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BCA also owns Cinch ,they are takeing over the world were doomed i say doomed
BCA receives approach ,all cash ,for £2.43 .BCA indicates it will accept and i'm off to buy a new suit
I used to have BCA shares, but I wouldn't consider them now. The problem I have here is WBAC. Its a rip off, the adverts even acknowledge it, focussing only on convenience and time saving, not even pretending to give a fair financial deal to the consumer. With its flash TV adverts and use of celebrities I think WBAC is very similar to WONGA, with the same sort of perception by the public.
BCA were once really respected. I'm 61 11/12 ths now (cant bring myself to say 62) and when I was 17 used to drive spluttering old Ford Zodiacs etc through the Measham site for British Car Auctions. I'm sure the leaded petrol fumes did no lasting damage!! My point is that it was a very respectable honest company then. But not this.
I would question that you have good management here. WBAC is undoubtedly profitable - why wouldn't it be when they are rooking their punters. But its image is really very bad, and I think getting worse. Its profitable so while it is the CEO should dump it to whatever slick suited parasites he can find for a good price and focus of the decent core of the other BCA businesses.
Amidst all the guff this morning, operational cash flow down 36 million.
I attended Bca sites they have no extraction for the fumes emitted by all vehicles on there sites ,there for the valued customers who have been doing this for many years face the long term effects .were else could you stand behind 1,000 Vehicles per day with no extraction or fresh air .Were is health and safety in the auction buying process.
Plus I hear of accidents daily on site, including most recent loss of limbs at paddock wood days ago . Is this company above normal health and safety rules.
Any reason known?
I’m long on BCA but I’m not sure your analogy is wholly correct. If the cars are returned after only 3 year leases the garages themselves may still want the option to sell the vehicles themselves as they will probably be well maintained graded cars that buyers may want with warranties and the perceived security of a buying from a garage. Fingers crossed there will still be enough legs for BCA to get to the £3 mark, either with further increased profits, increasing their dividend or a takeover approach.
Pretty quiet here.. anyone any views on the current m&a situation?
I'm sure people did post on this board where have they gone, all disappeared?
Up again ,happy new year .!!!
I sold my car to webuyanycar.com today. Quick sale, not a great price. The initial value is reasonable, but then reductions are made for every scratch, bump, dent, even those that are hard to see or were unnoticed. The salesman has no say in the reductions, they are worked out for them; they just take note of any damage (if that is what it is) and feed it into the computer. However, it did give me food for thought about the company. Profit is based on volume of cars bought and sold. I am impressed by who the institutional investors are here and their % holding. I wasn't looking to invest anywhere more but I will look into it over the weekend. It wasn't the reason for selling my car!. This maybe of the radar at present and I notice the b board is quiet - usually a good sign. Regards CM
James Corsellis, a Marwyn director who is stepping down from Entertainment One’s board, said: ‘This remains an important investment for Marwyn and we continue to be excited by the scale of the opportunity that faces Entertainment One going forward.’ MVIL, a £150 million closed ended fund, has achieved a five-year, 227% total gain for investors. It will return £5.3 million to shareholders, the third time it has distributed this sum since the start of last year. It will invest around £15 million in three of its 13 other investments, including BCA Marketplace (BCA + ), the seond hand car dealer behind webuyanycar.com, which it acquired in a £1.2 billion reverse takeover by Haversham. Marwyn adopts a distinctive 'build and sell' approach to its investments. Haversham was a shell company it launched last year with Avril Palmer-Baunack, the former bosss of Autologic, with backing from leading investment groups Invesco, Woodford and Artemis.
new car sales were up 9% last year, 80% of those were leased vehicles. This means in 3 years time the cars will be returned, flooding the market with secondhand cars, all or most of them will be sold at auction, repeating every year, meaning constant revenue for BCA. Tied with their other automotive/engineering/services businesses, dividends will be guaranteed. Further acquisitions will grow the company, and, depending on the efficiency and skills of the management tied with good debt management, grow the share price also. Regards
Is the next step and 70% held by institutions! Gut feel is there is money to be made here at this price but any input appreciated.
Britain's biggest secondhand car dealer is gearing up to change hands in a £1.2bn takeover engineered by some of the City’s largest investors. Sky News has learnt that British Car Auctions (BCA) is in detailed talks about a deal that would involve it being bought by a listed vehicle called Haversham Holdings. Haversham was set up last year to swoop on "substantial companies and businesses in the UK and European automotive, support services, leasing, engineering or manufacturing sectors". Fronted by Avril Palmer, who ran Autologic and had a short-lived spell as boss of Stobart, the haulier company, Haversham has backing from a funding group comprising including Aviva Investors, Artemis, Invesco and Schroders. The firm set up by Neil Woodford, the UK's best-known fund manager, is also understood to be a key supporter of the proposed takeover. Insiders said on Saturday that Haversham planned to raise £1.2bn from its investors to fund the deal. A statement responding to news of the plan to take control of BCA could be made to the stock exchange as early as Monday, although a source cautioned that it was not yet certain to happen. If the deal proceeds, it will be the second time in six months that Clayton Dubilier & Rice (CD&R), the private equity firm which acquired BCA in 2009, has looked at offloading BCA. It would also coincide with a £2.5bn flotation of Auto Trader, which is owned by rival buyout firm Apax Partners. Last autumn, CD&R pulled a flotation of BCA, blaming volatile global equity markets. At the time, it said: "The board and shareholders were very encouraged by the broad engagement and interest in BCA shown by investors and remain excited about supporting the next phase of the group's growth. "BCA has an excellent track record as Europe's leading used vehicle marketplace with strong revenues and earnings growth on the back of momentum across its physical and digital platforms." Operating from more than 200 locations across Europe, BCA claims to be more than two-and-a-half times the size of its nearest competitor. BCA owns the online vehicle buying operation webuyanycar.com, which acquired 120,000 vehicles in 2013. It said last autumn that over the three-year period to the end of 2013, BCA saw revenues rise 74% to £442.3m, with adjusted pre-tax profit growing by 27% to £62.5m. In total, more than 900,000 vehicles were sold using BCA in 2013, with 37% of those transactions taking place online, highlighting the growing importance of digital channels in the sector. The proposed structure of the BCA takeover would echo a plan used last year by a group of heavyweight City figures to take control of the AA, the roadside recovery service, and list it through a form of accelerated initial public offering. Haversham’s broker Cenkos Securities and Bank of America Merrill Lynch are understood to be among the advisers working