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Great being a muppet, isn't it?
"Cabinet spokesperson for place, Coun Tim Cheetham, told the meeting the draft proposals could be subject to some degree of change as Premier Foods - which owns a portion of the land accounted for - has expressed a desire to expand its operation.
He added the often divisive masterplans were particularly important in such areas as MU3 that have been identified as brownfield - land previously developed for industry - to ensure development can be controlled.
“There will be a need to have some flexibility as part of this plan,” said Coun Cheetham.
“A large portion of one of these sites is owned by Premier Foods, which have plans to extend their facility.
“If that plan comes to fruition, we will need to revisit the housing allocation.”
According to a report discussed by cabinet on Wednesday, 1,683 homes could be built on Shaw Lane and a further 294 - as well as a 210-place extension to Carlton Primary Academy - on green space between Fish Dam Lane and Carlton Road.
Premier Foods’ expansion plans, if they are acted upon, could bring 500 more jobs."
https://www.barnsleychronicle.com/
Interesting, business must be good!
"Sir Martin Sorrell has signalled a major summer surge for Britain's economy by declaring that the advertising market is the strongest he has seen it in his 45 years in business. The marketing guru predicted the 'ridiculous' growth in advertising spending by companies – seen as a key bellwether for the wider economy – may well continue for the rest of the year and into 2022. - Financial Mail on Sunday"
https://www.sharecast.com/news/press-round-up-short-premium/sunday-newspaper-round-up-delta-mutation-foreign-summer-holidays-anglo-american--7972088.html
It would not be right to post here the SCSW update on RCH but here are simply the last few words,
"Investors will be raising the roof on the next update; buy."
Endorsement from the competition, what better?
"1st June 2021. Today Reach announced that both the Evening Standard and Independent
have signed on to license Mantis, the AI-powered advertising tool created by Reach with
IBM Watson.
The deal will cover the tool for both brand safety and contextual ad targeting.
In initial tests with the Independent, Mantis opened up a 40 percent increase in available ad
impressions compared to other market leaders. Since its 2019 launch, the Natural Language
Processing used by Mantis has proven itself to be a more sophisticated alternative to key
word platforms in establishing brand safety; for example, ensuring that the word “shoot” in
the context of a football story is classed as safe.
The precise contextual targeting offered by Mantis puts participating publishers in a stronger
position as they prepare for the post-cookie advertising landscape. The Mantis contextual
capability has a 95%+ accuracy rate, significantly higher than the leading competitor, and
earlier this month was awarded the TAG Brand Safety Certified Seal.
Emily Britton, Head of Publisher Development at Mantis said:
“We’re thrilled that two of the UK’s largest quality news brands will be joining us in leading
the way on AI-led content classification and moving away from outdated keyword blocking
approaches. Never-ending block lists not only disrupt ad revenue for publishers but they
keep brands from making the most of quality news content.”
Adib Razzaq, Sales Director for the Independent and Evening Standard added:
“This is an important move and one that we’re delighted to be making. As the industry
prepares for the end of third-party cookies, advertisers will be increasingly reliant on
contextual targeting. This is just one of the ways we’re making sure we’re a step ahead of
the changes, whilst being the best possible partner to brands.”
https://www.reachplc.com/static-files/2e106787-5195-4e3a-b8d3-9a816797a72a
PRSM remained for most of yesterday above $18 in NY (on small volumes), closing at $18.16, which is comfortably above 1300p.
https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/bprmf/analystestimates?mod=mw_quote_analyst
Is this simply London failing to appreciate the RPA story or perhaps lacking confidence in the management of PRSM?
Either way, it perhaps shows that a move to NASDAQ is the way to go. GAN doubled immediately on moving to NY. TRMR is reportedly moving to NY. London is perhaps essentially an old economy market and much more risk-averse.
https://seekingalpha.com/news/3684747-uipath-rallies-for-second-day-following-ipo
Investors are betting big on robotic process automation technology with many seeing UK developer Blue Prism (PRSM:AIM) as a relatively cheap way to play this emerging trend. Shares in the Warrington-based company jumped 3.5% on Thursday to £12.59 after its US-based rival UiPath successfully listed in New York.
UiPath, which counts Amazon, EY and Bank of America as customers, priced its IPO (initial public offering) at $56 per share versus expectations of $52 to $54 on Monday (and $43 to $50 last week). The stock leapt 23% on the first day of trading to $69, and a further 3% after-hours to $71.25, giving the company a $36.9 billion market cap.
DIGITAL ARMY FOR DREARY TASKS
Robotic process automation, RPA for short, uses a virtual taskforce to automate manual back-office administration. This cuts costs for clients, frees the human workforce to do more value-added tasks, improves customer service and speed, and reduces the need to invest in new IT systems, all via a compliance-friendly platform.
The RPA market is predicted to see enormous growth in future. It was estimated to be worth around $1.9 billion in 2019 but a report earlier this by Global Market Insights predicted it to surge beyond $23 billion by 2026
UiPath, Britain’s Blue Prism and Automation Anywhere, another US company, are the three major specialist players in the space. For the year to January 2021, UiPath grew revenues and annual recurring revenues by 81% to $608 million and 65% to $580 million respectively, according to analysts at Megabuyte.
While it remains loss-making, that is changing fast. Last year the company saw adjusted operating losses slashed to $21.5 million, versus $379 million the year before.
VAST VALUATION GAP
Key for Blue Prism investors is the yawning gap that has opened up in relative valuations. UiPath is valuation is equal to 58-times trailing enterprise to sales, while Blue Prism trades on a 7.4 equivalent multiple, based on its rough £1.2 billion market cap less cash.
‘It is true that UiPath is over three-times larger than Blue Prism, is growing faster and is closer to profitability,’ said Megabuyte’s Philip Carse.
Forecasts are not available for UiPath but for the current year Blue Prism is expected to report an adjusted operating loss of £35 million on £176 million revenues, up 24%.
‘Time will tell whether these differences justify such a large valuation gap,’ said Carse.
https://www.sharesmagazine.co.uk/news/shares/investors-bet-on-blue-prism-as-rival-uipath-soars-after-ipo
Revenues 3x those of PRSM.
Market cap 20x that of PRSM.
https://www.owler.com/company/uipath
PRSM needs much better management or to be taken out by private equity.
There is really no virtue in simply piling up losses year after year.
There you go, €2.50, even better!
http://mesnumeros1.eklablog.com/recent
GAW are not simply sitting around waiting for the hapless Eurocrats to start sorting out the vaccination fiasco in EUland. In France they are launching one of these collection through weekly edition things. The first edition is just out, €2.95, including the first Warhammer figure to collect and paint. I understand that uptake in news shops (still open during the lockdown) is brisk. Re the RNS, it is actually rather good to be making expected profits these days.
Ah, there we go,
https://www.professionalpensions.com/news/4027830/rothesay-agrees-gbp120m-reach?utm_medium=email&utm_content=&utm_campaign=PP.SP02.Daily_RL.EU.A.U&utm_source=PP.DCM.Editor%27s%20Updates&utm_term
I wonder what part of the group pensions deficit this West Ferry deal covers. Perhaps there will be an RNS from RCH about this.
In recent weeks interest rates and bond yields over the pond have started to push up very sharply. This site is good for macro and they tend to be ahead of the curve, obviously US-facing but markets on this side of the Atlantic usually tend to follow.
https://www.realvision.com/shows/daily-briefing/videos/will-rising-interest-rates-change-the-game?utm_campaign=2021226_alert_briefing_leads_combo_1_standard&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=113181709&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8MyEE6siAMwRNItvXAxz8jc39qxC5GBBElN33CyBU3k_Tm4fHE9US3Y0pUi1abMMgfSmz6FgLoRGtIp3dRviAi6pCu6zr_czDushcEaXWM5Cqcgi8&utm_source=leads_combo
It is worth noting that the BOE seems to have gone quiet on negative interest rates, while one member of the MPC, Andy Haldane, gave a speech the other day to warn against inflationary pressures in the economy. When one is close to price stability and zero borrowing costs, it actually would not take much in the way of price rises to affect interest rates.
GS: Thanks, that is tremendous, given the talk of higher inflation leading to higher interest rates. Very positive for companies carrying pension liabilities.
I ask about Rothesay Life because a friend of mine is in the former GEC Pension Scheme and they have just transferred the scheme wholesale over to Rothesay, on equivalent benefits in every way. I have looked up Rothesay and they seem to be very solvent and open to expanding in this way. Mind you, the trustees of the GEC Plan seem to have done a very good job and had eliminated the deficit on the scheme. Still, it might be something that RCH could look at in the future.
Thanks once more, have a good weekend.
There is a reported pension scheme deficit of around £200m. Usually, higher interest rates are beneficial to reducing deficits because the discounting rate increases, thus reducing the NPV. Does anyone have any idea of the resulting benefit to RCH for moves up in interest rates of, say, 0.5%, 1% and so on?
Another point is whether RCH has given thought to shifting the pension scheme wholesale to a private assurance provider specialised in pensions such as Rothesay Life. Does anyone have thoughts on this?
Many thanks.
Perhaps it was something connected with the IG business announced yesterday, perhaps someone needed desperately to unload some VLX shares to cover margin calls to IG?
https://www.standard.co.uk/business/ig-index-blocks-retail-investors-from-more-than-1000-smallcap-stocks-shares-fall-b920791.html
Yes, no idea who actually writes these RNS.
Perhaps a harbinger of what to expect in the dawning age of illiteracy.
Briffa is most definitely a glass half-empty person, isn't he?
How can a statement such as this one possibly be made, only three weeks into the new financial year?
"The Board's current base-case expectation for FY22 is to deliver profits in line with the financial year ended 31 January 2020, despite the continued global restrictions on passenger movements."
So, what has been done to reposition AIR for the future market opprtunities in new markets where offices have been set up? Are they simply nice flags on the map? What are the plans for the recovery situation in UK and Europe which is bound to come. perhaps sooner than anyone expected? Does AIR simply sit there, waiting for the phone to ring?
Depressingly passive management. No wonder the sp has tanked today, reading that.