The next focusIR Investor Webinar takes places on 14th May with guest speakers from Blue Whale Growth Fund, Taseko Mines, Kavango Resources and CQS Natural Resources fund. Please register 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.
Indeed! Riv, can't quite work out whether I'm stalking you, or the other way around! :-) Or you just post on a lot of stocks (like me)!!
with approaching 1.2m shares traded alread. I noticed this extensive Xmas campaign from Argos part-managed by CMS' agency PSONA: Https://www.retailtimes.co.uk/argos-promotes-four-hour-deliveries-new-christmas-campaign/ "Argos promotes four-hour deliveries in new Christmas campaign Published on 03/11/2017 by Fiona Briggs in Retail News Extract: "The Argos �Ready For Take-Off� advert forms part of a 360� campaign extravaganza spanning TV, digital, print and in-store and social media activity. Media buying was through PHD, PR through Hope & Glory and point-of-sale and digital display through PSONA." And PSONA has also been appointed by the charity MIND: Http://www.thedrum.com/news/2017/10/16/mental-health-charity-mind-appoints-gdpr-agency "Mental health charity Mind appoints a GDPR agency Mind, the mental health charity, has appointed an agency to help its supporters understand the upcoming change to General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) ahead of the May 2018 deadline. The agency, PSONA, has been tasked with delivering a campaign that will �educate and empower� people to opt-in to the brand�s communications which will launch next month....."
...very nice for CMS as all their bank customers write to all their mortgage holders. Fall in Sterling pretty helpful as well!
Hopefully signals a return to the 60s!!
CMS has been one of my 'patient' shares, hoping steady growth of business would be reflected in its share price. My mistake! I would have been far better off trading this at intervals of several months over the last five years. In fact, today's price is still more than 20% down on its peak of 2013. Promised much but hasn't delivered - unfortunately.
Below 55p looks good value to me. Hopefully the next trading RNS will back that up!
He's always been a big holder of PFC. He likes buying quality companies at distressed valuations.
And today he has appeared on Petrofac.
He has a 11% stake in K3 Business Technology: http://www.lse.co.uk/share-regulatory-news.asp?shareprice=KBT&ArticleCode=lli1azc6&ArticleHeadline=Holdings_in_Company Mind you, he sold out of IQE, or at least went below the disclosure level, before its sp took of, so he might not quite be King Midas.
Good question Fatty. As far as I'm aware, he's a financial investor rather than predator or operator, although he does tend to take chunky stakes in the small and mid-cap stocks he invests in - however, I don't think he'll be launching a bid, and hence I suspect he won't be buying much more, if any. He is clearly very positive on the stock, and I don't blame him: Lowly valuation, excellent run of new orders, nice dividend yield, reducing debt etc etc Mid-caps are always at risk of springing a nasty surprise, but I do think the risk reward ratio here is excellent. I'll but more if we go back to the 55 level.
Is this the beginning of a takeover? RG now owns just under 25% if he gets over 30% then he will have no option but to offer to purchase all the other shares at a price no less than the highest shares price over the previous 12 Months (Wikipedia info re takeovers so could be wrong). RG has been building his stake for a while now but this seems to have accelerated over the last 6 months.? I think he just likes Communisis and thinks it's cheap does anyone else have insight/opinion.
Https://www.printweek.com/print-week/news/1162362/communisis-investor-ups-stake Communisis investor ups stake A high-profile investor has quietly increased his stake in Communisis to more than 22%. Richard Griffiths is a former sheep farmer and rugby player who found fame and fortune in the City after founding finance house Evolution Group PLC. He went on to found Ora Capital Partners, and currently controls a number of funds. Over the summer Griffiths upped his stake in Communisis, via seven separate investment vehicles, to 47,443,061 shares, or 22.66% of the group. Communisis chief executive Andy Blundell told PrintWeek that the group�s board had a good relationship with Griffiths. �Richard has been a shareholder for years and we know him very well. He controls his own funds and has recently topped up his holding,� Blundell said. �He�s supportive of the business, knows us and our strategy well, and we�re glad to have him on board.� A representative of Griffiths declined to comment, and said: �We don�t generally provide comment on our investment motivations.� Other major Communisis shareholders at the group�s last financial year-end included Henderson Group (9.99% stake) and Majedie Asset Management (5.13%). Shares in Communisis hit a 52-week high of 61p earlier this month. The �361.9m turnover group currently has a market capitalisation of �124m, higher than that of St Ives, at �100m. Communisis confirmed that it had won the HSBC marcomms contract previously handled by St Ives alongside its interim results in August.
Https://www.prolificnorth.co.uk/2017/09/taylors-of-harrogate-chooses-life-for-shopper-campaign/ "Taylors of Harrogate chooses LIFE for shopper campaign By David Prior — 26 September 2017 Taylors of Harrogate has hired Birmingham agency LIFE to execute a master brand shopper campaign covering its tea and coffee portfolio. Following a successful shopper marketing campaign for Yorkshire Tea, LIFE has created and implemented a core shopper and below the line (BTL) campaign to support ‘The home of Extraordinary Flavour’ campaign, positioning Taylors as a tea and coffee brand that delivers an intense flavour. Some of LIFE’s creative for the campaign The agency executed the campaign specifically for Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons, using media touchpoints including retailer press, printed and digital six sheets, retailer.com, in store sampling collateral and point of sale. The master campaign will coincide with two TV adverts created by Lucky Generals, both of which will support the rebrand. Deborah Smith, shopper marketing manager for Taylors of Harrogate, said: “We were impressed with the insightful and creative approach that LIFE presented during the pitch process. The team have showed a real passion and understanding of our brand and our customers. We’re looking forward to working together on further campaigns in the future.” Now in its 10th year, LIFE’s 50-strong agency with clients including Coca-Cola European Partners, Dr. Oetker, DeLonghi and Whitbread. In 2015 it became part of Leeds-headquartered Communisis PLC."
Great to see the investment and transformation here to dital and services-based work finally being recognised: Https://www.investorschronicle.co.uk/tips-ideas/2017/09/07/value-and-recovery-at-communisis/ "Value and recovery at Communisis - ...Given the turbulent history at Communisis, the seemingly-low multiple of approaching nine times 2018's forecast earnings (see table) is slightly ahead of where the shares have been rated in the past few years. That said, the rating still looks low compared with similar media companies and the decent dividend yield helps make the shares a play for value as well as recovery. Buy. Last IC view: Hold, 52p, 13 Mar 2017"
Richard Griffiths has topped up with almost another 3m shares since his last holding disclosure. He now owns 22.7% of CMS with 47.44m shares: Https://www.investegate.co.uk/communisis-plc--cms-/rns/holding-s--in-company/201708310926594163P/ An almost 23% holding is quite a vote of confidence :o))
Moving up nicely again already today - looking for new recent highs now.
RNS - good to see the Chairman buying £50,000 of shares at 53.7p. A decent vote of confidence indeed: Https://www.investegate.co.uk/communisis-plc--cms-/rns/director-pdmr-shareholding/201708291512212138P/
In another month we will be going ex dividend for a dividend that represents just shy of 2%. This is just the interim dividend. I wonder why this together with pe of about 10 and the consistent growth we have seen over the last few years that this share is not motoring ahead. Everything about this company smacks of quality. The management here are second to none with a plan that they are executing well. Higher margins, evolving into digital from print diversifying from financial service focused to fmcg and other clients and increasing overseas business from pure U.K. focus. Debt is being paid off at a pace and pension liability is in hand with an agreed and manageable payment scheme. Cash is king and communisis is generating lots of it. Clients are mostly blue chip with long term contracts and now government as well. What is there not to like
New article on Printweek talking about the upcoming data security regulations, how CMS have already addressed these and how some may find them too much.... Https://www.printweek.com/print-week/news/1161883/blundell-gdpr-will-be-too-much-for-some Extracts: "Blundell: GDPR will be too much for some By Jo Francis, Friday 04 August 2017 Communisis chief executive Andy Blundell has predicted a shake-out among DM and transactional print specialists because obligations around the upcoming EU data regulations will prove too onerous for some companies." "“We are making our services GDPR resilient on behalf of our clients, and I would expect a significant proportion of our investment overall in future to be in technology and risk-related areas,” Blundell told PrintWeek. “It will probably prompt a further shakeout in transactional print in particular,” he said. “You have to question whether some of the smaller players will be able to live with that. In smaller boardrooms I can see people asking whether they want to do this anymore.”"
"James Bartholomew's Diary of a Private Investor" "Communisis (stockmarket ticker: CMS) is a company which organises mail shots and other communications for big organisations such as Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. It has had some difficulties in recent years and the share price fell. But the downtrend may have reached the bottom of the trough late last year and there has been some director-buying. I increased my stake at 48p per share at which level they represent only 7.5 times the current year’s expected earnings per share. There is also a handy forecast yield of 5.7pc."
CMS certainly underplayed their hand in not announcing separately the new/additional HSBC work. They could at least have announced it as an RNSNON rather than "losing" it within the interims narrative: Https://www.prolificnorth.co.uk/2017/08/communisis-wins-5-year-hsbc-deal/ "Communisis wins 5 year HSBC deal By Stephen Chapman — 4 August 2017 Communisis has won a “significant” 5 year marketing communications contract from HSBC. Its value hasn’t been disclosed, however, it will be of particular importance to the Leeds-based group, having lost the marcoms brief in 2011 to St Ives. Back then, the direct mail contract was worth around £7m. Communisis already provides transactional, content marketing and fulfilment services to HSBC. The announcement was made in the group’s interim results presentation, which also revealed that revenue at Communisis had increased by 6% to £186m, with overseas income making up 30% of the total Group revenue. The company has also renewed “multi-year” contracts with Nationwide, Virgin Money and Co-op during the 6 month period."
And Techmarketview are positive and emphasise the transition to digital: Http://www.techmarketview.com/ukhotviews/archive/2017/08/03/communisis-managing-the-transition "Thursday 03 August 2017 Communisis, managing the transition Communisis, the provider of integrated marketing services, announced results for the six months to the June which showed creditable progress. Revenue was up 6% to £186m and operating profits increased 10%, to £8.5m. They’ve also secured a bank refinancing, got nearer a settlement re their pension scheme deficit, generated £6m+ cash and increased dividends by 10%. Although Communisis has seen its business shift away from Financial Services (80% of revenue 5 years ago to 35% now) this sector is doing well as companies look to outsource more with HSBC signing a 5-year contract for marketing communications and Nationwide and Virgin Money renewing their contracts. Strong growth in FMCG markets has made this the largest customer sector (39%). International business, now 30% of revenue, is also growing strongly, particularly in Spain and Holland. An important shift of the business has been towards “digital”. 15% of revenue 5 years ago, Digital and Services now account for 60% and this proportion will continue to increase. For banks, as an example, the transition to digital is not instantaneous, but will take several years due to legacy issues, regulation and, importantly, customer preferences. Communisis is enabling this transition, having invested in the “traditional” business with more modern, automated facilities in “the print”, as well as working to optimise the (declining but profitable) cheque printing business where it has an 80%+ UK share. Communisis is also investing in “digital” with platforms to manage workflow and to improve integrated outbound communications, such as in the case of HMRC following its contract win last year. Communisis now looks as if it is well-positioned to provide a broader range of services under the “digital” banner, as well as ensuring consistent financial performance from other established business lines and suppporting growth rates with its European operations."
Thanks Riv. Thing I don't get is why the constant currency numbers are better than the actual. Given the overseas business, the weakness in Sterling versus last years' comparator should be a positive which suggests actual would be better than constant currency. the CC numbers look about what I expected, but thought the actuals would be much better. I'm confused.....
Thanks Riv. Thing I don't get is why the constant currency numbers are better than the actual. Given the overseas business, the weakness in Sterling versus last years' comparator should be a positive which suggests actual would be better than constant currency. the CC numbers look about what I expected, but thought tyeh actuals would be much better. I'm confused.....
Liberum retain their Buy and 75p target today. And Finncap retain their Buy and 65p target: Http://investing.thisismoney.co.uk/broker-views/