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I for one will miss Adastra's very detailed posts on here. I do hope Adastra will continues to post here. Albeit the motives to post here are less when you hold no shares. He better buy back soon as we need someone at the AGM to ask the questions.
Always enjoyed your posts Once again you are spot on with your analysis What I can't understand is why the Mortons don't re negotiate down the terms of their loan The share price would rocket if it came down to say 4%. Just a little surprised given the amount of support they have given
Hi Adastra, Yes I figured you planned to sell soon after they reannounced the loan in November. You sounded very annoyed by this. I think Steffan has had a big impact here. Certainly some of the clients are here because of Steffan and Gavin. The board needs to sort out these ridiculous loans at 12%. They are crippling the firm. 5-6% would be more manageable. Been a mix of company results here. FTI consulting said they would of had growth of 8.8% in Q4 if not for foreign exchange rates. Huntsworth released a bullish trading update with revenue ahead of forecast due to FX and growth. So some firms are doing very well here. Porta will have significant gains from currency movement. They also appear to be winning some good contracts too. F and F being one of them. Publicasity has announced 3-4+ new clients in last year. Can the other divisions match this? Australia still seems to be the star performer in the group. Waiting on trading updates and director buys. Fact is that BM is still buying here and happily taking on millions of issued share. Pretty sure the directors would be buying too if they could. It's another sign that the directors may be locked out. We know Gary Wyatt has almost doubled his stake here. BM and GW are no fools here. I still think this share is worth considerably more than its current market cap but the company seem to be holding back on releasing data to show how it is really doing. Very frustrating.
Hi GT, long-time no post on Porta as I sold out into peaks. I was a very long term holder here and attended several AGMs, exchanging my thoughts as you are aware. I really thought that it was getting its act together when Steffan came on board - I really like the guy and his vision. His promotion should have shifted this up several gears and it would have done; apart from the groups inability to get the 12% loan debt down. It is like a giant anchor quashing all the leaps forward that the new BoD have made. The accounts, as I have mentioned many times, really need to be simpler to understand. Presumably that's what the FD spends all his time on as I've been promised too many times that he was 'all over the debt like a rash'. That was over 2 years ago and why I sold out. Thankfully I have been fortunate enough to recoup my losses here elsewhere but I still believe that the fundamentals of Steffans vision are correct - I just wish he and the new BoD would buy a wad of shares off Bob Mortons family and get rid of the onerous 12% pa debt. It is ridiculously onerous as I repeatedly mentioned to the Board. I am watching with a view to re-investing on any good news, but I'd rather miss the bottom than get 'stranded' here again. The WPP outlook wasn't great as a bellweather so it will be interesting to see just how Porta/Newgate is weathering the headwinds. Next t/u should benefit from healthy exchange rates from Australia but I want proof that Porta can beat all the competition out there before I pitch in again. I really really hope they can pull it off for the BoD, employees and shareholders.
Purely on a number basis. Those 2 trades added up exactly to the number of shares Morton Trustee increased their holdings by. It's possible as they were at the midpoint they may have actually been the buy trades? Till we see the reverse trades we may not know. Morton Trust still buying can't be a bad sign in terms of company performance? Or are they just protecting their investments? Wait and see. TU or Results should give us some ideas. Which might come first??
A buy out isn't the end game IMV. The whole strategy with PTCM was to make acquisitions with equity, which would dilute everyone. The only problem with this is the SP for reasons that we well know. If Morton is buying it is because he thinks it is cheap, but then he has thought that at a lot of prices above this.
Well over 20%. Retro Grand own 5.69% of the firm. That is another Morton company.
Not sure that the increase in his holding is a good thing......getting close to 20% now......what's the end game here, a buy-out.....which will not be to our advantage.......he is also the main creditor, what's not to dislike about this...
RNS Bob Morton trust bought the 7m shares.
Looking at Newgate website there is at least 1-2 more new hires on there. Main one is an account director who has 9 years experience. Head of recruitments is also on there now. Plus one consultant who started in 2017. Hard to keep up with all their new hires on the website. New names seem to be appearing every week or so. Would a firm struggling really be hiring so many staff?? No late trades today. Might appear tomorrow or Monday. I doubt we will get a TU next week. Budget week. Normally the time to dump bad news.
No news and we complain. Too much news and we want clarification. Could just be a smaller shareholder selling up. I agree there should be reverse trades here. Assuming those 2 were the sells. This is probably why we dropped from 5p to 4p. Took a while to clear. We may not get a TU.
Presumably someone has bought these 7m sells. I expect that they are all better informed than the rest of us.
What the hell is going on here.......we surely need an RNS to clarify.....7m sells this morning, all the news you keep posting GT.... TU well overdue and we are in the dark....
http://www.prweek.com/article/1425815/tesco-clothing-brand-f-f-hires-publicasity-uk-europe-pr-brief?utm_content=bufferfbc89&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer Looks like a decent contract! 'Publicasity will work alongside F&F's in-house team, as well as creative agency Odd and media planning firm MediaCom, to launch the clothing brand's 2017 autumn/winter collection this spring.' 'The brief also includes the handling of a network or central European agencies, which will execute PR campaigns within their own markets. These agencies will report to Publicasity.' 2017 off to a good start for Publicasity! Tesco is one of the biggest retailers in the UK.
My gut is the delay in trading update is due to a big announcement. Lots of changes in background here. Having Thirteen comms team work for Newgate will allow more product cross selling. See what happens about other 49%. I think they were already working on a number of their clients anyway.
...or perhaps not. If they had taken 100% they would have had to issue an RNS. If they had they would either have had to issue shares to buy 49%, or it would have been valueless and they would have written off their investment - so perhaps good news. There is clearly something going on though IMV.
Presumably an RNS tomorrow as they only own 51% of Thirteen.
Sounds a bit like smoke and mirrors to me which is what this share has become.
http://www.gorkana.com/2017/02/thirteen-to-become-part-of-newgate-communications Looks like Thirteen is to fall under Newgate operation. Looks like someone is drip selling stock on Market here. Need TU soon to end the uncertainty here.
Porta have updated their website page for Major shareholders today. Hawk Investment Holdings Limited 16.53% Retro Grand Limited 5.69% Hargreave Hale 5.39% Gary Wyatt 5.22% Stephen Byfield 5.18% Fidelity 4.99% Ruffer LLP 4.78% No update from Ruffers, Stephen Byfield, Gary Wyatt or Hargreaves Hale yet. Ruffers could well still be above 4%. HH, GW and SB would certainly be below 5% unless they had been buying. I think it's possible Gary bought more shares after his RNS a few months back. (2.4m buys after his RNS) Suprising we did not get more notifications from the others. This update only tells us what we already know.
https://newgatecommunications.wordpress.com/2017/02/20/we-are-looking-for-consultants-who-are-not-satisfied-with-just-a-job/ Not sure if these are new roles or a case of Newgate now advertising their own roles. The list on the left has 7-8 roles including public affairs. It also shows that the new head of HR had started at least a week ago. They are either short of staff or expanding! Their public affairs division has had 4 announced hires in last 6 months.
http://www.recruiter.co.uk/news/2017/02/newgate-brings-in-thomas-to-head-internal-recruitment/ Looks like they are bringing in hiring new staff in house. So maybe save on agency costs?? Hmmmm
http://www.gorkana.com/2017/02/newgate-appoints-head-of-recruitment/ 'Corporate communications agency Newgate has appointed Angela Thomas as its first head of recruitment. She will work across Newgate and its parent company AIM-listed Porta Communications plc.' 'Gavin Devine, chief executive of Newgate and chief operating officer of Porta, said: “Bringing Angela into our team means that we have constant access to a highly experienced recruiter. Having her in-house will allow us to promote Newgate’s employer brand, and ensure that we attract talented candidates who best fit our company culture. This is a step change in our approach to on-boarding staff; Angela will make a huge impact on Newgate and on Porta.” Thomas added: “I am delighted to be joining Newgate at an exciting time of strong growth, and I am looking forward to helping to augment what is already an impressive and committed team.” Note the wording at the end. 'At a time of strong growth'. Is this the sign of a struggling company?? I think not! Fact they have created this role is a positive sign. However at present there seem to be sellers in background here keeping SP low. Albeit the sell volumes at present are small. The buyers could be waiting for TU RNS?? Who knows?? Hmmm.
Yes all we can do is hope things are going well. Fingers crossed.
Fair do's.....good answers GT but guessing game until we get an update or notice of results from them as know for sure of the news of something....