Hi Simon,
You are right, ARB manufactures its products primarily in Australia, with its main production facility located in Melbourne, however, they also work with overseas manufacturing partners in countries like Thailand and the United States for certain products, though its core engineering, research & development, and a significant portion of manufacturing remain in Australia.
We don’t think tariffs are a major issue for them, they generally source raw materials here while some speciality metals or components may be sourced from global suppliers to meet specific engineering needs, things like shock absorber internals, certain electronic components, LED chips etc.
The SP weakness is more a reflection on growth expectations in the US, which was over 10% of their revenue in Fy24 and is growing. It was interesting to see founders Roger and Andrew Brown indirectly through related entities acquire roughly A$1 million of ARB shares last week, increasing their positions by ~1% to about a 6% holding in the company.
- We are long ARB in our Emerging Companies Portfolio, liking the stock after recent weakness.