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Great - thanks Sahid, I had skim read and where I did see a breakdown in the FYR I didn't see in the interims. All eyes on H2 now. Plus I like the way no delay getting these figures out to market. Remember conversations I relayed on to this BB before the FYR, hearing that CEO wanted to get the results out and get the past consigned to history. Both CEO and Chairman took shares with their own money - I think H2 will be the final proof the market needs to settle nerves. And that pay-down on debt will help with interest costs.
Jim: If you look back on the RNS's for Year end & Interims you will find the info. If you look at those years they have segmental info after the notes to the accounts. F16 Distribution was 55% H2. F15 - 52%, F14 - 50%, F13 - 50%. I have hard copy reports going back to 1998 when there was only distribution and also notes reference the H1 figures. When APC floated it was on the Official List not Aim and I presume that I got these figures from the internet. At that time the split was more like 60/40 but it was a very different company then with most sales coming from Military Component distribution and with Govt budgets reset in April this may have been the reason but would still hod firm today for that element of the business. Unfortunately the segmental info today does not breakdown Mil/Commercial sales.
http://apcplc.com/news-posts/mifid-ii-time-synchronisation-compliance-faqs/ This could be a major opportunity for APC. Worth a read and watch the video.
Sahid - which reports/years did you find to break down the revenue into distribution? I couldn't find 2 consecutive comparable reports with Distribution broken out but I didn't go back that far and it's really good to hear your opinion on this. My view of the March booked revenue figure is that possibly something 'happened' in February, maybe a stall/pause for a renegotiation? The words I highlighted from the receivables owed explanation coupled with the March bump made me wonder..
Not sure about the short supply but the big buys are from long term investors happy to wait a couple of years or longer for returns. Fred, I think it was you who asked about second half being traditionally better for Component Distribution sales? Looking back through old reports you are correct, sometimes much higher. With the large reported booking in March this should also be the case this year. Losing the Morrison's business was a huge dent in the revenue but wasn't it reported as being very low margin? Just think if the revenue had equaled last year then we would possibly be looking at a profit figure around £600k for H1. I think it bodes well for H2 so can understand the large buys yesterday and maybe more today or tomorrow. The buyers want to buy at these prices and not to eager to show their hand so maybe a slight fallback before the inevitable rise. All IMHO of course.
I agree but any news regarding contracts/increased revenue could have these shares in very short supply IMHO.
Now the excitements over looks like we will be back to the usual 30-70k a day.
Thanks Fred, that March bookings figure is something I intended to mention in my post to contrast the odd bit about lower sales towards the end of the period - I'm wondering what happened in February?! Not sure about Distribution being historically weighted towards H2, there's been too many lumps and bumps over the years to get a clear picture of recurring billing filling up a specific window purely attributable to Distribution from my knowledge at least, and would be mentioned under deferred or recurring due in the next period, if it was significant?
Am I correct in thinking that historically Distribution sales have been higher in the second half of the year? the March 2017 Group bookings of £2.1 look very encouraging. Whilst I still have some concerns regarding the cash position there can be no doubting that management has taken significant steps to turn this company around and I am happy to hold my position on that basis and add on any weakness in SP. This update has gone a long way in restoring my confidence in management. I am looking forward to the next six months with increased enthusiasm.
Temporarily halting my self-imposed exile of LSE (was getting into too many ding-dongs with ridiculous position-posters maintaining flawed logic)... Overall - it's great to see profit and confirmation they turned a corner. That was all I really should have hoped for, but the very thin profit line took the shine off for me. Still very optimistic about the future - results should be seen in parallel with BOD putting their money on the line a couple of months back. A couple of notes of caution (I remain invested here so they are not affecting my position): - This odd line : "Trade and other receivables decreased by £1.0m during the period due to both improved working capital management and lower sales towards the end of the period." "lower sales towards the end of the period" - that's a bit weird, but possibly taken out of context (hopefully). - Whilst the business now has a clear identity, and is streamlined, the BOD clearly acknowledge the next challenge is to grow revenue. On the plus side, in addition to the BOD putting their own cash in, they have reduced net debt, and whilst that's cutting the cash position a bit thin it is reducing interest and looks like a shrewd calculated move to save costs going forwards. So on balance, good. I remain convinced that the trip below 8p placing price was due to a short position, that is now largely closed - no coincidence we touched 8p yesterday in advance of these numbers, what was left of the register mostly survived the 30% fall off the placing price. (Also noting the de-rampers we had on this, a largely quiet board, around the time I started to suggest I was buying into the fall at sub 7p) I'm confident the company is in profit and in the hands of someone who will look after the costs in future. The hard work still to be done - re-growing the revenue. With a very low cash buffer I think SP recovery might be slower than I had hoped and it might take a trading update with some new orders in to get it motoring. But any such update should hopefully be taken as being very positive for the company to grow out of where we are now.
Strange pricing on that last 100k sell. Normally higher volume gets hit but MM paid more than low volume. Accumulating for large background buy me thinks!
Maybe we've really started moving in the right direction - not the wrong Green Compliance direction ! Agree, some traders now leaving after getting a little boost from results and anticipation of results previous few days
I think we are seing short term traders leaving now. They have made their 30/35% over the last 2 weeks , no shock there. As I said the report didn't set the world alight but it shows great promise. Like Dactions has mentioned the coming year will hopefully show the real gains the company is making. I expect to see buys appear later and a return to the opening SP.
Having been in this share for some years - it was a spectaculer failure from when I subscribed to the Fleet Street Letter - I can see that they have turned a seismic (for them) corner. I disagree with the sentiment of an earlier member that 2nd half turnover was less than the 1st half. Remember this encompasses the short-term shock many businesses felt about placing orders following the Brexit referendum. I'm not understanding though what is 'Design-in Distribution' it's not a wooly phrase that hides the Emperor not wearing any clothes ? If it is now a business with genuine substance, not just dressed up distribution, then we may have a chance to see the shareprice grow more strongly but . . . I want to see them succeed and we'll have to wait for the 2nd half to know whether they've really turned a corner.
As you say Sahid a mixed bag but a turn around from 1.9m loss to 0.1m profit is the key figure. Just shows that good practice and not over stretching the business has had the desired effect. We are now seeing them concentrate on the companies strengths. Bookings in March of 2.1m is highly encouraging for future margins and as you say should help H2. I don't think this will set the world alight yet , but an improvement for sure.
Important thing in profit again and new orders in March should boost H2 and increase profitability to a reasonable level considering the increased margin.
Encouraging news on orders but disappointed Q2 sales less than Q1.
Last hour and a half could be interesting , could see 8p before tomorrow. The earlier sells have all been swallowed up and its a long time since we saw a 15K plus buy on here. A few obviously fancy decent news tomorrow. Blue the rest of the day !
It would be nice to see us return to profit and positive cash flow and also hopefully for me the results and outlook will restore my confidence in management. GLA
since 8 Feb! Feels like we're turning a corner perhaps...
Well my fingers are crossed for tomorrow morning in the hope that a big corner has been turned and APC can start working towards regular gains and profits. It's been good to see interest in the stock again and the positive SP, hopefully a return to steady climbs of 5 years ago. I just hope that this small rise in SP over the last few days is a positive pointer to good results. Good luck all LTH here.
Looking at jimbobtechstock posting history it would appear that he/she has unfortunately left LSE. I for one will miss his constructive contributions to this and other bbs and wish him/her well for the future.
My guess is that that trade of 7.00 is a sell if you consider that the 7.25 is a buy. The sale before it was at 6.92 so the sell price was slowly rising. Lets hope we open up a little higher and this action continues.
A very interesting days trading. The question i have is are the 7.0499 trades (shown as buys) buys or sells? GLA
I,m sure that any trades to the buy or sell side over the next 3 days may well give us clues to the figures.