Member Info for hoper

I would gladly have co-signed a letter, but I am no longer a shareholder. If you do decide to write let me know and I will write seperately as a ex-shareholder, who was basically forced to sell his shares by the actions of the board. I have already e-mailed wagon reference my disgust at their actions. It appears to me - and I don't think I am talking out of my pocket - that the company has been deliberately mis-managed so that it could be bought on the cheap by Ross.

Unless there is a consolidation this will only be a penny share for many years to come. The company may well do better, but there are so many shares, the small shareholder will see hardly any benefit. In my honest opinion - and I know it hurts - you have to get out with what you can and move on.

Your share in the company will only be diluted if you pass on the rights issue. If your prepared to buy 10 shares for everyone you own then your share of the company remains the same. If you pass on the rights issue you will still have the same amount of shares, but own a much smaller percentage of the company. eg. If wagon had 100 shares in circulation and you had 1 you would own 1% of the company. However, they are introducing 10 new shares for everyone in circulation, so if you pass on the 'rights' you would still have the one share, but would now only own 0.1% of wagon. Hope that helps!

Unfortunately you got hit worse than me - I lost just over £20K. I suspect you feel like your guts have been ripped out at the moment. I still don't think we got the basics wrong, we just got done by a large shareholder who makes a habit of screwing up companies and buying them back on the cheap. I should have walked away when the last CEO left, I smelt a rat then, but I guess I was to greedy.

The private share holder has been well and truely shafted. You can hold and take up your rights issue, but that could be very expensive. Alternately you can hope you make some money by selling your rights, but that is unlikely. I know it's hard, but I'm afraid the best option is to sell and at least get something back.

Sold out first thing at 8p - I was surprised I got that much! I agree with your assessment totally. I can take the loss, but could kick myself for getting involved in a company which Ross was involved in. Hope your hit wasn't to big.

I've been lucky and thankfully haven't had a dog like this for many years, but when I pick one it's certainly a beauty. A decent 5 figure sum down the drain. I still think it could be a good company, but wouldn't recommend taking up the rights issue, the management are poor. It would be a case of throwing good money after bad. All in all I think I'll take a decent holiday instead.

Where on their website does it say the divi will be 1p. Are you sure you are not getting confused with last year when the final divi was cut to 1p?

Wagon paid an intrim dividend of 1.25p on 3.3p underlying income. Expected profit for the full year is about 8p so there is a strong possibilty that they will pay a 1 to 2p final dividend. However, their debt has increased because of the strong euro and they may pass - nobody knows for sure. Final results are out on the 12 Jun when we will find out if and when.

Results out 12 Jun 08, announcement made by the company after trading.

Take your point about a falling knife, must admit I haven't made a definite decision one way or the other. If they carrying on falling and I can buy at 10-12p I will. If you go into their website and ask to be reminded when the results are due it comes back with the 5th Jun.

I hope you are right, but it could go either way at the moment. They have a lot of debt, not too much for a company of their size, but enough to worry about. I have thousands of these shares and I'm thinking of topping up. However, while it's easy to make a case for them zooming up over the next couple of years, it is just as easy to make one for them ambling along between 10 and 20p. At this price and figures due early Jun I think I'll buy, but I certainly wouldn't bet the house on it.

A terrible announcement today. What should be a smashing little company would appear to be run by idiots. I was going to invest, but will now leave alone. I'm not saying it's a bad investment, but why take a chance on a company that makes such conflicting statements. There is also the question of why the intrims results are late, they were out this time last year, but now were told they will be out in due course. I could be wrong - it wouldn't be the first time - but I think I'm beginning to smell rat!

Was there any need to make that statement? They didn't make one when it was going down.

Hope it doubles again! Atb

This share might or might not be a decent long term hold. However, for those who got in at the bottom and with the price now doubled in a week, it is surely worth taking some profits. It doesn't look like they will, but why run the risk of a disappointment in their intrims.

Wagon took out a 150 million euro loan at a low interest rate last year, this has been used to pay off their stirling loan which was at a higher interest rate. However, since most of their turnover, assets and profit are in euros it doesn't really make much difference to the company. Unfortunately it does make a difference to the share price, because the debt level becomes the headline figure when their results are announced. IzzySkint is right when he says that the exchange rate is killing the SP. As regards profit and dividend, the FT predict a profit of 8p a share for this year and 5p for next. The company have a policy of covering the dividend by 3 times underlying earnings. For this year I've already had 1.25p intrim dividend and if the FT are right I should get approx 1.25p as a final, making a total of approx 2.5p for the year. However, companies tend to drop dividend payments at the drop of a hat these days, so it will be June before we know for sure.

I couldn't agree more. Whether people like it or not he is entitled to his point of view. Some people were way out of line with this guy.

Nice to see someone confident about wagon. I'm not as confident as I was, but the share price doesn't seem to have too much downside. I've already decided to hold for another couple of years to see if they turn the corner. As you point out there could be significant rewards.

I did try to sell out, but because of the size of my holding I couldn't get anything like a decent price. I don't see much happening in the short term, they may get a bit of a boost if they sell some of their factories and lease them back, this would reduce debt. Also they may still pay a final dividend which would signify management confidence and help the share price. Analyst still predict 8p per share earnings for this year and 5p for next year. Orders for the year 2009/10 are supposed to be 30% higher so it should be a good long term bet. However, the debt is high and the management are beginning to make a habit of disappointing shareholders. If I wasn't already in - and 33% down on the value of my holding - I think I would wait until next years intrim before making a decision to buy or not.