Member Info for jange

Marketing services provider Communisis has won a five-year contract to provide telecoms giant BT with all of its billing and associated customer communications, starting next month. "This work will be produced at our transactional centre of excellence in Liverpool, using high-speed colour digital technology; to make the billing formats clearer, more personal and more dynamic," Communisis said in a company statement. Communisis already produces BT shareholder communications. Chief Executive Andy Blundell commented: "We are delighted to be entering a strategically important new relationship with BT. This provides further evidence of the attraction of the group's market-leading propositions in the application of high-speed colour digital technology for transactional communications."

The board added: "While transaction volume growth was slower than we would have predicted at the start of the year, we exceeded our expectations in terms of the nature and size of new customers, signing contracts with some of the leading businesses in financial services and signing channel partner deals with large financial services technology companies. "Many of these relationships are only in the early stages of implementation, which bodes well for accelerated growth going forward. Therefore, while we are relatively pleased with the growth achieved in transaction volumes in the year, an increase of 53%, we believe this does not entirely reflect the progress that has been made. We have entered the current financial year in an excellent position, which has been demonstrated through the continued growth in transaction volumes in recent months, with October 2012 being 143% ahead of June 2011." Cash and cash equivalents at the year-end were £5.77m compared to £3.83m at the same date the previous year.

Earthport, a cross-border payments company, has reported a 21 per cent rise in profits for the period, but saw pre-tax losses widen on the back of rising sales costs and admin expenses. In the full year ended June 30th, revenue climbed from £2.49m to £3.02m year-on-year, while the cost of sales edged higher from £0.56m to £0.67m. Admin expenses increased from £6.76m to £10.83m (due to Earthport's reorganisation and investment for growth), leading to a loss before tax totalling £9.63m, against £7.52m a year earlier. The company also made a share-based payment charge of £1.11m (2011: £2.37m), which relates to options granted to employees and directors during the year and in the past. More positively, transaction volumes increased 53% year-on-year, boosted by a particularly strong performance in June, and the company's outlook was broadly upbeat. Hank Uberoi, Executive Director of Earthport said: "This has been a year of strong progress for Earthport, which has seen the company deliver on many of its strategic objectives, having completed the restructuring and reorganisation which began in 2010. Earthport is at a pivotal stage of its development, as transaction levels continue to gain momentum and the company continues to gain traction with global industry leaders as customers and channel partners."

Eruma, an AIM-listed company which provides counter terrorism, intruder prevention and intelligent lighting solutions, saw its share leap 92 per cent after it appointed Saudi Technical Support (STS) as its exclusive distribution partner in a bid to drive sales and installation of its 'Secur' portfolio. STS, which is based in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is specialised in electro-mechanical contracting and trading, which is suited to the growing blast protection solutions market, which is increasing in the Middle East due to several factors affecting the stability of many countries and their economies. Eruma Chief Executive Wayne Money said: "KSA is a significant market for us. This is our second country-specific partnership focused on promoting Secur abroad and we are delighted to be working with a company of such stature as STS in Saudi Arabia."

Currency & Fuel The group added: "Foreign exchange and the price of fuel continue to be two of the many headwinds that we have to contend with. The majority of our currency requirements for the financial year 2012/13 have been hedged at or above budgeted levels. In addition, in line with the year ended October 31st 2012, approximately 30% of our fuel requirements have been hedged for the new financial year."

In the Voyages of Discovery brand successfully completed a "very challenging" summer trading season, but was forced to lay up the Alexander von Humboldt, which is currently going through a significant upgrade on the back of customer feedback. The ship enters into service next week, having been renamed Voyager, and will operate as the flagship for the Voyages of Discovery brand. Voyager's maiden cruise is scheduled to begin on December 4th to the Caribbean and circumnavigate South America for the winter, before returning to European waters in Spring 2013. The Hebridean Island Cruises said its Hebridean Princess ship completed another "satisfactory" summer and does not suffer a lot of the negative headwinds that its industry has. The introduction of river cruises in Summer 2012 was extremely successful, the firm said, and plans to expand this over the next few years.

"The strategic importance of the acquisition of PMTG cannot be underestimated. Whilst restructuring costs will be incurred in the short term, the board is confident that the synergy benefits that it has identified will deliver a strong contribution to the bottom line in future years. "Both the "Travelsphere" and "Just You" brands, based at our freehold property in Market Harborough, have performed exceptionally well since acquisition and have made a better than expected contribution to the bottom line. Discover Egypt continues to face challenging times but has contributed profit nonetheless." Individual brands The Swan Hellenic brand saw the Minerva ship undergo a major refit and substantial upgrade over the winter period, which were in large part-funded by the ship's owner. The ship re-entered service on schedule on March 2nd and following completion of the summer season in Europe, is now cruising towards the Far East where it will spend the winter.

Cruise operator All Leisure Group has cheered investors after telling them that it now expects to post a 'modest' increase in pre-tax profit for the year ended October 31st. The firm said that the purchase of PMTG during the period further enhancerd its portfolio by adding two new brands, namely Travelsphere and Just You. The acquisition has also enabled the enlarged group to strengthen the senior management team with the appointment of Ian Smith as Group Chief Executive Officer and Chris Gadsby as Group Finance Director. In addition, the move have given the company scope to maximise synergies, something that continues to be a main focus, which the group said "should in part counteract the negative impacts from unprecedented natural disasters and geo-political events, double dip recession, reduced discretionary customer spending, persistent low interest rates, increased oil prices and weak sterling all of which are further exacerbated by increased Air Passenger Duty". The company added: "Whilst the industry in general and our business in particular will continue to encounter many challenges over the next 12 months, we will be focusing on opportunities to integrate our tour operating and cruise businesses even more closely thereby partly mitigating the significant trading headwinds.

Wow big vote of confidence in r4e...........

Reach4Entertainment Enterprises (R4E) Director name: Mr Richard Ingham Amount purchased: 226,415 @ 6.62p Value: £14,989

PureCircle Ltd. (DI) (PURE) Director name: Mr Paul E Selway-Swift Amount purchased: 10,000 @ 240.00p Value: £24,000

Renold (RNO) Director name: Mr Mark Harper Amount purchased: 123,456 @ 20.25p Value: £25,000

Reach4Entertainment Enterprises (R4E) Director name: Mr Shirley Stapleton Amount purchased: 377,358 @ 6.62p Value: £24,981

Reach4Entertainment Enterprises (R4E) Director name: Mr David Stoller Amount purchased: 377,358 @ 6.62p Value: £24,981

F&C Asset Management (FCAM) Director name: Mr Edward Bramson Amount purchased: 50,000 @ 99.15p Value: £49,575

Trinity Mirror (TNI) Director name: Mr Donal Smith Amount purchased: 61,900 @ 81.17p Value: £50,244

Top Director Buys Worldwide Healthcare Trust (WWH) Director name: Mr Doug McCutcheon Amount purchased: 15,000 @ 828.87p Value: £124,330

The Chief Executive and the Finance Director at Associated British Foods each sold a portion of newly vested shares on Friday. CEO George Weston sold 65,533 shares at 1,442.65p a time, earning him a total of £945,412, while Finance Director John Bason sold 64,373 at the same price for a total of £928,677. The sales were made in part to meeting their respective tax liabilities on the shares acquired on vesting. At the beginning of November the company, which is the owner of Primark and AB Sugar, boosted full year profit as it cautioned on a recent increase in commodity prices. Pre-tax profit rose to £761m for the year ended September 15th from £757m a year earlier. Revenue for the year increased to £12.25bn from £11.07bn previously. Weston said at the time: "These are very good results for the group and include exceptional performances from AB Sugar and Primark. Global economic uncertainty remains but we have opportunities for further investment and the strength of the group balance sheet and a strong cash flow will enable us to pursue them with confidence." The company said it expects to make further progress in the next financial year despite the challenges of subdued economic growth and continued pressure on consumer disposable incomes.

TUI Travel: Morgan Stanley moves target price from 200p to 250p, equal weight rating maintained.

Very intresting thanks for the info......