Consumer Staples

Report by Iron Blue Financials

Following publication of its FY25 annual report Iron Blue lifts their RKT score +2pts to 28/60 (top quartile / fertile grounds for shorting). This reflects 1) 7-year high stripped out restructuring charge; 2) another spike lower in balance sheet trade spend accruals; 3) reduced inventory and bad debtor impairment provisions; 4) various additional risks related to NEC litigation, HS compensation changes and UK Suboxone civil proceedings within RKT’s contingent liabilities disclosures; 5) another increase in KPMG’s non-audit fees; and 6) the 14% discretionary upward adjustment to the CEO’s annual bonus to reflect strong share price performance (which compares with shares -14% FY26 YTD).

Report by MDC Financial Research

MDC follows significant legal disputes to provide clients with actionable investment ideas. Focus List situations that they believe may be among the most actionable during Q3 include Burford Capital, Reckitt Benckiser and Bayer. Burford is a UK based litigation funder that has already been awarded a Judgment totalling $16,099,788,293. Now, the challenge is to collect from the Republic of Argentina! Reckitt along with Abbott Laboratories are facing product liability lawsuits in the US regarding baby formula products causing NEC. The next bellwether trial will be in the Diggs Case scheduled to start on Aug 8th. As if Bayer hasn't faced enough toxic tort litigation regarding its Roundup weed killer product, it now faces potential liability for Polychlorinated Biphenyls. The next PCB Trial is scheduled to commence on Sep 8th.

Report by MDC Financial Research

MDC follows significant legal disputes to provide clients with actionable investment ideas that tend to be non-correlated with the market. They currently believe that the following companies will likely be involved in significant litigation in 2025 and 2026: Abbott Laboratories, Avadel Pharmaceuticals, Axsome Therapeutics, Bausch Health, Bayer, Burford Capital, Corcept Therapeutics, Exelixis, GSK, Harmony Biosciences, Johnson & Johnson, Liquidia, Live Nation, Reckitt and Sotera Health.

Consumer Staples

Report by Iron Blue Financials

RKT’s share price plunges to its lowest level in a decade following the Enfamil court case defeat. The market seems to have been caught totally unawares as the verdict triggered fears that RKT would face more financial liabilities from lawsuits related to the baby formula. However, Iron Blue had flagged this issue to clients last year when they highlighted additional risk commentary around a new contingent liability (US baby milk liability actions) and they also included it in their question list for clients to ask management more about. It is why one of the many things Iron Blue focuses on is y/y changes in annual report disclosures.

Consumer Discretionary

Report by Paragon Intel

Decision to hire Laxman Narasimhan as the new CEO could be a mistake - Paragon’s previous diligence report includes interviews with 18 former colleagues, all of whom found him to be arrogant, self-centred, insecure, and abrasive. As a result, he destroys company culture and is not well-liked. Furthermore, he lacks the ability to execute on a long-term strategy. At Reckitt he underperformed as CEO (destroyed 17% alpha for shareholders), performance they believe stems from a "lack of deep understanding of the business”. Paragon will be supplementing their previous work on Narasimhan with interviews with former colleagues at Reckitt.