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https://www.newgatecomms.com/blog/index.php/2019/08/22/newgate-secures-the-economist-open-future-festival-win/
'Newgate Communications has been appointed by The Economist to lead communications for its Open Future Festival initiative in Manchester.'
They are also up for the Holmes Report Corporate/Financial Consultancies of the Year. Holmes pointing to their Asian operation.
https://www.holmesreport.com/events-awards/agencies-of-the-year/2019-agencies-of-the-year/asia-pacific
Sec was 125p in August 2018. It's down 38% today to 40p. I think were getting 0.88p per share. Why is a company supposedly making 2.6m unaudited profit worth so little? Is this due to the losses they have suffered on Porta? What does this mean for the shares we will be offered? Perhaps like Porta most of these profits are going to third party shareholders.
Are they dropping the price deliberately just before the deal? Can anything now be done to stop this deal?
Yorkshire energy company acquired in £4m deal
https://www.insidermedia.com/insider/deals/yorkshire-energy-company-acquired-in-4m-deal
Newgate advise John Laing Environmental Assets Group (JLEN).
https://www.prweek.com/article/1590944/newgate-advises-investment-firm-planned-750m-thomas-cook-package
Guessing this is an Asian client of theirs? Fosum.
Worth noting that this has the same chairman as PTSG which rose 110% today and has been instrumental in the merger. He has a great history of getting things right
What a share price.
Up to 94 on Newgate staff page now. Ian Morris appears to be a new partner. Among 1-2 new junior staff.
Share price now below the 0.77p it was suggested in the merger deal. Such a shame what is happening here.
Seems to me like they ran out of money. Debts and fact that their bureaucratic UK operation was churning cash.
Have to wait and see what this Sec merger does. With 10-11m debt we will get heavily diluted, Especially if all turned to equity.
I had hoped another firm might put an offer in here but it seems no one wants to come in here. They would have to pay 15m or so if they wanted to take out the debt. A merger to slash costs would really help here.
Sec released a somewhat strong trading update on 9th May. What cost savings can the 2 firms together really add here? Paying off debt could save 1m a year. Sharing locations could also save a lot. Slashing management costs would be the key here. This board of directors are costing 1m or so a year?
How much do we really trust the Italian accounts here? Their previous results showed many errors. Their full year results are due out soon?
I’ve lost a fortune on this stock
Any news,Anyone
Are the board competent?
All big names but that means nothing
Just my angry thoughts!!!!!!
...so am I thank God. Worst share I've ever held.
Yes TTMV was a classic case of one big client which if they go the business fails.
Summit never really seemed to make money. Same for their European offices which just seemed to go.
Redleaf/Publicasity have done okay.
Newgate Uk has been like a lost sheep. It just seems like no one was watching what money was being spent.
The large volume of senior hires DW bought in just never seemed to cover their wages. Large bits of work can be very profitable but if they don't come in then you are just left with a large wage bill. These senior hires were on huge wages. Some of their existing staff it seems were not covering their wages either. (How can you run a business like that?)
The fact that they could find 3.6m of costs that could be removed says a lot here. That coupled with crippling loans and large rent costs made Newgate almost unprofitable. These new firms should of been integrated much sooner. Partly delayed by fact they never fully owned Redleaf. It might have been better to offer an all share buy out of Redleaf at start and strip out costs asap.
There is a lot of dividends from Asian firms still leaving Newgate. So 1.5M profit which a 1/3rd+quickly gets paid out to third parties. Even so with 1m or so buffer the UK office needed to make some money. I think the belief of the board was that they would quickly expand and find cost savings this way. It just never seemed to happen as they ran out of cash and the SP dropped. The way this merger with SEC is taking place shows how far Porta has fallen from it's 13-17p grace.
I hate to say this but the board have been led by ego and greed
Look at the salaries!!
Business is simple income must exceed expenditure
Forward earnings come next to build shareholder confidence
Even before DW took over From WFCA/TTMV it was going wrong
The Morton’s have been living off reputations of old and that applies to the current CEO
Such a shame but not unusual on AIM stocks
'In June 2018, Porta ceased payment of the interest on the RGL instrument, and as such started to incur penalty interest on the capital and unpaid interest, resulting in a debt increase of £0.6m. Combined with the £0.3m of accrued interest on the DDB, accounted for an increase of £0.9m of the debt balance, which was marginally offset by decreases in finance lease obligations and the RCF, part of which was re-paid.'
So if they don't make certain debt target they incur rates of 12%. Looks like June 2018 they were running out of cash. I guess this merger will remove the debt? This business needs a 10-12m cash injection. Remove 1.3m of yearly interest and after all the add backs they might make some money. The write off of 0.5m will help 2019 accounts.
Overall the Asian businesses seem to be doing well. China businesses booming. Middle East operations have recovered well. It's just the core costs in the UK causing a financial burden. Same story as last year. They needed to make cut backs in the UK but it seems 0.8-1.4m to do this was too big a burden.
See what the merger brings. How much more cost savings can be made with SEC? 2-3 million if they remove debt completely? If people are going to make money out of this it wont be the Porta Shareholders.
Yes the silence had me worried. I knew something was up.
Their annual report says as of 11/03/2019 Hales Hargreaves still had all 25m shares. No idea about Jeremy Wyatt or other holders here below 3%.
This is a reverse merger. Will it not be on the AIM market? Not read all the jargon in full. Overall it does not look good. As we will likely get diluted by parties injecting monies into the firm. They won't want to take on 10m debt at 8%. SEC already has financial duties to pay for ownership of other firms.
Problem with Porta is it went wrong a few years back when TTMV and 1-2 other offices failed. Debt has since spiralled. The share have been heavily diluted with nearly 200m shares since. The minute the share collapsed it stopped them doing any proper mergers.
I think it's only a merger as SEC failed to raise 4-5m in their fund raiser on the open market last year.
Porta has never really been able to afford these 8-12% loans. They have crippled the firms finances. Many investors here are down 10's of thousands here. I know quite a few wanting to sell at these prices fearing they will lose everything. Difficult decision time. Will this new group start making money?
What is your thoughts?
Not keen on the so called merger and dealing in the new stock may not be easy
4.4m loss after 3rd party payouts. Further loans planned. Revenue circa 35-36m. Conversion rate of Porta shares here is very small. Not worked out the actual value at current market prices. Too much to take in.
Foxy Bingo!
https://www.holmesreport.com/latest/article/emea-news-in-brief-(march-25-2019)
LONDON — Foxy Bingo has tasked Publicasity with its digital strategy and Facebook community management along with news creation and media sell-in. Foxy Bingo is home to over 10 online rooms of 75-ball, 90-ball, 80-ball and 30-ball bingo slots. The account is headed up by managing partner Paul McCaffrey.
Publicasity may also be in running for Yakult contract. Albeit there are 2 other firms tendering for this from what I can see. Fingers crossed Google is not making that up.
Looks like a decent contract win covering many areas. Hope this is no April fools joke! It's after 12 now.
https://www.prweek.com/article/1580695/brief-air-new-zealand-chooses-agency-ketchum-adds-fitness-client-wins-newgate-agent-42
'Newgate wins account for leading HR and payroll provider
Integrated corporate reputation agency Newgate Communications has won a competitive pitch to provide corporate PR support to Moorepay. The company provides over 10,000 SME businesses with sophisticated software to make their payroll and HR easier and a suite of service solutions to support happy, healthy workplaces and boost wellbeing at work. Newgate will provide corporate communications support, including two significant campaigns for this year, alongside stakeholder and influencer engagement, and media relations.'
More chance of good news on IQE right now than here? Didn't know how to remove post below. Someone needs to report the post?
No idea when results will be. End of April? Will they actually tell us before they arrive? Friend thinks there will be no major news till debt restructured. I think they want to get all bad news cleared from 2018. Then they can announce 2019 as the year they are closer to or in profit. 2-3m cost savings and no profit would look bad. Q4 is the key period. They have been announcing a lot of new clients which is hopefully good news.
I still have faith in this share albeit the background sellers keep dumping 500-700k of shares. Really confusing to know who actually owns what shares here. Ruffers and Herlad management sold out? I assume someone else is buying these shares?
In terms of IQE I see a similar pattern to what happened here. They keep promising the world then fail to deliver. Not suprised it fell from 180p to 57p, This is one reason not to keep doing RNS if 1-2 months later the news is actually worse. Albeit the RNS news here has pretty much dried up. Not had any real news in 3-4 months. Albeit their Twitter feeds do give client and other news.
Their European partners SEC are not doing well. Share price peaked around 120p now around 80p. Little or no news apart from changes of advisors, accounting issues and one acquistion. I wonder if like Porta they may run out of cash. Hence why no takeover here from them. In fact their investment here has fallen by 2-3m. When you part buy companies it can cost xm a few years later.
Fingers crossed 2019 is year Porta can turn the corner. No news is normally good news. That or they are just not telling us anything. We will see soon enough.
Hi Gotrader just as well I follow you on IQE board as well as PTCM!
New client Koovs PLC. Clothing firm getting help from all areas of Newgate it seems. Including the CEO.
https://www.newgatecomms.com/blog/index.php/2019/03/29/koovs-plc-appoints-newgate-as-its-financial-comms-adviser/
Newgate Communications has appointed Nina Dowell, chief operating officer (COO), to the board, resulting in the most senior managerial roles, executive chair, chief executive and COO, being held by women. Nina is responsible for all administrative functions supporting the effectiveness of client-facing teams in the UK and is a member of the UK’s senior leadership team. She is responsible for finance, IT and facilities and talent acquisition. Deborah Saw, executive chair of Newgate, said: “We are very proud of the fact that the three most senior roles in our agency are held by women. Nina brings a wealth of experience, expertise and insight to the board. She is a key member of the team.”
Some big sells going through but share price not really moving. Unclear what holdings all the major shareholders have now. FT and other sites no longer show HH and Ruffers full holding. Same for Herald Investment Management. The shares must be going somewhere?
https://www.iqep.com/media/2019/03/ambitious-plans-for-the-world%E2%80%99s-first-compound-semiconductor-cluster-awarded-seed-funding/
'Each of the shortlisted projects from the first wave of UK Research and Innovation’s Strength in Places Fund has been awarded up to £50k in early-stage funding, which will allow applicants to develop full-stage bids. Teams behind these projects will then submit these bids to UK Research and Innovation in late 2019, with four to eight of the strongest set to receive between £10m and £50m each to carry out projects designed to drive substantial economic growth.'
So they could get 10-50m in cash from the government?
In terms of SP. The short website was not updated on Friday. It looks like 2 brokers have reduced SP target. 70p and 120p. Debt is not a huge issue right now as they have the credit facility. I don't know how much funds they need to set up the current facilities over next 12-24 month. If they can match their prfot forcares some debt should be acceptable if they are making money.
Is current SP fall due to new shorts under 0.5% or funds just getting out. Sadly we can't see those below 0.5%. I think the major shareholder here is likely still buying. They were happily buying at prices 10-15p above this. Maybe even arranged?
This is the issue with IQE. It's become a day trading share. You buy at the low points and sell at 20p higher before the next fall. Could be H2 before we see some real pressure on price here.
https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/fogchain-appoints-newgate-communications-as-its-pr-adviser-2019-03-19
Fogchain appointed Newgate as PR advisor. Small company but a new client none the less. They are based in Canada.
PR Weekly showing Newgate Communications have hired Dan Clay from WPP. He has been on there website since end of January. Not sure why some PR news is so slow to come out. PR timing.
Also not had an RNS from Porta for 3 months now. No news is good news?
Staff page up to 93 now. Could be part of the UK research arm or new clients
They were financial PR for Digitalbox IPO. Small fry but least they are still getting them.