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Possibly gad to get rid of this contract - it sounds chaotic. Fluctuating school enrolment (probably caused by the surge in refugees), crazy time table driver shortages . If you there is no adult present when a kid has to disembark the kid goes back to the school
the school board is probably over their heads , educators aren't very competent
https://www.roanokerambler.com/roanoke-schools-switch-up-bus-routes-as-problems-with-contractor-persist/
Well they lost that Roanoke school contract in the end ....
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/roanoke-city-public-schools-moves-forward-with-plans-to-hire-new-bus-company-after-continued-delays/ar-BB1iFE0F
I wonder if we will get another RNS form or friends European Express Enterprises Limited
Their last one was a 1% increase which comes across as an opportunistic top-up.. I would not read anything more into that.
Cosmens probably negotiated the deal
"Powered by a 140kW charger with electricity from renewable sources at Stansted Airport, the battery-electric coach will run up to 21 hours a day with top-up charging during scheduled stop times in between departures at Stansted Airport, and a longer charging period at the end of each day.
"
How are they gonna manage topup charging. 563kWh battery - Damm that is some heavy battery. I don't see this as a commercial innovation. If it was then all buses would be BEV by now
There is a lot of turbulence in the EV market and it looked overhyped.. Thats why many EV makers are facing difficult times and many car makers rowing back their commitments.
Hmmmm, sounds a bit non core ...
"In her most recent role, Alex led bp’s Convenience and Mobility division across Europe and Southern Africa, accountable for accelerating the shift to low carbon growth across retail service stations and with bus, truck and van fleet operators. Previously, as global Chief Marketing Officer she created a step-change in digital, customer loyalty and data analytics and repositioned bp to capture material value through new food partnerships."
"Dont you mean the Enterprise Value as opposed to the MCAP ?"
I mean MCAP , they buy out the shareholders and assume the debt
" you mean an unsolicited approach of £750m which wouldn't go any further , and certainty wouldn't get as far as "an offer""
that would not be the first offer of course, it starts with an unsolicited offer with a 30% then upward peaking at 50-60%
They don't have to clear the debt, the net worth of the company is the market capitalisation
Well that's an interesting point
Say a buyer offers 750 million for this fine company (say 50% premium) , can they turn around and sell NA for 1.7 billion ?
I would get worried if Cosmens issued another Tr1.. At least there looks to be no big buyer in the background
Does anyone have a valuation for the North American business ?
According to wiki.....
In 2023, The Restaurant Group sold Frankie and Benny's and Chiquito to The Big Table, to solely focus on Wagamama.[17] In October, the board of the company announced that it intended to recommend to shareholders that they accept a £506 million takeover offer from US buyout group Apollo Global Management (APG).[18]
In December 2023, it was announced that APG had completed its purchase of the firm for £701 million
PC
"The German Government gave out travel subsidies which have now ended due to the cost they were subsidising"
can't MCG bail out of this contract then, or was it that badly written?
I don't think energy costs are going to reduce in the near future . The German economy appears to be suffering an energy crisis because of sanctions. and they have a Green Party coalition nutters in charge
10 year contracts suck donk*** *****
Pc: " Investors do need to ask whether it was financially wise to take the contract though
Not wise - they won the contract in Jan 2023, they running 2022 under an "emergency contract".
The energy price prices , driver shortages, Ukraine war spill over effects were all seen in 2022.. Surely the contract could have been negotiated to account for these increases . It was clear by then that we weren't in a zero inflation - zero interest rate environment like before the pandemic
Me thinks Management were desperate to win this contract for some reason - to validate the so called asset lite strategy . Its like a salesman who really wants to close a contract and brushes away minor details that blow up later :-)
"ALSA has delivered another strong performance in FY 2023, and the Group's UK and North American businesses have performed in line with expectations. The German Rail business has been impacted by industry-wide driver shortages, energy price volatility and lower energy cost recovery than previously anticipated"
Only bright spot is ALSA. UK and US is ambiguous . Germany is hit by fallout from high energy costs . Some say its deindustrialising or atleast the heavy industry is moving out
What's alarming is that they are referring to costings made for financial year ending 2022.. Its not quite discovering a blackhole in the accounts , but it seems management dont have a grip. We have seen this before with their profit warnings from unexpected costs in UK buses. Or was it Germany included?
This empire is too difficult to manage. I'm not sure I want to top up .. Only bright spot is possibly Cosmens breaking this company up
Lets not get too alarmist
maybe they have made redundancies because the new electric buses require less maintenance . Or most likely that has been outsourced which I believe is the model they are using
Kingrav> I see what you are saying but we know that NEX WM is a troublesome spot of this business empire .. The results thee are going to be mediocre at best
Government increases national minimum wage without any basis ( productivity increase ) by 10% and says inflation is too high and increases interest rates . So we are locked in a wage price spiral which BoE is using interest rates to correct .. Good luck with that if you are a low productivity service economy
Mobico group has 44,000 employees and 2.8 Billion turnover
Sainsbury has 160,000 employees and 31 Billon turnover
Revenue / Employee ratio at MCG not good , very low and very vulnerable to wage hikes .. National minimum wage increased in 2023 and its ripple effects still spreading
So redundancies aren't a bad idea.. Maybe they could introduce more AI in back office and customer relations