Topic: Since our last update, the portfolio composition has changed significantly, showing that the strategic transformation of the company is in full swing.

Samara´s overall portfolio composition is still dominated by the even increased position in Northern Data (Samara is now holding 11.2% of outstanding shares; 58% of NAV) that is the only listed company in the portfolio after canceling the 11.5% holding in Samara Treasury shares. Importantly, the “fund investments” are further ramping up to now 26% of NAV (€ 31m; i.e. € 15m into SAM), followed by BTC&Crypto holdings that are also up to € 17m accounting for 14% of NAV. The remaining eight investments are all non-listed private companies that contribute a combined 5.6% to the portfolio NAV.

In our view, the latest changes in the holding portfolio are strongly supporting Samara´s strategic transition from a leading publicly traded Bitcoin and blockchain holding company to a deep-tech powered alternative asset management platform. After the weak 2022, the year 2023 is clearly a transition year for Samara, characterized, by the sale of its biggest portfolio position B1 in July (for € 110m at a € 4bn valuation) as well as further investments into Samara Alpha Management (€ 2.3m direct investment into SAM and € 15m into the SAM funds). The goal of the SAM team is to capitalize on inefficiencies in the digital asset space and deliver compelling risk-adjusted returns. Further, SAM opens doors for investors seeking exposure to this asset class with its digital asset management platform. In order to ensure to have only the best managers on the platform and increase its reach, Samara is i,e, choosing the winner of the bitcoin alpha competition and invest € 1m into it.

While Samara is benefitting from the strong recent stock price performance of ND (330% YTD from € 5.7 to € 26 as 27.10.2023) and the positive development of BTC and other cryptos throughout the last weeks and months (BTC is up 105% YTD), Samara is also holding a couple of non-performing assets such as Cloudeo, Nextmarkets and Xpay that all have not out as expected and show again the risks that are associated with such early stage investments.

Since Samara is holding 11.2% of ND and on avg only 15k shares are traded per day, we increase our holding discount on the NAV to 10%.

HOLD with a reduced PT of € 2.00 based on our SOTP.