Member Info for Hexam

"What is your rationale for thinking the jury is out on criminality?"

I just don't know. They've run the company into the ground which at the least suggests gross negligence but whether there is anything more nefarious going on than that I have no idea either way.

Anyway you have no evidence of MM's getting up to the kind of malpractice you regularly accuse them of. Just incoherent mumblings about algo trades and UT's as if that proves anything. You even suggested yesterday that they were selling through algos and then buying back in the UT - at a higher price! Perhaps they are just incompetent too? And yet you still invest in a market that you keep saying is so rigged? I wouldn't, personally, if I thought that.

OSD - To quote a poster on here over fond of bullet points:

“I don't give a scoobys.” :-)

“Do you think the BoD are criminals?”

Criminally incompetent - Yes. Criminal full stop - Jury’s out.

“Do you think a ban should carry across from the old Boo. Board to the new one?” - No, this is a new start after all isn’t it?

Do I think your ban under T4G should stand. Yes, but only on the old BOO board (see above). A ban on this board would be justified though for new offences since here in my view.

Glad we cleared that up.

“Pointing out childish repetitive posts aimed at individuals is not sneering.”

I agree, that in itself is not - especially as there are indeed many posts that are childish, misleading, repetitive etc. The way you do it though is IMO - or maybe condescending may be a better word? Anyway, just my view and personally just prefer to read posts that point out why posts are misleading etc. and back that with facts (rather than just their own misleading information). Each to their own though.

(And to avoid confusion I am not accusing you of misleading information - just of not countering at all the posts that you think are and instead just complaining about them.)

"I never sneer at others posts" That's funny, you already have.

"if you feel that i am more superior too [sic] yourself, then so be it" That's not what I suggested at all but if you felt that I did then maybe there is conducive syndrome associated with that comment too. Perhaps ask your 'partner in crime'?

"Q. do you drive a big car" No.

*It's just a shame the moderators don't do their job"

Just wish they'd do their job on you (like they did before). Getting very tiresome.

"New fact No.3 - I don't give a scoobys."

And yet you felt the need to post.

I see you are one of those 'think themselves superior' type of posters who like to sneer at the lack of quality of posts on a board without adding any quality yourself. Well done you!

So you’ve confirmed Jamdooogle that they are not in a closed period (as they are over two months from publishing results) 👍

Yes, for staff numbers could check the RNS but clearly those numbers are not updated regularly and so are not reliable.

For example the 41,000 from the 11 Feb RNS is clearly out of date. The total number of staff at the the end of 2024 given in the annual report was c34.500 (and this WILL be reliable) and clearly they didn't add 6,500 in the six weeks to Feb 11th!

So the numbers they put at the bottom of the RNS are probably best ignored - as is that response from IR (unless it was a figure relating to earlier in 2024)? Instead the number in the annual report for the end of 2024 (i.e. the 34,500) is the number that should be trusted given how much those reports are checked and the importance that is given to them.

Hi Simpiles

Now had a chance to look and found a very useful section in the annual report on employee benefits.

The total employee costs (so includes basic salary, bonuses, NI, pensions, maternity pay etc.) were £1.400bn in 2024. This included £122m for NI and £54m for pensions. The average number of employees in the year was 38,508.

So the average cost per employee last year was around £36k (excludes IT equipment, training and any other costs associated with the employees that are not a direct benefit).

Hopefully that is of some use in calibrating your spreadsheet as well of course in estimating future potential savings.

The total employee cost for the previous year was £1.64bn so a drop of 14.5% and so showing already considerable savings though of course some of the benefits of reducing headcount to 34,500 are still to come through (as not yet a full year impact).

Finally their estimate of the impact of the April NI changes is for £20m p.a. of additional costs.

Fine but surely the large majority of costs are not like that? If they are then Capita have much bigger issues than I thought!

I’m not sure I get your point. Most of Capita costs I would have thought would not be project based albeit I assume they would mainly be working within some Sevice Levrl Agreement with clients. As such I would expect them to follow more closely that of normal salaried employees.

In any event I’ll try to look up actual Capita employee costs when I have the chance as that should give definitive answers.

Personally I’d rather do that than build my own model as in my experience (from my expense management days) there are too many assumptions involved if you don’t have access to accurate data that can quickly multiply up magnify the overall error.

I’ve never worked in a company where holiday pay was in addition to salary? Also maternity pay and sickness pay may not be additional (depends if there is cover involved).

Your spreadsheet may be complex but it relies on assumptions used as well as methodology.

The companies I worked for tended to have fully loaded costs of around 40% to 60% of basic salary but that included everything (not just benefits) so training, laptops, travel, electricity etc. etc.

Nb Bonuses and car benefits are other possible direct benefits that ought to be added.

I assume somewhere Capita disclose the total employee costs for 2024 (I can’t look at the moment). Dividing that by around 40,000 would give a pretty accurate figure for the average cost per employee (benefits only) without the need for guesswork.

“This is the first update since then”

It’s not actually It was in the annual report and has been in previous PRNs (eg 1st April).

The median salary I took from the annual report so I presume the is accurate (assuming my memory is) though the mean will be a bit higher - though not as much as 40k. Yes, the average cost will be much higher because of NI, pensions etc. though 50% seems a bit toppy to me.

How much of the reduction is due to Capita One or was that already in the 38,000? I haven’t seen a 38k figure anywhere. They don’t seem to update the figure very often judging by PRN’s which always include the number in any business update. I’ve seen 43, 41 and now 34 in the last couple of years but may have missed something.

The number also appears in the annual report. I think the median salary in the latest report was £29k?

"Laser focus on cashflow and debt at the next Results. In a month?"

Yes, results should be out in about a month from now but they've already effectively told us the cashflow as they've given us the net debt figure. That implies a cash outflow of around £75m from the business over the whole year of which nearly £30m occurred in H2. That's before the (roughly) £90m injection from the head office sale and the equity raise.

So the business has been running at a cash LOSS which is why the current low cash position vs debt is particularly worrying (and why more assets sales look very likely in my view over the next few months - unless they can turn it around or raise funds by other means).

Actually Daffy I just want 1.5p. Answers would be too much to hope for (especially in the form of evidence).

Oops - Kat's lost his Kool again.

'weasel', 'manipulative' 'lying', 'cowardly', 'insecure', 'low-life', 'wally'. 'deluded', 'fantasising', 'tapped minds', 'insecurities' (again).

All in one rant - at least I wasn't on the end of it this time ;-)

"So why are you here, that is the question that needs answering Hexam? Oh I forgot, you're waiting for the same spike you got in January so you can sell again. No doubt you will then buy again and repeat the whole process of bashing QBT 24/7 again and again."

Finally it's sunk in! Though I'm not sure I'd risk coming back again as each spike is clearly getting harder to achieve as none of the last three updates have moved the dial much including the latest one which I think is their most promising one to date (yes, you read that right)! The market seems to have just grown tired of the promises and hope not being turned into anything meaningful. They've gone to the well once too often maybe?

Of course IF they are successful with Method C it will do much more than just spike (hopefully 10p+) and then I'd very happily take the money and exit stage right never to return.

PS - Clearly I don't bash 24/7 - many days I don't post at all and I'm not always 'bashing it' when I do post. Like today.

"The question is How long until confirmation of auccessful testing"

Surely that depends also on whether it is indeed successful. That's the point of the testing!