Member Info for fastduckharry

Just seen the presentation, very impressed with Ian Strafford-Taylor.
Far too much info in there to report in detail. Have learnt that the Corporate cards are doing very well. Following a recent business trip to the USA, the businesses of Hollywood in Austin, Texas are very attracted to their potential for use. Which when you think of the huge amount of overseas location work and expenditure, that is done in normal years, the potential for Equals to do well out of that is enormous.
Equals have been at some trade fairs already this year. The reception they have received from potential business customers has been very positive.
Equals are very strong on compliance as a conservative company. Therefore no worries about falling foul of any regulations.
Richard Cooper, the CFO, mentioned that scalability is built into Equals platform systems. In terms of business they could cope with a level of use in the order of a thousand times more.
In response to a question about an approach to buy the company, the most important thing that Ian Strafford-Taylor said in response is that he has been with the business since its inception and we are now on the cusp of something great. Which in other words means why would be we want to sell now?
Crystal Amber have to sell, Equals are comfortable with the progress of that. With the operation being organised with the institutional investor community. Saw a number of 100k blocks go through yesterday, both buys and sells. Probably Crystal Amber offloading some more, which has been snapped up.

Personally I think private investors should be greedily snapping up shares themselves now rather than wait for further signs of growth.

Yes patience is required the growth is there, bottom line profits are very much on the horizon. For me this is the best part of the results report.

>2022 has started exceptionally well with revenues to 28 March, 78% higher than the same period in 2021 at £13.6 million. Strong revenue growth continues to come from B2B with all product lines progressing well. Equals Solutions, which contributed £3.6 million of revenues in FY-2021, has already contributed £2.6 million in FY-2022 to-date and is expected to continue to grow strongly as the Group adds new functionality to its payments platform during the year.<

Equals Solutions, as you'll be aware, is the platform for business with the corporates, where the big money transactions are. It is therefore highly encouraging to see that area having the most growth in Q1-22

Hi Sparky, many thanks for taking the time to give me an honest reply. Debt is obviously still a potential worry, simply because we don't know how high energy prices could rise next winter. The worst scenario would be something like the coldest winter in over 30 years. Unfortunately past records won't apply in exceptional circumstances. Was reading a final results report yesterday for HERC. They had a client go bust on them last September, owing over £600K. The first such incidence in their 14 year history. Will make my mind up in the next week or so,as the current price is attractive.
I see you are fully committed to YU, keep up the good work and analysis. I wish you the best of fortune regardless of my investment.

My concern apart from the debt, was the possibility of existing fixed price agreements to purchase limestone, issued by Nordkalk prior to the acquisition. Had been believing that the asset was inflation proof, then the thought struck me. The trouble is Nordkalk was a massive buy for SigmaRoc and likely to prove so, for the many years to come. Maybe not right now though and my worry could be without foundation. The CEO is talking in terms of the next five years, it is likely that by then the company will be thriving, making tons of profits and I'm comfortably back in. Nevertheless I kick myself for not getting out when well over a pound, even though had been harbouring some doubt over this buy.

The share buy must have involved one of the large trades that went through on Thursday. I notice that they are buying with funds labeled, discretionary clients. Quite likely more than one fortunate client is going to acquire a decent chunk of BKS shares. It is a large vote of confidence in the future of Beeks.

Hi Sparky, have got this stock on watch, did not commit because of the smallness of the company in a tough market. The recent results announcement provided the answer to many of my concerns. I still have one area of concern though. That is with regard to Yu's customers being able to pay their energy bills. With your knowledge of the business, are you aware of any questions being directed at Yu on this matter? Or do they seriously vet their customers with regard to solvency before taking them on? The pressure on the sp does suggest that the market is concerned about something and likely the same question is being asked.

Interesting that K3C have dumped finnCap. I sold my holding of FCAP earlier this year as I started to doubt their advice. Particularly with the high level of dividends for growing companies. My feelings are that more cash being retained for investment, increases the asset value of the company and requires less shares to be sold in any necessary fundraising placing for acquisitions etc. The result being, the share price is likely to grow more.

Perhaps something is being organised for next week. the size of the placing will be an indication of the potential number of contracts that could be won before the year end. Not unreasonable to imagine that there could be at least four for Proximity Cloud. If Exchange Cloud is released by July, it's possible there may be a further two before December, probably much earlier. I think that £5m would be enough with the extra revenue starting to come through. Assuming installation is done within 16 weeks, Beeks could be looking at revenues of £28m+ for the financial year ending June 23.

If Exchange Cloud is embraced by the exchanges, driven with the potential for them to earn money from it. There could be a time when they all want their own system. Then we really are talking about multiples of the current sp. Am not surprised that Gordon McArthur is excited (at the prospect of Beeks generating so much cash in 2/3 years time). Likely that predators will have their eyes on Beeks by then. You couldn't blame him for accepting the right offer though.

All speculation of course, a lot of rewarding work for Beeks between now and then. Right, not going post here again until the next significant rns pops up.
Good luck all.

Nice sp increase today, even though today's buys weren't really nudging the Ask price for a large chunk of the day. Then these trades went through:

24-Mar-22 14:47:51 155.00 1,180,000 Unknown* 154.00 156.00 2m O
24-Mar-22 14:47:42 155.00 1,125,000 Unknown* 154.00 156.00 2m O
24-Mar-22 14:47:37 155.00 25,273 Unknown* 154.00 156.00 39.17k O
24-Mar-22 14:47:30 155.00 162,000 Unknown*154.00 156.00 251.10k O

It could well be that most of these numbers are sales and the marker maker has been trying to offload them for the past month or so. That is before the war in Ukraine intervened. Now possible that the chances of a share placing to raise the working capital, for Beeks to cope with their surge in sales, has increased.
I might be in danger of thinking too much but a successful placing soon, could be the driver for the sp to test the 200p levels again.

Most important points - the large Tier 1 contracts are becoming a cash drain, as it takes a year to return the initial investment with the client. Various options being considered, including asking clients for a year in advance, raising credit finance or possibly an equity raise. Get the impression that other options will be considered before a share placing.

Gordon McArthur still seems very optimistic for the future. On being asked about the share price, he doesn't mention where he thinks where BKS could rise to, other than many multiples. The Beeks team are working hard to deliver. They are anticipating a few more contracts over the coming months. Revenues for the next final year expected to be around £25m. New contracts take 12-16 weeks to set up.

Exchange Cloud. A special version of Proximity Cloud with multiple users set up for exchanges to contract and host. They will then be able to lease out a partitioned space on the system for their own clients' use. Beeks are already in discussion with a number of exchanges. Designing the system to cater for their requirements. Product could be available in two months. Beeks believe that orders will soon follow as this product would be an earner for the exchanges as well. Also with the kit set up on site, new clients could be added very quickly.

An upgrade to single user Proximity Cloud under development for the year end, is likely to mark the end of the current spike in product development expenditure, as it then returns to a more normal level.

Heard nothing today, that would deter investment in BKS. In fact the future, once getting over the need for some necessary capital investment, looks brighter than imagined last night.

I've topped up again this morning. Don't want to put too much pressure on Beeks, though they must surely realise that this moment is the opportunity to capitalize on their product advantage. Likewise now is the time for the private investor to invest for the longterm.

A reminder:

The Company will provide a live presentation relating to the results via the Investor Meet Company platform on 24 March 2022 at 12:00pm GMT.

The presentation is open to all existing and potential shareholders and registration can be completed via the following link:

https://www.investormeetcompany.com/beeks-financial-cloud-group-plc/register-investor

Questions can be submitted pre-event via your Investor Meet Company dashboard up until 9am the day before the meeting or at any time during the live presentation.

More good news today. We could well be seeing annual recurring revenues topping £20m in FY23.

24 March 2022 - Beeks Financial Cloud Group Plc (AIM: BKS), a cloud computing and connectivity provider for financial markets, is pleased to announce the signing of a multi-year Private Cloud contract. The contract, worth £4.4 million over five years, is for a new European Tier 1 client, and was secured via a partner.

The latest contract is testament to the strong sales momentum across the Group, now successfully targeting the world's largest financial services organisations and exchanges. Both the Private Cloud and Proximity Cloud Offerings have significantly contributed to Beeks' record third quarter of trading, with c. $15 million in total contracted value during the period, representing a three-fold uplift on our previous record quarter of Q1 FY22.

Gordon McArthur, CEO of Beeks Financial Cloud commented:



"Successfully securing a further contract of such significance reinforces our belief that the prospects for Beeks have never been stronger, as financial services organisations accelerate their cloud strategies. Alongside other recent wins we have announced, this latest contract contributes towards underpinning our FY23 expectations. A substantial pipeline continues to build across our Private Cloud and Proximity Cloud offerings, and we are confident in our ability to further increase our market share."

I notice that the buying price parked @147p max today. The last time it was parked, when @165p , it was if on a hill with the handbrake off. Beeks are geared up, expecting to receive more contracts and are working hard to achieve that. Therefore not going to worry excessively about short-term movement in the sp. The investor presentation could give an indication of how confident Beeks are. Though with regard to details they won't be revealing any specifics.
The Canaccord Genuity is close to my own estimations going forward. though am tempered by the realization that the markets are looking for profit and currently reducing valuations if there is any doubt going forward. That doesn't mean that sentiment won't have changed again by the end of 2023.

Have found nothing horrible in the numbers yet.

The market's have been spooked, possibly by what the CEO said in his statement, with regards to outlook;

>Within our Indirect business, we will continue to evolve and adapt our partner proposition to support growth opportunities across all markets, ensuring that our channel partners have the tools to compete and be successful. Within our Direct business, we have seen delays to some projects for our Enterprise customers caused by the global chip shortage; this means that sometimes it takes longer than we had anticipated for billing to start and this may affect growth in 2022.<

I don't believe this will affect overall growth in the company, in the way that the market has reacted.

The growth in Europe is a good sign. Germany is the largest economy, it seems that Gamma have timed their entry to that market very well.

Increased investment mostly on product development and installation has dented profits short term. We will get a better idea of Beeks future trajectory in September, with the company in plenty of discussions regarding new contracts with clients. Current contracts are going to bring in over £17m on a annual basis. This number will increase with any additional contracts which Beeks are ready to land. An increase in the use of an agreed loan facility is facilitating this expansion without further placing of new shares. Thereby avoiding dilution of the sharebase. The benefits of which, will be seen in future years earnings.
There would also have been costs associated with the move but Beeks are now in a facility that is three times the size of the old one. The successful expansion of this company is well and truly underway.

Exchange Cloud is a new product being developed in response to feedback from some clients and more importantly prospective new clients. Will hope to glean some more information from this week's investor presentation.

The negative is the high p/e ratio. With the recent fall in the sp and these results it is coming down. Currently the dividend is less than 1%. Another two years of high growth, similar dividend growth, with a more modest rise in sp will put AFX on a stronger footing for the long term. Making it a more attractive proposition for many more institutional investors.

Today's rns regarding this joint venture, means that from next year Brickability will have guaranteed access to another 22m roof tiles per annum. Adding another c£9m to annual revenues. Another example of this company's ability to plan ahead to mitigate supply chain worries and develop future expansion. At first look the venture partners might seem complicated but these are people, Brickability know well, Who presumably will ensure this venture gets underway successfully, on time and on budget.

In an ideal world, would be great if the shares were bought on the market to satisfy the incentive plan. Hopefully in a few years they will have the readies to do so. Outline of the incentive plan details below.

https://www.equalsplc.com/content/news/archive/2021/181021

'The Board intends to report its interim results for the period ending 31 December 2021 on Monday 14 March 2022'

Last year FNX went ex-div 10 days after the interims were released.

Agreed HTF.
Just had a look to see if there are exams in ESG and came up with the CFA ESG certificate. Is Insig's software capable of passing such a test or does it merely look for the right words or phrases in company documents? If it is the latter, surely a competent person trained and experienced in examining ESG matters would be required, to then analyse and come up with a valid rating.

https://citywire.com/wealth-manager/news/is-the-cfas-esg-exam-worth-doing/a1307168

(This is my last contribution to this particular thread - have a good day)