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Perhaps more a reflection of the risk of a more left wing labour leader in the offing with talk of nationalising of assets like water etc.

So could the final piece of the puzzle be a takeover/merger with once target Haleon to create a £70-80bn personal care & beauty giant?

The BEG ticker is frozen but as you say the BTG one is an old company and BTG Consulting doesn’t look to be UK.

I might write to admin to sort it out as it’s live on Google as BTG.

This news article sums it up nicely

https://stocks.apple.com/Av-IzAvFxRbCd4ceX2OGycw

MTB, Agreed! There is nothing in the fundamentals that has changed for this company. Read the last trading statement 'schjmh'. Then read Computacenter's pre-close statement. Companies in technology infrastructure and digital transformation are in a real sweet spot right now. I've been adding to long positions on Relx, LSE and CCC all week.

Couldn't agree more Narcus. Despite VOD being one of my biggest holdings, I only visit this board around results to get the posts that add value. The rest of the time its overrun with drivel.

It’s a great small company operating in a fast growing sector so I don’t disagree on potential, but it’s relative to current levels without some acquisitions. I’ve been in and out twice on this and it’s one I trade rather than buy and hold. But they have major competition from what I call the aggressive mid-caps being Softcat and Computacenter with c.£2.8b and £3.5b capitalisation. Check out https://bidstats.uk/ to see their public sector contract wins in January alone are almost Made’s annual turnover.

It's one thing protecting the brand values of B&J, but it is totally another when Ben Cohen is causing damage to the value of the newly formed parent MICC through his open voice.

B&J is only 14% of the turnover of the newly formed company and the chair, who appears to be overly sympathetic to the B&J political cause, should either show greater impartiality or resign IMO.

Ouch! Conceptually, Safestay operates a great product in a clear segment of the budget/backpacker/bulk travel end of the market.

They have a tight group of hostels in good locations. I am surprised they having such a torrid time but something isn't right on the execution.

All I've read about is some bad PR on bed bugs!

Selling Edinburgh for a net book loss of £1m strikes me as a bit desperate and now they are talking of a potential fund raise.

Put us all out of our misery and sell it!

In terms of using company profits to buy back shares and distribute to staff, no.

If they were holding shares as a tool to raise money to grow the business or cancel them, indeed then they would be aligned.

I’m a long term holder and believe that there has to be succession plans underway for Rik Traynor to step aside and the latest appointment of a group CEO may be one example of this being the case.

Personally I think this company is undervalued but the true profitability is difficult to ascertain because of the way they amortise their acquisitions. It’s very much run for the staff and management as they used to dilute the number of shares to hand out stock to staff. Now they use the company’s profits to buy up shares and then give them to staff which is only marginally better but still a bum deal for us shareholders!

I just hope we aren’t all shafted by an undervalued MBO backed by VC.

Investors Chronicle buy https://www.investorschronicle.co.uk/content/6bb5d22d-c5c8-4793-9b08-a921057a3d0a

Normally I am upbeat about CCC as I've been invested a long time. I am just relieved to see the shares go up today as I feared they would retreat on reading them. It looks tough out there despite companies still happy to invest in technology. The 2.5% drop in gross margin is the most concerning. It does look like this is a market share battle ground and it doesn't appear to be any one market but is particularly challenging in West Europe!

It's still a mystery to me the adjusted net funds are £278m versus the year end of December '24 (after the share buy backs) when there was £482.2m. I think it is purely coincidental that the difference is £200m which is the same as the share buy back. Both sets of figures, I believe, are after the share buy back. Investment is up, but not by that much. There was a £100m of advanced payments at the end of last year so the 2024 numbers may have been flattered somewhat but there still a gap. Hopefully, the second half and a new CFO will make all the difference.

This all said, I think the management team are good and if this were listed in the US would command a mid-20's multiple against the 15 we sit at today.

There are other administrations in August too - Leedale Limited (assets £8.8m) RALPH & RUSSO VENTURES LIMITED (assets £26m) and Sarah Raven Gardening T/O £23m.

Would have hoped for a bit of a read across from Softcat's positive update today. I see from Bidstats that both companies have had a decent summer, albeit Softcat had one spectacular order from East Sussex CC for £0.5b if the data is to be believed! https://bidstats.uk/

Roll on 9th Sept...

…less than 10% of the population an online trading account but average value much higher so long way to go penetration wise.

You are correct.Google AI isn’t so foolproof after all. That’s impressive growth for ii and I rake your point about D2C AJB.

I think my point is US numbers for the 6 or so main online brokers show the equivalent of 52% of the population have an account but UK has

CaneToad,

I'm long on Aberdeen but I believe that in terms of AUM and customer numbers HL is 1st with £120b and 1.9m (£63k per account), A J Bell are second with £90b and 593k (£151k per account) and II is 3rd with £55b and 400k (£137k per account)

The scale of Robinhood is something else with $221b AUM and 25m active accounts which is $8,840 per account.

Certainly £ for £ A J Bell and Aberdeen are punching above their weight on average holding per customer but Aberdeen is quite unique amongst its peers in that it is not just a trading platform but a fund manager and financial advisory firm all in one(although the latter looks to be up for sale).

It would indeed be a tasty morsal but equally has huge upside potential now it appears to be under a CEO who knows what he's doing!

I know why they do it but increasing guidance based on a constant currency exchange rate of $1.28 when it sits for the last 3 months in a range of $1.32 to $1.37 feels a little disingenuous. If the weaker dollar continues the reality will be to reduce the guidance figures by c33% I believe.

I've found the relevant parts of the statement at year end 2024:

Technical guidance for 2025:

· Central costs (including group-wide investments) expected to be £50-55m

· Adjusted effective tax rate expected to be 29.5%-31.5%

· Capex expected to be c.£35m

· Dividend cover of 2-2.5x adjusted diluted EP

We maintain a strong balance sheet, with adjusted net funds of £482.2m, an increase of £23.2m versus 2023, after completing a £200m share buyback during the year. The year-end adjusted net funds position benefited from strong collections and approximately £100m more of early customer payments than in the prior year.