I thought it was worth starting a thread to discuss and monitor Nearmap's expansion plans.
I found the slide below from the capital raising presentation fairly interesting, particularly the ranking of Australia at 14th. If Nearmap have a business that is spitting out free cash flow in Australia, success in the other markets, starting with the USA, will be absolutely massive.
Canada being ranked 7th suggests that it will be a bigger market than Australia, even if it is only a capital light expansion. With enough capital now, they can probably invest more in flights and marketing, but sales can still be driven from current US office. Interesting comment about distance from the equator limiting capture period, given they only really need to capture southern Canada, I don't think this will be a huge issue.
The difference in capture costs for Australia versus USA is interesting, Aus benefits from our population being so concentrated into so few big cities. I can imagine Canada won't be cheap to capture given its size, but we benefit from the AUD$ going a lot further in Canada as well (93cents to our dollar at the moment). Once the USA starts generating free cash flow, they could fund it out of US dollars, which would make it very affordable in the future!
Europe is definitely next on the agenda I would expect and I am not sure whether they target a UK expansion first, or a Netherlands base to target multiple countries (Germany, Netherlands, France, Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland) at the same time. Some risk with Brexit still on the table in the UK, but I can't see that having a huge impact on sales, it may determine where we set up first and I think Eagleview have started to push into the UK, so that is where I expect Nearmap to head first, given the aussie connection we have and much easier for staff from Sydney to move to the UK with families than to the Netherlands for example.
Either way, exciting times to be holding Nearmap shares.
View attachment 1281319
What ????
