Member Info for firegazer

full of bad news about HRG. Balls! From the mail on Sunday....... "Argos boss John Walden will this week present his vision for the future of the discount retailer amid mounting speculation over who might succeed Terry Duddy as chief executive of parent company Home Retail Group. Walden has been suggested as a likely choice and sources have claimed he has made it clear he would like the job if Duddy departs. There has also been talk that Kate Swann, who said this month she would step down next year as chief executive of newsagent group WH Smith, might have been considered. Walk on by: Argos has faced calls to close some of its 600 stores However, a senior source at Home Retail dismissed speculation that Duddy might leave as ‘ridiculous’. Home Retail, which also owns DIY chain Homebase, will say on Wednesday that interim profits dropped by almost two-thirds to £10 million. However, Walden, who has already conducted a review of the Argos property portfolio, is expected to argue that the trend towards ‘click and collect’ will put its town centre shops in an increasingly strong position compared with its internet rivals. Sources suggest that Argos might also strike deals with internet-based partners to cash in on its High Street presence. Argos has faced calls to close some of its 600 stores. But it has res-isted, saying it would be more expensive to close them before leases run out than to trade from them unprofitably." Big dive on Monday? hope not

sorry to see you go mate. Hope you made some. I'm in until the results, with a stop loss to save me if it all goes bad. I still think there is more to come, but then again I thought that about emg and look what's happened there!

nice rise! Things looking good going into next weeks results, yet Seymour Pierce still have this as a sell. Another broker shorting perhaps?

lol Tbh I cant suggest many brokers that do get it anywhere near right. Best ignored and DYOR. Btw Argos got a bit of a slating in watchdog last night about their internet sales if you didnt see. Pictures of stuff in the advertising that wasnt part of the sale and hardly any sale stock. What plonkers!

that should of course be possibility,sorry!

I think this is reflecting the steady improvement in the co. For instance, a massive increase in hits on the Argos website (second only in UK to Amazon). A few of the loss making stores that are out of lease are being closed. Money is being saved by controlling expenditure, 400K saved on fleet maintenance was announced only a day or so ago. Put this together with a general rise in the market, the fact that a lot of these shares are on loan and will have to be bought back and the 200M in cash. There is also the high possability that in the results next week they will reinstate the div. This is of course my own deluded view being a long and embittered holder here and you should of course DYOR. regards FG

yep nothing fast, just steady improvement will do me.

that's exactly where I started :) Take it you don't think much going forward?

but things are getting better right?

Shorting home by any chance?

sain is spot on panmanure are spouting carp to serve their own interests. It's just a shame that the papers such as London Standard listen to them and publish their nonsense. Mind you, since when did the papers let the truth get in the way of a good story. As for your 170 purchase you have my sympathy. it's not too long back I watched my 2k profit turn in a 2k deficit. But fingers crossed that the div will be reinstated and the big ii's will pile in once again. Good luck and of course dyor.

noboddy want to join the fun?

Noboddy paying much attention to pan-manure's comments!

live

Agreed. They should be made to declare what their position is when they put out tripe like that. 51p my backside.

Could it be time to throw away the Argos catalogue? City scribblers think so. Panmure Gordon’s Philip Dorgan reckons punters should sell out ahead of Home Retail Group’s results later this month, saying that the Argos and Homebase owner’s competitors are “big and ugly”. “Amazon is close to or larger than M&S in non-food in the UK and, together with eBay, has customer approval ratings that Argos can only dream of,” he said. “John Lewis’ online sales are booming, while its stores are outperforming.” He thinks Home Retail will report “another big fall in interim profits” and he doesn’t think Argos’ review “will find a magic bullet”. Dorgan isn’t concerned about financial pressure for Home Retail presently as it has “cash of around £200 million”, but he thinks “both of its operating companies still have fragile P&Ls (profit and loss accounts)” and “Argos requires significant store closure, major cost reduction and brand repositioning”. He believes it is “difficult to see a value-creating solution to its problems, which is why we remain sellers”. Panmure gives it a share price target of 51p. Despite the downbeat note, shares gained 1.15p to 98.55p.

But a little disappointed to finish on 98.75 after breaking the 100 barrier. Buth there is more to come im nearly certain!

but the market was looking for them to go to a more internet rather than shop based setup. So it seems to me that they will like whats been done, including the closure of the non profit stores with leases up. Anyone still shorting here? cos now is the time to close.

A review of retailer Argos to be published later this month is expected to focus on the next incarnation of its successful internet operation. More than 42 per cent of Argos’s £3.8 billion sales now come via the internet. It has the UK’s second most popular website after mighty internet retailer Amazon, with 430 million hits in the past 12 months. The internet offering is the response by Argos to the threat posed by Amazon. The Argos review, which comes after two years of difficult trading, will be published alongside interims on October 24. Analysts are also expecting an update on underperforming parts of the retailer’s vast store portfolio. Argos is part of Home Retail Group (HRG), which also owns Homebase and Habitat. HRG chief executive Terry Duddy said he was seeing a “step change” in internet-driven sales and he wanted the company to continue to harness the consumer-led revolution in how purchases were made. He said: “We are seeing more commerce on mobile devices.” Mobile sales already account for 7 per cent of Argos’s total sales and are drawing a new type of customer to the firm. Duddy predicted purchases via smartphone, tablet or laptop would be more “interconnected” in future, making shopping on the move easier. He has seen a big jump in usage of Argos’s “check and reserve” service, where customers reserve products online and pick up in store a few hours later. The service accounts for 30 per cent of total sales.

I found it at www.euroclear.com Euroclear UK & Ireland home / Resources / Databases and lists / Monthly stock loan data GL