We would love to hear your thoughts about our site and services, please take our survey here.
London South East prides itself on its community spirit, and in order to keep the chat section problem free, we ask all members to follow these simple rules. In these rules, we refer to ourselves as "we", "us", "our". The user of the website is referred to as "you" and "your".
By posting on our share chat boards you are agreeing to the following:
The IP address of all posts is recorded to aid in enforcing these conditions. As a user you agree to any information you have entered being stored in a database. You agree that we have the right to remove, edit, move or close any topic or board at any time should we see fit. You agree that we have the right to remove any post without notice. You agree that we have the right to suspend your account without notice.
Please note some users may not behave properly and may post content that is misleading, untrue or offensive.
It is not possible for us to fully monitor all content all of the time but where we have actually received notice of any content that is potentially misleading, untrue, offensive, unlawful, infringes third party rights or is potentially in breach of these terms and conditions, then we will review such content, decide whether to remove it from this website and act accordingly.
Premium Members are members that have a premium subscription with London South East. You can subscribe here.
London South East does not endorse such members, and posts should not be construed as advice and represent the opinions of the authors, not those of London South East Ltd, or its affiliates.
Considered "top up" with this years ISA but seeing massive gap between Buy and Sell price ! Invested elsewhere with little difference in value of the trades. A pity the huge gap at Nichols.
Having gone ex. divi. the sp has slumped again. I can see no reason for the market being so negative to this company !
Well Uh-oh, i think you are correct. The company is indeed trading well. The results to-day certainly justified a boost in the sp. an Aim share to stay with for a steady long term investment and there are few of those about!
My guess, ironknut, is that the weakness is little more than an investor trying to sell a tranche of shares. As you will appreciate, there is very little liquidity in most AIM stocks and so when there is an overhang, price movements on the downside can get overdone. Indeed, the more the shares fall, the more fear creeps in and buyers go to ground. We know from a recent update that the company is trading perfectly well. On fundamentals, the rating is not that cheap, but then better quality AIM stocks rarely are. With a little patience, I foresee the shares recovering.
Anyone explain crash in the sp. At this value maybe time for a share buy back ?
Hi Fred
Happy new year, hopefully a prosperous one.
Yeah, I reckon it’s a decent update. Good cash flow given high inflation. No sign of acquisition so far, maybe they will consider a special dividend or possible buy back, given strong cash position.
Either way, things are looking up now they are sorting OoH business out , with a bonus that international businesses looking strong.
There is your answer !!
Nice solid base from which to build on there. I still think they need to explore different avenues and new ventures to really give the company a boost.....oh to be a fly on the wall at those family gatherings !!
The key issue for the trading update to see if they update on write downs for OoH business. The Vimto packaged business is pretty bullet proof, and any six year could run it profitably. However, it seems current management have have got a grip of the OoH business after years of laissez faire management, and signalled that more write downs expected second half 2023, but benefits in 2024.
Other interesting issues to consider (although unlikely to be in trading update), are founders grandson resigned (he ran the OoH business), maybe disagreements on restructuring. Also, recovery of bonus's paid to management, as £4m write down taken last year as HMRC case settled in favour of HMRC. Will NICL really recover that amount from past and previous management ?
Agree...circa 9.00 is bottom, but needs a great kick to shift up to £15 s imo.....no ideas where that will materialise.
Some steady buying lately, clearly many see the recent sp as a buying opportunity.
But still festering in the same sp range...
Interesting news re share holder sticking his head over the parapets with a 3.09% stake. Initial skunk works only reveals that his (and his wife) seem to be Hoteliers, and own (or at least control) the Y Talbot in Tregaron; very nice hotel.
I wonder if their shareholding came from James Nichol (Grandson of founder), who recently resigned from the business to pursue other interests. Maybe he also wanted to sell up. Getting ~3% of Nichols shares is not easy in the Market, so likely to have been via a corporate or family member.
Also noted that he resigned his Directorships from various Nichols subsidiaries aligned with the OoH business (the business unit that is currently being restructured), not before time in my opinion. A new Director of these business units took over, and she is Sarah Louise Caddy. Although she has not been named as his replacement as one of the family Non Execs.
Either way seems something interesting is afoot.
That should read 500,000 shares.
I'm guessing that because Rathbones (not the bread people :)) and Investec have merged their asset management / Wealth Management businesses, and they released RNS declaring that Rathbones now holds ~ 6.4% in NICL. Since the RNS (25th September), there has been an increase in trading volumes and I am guessing that Rathbones are reducing their stake to below 5%, which would mean a sale of ~ 5000,000 shares. Maybe that is causing a little indigestion.
Either way, at 936 (with very narrow spread) I decided to add some more, even though I am slightly wary about the potential for SP appreciation pending next set of results.
Why? What did I miss?
Yes...very small wardrobe indeed !
I see they are concentrating on new vimto "flavours", but the company is hardly inspiring at the moment. The share buyback appears to have ended....but how much longer can they appease shareholders....
Well, we now we know the King had no clothes ... Now results segmented on business unit rather than product type we can see that the OoH business is barely profitable, and this is after the big write down last year. So, hopefully we can now move forward and focus on the packaged business (Both UK and International) driving forward with good gains not being diluted by OoH (see what I did there ).
Hard to see any stellar gains in the share price at the mo, with relatively flat earnings, dividend growth steady but nothing special forecast. They could always pay a special dividend from the cash pile if no "acquisitions" in the pipeline, although I worry about acquisitions given the past record and subsequent write downs in the OoH business.
Unlikely that a takeover is possible without the Nichols family agreeing, as they speak for ~ 35% of the shares, unless the main shareholders in the family agree to unequivocally accept an offer.
Would be interested to know what the strategic position is re OoH; just don't lose money, clean it up and offload (if that's possible given the need to control and manage the Vimto brand), wind it down to minimum footprint offloading all non "Vimto" products, focus on expanding the royalty side of the OoH business as that would be asset light.
Temp appointed, for starters..
Seems the non Exec Chairman (Lady) purchase of around 30k shares has had a positive effect. Once they get the OoH business sorted and on a even keel (not losing money), then the main Vimto packaged business should. be able to drive things forward. Of course it would help if a new CFO gets appointed soon(ish), to help stabilise the core management team
All looking positive.............
Let's just see what March 1st brings...
Perhaps another buy back to put the cash hoard to use would be a decent investment, especially as this time the shares can be cancelled and not just held in Treasury for staff incentives, which means they will re appear again.
If we do get another write down associated with OoH business, the should be the last and the business can move on. I suspect it's the uncertainty, and maybe one seller depressing the shares. It's hard to get in, and get out in any volume of NICL without moving the share price.
Why would they be happy with this share price?
If they take it back private perhaps but otherwise no.
Get an activist on board to shake things up!
Decade low share price here.
The sp continues to dip,without reason. Takeover however seems a non starter given family control. Maybe they are content with this sp.
Hi Wigan...yes, sp rather a sad state at the mo. IMHOI really think the company portfolio needs a desperate upgrade. Whilst the company has a great backbone of products, it seems easy to sell same products, along with the ups/downs of trading issues thrown at it yearly, and dish out average dividends, yr on yr. Family complacency.
Maybe a consortium would turn things around, another company with an already diverse portfolio looking to add, but as you say, it is a family business. Having spent time purchasing shares, you would have to wonder would they sell ????? What goes on privately in their households nobody knows. but the sp needs a kick !! Vimto wont hold out forever, although I have almost run out !!