Considering the recent plight of Bellamy's Australia Ltd (ASX: BAL), investors could be forgiven for giving any up-and-coming infant formula companies a wide berth.
But that certainly wasn't the case yesterday when the shares of Bubs Australia Ltd (ASX: BUB) listed on the ASX through a reverse takeover of Hillcrest Litigation Services.
With a listing price of 10 cents, investors scrambled to get hold of shares causing them to rocket higher by 35% on day one to finish the day at 13.5 cents.
Bubs is an award-winning specialist manufacturer of goats milk infant formula and organic baby food that is stocked by Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES) through its Coles supermarkets.
Like a2 Milk Company Ltd (Australia) (ASX: A2M), Bubs also has a growing presence in the China market through online retail giant JD.com.
Interestingly on its board of directors is Nancy Zhang, the wife of billionaire JD.com founder Richard Liu. I believe her involvement and in particular her knowledge of the Chinese retail market will be a valuable asset moving forward.
In FY 2016 the company delivered sales of $4.3 million, up from $2 million a year earlier. If it can find its footing in a crowded Chinese market then I believe there is a good chance of this strong growth continuing for some time to come.
But is Bubs a buy?
So far I like what I have seen with Bubs. I believe it has a quality product, a strong brand, a growing retail presence, and an influential and experienced board of directors.
But it is of course still early days and therefore comes with reasonably higher than normal investment risk.
For this reason I would suggest you restrict any investment in the company to just a small part of your portfolio at this point in time.
