Member Info for Guesstimation

"Weak performance of our UK business"

That is worrying when other UK operators are growing very quickly and profits are rising.

Dividend is suspiciously high compared to share price and P/E of c. 9

Anyone have any opinions on this? They don't tend to do anything for Xmas/boxing day or Blackfriday other than more posters so it is very rare to see price reductions, especially on everything. It is the first time i have ever seen sports direct do an "actual" sale before. Profit warning ahead?

Shorts are upping their positions quite significantly from 7% in Jan to 13% now Worth taking notice for anyone who is thinking about buying

Sounds suspicious more than promising

The problem is that purple bricks vendors will take much longer to complete. With a traditional estate agent, a big role they play is holding the sellers hand and offering advice. They can persuade the seller to take an offer, manage expectations, and then guide them through the selling process. The agent only gets paid once the sale completes so they will nudge them and the buyer along I get what you mean, but i don't think 1k is much in the scheme of property sales

The problem is that purple bricks vendors will take much longer to complete. With a traditional estate agent, a big role they play is holding the sellers hand and offering advice. They can persuade the seller to take an offer, manage expectations, and then guide them through the selling process. The agent only gets paid once the sale completes so they will nudge them and the buyer along I get what you mean, but i don't think 1k is much in the scheme of property sales

Oistar, you grammar is atrocious! I don't think estate agents are concerned about purple bricks, they are more concerned about the current housing market! Purple bricks takes a tiny portion of the market, and only appeals to a certain type of person. As for the share price, the company is still valued at c. �900m, for a concept which is still in an early stage and where growth has already slowed, and unlike Just eat, uber or other tech companies, has a very limited market. How often do you people sell their property? They have also been cautioned numerous times by the ASA for dishonest/misleading adverts, have thousands of very suspect reviews online (more than customers in some areas) and have been called out for using inaccurate and exaggerated figures in their success figures. The business model is easy to replicate, Bairstow Eves offer the same service now, but also allow you to transfer to their usual commission basis is you can't sell yourself, with the fee you paid being offset against commission. It would be easy for other estate agents to do the exact same thing across the country. During the process, there is noone to hold the sellers hand, leaving the average Joe to go through the conveyancing process alone (just think about how uninformed the average person is) As the market becomes more developed, i think there is a strong risk that purple bricks will be hit by 1) lower sales than average 2) lower selling prices with no agent to help negotiate 3) Much longer completion times with noone to assist the seller 4) Much stronger competition from brick and mortars

Why would they need to release a statement? The company is still arguably over valued even after this recent slump

Snige, what are you still doing here?

New regulations. Impacts CMC and IG as well

With a market cap of less than �31k an average any average adult could buy this company! Never seen this before in a listed company

The company is trading at 14 PE - this is spot on where it should be. An established company where growth is going to be difficult with headwinds and increased competition It was trading at over 20 PE which is the sort of value you would expect for a company with strong growth prospects. Issuing profit warnings during a time when your industry is growing is not deserving of this sort of value

You mean the ones indicating a strong sell? Type 5 mins 15 mins Hourly Daily Monthly Moving Averages Buy Sell Strong Sell Strong Sell Sell Technical Indicators Strong Buy Strong Sell Strong Sell Sell Strong Sell Summary Strong Buy Strong Sell Strong Sell Strong Sell Strong Sell

Indicators as in a 35% drop?

The market is one i have a very strong knowledge having worked in the sector. WeWork - currently overvalued at over $20bn but has softbank money coming in. Actively poaching Regus clients through very generous rent free periods - 12 months on a 24 month contract or 6 on a 12 month contract. TOG/LEO/I2 - These are the companies currently making solid 20-30% returns, they are not as bold as WeWork, and have grown organically and much more sustainable, not opening offices for the sake of it. Even with the WeWork force these are still pulling in very strong margins. TOG has 30 buildings compared to IWG's 3000 but was recently sold for �500m to Blackstone... IWG is valued at less than 4 times as much despite having 100x more buildings. Regus has invested too much in growth for the sake of growth, smaller locations outside of main city hubs, including niche areas, airports and motorway stations look good in the sense they can say they opened 140+ buildings a year, but these are simply not profitable ventures and probably never will be. They have too many empty loss making buildings in outer city locations which are important to their message of working everywhere but really bad for the bottom line.

Impossible to tell, the problem this announcement brings to light is that in a very strong market, the company is under performing, even if they will still make a profit. It indicates a somewhat risky future for the company. Unless there is more bad news i dont think it will slip much, but i don't see any significant increases in the medium term

I don't think so. The serviced office industry is growing quickly and is a very profitable market when done right. if IWG/Regus are downgrading profit guidance in the sort of bull market, that is a sign of terrible strategy and business plan

The serviced office industry is growing very quickly, and many firms operate at a 30% profit margin and 90-95% occupancy rate, especially in London and other major cities. Big competitors have entered the market, particularly in the UK but also other main city hubs and they offer much cooler more modern accommodation while regus still has an outdated image and is using a template for new buildings, where other will custom design each building they open. Regus on the other hand has buildings which are barely half occupied and a significant number of mickey mouse centres around the company and in non profitable parts of the country while their presence in core cities is being eroded by new and cool competitors. Considering the growth in the serviced office market, the fact they are issuing downwards guidance is very worrying for the company. They have over 3000 centres, but expect to make less than �200m? That is a worrying sign of an inefficient over stretched company!

The serviced office market is the hot topic in property with WeWork and recently Blackstone putting some serious money into the UK market. Regus have been caught out and struggling to adapt to the new "cool" flexible workspace and co working