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Sailor, I agree 100%. My fear now is the ceo etc puts the buyers off so as to ensure he keeps his job. Ref that person - I think he is old school and this is really a tech company .
Results are in part quite reasonable … but presented without keenness, enthusiasm or drive
My take on the results is that the new ceo has paid for some consultants to advise him on how to run the company and has been told , go global , integrate teams and go for recurring revenues. All of which is sound but the change will take time. Meanwhile some other companies, perhaps big tech, with deeper pockets can see how they can leverage the products more quickly - hence the approach. Without the sale process the sp would be hammered today. As the sale process is underway it could go either way. The statement ref the sale process , seems to suggest a reluctance to actually sell up and lose their jobs! all imo.
Interims out
'
The formal sale process which we announced on 24 July 2019 remains ongoing. The Company recently held management presentations with a number of interested parties and is expected to receive feedback by the end of September 2019.
Greg
Results are not exactly a barrel of laughs, a loss on EPS before adjustments, a lot of waffle about future prospects, waffle because statement then says that "formal sale process is ongoing, management presentations held with a number of interested parties with feedback expected by end September", so not exactly a battle royale for them by the sounds of this. Clearly though the future prospects are unlikely to materialise for this set of shareholders, the board appear to have given up. What do they know that they are not revealing to shareholders ?
A fat lot of chance that a bid will go through at anything like the £30 a share being touted earlier on this site, once a tub of lard, always a tub of lard.
Anyone going to buy in? I'm expecting good News ;)
Sailor
A very interesting post, one thing is that over the 2 comparable periods the market has in general moved up a bit as well, but good to see the comparables laid out like this. If we have no real guidance on the sale interest at the interims I guess we see a move lower ?
What confuses me in all this is that if the board knew, as they must have done, that revenue was going to be disappointng when announced, that they did not line up an agreed bid then, if they really do have interested parties sniffing around ?
Market reaction to the “For Sale” for the period this year before and after has been:-
‘
Prices have steadied in narrower and higher range
__________Open___High__Low___Close
Pre Sale__1,450__1676__630___760
For_Sale____760__1377__725___912
‘
Whilst Daily Trading Volumes have been reduced
‘
Stats____Pre_Sale___For_Sale____Change
Q3_______203,098_____82,188_____(60%)
Median____97,421_____35,318_____(64%)
Q1________47,693_____18,417_____(61%)
‘
Keep Calm and await events has been the routine in the 37 Trading days since 24th July. The big question is what will happen in the next 2 days before and on the day of the Interims 18th Sep 2019 ???
IoM
Not wishing to be Mr Misery here but with only £300mill under management Chelverton buying is hardly a game changer is it?
£875k is less than a third of 1% of AUM so even by their standards is not exactly a punt is it ?
I do fear stale holders have high expectations here but I see no sign of the optimistic prices that had been touted, I really wonder why the BoD are throwing in the towel, that is surely the crucial question ?
There is more to this than we are aware of imho.
Chelverton Asset Management Limited Purchase of £855k worth.
Hi Guys,
We could find out if we have any interested parties in the next few weeks IMO
Good Luck All Shareholders
Interesting story on citywire this afternoon, Harry Nimmo, celebrated Aberdeen Smaller co's fund manager says that he sold Accesso earlier this year as they "had run out of growth", perhaps the board fear that too, hence their rather odd decision too hold an auction for the company.
Turkeys don't vote for Christmas and boards don't normally vote for their termination either.
So in a nutshell what you are really saying is that the board, unlike turkeys, would actually vote for Christmas ?
I admire your optimism but I do think a degree of cynicism should be used too.
It's not true that interested parties stake will build up to 3% prior to any bid - a number of my stocks have been taken over recently with the share price having shown absolutely no sign of prior buying (PTSG, EUSP, SND, SCH were all holdings of mine).
I think the Board have concluded that with the hiatus in growth whilst they integrate the various platforms, and with the pound at such an attractive level for buyers in terms of UK takeovers, they figure that this might be an advantageous time for disappointed shareholders to profit following the decline from 3000p. It's possible they've come under some pressure from their shareholder base, which after all is these days almost entirely institutional.
Rivaldo
I really do hope that you are right, but what bothers me are 2 things, firstly a previously uninvolved "interested party" would sure as hell do a bit of stakebuilding up to the disclosable level, but there seems precious little sign of that ?
Secondly, if customers are crying out for cross selling as the broker says why would the board just roll over and offer themselves for sale when the shares were less than a third of the high that they achieved less than a year ago ?
If they are really so high growth with great prospects why not raise money from a bond to pay for the replatforming surely interest rates are low enough now for them? And that way there is no dilution of equity either.
I still think there is more behind this, not many boards give up so easily as this one has.
Sorry but I'm a sceptic.
I still believe a takeover price will be at 1750p-2000p per share at minimum. There must be a large number of potential acquirors, and most of those are large enough to have very substantial pockets indeed.
And almost all of them will be based abroad, so will be particularly incentivised to buy at current exchange rates.
A company like ACSO with such high recurring income and earnings, and blue sky potential in a number of areas, must be a very attractive target. The short-term earnings blip due to increased investment shouldn't be of concern to them since (1) by the time the acquisition completes much of it will already have taken place, and (2) it only increases the medium/long-term attractiveness of the company. With a bidding war the price may even return to 3000p.
Interesting article from last week with comment from Peel Hunt:
https://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/217440/accesso-technology-on-track-to-meet-full-year-target-after-strong-start-to-the-year-217440.html
Extract:
"Following accesso’s announcement about putting itself up for sale, Peel Hunt repeated a ‘buy’ rating and raised its target price to 1,435p from 1,145p.
Peel Hunt said the sharp rise in the share price after the news showed “investors feelings about its true value”.“It removed most of the negatives discount on it and hit our previous price target,” it said.
“For us, the true value of accesso is in the potential it has once it goes through its current re-platforming. “Cross sell will be much easier and already being cried out for by the likes of Merlin.
'
First step: solve this issue. We believe the market now sees that value, hence we increase our target price to 1435p (3.5x CY20 sales).
“Second step: realise that the eventual buyer could in fact create the company we thought it was and envisioned it to be when we initiated back in Mar 2018 at 3,100p.”
Hi Guys,
I wouldn't expect an offer until at least around the middle of September.
There will be no stake building because they wouldn't be wanting to pay 2985p as per Takeover code.
The share price is around the area where the directors bought in, so I doubt that they would consider an offer at this range either, I expect offers to be in the 1400p -1800p range.
Good Luck All Shareholders
I wonder why there is no stake building of any note??
Considering what is supposed to be happening it's all gone very quiet! I wonder what the timescale is.
Comeonvog
If the company is in such "growth mode", why are the shares so much lower than a few months ago?
Markets normally get these things right, and I did not say they would be sold at £8, I said my guess was they would be sold closer to £8 than the £29.75 which was touted as a "reserve price".
I see no reason to change my view.
I still see this company as a tub of lard with a lot of stale bulls.
barchid Why would they sell for £8 , what would be the point. This is not a company in distress, this is in growth mode. IMO
Hi Barchild,
Yes I agree with the bidders not being holders, then they can bid what they like.
Bill Russell and Karen Slatford recently purchased around £187K of shares between them, £8.45-8.62, I just can't see two members of the board selling or recommending the company to be sold at their loss.
Obviously, they will be wanting to sell as high as possible and are using the take over code as a bargaining chip, to raise any offer made.
We shall see.
Exciting times ahead here
Greg
Doesn't look like the MM's are seeing anything like such a high valuation as you mention on this tub of lard !
My understanding of the take over rule is that bidders must pay the highest price they paid for the stock within the last 12 months.
But if the buyers are not holders, or have not purchased within 12 months, they can bid what they want, that is why the price is a third of your projection.
My guess is £8 will be closer to the final bid (if it comes) than £29.75.
By the looks of it to me, the BOD by referring to the take over code, are saying 2975p is the reserve price in any bidding war.!
Exciting Times Ahead Here
Good Luck All Shareholders
Hi Guys,
According to the RNS, the Takeover code doesn't sound like a myth:
"following the receipt of approaches from a number of parties regarding a potential sale of the Company, it has decided to conduct a formal sale process under The City Code on Takeovers and Mergers (the "Code"). The Board of accesso has determined that this is the most appropriate mechanism, for a UK-listed company subject to the Code, "
Here's a highlighted copy of the above code:
http://www.thetakeoverpanel.org.uk/the-code/download-code
Good Luck All Shareholders