March 31, 2022 - WLYYF
WELL Health Technologies Corp (WLYYF), a practitioner-focused digital health company, has been quietly carving a niche in the burgeoning telehealth landscape. While analysts focus on traditional metrics like revenue growth and EBITDA, a deeper dive into the provided financial data reveals a fascinating trend - a 'ghost asset' that could be significantly undervalued and represents a potential goldmine for the company.
The ghost asset in question? WELL Health's aggressive acquisition strategy, coupled with its unique approach to integrating acquired companies, appears to be generating substantial intangible value, primarily manifested in Goodwill. Now, before you dismiss Goodwill as an accounting quirk, consider this: WELL Health isn't just acquiring companies; it's systematically enhancing their value, turning them into more efficient, profitable parts of a larger, interconnected digital health ecosystem.
Let's look at the numbers. In 2018, WELL Health reported a Goodwill of $8.46 million. By the end of 2021, this figure had ballooned to a staggering $611.75 million CAD. This represents an astonishing 7,133% increase in just three years! While acquisitions naturally contribute to Goodwill, this meteoric rise points to something more than simple accounting.
WELL Health's CEO, Hamed Shahbazi, has often emphasized the company's 'omni-channel' approach, a strategy that integrates acquired companies into a unified platform, leveraging shared resources and technology to create operational synergies. This includes incorporating them into WELL's OSCAR Pro EMR platform, telehealth platforms like Tia Health and Circle Medical, and the Apps.health digital health marketplace. This approach not only streamlines operations but also expands market reach and improves patient access to a wider range of healthcare services.
The result? Acquired companies are not just absorbed; they're transformed, becoming more valuable within the WELL Health ecosystem than they were as standalone entities. This value creation, while difficult to quantify precisely, is reflected in the rapidly growing Goodwill figure.
Now, consider this. WELL Health's market capitalization, despite its significant growth, hovers around $857.68 million. This means that the company's 'ghost asset' - its Goodwill - represents almost 72% of its market value. This raises a crucial question: is the market accurately valuing the intangible asset WELL Health is diligently building?
"Let's assume that WELL Health decided to divest some of its acquired companies. Given the enhanced value they have gained within the company's ecosystem, it's highly likely that they would fetch a higher price than their initial acquisition cost. This potential 'hidden profit' is not factored into traditional financial metrics and remains largely invisible to the market."
WELL Health, with its focus on omni-channel integration and systematic value enhancement, is doing more than simply buying companies; it's constructing a powerful, integrated digital health network. This network, with its inherent synergies and potential for future monetization, could be significantly undervalued by the market, making WELL Health a potential dark horse in the race for telehealth dominance.
The question remains: Will the market eventually recognize the ghost in the machine, unlocking the hidden value within WELL Health's sprawling digital health empire?
"Fun Fact: WELL Health's CEO, Hamed Shahbazi, is a serial entrepreneur with a history of building successful tech companies. Before founding WELL Health, he co-founded and served as CEO of Tio Networks, a leading provider of bill payment solutions, which was acquired by PayPal in 2017."