Member Info for Culley01

I wish I was entering CPI now. As a long term holder I’ve got 600K shares at 33p after quite a lot of averaging down. Still probably cheaper than Schroeder’s entry. I’m still very positive on these but I suspect I may have another year to wait but for a share which I would expect to at least triple to 70p or so & maybe a good deal more I’m prepared to hang on.
Bring on Dividends or a substantial Institutional Investor

CPI pretty much deliver what they say. It does seem unbelievable that having virtually eliminated pre IFRS debt and made the beginnings of slimming the company down and trimming costs share price halves in a year. Contract wins, debt reduction etc don’t seem to do anything for the SP apart from a temporary lift & then a slide back again. I think the only thing that will kickstart this is a resumption of dividends.

@GoCPI & if there isn’t sustainable cash flow somethings wrong. All one offs (apart from pension contributions?) out of the way so should be generating £100m + so even a token dividend would be a big step to encouraging more investors & a rise in the SP

I forgot to add that profit margins once one off costs are eliminated are between 5% & 10% which should give an increasing income of at least £150m

@Terry
I’ve also been in CPI a long time & retrospectively I shouldn’t have invested then.
However it’s a mistake to reflect too much on the past but what is important with CPI is where we are now & where we are going.
To me a company that will within 6 months have virtually no net debt, has an income of £3b + with a considerable amount coming from renewals, is in an area largely unaffected by recession, has built in inflation increases for the majority of its contracts, an income that is growing whilst costs are reducing & should (& the sooner the better) restart dividends is an attractive proposition especially at the current price.

Voli I seem to remember in the last update (or the one before that) JL said management is too top heavy for the reduced size of company & they will slim down & also that once disposal costs are stripped out profit is there so that infers that profit is minimal or negative if you include one off costs

No Fear where are you?
At least you don’t need to ring SM!

Much better presentation than previous updates.
Nothing earth shattering but with net debt near to nil by H/Y & increased revenue this is moving from a recovery share to a growth share & as such should attract additional investors

Chin up No Fear.
There’s nothing to think this won’t come good.
I hope it starts tomorrow but even if it doesn’t 2023 should be a turnaround year

If CPI is making (as they state) somewhere between 5% & 10% profit margin (presumably this is meant to reflect all costs involved) on a T/O of £3b+ ( even allowing for some old contracts that don’t meet this criteria) this would indicate (once all one offs re disposals/restructuring are out of the way) profits should be £150m +.
At this level the company should be worth at least 8X profit i.e. £1.2b
That’s what I’m hanging on for but tomorrow should give us an indication if this is realistic or not.

Let’s hope that the good news isn’t buried but proclaimed loudly, however judging by previous updates even good results seem to be presented as mediocre

I was hoping for a gradual increase in SP prior to the Trading Statement not a bailout by investors. Let’s just hope that patience pays off & we get a lift after the TS. My worry would be if some of the IIs get fed up & start to dispose of substantial quantities of stock.

Let’s hope that we get a statement re dividends restarting even it is generalised i.e ‘we intend to start dividends in second half of 2023 subject to market conditions’
Although a share buy back might be a better use of funds I think it needs a restarting of dividends to move the share price.
CPI do need to act to drive up the SP so come on SM let’s have a decent positive statement with some clear figures showing genuine trading profit, increased T/O, improving margins & a statement re dividends/buy backs.
T/O should increase simply by the index linking on contracts & hopefully increased sales.

I’m getting nervous re the update.
Usually the wording isn’t very positive & the way markets are now this could have a negative effect.
Hopefully I’m wrong but I’m worried that I may still be waiting for the breakout this time next year.

Provided CPI & JL keep doing what they say eventually all will come good & to be fair JL has delivered pretty well.
My main concern is that I want to see positive cash flow excluding sales & increased T/O.
If costs continue to reduce, income increases, debt is repaid then eventually the market will wake up to the fact that this is a cracking company

Go CPI Hopefully you are right about 2023 being the year but I suspect SM was quoting 2024 partly out of caution & partly because until Y/E 2023 we won’t get a clear set of accounts without being muddied by Capital disposals.

Happy Birthday No Fear
& all the best for the Trading Update

Just bought another 50,000.
Hoping for a quick 20% gain post Trading report.
Hanging on to the rest (500,000)

SM said last year that they were very conscious of Shareholders interest & would be issuing as many positive statements as possible including contract wins etc.
This just hasn’t happened.
I only hope this Trading Statement is going to be very positive & that the Pay360 deal has completed by then as otherwise I can see this drifting further.
If the Turnaround really is completed CPI do need urgently to do something positive for the Shareholders who do after all own the company.
As said before
Dividends
Share buybacks
Genuine trading profit
Clear statement showing nil debt ( or cash in hand ready to repay debt when it matures). Personally even if there is a small penalty to repaying debt early I would like to see it cleared.
Possibly some strategic acquisitions but not through borrowing
Please let’s have as many of the above as possible

Sorry not a ‘slid’ footing but a ‘solid’ footing
Typo