Oura: Wedded to wellness
It’s IPO time for Finland’s finest smart-ring maker, which is planning to list on the Nasdaq in the next month at a valuation expected to be well north of the $11bn mark at which it raised funds last year. The 13-year-old company sneaked into profitability for the first time last year and for the nine months to end-June made a $60.8m profit on revenues of $1.21bn, up a healthy 74% year on year.
The business model involves flogging the rings themselves for about $400, which currently generates around 80% of its revenues, then charging wellness fans a subscription of $70 a year to access a wide range of health data on its app. The ring monitors data points such as blood oxygen levels, heart and respiration rates, movement and temperature trends to provide users with information on everything from their quality of sleep to stress levels and personal fitness goals to ovulatory cycles.
The subscription service should provide a remarkably sticky revenue stream, with a user base that doubled in the year to 5-million at a gross margin of 89%. Fans, of whom 72% are women and 73% are under the age of 45, open the app on average 3½ times a day and can become remarkably obsessive about checking out their sleeping scores and other such metrics. The ring itself may not be the most aesthetically pleasing item ever to grace a celebrity finger, but its latest iteration is 40% less chunky than its predecessor and has won the endorsement of the occasional Kardashian.
DP World: Can’t fight this sinking feeling
Its flagship port and free-trade zone of Jebel Ali generated around 30% of DP World’s revenues last year, not to mention about 20% of Dubai’s total GDP. As the largest shipping hub in the Middle East, it has played a critical role in diversifying Dubai’s economy. But all that has come to a crashing halt with the collapse of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. No matter how much posturing comes out of the White House claiming complete control of the soon-to-be-named Trump Strait, the numbers tell the real story.
Container throughput at Jebel Ali fell by 86% in the second quarter to 374,000 TEUs, down from 2.7-million in the first quarter. Even after June’s interim deal to stop the shooting and start to reopen the strait, an average of only 17 vessels a day passed through in the week to August 28. Before the war, the daily average was around 135. This week’s resumption of hostilities won’t have helped to turn the tide.
DP World is investing in two terminals at Fujairah, on the east coast of the UAE and outside the strait, but these routes are far more expensive once inland transport costs are factored in. They will also be a long way off from the world-class efficiency of Jebel Ali. Overall DP World was able to minimise the damage and keep trade flowing through its network of ports, with container volumes elsewhere up around 8% year on year, but its net profits were down 39% in the first half. For the future prosperity of Dubai and Jebel Ali, peace can’t come soon enough.
