tax rise 655% from the same period in 2019 to S$6.59 million.
The company attributed the growth in revenue and investment income to the improved performance of its restructured Hidden Champions Fund.
Second, the 8VI Holdings share price has been on a tear in recent days. As we discussed earlier, 8I holds a significant stake in 8VI, so any gains that 8VI make also boost the valuation of 8I itself.
8VI shares are up 16.18% just today, and have climbed almost 80% this week alone, giving the company a market capitalisation of $63.4 million. 8I Holdings itself has a current market cap of $70.9 million.
