Yesterday I mentioned that I would follow up today with notes from the Thunderbird Entertainment (TBRD.CA, THBRF) earnings call. Here are a few tidbits from that call.
There was a lot of talk about inclusivity and diversity on the call, both in terms of people and partners working for/with Thunderbird as well as the types of content the company seeks to produce and the messages it seeks to deliver.
Q3 is typically a strong quarter due to the timing of deliveries, and this year’s record Q3 was no exception.
Company is on track to meet/beat 2020’s growth rate.
Management says the pandemic has accelerated the pace of demand for content, especially animated content. In 2019 Thunderbird received 18 bids for animated content. That went up to 67 bids in 2020, and the company is on pace to receive over 80 in 2021 (that’s more than two per week).
The animation team has 800 people working for it and should have 900 by end of 2021.
There was some talk about new projects with all the streamers, new video games and consumer products, but nothing major and new.
There was a lot of talk about M&A potential and what Thunderbird might be interested in. Management wouldn’t speak to specifics, but repeated that it needs to see accretive financials, good cultural fit, programming that would be in demand by streamers for in-country programming, and more. Short story here, they want to do some M&A and become the next major global studio, and international is a part of that, but they don’t want to get bigger just for the sake of getting bigger.
That’s it for now. The stock is up modestly today and remains a buy. BUY