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The market size being offered to buy 'significant' number of shares is currently the highest I've seen it. NMS for sale of stock is usually instant at 50k shares, it's currently available at 10x that. Someone out there wants Porta shares at 4.05p and rising.
GT. Sp is above 4p and rising - and that is for large quantity on test sale. I still think that a consolidated solution to the debt renegotiation is now close.
Sp below 4p and it looks like someone bought nearly 300k of shares. Hmmm. Someone protecting sp. Fair comments Adastra. I was hoping they would refinance loan before any renewal. Also annoyed how they sneaked the RNS out at 1830 pre US election.
Trump's victory, like Brexit, has been a shock to the establishment, but I believe that it has actually played into Porta's strengths here in the UK. Communications, IR and PR are only gaining in importance like reputation management. Porta noted in its September interims that business had strengthened post-Brexit and a number of statements highlighted below give cause for cautious optimism: All of our senior hires thus far have generated fees from day one - The UK business was subject to some degree of slowdown in the run up to and immediate aftermath of the referendum on Brexit, however, business has picked up noticeably since - The business has also increased its focus on pensions advisory work over the last 12 months - The pipeline of new client prospects and high profile hires for both Newgate and PPS has strengthened significantly in the last couple of months. - Australia once again has turned in excellent results and plans are being implemented to significantly increase the size of the business. - The outlook is undoubtedly strengthening all the time now that the Brexit vote is behind us. With regard to the Retro Grand loan renegotiation it is effectively a roll-over that now allows the company the ability to refinance both loans together as a single refinancing. I believe that is why it has been rolled out as a 12 month term on a monthly repayment basis. This issue has been a priority for the BoD and I suspect that this announcement is a prelude to a £9m renegotiation package at a significantly lower rate, but that is purely a logical supposition on my part. The outlook certainly looks better than for some considerable time given that the effect of these quality management hires is now kicking in.
Yes this was an existing loan. The 6 month accounts show it was due to expire at end of 2016. I was hoping they would of replaced all these loans for a 3-6% note loan. Clearly not yet!
Not quite the refinancing I had in mind. I think the debt terms on the previous loan were running out anyway so maybe they were forced into this. Still leaves Porta with loans of about £8-9m at rates of 12-13%. Exactly what they started the day with. Yep this was not in my refinancing plan!
Replacement of convertible loan with Retro Grand.......so is this the refinancing you were waiting for Gotrader? or just a replacement of existing loan terms?....will be interesting to see if Directors buy now that inside info is now out in the open.
Tried to top up today and for one reason or another I was offered no price through my broker. Makes me think supply in some places is limited. Or they simply don't hold the stock. It could be a deal is imminent on the refinancing and the directors have taken a lot of the stock available?? Could just be nothing. Only trade today was on ISDX for a 5000 share buy. It's all far too quiet. Good to see you still about Adastra. I do like reading your posts.
Nothing that I can add to that GT. All divisions appear to be thriving looking at Twitter and websites. The indecision caused by Brexit looks to be playing into Porta/Newgate/PPS/Publicasity strengths more than making up for slack IPO in Redleaf market. Like you, I'm pretty much certain that the debt refinancing is top-of-the-tree for BoD. Both David and Steffan are aware of the importance of dropping this down to a more representative level and that, as you say, is probably the brake on any share buying due to inside info. Resolution would propel the shares quickly, hence the sensitivity of the process. Chinese walls on this one have to be bullet-proof and I expect immediate purchases from all senior directors coincident with any RNS. If that happens then a gap-jump is inevitable. There is little news other than a trading update, but this would only be required for say 10% variance in outlook. The purchases are following a pattern and the seller seems to be at the end of their task which again will shift the balance and sentiment markedly. Interesting times and I have shifted my stance to strong buy like yourself on the back of our observations.
Really doubt that is the case. There was no mention at AGM about banks not lending them money. They may well go to other investors in the back ground for new loans? Why a bank? The business including the loan cost is very close to making a profit here. These D and A costs in my opinion will go away after the closed business costs have been removed. Further cost savings still to follow in 2016 too as DW stated at AGM (part of the 1M savings announced last year). Plus benefit from falling pound on Asian businesses. I also expect the business as it is is worth a lot more than 4p. My view is in next 12-18m Porta will be looking to show a profit and use the refinance to propel this forward. 2016 will likely be a loss due to D and A and the 300-400 cost related to closing businesses. Hopefully H2 will be closer to break even. We know they are not working on new purchases (Mentioned in the results.) and the only logical reason directors are not buying is due to a refinance deal. They said they were looking into this at AGM long term. If the business was going nowhere why would Gary Wyatt and other investors be mopping up 24-30m Porta shares this year? These investors don't throw money away for the sake of it. Someone is buying out another stakeholders stock here. 300-400k of stock being traded weekly here between the 2 parties. Over 1.5m shares bought so far since 13th October. There was also 2.4M stock bought after GW TR1 notification. There has consistantly been no shortage of buyers to mop up the stock lately. I still expect more RNS news on this in due course. This could be an investor selling with stable market conditions in terms of shares issued? Otherwise this process would of been much quicker in my opinion. Oh note also that Newgate are currently advertising 2 more roles and Publicasity is hiring too. Some of these relate to Public affairs others to additional work Publicasity is taking on. Publicasity have a lot of high profile brands on their books now and we know that they have cross sold 90% of these clients to other areas in Porta. In terms of news there is not much more they can really put in a RNS. They have pretty much changed most of their advisors and done share plans already. That and made senior management changes this year. Next likely news will be refinance or a holding notification in my opinion. Plus maybe news on share issues for Austrlain business to buy 6%. Timing wise I would expect the RNS on refinance before 2017. Makes sense accounting wise. You want a clean set of results for 2017. We seem to have a slight overhang here still as after the 380k of buys share price is drifting for little reason. I wonder if this means the seller is almost clear and has put a final sell order in? Note the 2000k buy on Friday. Usual indicator the buyer is making more purchases the next trading day. I expect another 250k+ buy to follow. Does the lower figure of 2000k mean a smaller buy? Wait and see.
We all want Porta to refinance but what we know is that banks will lend for almost anything except debt repayment. The collapse in appetite for IPO is working against the group. However, business appears brisk!
Hargreaves Hale Aim 2 fund has announced its half year results from Aug 31st 2016. Seems they still hold all Porta stock. Porta is not really mentioned in this report. Apart to confirm stocks held. My guess is HH has held tits Portfolio mostly to see the impact of Brexit. Hopefully they will take the management changes at Porta as a positive. Still waiting on refinance news. Let's hope for some news in next few weeks. If I was going to time this I would get it in before the end of the 2016 results. Then you get the big boost in 2017.
See hire below. Unclear if this is to replace someone who left or a new position. https://capitalaccessgroup.co.uk/news/press-releases/scott-fulton-joins-capital-access-group Scott Fulton Joins Capital Access Group Capital Access Group has recruited Scott Fulton as head of its Financial PR operations. Scott has a wide range of experience spanning almost 30 years in the City of London as an equity analyst in the building and construction sectors and as a financial PR specialist for a wide range of companies. Kevin Lapwood, Deputy CEO of Capital Access Group, said: “We are delighted to welcome Scott to the team to strengthen both our financial communications capabilities and our coverage of the house building, construction and property sectors.”
Just found this on their bi monthly news letter. Not sure if this is the retail project mentioned in September's results. Either way it's new business and a further sign that Publicasity seem to be doing really well. 'We are delighted to announce we are now working with specialist French patisserie and chocolatier Pierre Hermé Paris, famous for its perfectly crafted macarons. Master pâtissier Pierre Hermé has been deemed the ‘Picasso of Pastry’ by Jeffrey Steingarten in Vogue and awarded the title of 'World’s Best Pastry Chef' in June this year. His empire of pastry boutiques now spans the globe: from France and the UK to Japan, Hong Kong and to South Korea. We are raising awareness of the brand, the London boutiques and concession within Selfridges, as well as the website, with a full media relations campaign.' http://us1.campaign-archive1.com/?u=401372289f7e97207009127fb&id=1ac0aa5290&e=014f6b72ae
http://www.medianet.com.au/releases/116652/ For now it seems Newgate are still a Dreamworld client. Further reading suggests they have delayed announcing when site will reopen till the funerals and left it up to the staff as to when they want to return to work. Seems quite sensible really.
Looks like Dreamworld (Theme park in Australia) are a Newgate client. Albeit it seems Dreamworld have not taken on much of Newgate's crisis management advice. Now Newgate are threatening to dump Dreamworld to protect their reputation. Dreamworld wanted to reopen the site 1-2 days after the incident where 4 people died due to a collision on one of their rides. Newgate wanted to wait 2-3 weeks. Newgate also suggested the AGM where the CEO voted herself in a huge bonus should be delayed out of respect of the families. Albeit now a cash donation has been made to the Red Cross by the CEO. Hugely difficult situation for Newgate and Dreamworld. Looks like for now the site is closed for a police investigation. Our thoughts go out to the families that have lost loved ones here. They must be devastated. Let's hope Dreamworld start doing the right thing and make more effort to reassure the public something like this won't happen again. It was not that long ago Alton Towers Smiler ride was subject to a horrifying collision that caused serious injury. As an industry there is much work to be done here to ensure safety of all that go to these theme parks.
Another 250k trade has popped up and again it appears as a sell when it is clearly a buy. No idea about the 25k trade. Similar pattern to start of this week. Suprising the share is not up more really given the buys compared to the sells this week. 4p at present seems to be the SP floor. Happy to start from that kind of base. Someone is still building up stock here. I think the seller won't go below 4p. In effect the buyer is having to go first now to allow the seller to clear stock. Don't think it is GW has he likes keeping to larger numbers on the buys.
The buyer and seller are now using ISDX and LSE for trades. The small indicator trades now go on ISDX. 2409 share buy and now a sell of 1950 shares around 12.59. Covering their paths better?? Does this mean we can expect more sells tomorrow? Hmmm.
250k trade for 4.2p has just shown up for 8.14am. Delayed trade. That is why the share has spiked today. Someone still filling their boots.
Not read the article Baron but I did find it last week. (Didn't sign up). The Redleaf deal does seem to be getting rather costly. Redleaf seem to have the power when to call the shots. On flip side 75k of trades had a big impact on SP today. Bizarre given last few days of trades. Late trade or have the buyers soaked up a lot of the floating stock?? I wonder if the refinance could pop up tomorrow? Thursday is a good day for news. Might explain spike today? I do think they are working on something. Why would directors not buy at 3p?
I found a piece on ************* by Tom Winnifrith on the Redleaf deal. You need to register to see it. However, he points out that the deal was done in April 2014 for 50% of the business at headline £1.8m, 50:50 cash:shares. So Porta shell out £900k in cash and issue 7m ords equivalent £900k when price is about 13p. Included are puts and calls over the residual 49%, plus a lock in for 24 months and further 12 month orderly market period. Emma Kane ends up with 4.5 m Porta ords which must be her and Rosenblatt together. Then in Aug 2016 two things happen. A 15% tranche of Redleaf is put on Porta. Emma's holding goes to 9.8m, an increase of 5.3m. Consideration terms are similar to 2014 deal, so 15% costs £270k in cash, and £270k in shares at say 5p which comes to 5.4m ords. So Mr Polhill the other Redleaf partner didn't sell any stock? Here there was a lockin for four months, which elapses just before the year end ie Dec 2016. Maybe I've been a bit slow here or have misanalysed the situation. However, it looks like Redleaf took no risk on the Porta shareprice in April 2014 and in effect have a put at 13p. They are only at risk for the difference between what they are allocated the stock at, ie 5p in August and what they can sell it for, ie a wee bit less as it turned out. So Emma's share sales were at 13p, less any loss say 1p, meaning she was receiving the equivalent of 12p. That's why she was biffing them out with such zeal? Any road there could be another 5.4m coming our way in early December. If any of this is on the money, it is indicative of how the old regime have been playing with a listed business, are incompetent, and not abreast of events. Steffan needs to get a grip on this pronto.
Lots of twitter feed news on Newgate yesterday. Glenclore selling an asset for $1.14 Aus dollars. Hopefully Newgate will be advising on this. Newgate still hiring for Public Affair jobs. They state on Twitter were growing and hiring people. (Plural!!) The Public hire announcement on 22/09/2016 stated 'Further high profile hires will be announced as Newgate expands to meet growing client demand.' (As in more than 1.) I think further hires are still to come here. I don't consider the advertised account excutive as one of those. Perhaps more big names snatched from rival firms? Also consider what cross selling of products they can do on the Public Affairs side. They have hundreds of clients and they are clearly filling a Niche here for their clients. Lots to be positive about here. We also know how great Publicasity are at cross selling products too. Why not other parts of the business too? Publicasity is working for a lot of big names right now. Also consider timing of RNS news. Most RNS last year were about director buys. We are now getting more RNS relating to the business side. We seem to be getting 2-4 RNS a month at present. On this basis I expect further RNS news this month. We also got our first RNS from Gary Wyatt confirming they are increasing their stake in Porta. The buyers are gradually winning this battle. Once directors can buy that battle will launch Porta's share price considerably. End of month is perfect timing for RNS news. Any debt announcment will have director buys attached to it for sure. The way they said 2016 was a year of consolidation seems to be playing out. Mix of cross selling products, ensuring all parts of Porta have the best talent, using this talent to bring in big names and I suspect sorting out Porta's debt issues. Another good thing about DW move to Exec Chairman is he can not get on with Exec Chairman role whike CEO Steffan takes limelight. I suspect all the feed on forums about him was slowing progress and making some investors nervous. Also the chat about Bob. 2 problems solved in one move. These old hands know exactly what they are doing. At 4.25p this share seems a steal. There is no way they would make all these hires unless something was going right. I don't believe all these hires are replacing staff that have left. Gentry and the other maybe but others on top certainly not.
Hi Gt - agreed. Porta seem to be picking up some good value business at the moment; not only Sompo and Samsonite, but Glencore is providing lots of business that sits in Porta's territory. As we have both noted, Publicasity twitter is rising strongly as is PPS, and Newgate is buzzing. I note yet again they are canvassing for more people to join the company which is a great bell-weather for business growth. The new hires are bedding in well and it is always encouraging to see repeat comments from eg Gavin reaffirming what a great team he has joined. We should be seeing the increasing effect of new hires kicking in. Steffan now has a year under his belt with other hires kicking in from mid-2016. Looking a lot stronger than for a few years.
Nothing new but interesting. 1. They are reinforcing public Affairs in a big way and Gentry bought on 3 new clients. 2. They have announced 3 new Publicasity clients since April and another large retail project not announced. Publicasity twitter account is very active now. They are hiring new staff due to extra work. 3. Sompo and Samsonite takeover deals look promising. 4. The fall in the pound by 20% is really helping Asian operations. 1.7m profit can easily turn to 2.1m with exchange rates. 5. Still some stale investors selling out here. Still shares being horse traded but in smaller volumes.Drop from 5-3p was due to a fund? and EK/partner selling out. 6. Still part of the 1m cost savings to come through. So don't write off 2016. Overall the news stream of new business looks very strong. Newgate/Publicasity/Thirteen and Redleaf are pulling in more clients. I think CAG may be too. (Not always announced.) Sort out the debt and reduce D and A and you have a profit in 2017. If They really wanted to support the share price all directors would be buying in. My opinion is they are locked out or shaking the tree.
https://www.publicaffairsnews.com/articles/news/share-price-scare-newgate-owner