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Since June 02 2016 someone has grabbed over 1.2M shares. Pretty much the same pattern of buying 50k and 100k. How long before this buyer crosses 3%? Pretty sure this buyer has been soaking up any sold stock here for last few months. We saw it before when the small fund sold out. If the buyer passes 3% it will be interesting to see what stake they choose to build up to? 3% 5% 10%? Assuming it is one buyer? AGM in just under 2 weeks. Timed to be after EU vote no doubt. Better for Porta if UK remains in EU it seems? Might swing my voting decision. Guess the news front will be quiet now till June. Directors locked out again??? A question for the AGM if anyone here goes.
Redleaf appoints Amy Williams to associate director. http://www.gorkana.com/2016/06/redleaf-appoints-amy-williams-to-associate-director/ “Redleaf is going from strength-to-strength and, with the development of a robust senior team, we look forward to Amy continuing to play an important role supporting our new business initiatives and delivering for our clients.” Zoe Ensor to lead PPS Manchester team http://www.gorkana.com/2016/06/zoe-ensor-to-lead-pps-manchester-team/ Andy Martin, managing partner at PPS Group, added: “Zoe has an excellent track record and we’re delighted to add her to our brilliant team. The – often talked about – offer of integrated communications across the business is something she truly understands, and we’re delighted to be delivering.” Continued trade patterns today. 2 players trading off shares. Both would appear to have below 3% of stock here. Smaller funds?? New investors as per last few months? See what happens.
This is an excellent piece outlinining the precipitating effects of a Brexit vote https://newgatecommunications.wordpress.com/2016/06/09/brexit-what-happens-next-if-we-vote-to-leave/ Thanks to Gareth Jones Newgate
Trading patterns from Friday. Looks like someone is soaking up any sold stock here. (Unclear if we still have a background seller here.) Finally some upwards pressure on the SP. The buyer will want to up their holdings before AGM if the trading statement is likely to be upbeat. We know first 3-4 months are ahead of budget. Unclear by how much. Question will be the impact of the Brexit vote. Let's hope the trading update is easier to understand this year. Looks like Redleaf have picked up an award for Insurance PR Campaign of the year for CII. https://twitter.com/CIIGroup See what next 2-3 weeks brings.
Porta Communications (PTCM) has made a strong start to 2016, but the financial PR part of the business in particular has been held back by the EU referendum. That is because there is a pipeline of potential flotations that could have already joined the stockmarket, but they have decided to put off their final decision until they know what the result of the vote will be. By the time the result is known the summer will be in full swing and it could mean that these flotations may not happen until the autumn - if at all.
I wanted to go but it's looking less likely as my friend is out of country.
I'm hoping to attend the AGM with a colleague on June 30th. I am compiling a list of questions to ask the BoD so if you've any to add any please e-mail them to audenshaw@mail.com
The more you study them in depth the more prudent Gene Golembiewski FD becomes. Unlike a lot of AIM companies where acquisition assets are repeated dumped into and stored in intangibles, Gene has been acute in writing them down over very short time-frames. I feel I must apologise for the disservice I made that the accounts were 'muddy' - they are just complicated by the nature of the businesses where revenue and profit margins are unlike other industries. On scrutiny, there is excellent and ongoing impairment testing using CGU's for each aspect of the business which ensures constant value monitoring. The company has been criticised for its high amortisation and depreciation costs without the understanding that acquired customer relationship values are being amortised at a rapid rate - 4 years in 2014 and 3 years 2015 - hence the almost £2m amortised. This will have hugely beneficial effects over time as the write-down increasingly bounces the bottom line. The bond renegotiation has effectively pushed out the 'term-loan' to April 2019 despite the onerous interest rate, but that interest is only payable on redemption so should give medium-term benefit. I am sure that the company will be examining all avenues of early redemption possibly by bringing a new II on board. Interesting times ahead. Given the recent appointment of Gavin Devine to join Staffan and DW on the Board, I expect a regular flow of positive news to follow the EU vote.
http://www.gorkana.com/2016/06/to-sub-redleaf-appointed-by-international-greetings/ International Greetings, a designer, manufacturer and distributor of gift packaging, cards and stationery, has appointed Redleaf Communications to handle its corporate communications.
RNS out. 500k buy on 1st was Bob Morton. Mystery over.
Looks like marketing and advertising made a small loss of 0.39m edbitda. 'In total, the Marketing and Advertising division (continuing businesses) overall finished the year reporting revenue of £5.8 million (2014: £4.8 million); gross profit of £3.4 million (2014: £2.5 million); EBITDA loss of £0.39 million ' Communications. The division overall has demonstrated an outstanding performance despite significant internal restructuring costs incurred, finishing the year reporting revenue of £28.7 million (2014: £18.8 million); gross profit of £23.5 (2014: £16.7 million); positive EBITDA of £3.3 million (2014: £1.95 million); operating profit of £0.97 million (2014: £0.88 million); and 207 staff employed (2014: 203). Seems positive given restructuring and increase in staff levels. To me the big loss hide a business that is starting to mature and grow. Sure PPS and Publicasity may not be firing a profit? yet albeit I am sure this will come as they bed in and costs are reduced. Bring on September..
Substantial shareholdings As at 2 June 2016, notification has been received for the following interests in 3% or more of the issued share capital of the Company: Number of Ordinary shares held Percentage Hawk Investment Holdings Limited 1 43,586,318 14.92 Hargreave Hale 26,577,514 9.52 9.52%??? This looks wrong to me. Even the website suggests 5.52%. Weird!
Sounds good. If beijing is under Newgate HK then this business could grow nicely. Especially if we can break into China. Some very big firms in China ripe for the help/advice Newgate can offer. It seems to me Porta is picking up a lot of work that Gorkana does not really mention. The report for Newgate London suggests they are working on a number of IPO. The Newgate Austrlaia is working on 10-20 billion dollar projects too. There is a lot of good news in the write ups. Including the cross selling of products from Singapore to London. So the integration approach seems to be doing well. 'Our work across international borders has increased. A good example of this is our work for AlixPartners, the global business advisory firm. Newgate is the lead agency globally for AlixPartners, with teams in London, Hong Kong, New York and Abu Dhabi managing Asian, European and Middle East programmes.' 'Another major project for the business was the biggest infrastructure project in Australia, the Sydney Metro Project. This is a A$10 – A$20 billion undertaking and Newgate has five staff embedded in the organisation providing full-time advice on stakeholder and community relations for this milestone project. ' Business seems to be stable in Singapore. Client levels stable and staffing levels being increased. Abu Dhabi 'Newgate Abu Dhabi, in its first year being part of the Porta group, achieved gross profit of AED 1.5 million. Over 20% of this gross profit was from new business won during the year. Approximately 60% of this gross profit came from retained income. ' Works out at £0.28M profit. Not bad for a start up? Redleaf seems to be one of the shining stars here. 'Redleaf’s Professional & Financial Services team delivered excellent performance in 2015. The team increased net profit 141%, fee income per head by 85.3% to £190,000/head, and net profit margin from 15% to 32%. ' '2015 was an exceptionally strong year for Redleaf’s Property team. Revenues increased 27% to £725,900; profits increased 47% to £231,471; and fee income per head improved 21% to £172,913.' Overall they paint a pretty good picture. Still working my way through it.
Looks interesting GT as you say. DW has NEVER issued shares below par value 10p for any acquisition and to do so now would be a reverse step. We are cash generative so we should see a major shift in the mood of banks and II lenders who do not entertain loss-making start-ups. That being the case we should look at the most secure convertible loan at the most advantageous percentage to pay down Bob. Having said that, this is a screaming buy for Chris Mills North Atlantic Smaller cap growth fund - can one of the BoD have lunch with him....please.
Actually they had this resolution (Share buy back.) last year. (Although never actually did it?) So maybe this won't happen. Resolution 8 is more interesting. The issue of shares for Redleaf and Aus Pty. (Resolution 8.) 3.5M shares for 6.7% of Newgate PTY. 4.11M shares for 15% of Redleaf. They did this last year for Redleaf 1.7M shares. Also had a resolution for it. I think this will likely happen. It's interesting the value that this places on both comapnies. Of course at 5.5p a share it's not much. At 14-15p a share it is much more. Not 100% how this works. I also wonder if they intend to pay off one of the loans with a share issue?? Obviously not at these prices. One of the loans is repayable at end of the year and does have options for share to be issued. Or use share issues to make more purchases or fund what the bank is not willing to lend? They have lots of interesting options with these resolutions. Including resolution 7 the allot of shares to tune of 33.3% of the firm. Used to help a deal go through?? Below 10p seems to be a no no for me. Any thoughts???
GoTrader. Yep, agree with your logic. I've just petitioned the BoD to really lean on Bob to help the bottom line. He holds a huge number of shares and would be an immediate beneficiary from a reduction in the onerous 12% to around 6% as the sentiment would reverse and share price follow. I'd love him to chat to Chris Mills as this is the ideal situation for him to enter with a Harwood loan for shares deal and win/win for both. That would allow the acquisition trail to start rolling again. Cash is rolling in so even the banks should start to look more favourably on Porta now. Cautious as they are, they could pay down the loan with a 6% convertible and join the boat before it sails. I am trying to get to the AFM - yes you do need a note from your broker to register.
'This resolution authorises the Board to make market purchases of up to 27,908,790 Ordinary shares (representing approximately 10% of the Company’s issued Ordinary shares as at 8 May 2016, being the latest practicable date before publication of this notice). Shares so purchased may be cancelled or held as treasury shares.' Is this the Directors saying the firm is undervalued?? Hold shares on treasury or canx the shares?? Maybe they want to do this to get the SP to a level where they can do deals?? Hmmm.
Acquisitions. If you takeover a firm for 5m and it's making 500k profit and you can find cost savings of 200-400k then this would add to the bottom line. Of course this also depends how much it costs to borrow the 5m to buy the firm. If the cost of borrowing the money is much cheaper than the current 12% loans then maybe it would bring economy of scale to Porta. Porta has over 8 brands here. If they can cross sell new products to existing and new clients then this could really add to the bottom line. The only way for a big deal now is either merger/takeover or borrowing from the bank. I found it quite telling in DW interview when he said he wanted to double the size of the Australian business.10% growth a year won't do this. Expanding in Asia and China here could well add to the bottom line. Still unclear how China is doing. I have lots of reading to do. In any case I could see the advantage of acquistions if the long term plan is to merge or reach a position Porta get's taken over for £££. DW and BM won't want to be managing this into their 80's. They'll want a big pay out at some point. Is anyone actually going to the AGM? Do you have to register your interest first??
to see profits becoming more of a priority before any more acquisitions whether they be people , companies or contracts. Have liked the progression of the company to a point but am getting concerned no proper amount of cash actually being generated and held on to.
The fact that all acquired subsidiaries in 2014 and their fair valued intangible assets such as customer lists and brands were amortised a full calendar year in 2015 means the overall amortisation and depreciation charge increased by £1.1 million or 68% compared with 2014. This IMHO, is far better than keeping it on the books and allowing it to grow disproportionately. It may cloud the excellent performance this year but has huge benefits going forward .
need clean results showing serious profit trajectory/visibility ...would also like to see ..1. bob's loan refinanced asap (12%pa for secured loan which presumably has first dibs on value of businesses providing handy over collateral looks..well...cannot post my opinion pubically....interesting to see allenby's justification) ..2. incremental buying out of 49% interests in redleaf and newgate
@ Jolly - 4.4m loss was a bit unexpected. Paul's investment here was not huge. I figure 0.5- 1m shares at most. Full report is out today. AGM 30th June. We still seem to have sellers here and a mystery buyer. We wont know till September if business is actually making money here. Need some clean results Agreed 0.9m dividend is annoying. So is 2.7m d and a. Along with 1.5m exceptionals. Plus 0.352m winding down cost for TTMV. That is your 4.4m loss.
given difficulties here: incl huge div leakage to non controlling, still v weak fcf, 12% loan interest to bob ....plenty of rev translates into v little for ptcm. shareholders atm
Well someone has scooped up 855k of stock here. Staff? Fund? Delayed RNS from a director?. Agreed market cap should be at least 25m here.