Member Info for bigpunt

I don't know what others are seeing, but perhaps due to expensive overseas holidays / hot July and August / airport chaos, both the Woking and the Gloucester wetherspoons I visited yesterday and Wednesday respectively had no tables spare at around 6pm both days. Perhaps I have a short memory or post-covid trauma memory loss, but I cannot recall this. Hopefully back to pre-covid trading

I don't understand this thread at all and it is incredibly unbalanced.

The sub-sector is on it's knees - look at Morses and NSF - Le May or whoever chose to exit CCD deserves huge credit and at least a good run of at least three years to show how they can grow whilst running off a division that previously was the entire business of the Group.

What would you rather: Your shares worth 5p or around 200p at a great time to buy as the dividend is reinstated?

I'm making a general comment that there are two ways to get analyst forecasts down - with or without a profit warning. The presentation was poor, and there are other areas where I am critical, but I am taking a rounded view and will happily build my position at this price level

It's a well-trodden path for management to lower consensus without getting to the point of issuing a profit warning. They regularly use the word "prudent" which to me means cautious, and I don't particularly take issue with especially with macro uncertainty. I think you are overly down on LeMay - he doesn't seem to be trying to score a quick buck. Rather, he appears to be pursuing longer term success
"shore taking on PFG" the broker does next to nothing to collect their £250k-£500k fee and will not be part of any M&A as they have said they will use absorb within cash reserves. Broker is only involved in equity transactions

Don't let your ego get in the way of my substantive point.
City announcements are full of boilerplate prose. There are scenarios where giving less detail to the City is helpful. In this case management are spending heavily on sales/marketing/commissions for personal loans but are not admitting that because they want to be seen to be able to grow

With all due respect, thank god you are not in charge! Why would you give it out for free when you can invest it in obtaining a competitive capability or product that in most likelihood with IFRS 3 accounting, result in earnings accretion

1) I think they are saying they have a lot of bad debt fully provided
2) They recognise they have too much cash. The fact they are talking about it means they must have one or two transactions going through DD. No CEO of FD wants to give special dividends

I for one am not a disgruntled shareholder because I am not at a loss. It is a good business, growing in a controlled manner, in a lower risk environment. I don't mind moderate growth and I can continue to build a decent position over the next few months

I noted the dodged questions on costs.
The slide deck was completely rushed through and there were some slides e.g. slide 14 that they spent a long time on, but the damn slide doesn't even cast! Window dressing comes to mind

They are clearly making the point that analyst forecasts are a long way off. Let's see whether any of this is raised in the presentation

Theborn, remember you are quoting half year numbers i.e. 6 months. 12p doubled (and it is recognised they have a better H2) is pretty good for a business below 200p

Folks, if you think these are the results of a company worth £800m rather than £500m, why are you not delighted, and buying?

Agree it is mostly positive. Concerned by the increase in central costs meaning it is harder to see exactly how the business is performing vs last year - they could have scheduled the costs but chose not to. Note 9 shows a deteriorating receivables book for Vehicle Finance but there is commentary to acknowledge that. I'm happy to see investment in the personal loans platform which will complete the repositioning of PFG away from the doorstep loans. I topped up this morning in early trading at 193p

No thanks, by definition you will miss out on lows

For those that invest on fundamentals (medium/long term) rather than charts (short term), why delay. I am going to do exactly as Ubik_Fresh says, although not slowly as I suspect that HY will be positive, and neither am I down as I got back in to PFG during Covid-lows. These are excellent buying times, similar to covid-lows but significantly less macro-risk

I wouldn't read too much in to the loss of last year. Management know how many pints 'should be' pulled and plates 'should be' served per pub. They know whether they need to nudge the prices up 10p per pint or meal. When you have such high volumes this can be done with ease without the customers feeling aggrieved. They clearly chose to keep their customers happy at the expense of a poor set of results - absolutely the right decision.

There is a mixed sentiment on this board as to whether the 'cost of living crisis' is good or bad for JDW. I do not see how it is bad. If unemployment is high, it is a different analysis - but unemployment is at record lows.

There is also a smidgeon of governmental support for British booze, which hopefully will continue.

Obviously my view, but because of the above, I regard it a strong buy and I have piled in, and will continue to.

I recognise the sentiment that the price is low - it appears unbelievable value based on all metrics. However I am personally happy to see it stay around the £2 level until HY results in August because it will allow me to build a decent shareholding before the rabbit is out of the hat with this share

Perhaps the institutions are waiting to see how stable the dividend is before piling in - in which case the half-year announcement will be key

As I said early this morning, the business cannot be worth £150m and I agree with the market it is not worth £100m. It is not capable of making profit! And I agree with others that the announcement has some very strange wording e.g. quoting Angel numbers with no dates!

I don't know how this business is worth even £150m. Absolutely no visibility of making a profit, really high administrative expenses as a % of turnover, I used to be an Angel so can confidently say how poor some of the wines are.
I really don't think they should have listed - should have stayed small and continued growing organically, rather than continued aggressive marketing a 12 bottle case for £60 including postage

Asylum contract is only going to get bigger and more profitable. The company is now worth probably the same as the amount of profit that that contract will bring in on its own until it runs off. Balance sheet is in good shape since the recent Terraquest disposal and write-down of Care goodwill. Now it's time to see how management perform in growing the business through diversification