Member Info for jange

Shares of security group G4S (GFS) gave its followers something of a rollercoaster ride in the last quarter of 2012, plunging after news emerged of a planned £5bn bid for a Danish cleaning group in early October. This week though, the markets will be focused on the aftermath of a rather more humble example of M&A, the purchase of Chubb Emergency Response

Heading the corporate announcements on Tuesday is Copper miner Antofagasta (ANTO), one of the FTSE 100’s most volatile plays. In the last major update at the beginning of Feb, the group revealed that FY production targets had been beaten with output up nearly a quarter. Ironically, the share price has actually topped out from the 1,400p level at the time of the raised full year profits guidance. Bulls of the stock will be hoping for a fresh squeeze higher for Antofagasta shares in the run up to and after the finals.

Roger Stephens, Head of Commercial and Company Secretary of Spectris, the FTSE 250 high-flying instrumentation and controls group, has sold a stack of shares in the firm less than a month after the firm unveiled better-than-expected profits before tax and hike in the dividend. Stephens, who joined the firm in 1997, sold 38,343 at 1,763.55p each for a total of £676,194. Having been awarded the shares in 2009, the director was eligible to sell the shares from the 25th of last month. He now holds a total of 69,023. Adjusted profit before tax rose 45% to £191.6m from £132.3m the year before. Statutory profit before tax rose 38% to £166.0m from £119.9m in 2010. Market expectations were for headline profit before tax of £185.5m. Sales broke through the billion pounds barrier, rising 23% to £1,106.2m in 2011 from £901.9m in 2010. Acquisitions contributed 7% to sales and currency had a positive impact of 1%, so with these stripped out sales growth was 15%. The adjusted return on sales - i.e. the operating margin - improved to 18.2% from 15.8% in 2010

In other news, AZ Electonic Materials's Chief Technology Officer, Ralph Dammel, sold 40,000 shares at 284.70p each, taking his total holding to 280,000 shares for £11,388. The company, which produces speciality chemical materials to technological manufacturers, recently reported a rise in revenues, EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) and returned to the black with profits of $125m, despite a challenging economic environment. Revenues grew from $682.1 to $791.8m, while a loss of $90.6m in 2010 turned to a profit of $125.6m in 2011. EBITDA leapt 16% to $261m (2010: $225.6m), however the EBITDA margin lost 0.1 percentage points to 33.0%

Donna Wharton, wife of Nick Wharton, the Chief Executive of homewares firm Dunelm, has topped up her stake in the company with 9,500 shares. Wharton's purchase, which saw her buy the shares at 480.00p each for a total of £45,600, came just a day after Will Adderley, Executive Deputy Chairman, announced plans to cash in a big chunk of his shares in the bedding and curtains retailer. Adderley, who is also the son of the founder of the company, and his wife Nadine, are offloading around 5m shares, representing about 2.5% of the issued share capital of Dunelm. The disposal will still leave the Adderley family holding around 56.2% of all the shares in issue, with Will Adderley's personal stake standing at 32.4%. It's been a busy week for the firm, with newly appointed director Matt Davies underlining his loyalty to the firm with the purchase of 4,500 shares, which he bought on Tuesday 6th at 499p each for a total of £22,455. Davies joined the firm after resigning from his job as head of animal products retailer Pets at Home, a position he held since 2004. Last month the firm reported a 7.8% rise in pre-tax profit for the half year ended December 31st. As expected, profits for the year came in at £52.2m, compared to £48.4m for the same period of the previous year, on revenues of £299.9m, which is up 8.8% compared to the year before (2010: £275.7m).

Shaun Smith, the Finance Director of cooker maker Aga Rangemasters, has bought 16,090 shares in the firm, on the same day the company revealed a rise in operating profits despite falling revenue. Smith purchased the shares at 87.00p each for a total of £13,998. The Chief Executive, William McGrath, also stocked up, buying himself 28,045 shares at the same price for a total of £24,399. A Non-Executive Director, Jonathan Carling, made his first purchase of shares in the company, buying up 5,000 shares. Revenue dropped from £259.1m to £250.9m, with operating costs lower at £244.8m (2010: £254m). Second half revenues of £129.5m were down 4.5% year-on-year, compared with the first half when revenues fell 1.6% to £121.4m. The proportion of total revenues from outside the UK was flat at 37%. The operating profit for the year was £6.1m, up from the £5.1m reported in 2010, as the group benefitted more fully from the operational efficiencies implemented in 2008 to 2010. "The product introductions and strengthened business processes enabled us to improve margins and provide a continuing optimism that the groundwork is in place to restore profits to levels achieved prior to the economic downturn," the firm said. "We went into 2012 expecting markets to remain tough and we have already undertaken further steps to improve efficiencies and lower the cost base, building on programmes of the last four years. We now have a single set of focused business processes across the UK manufacturing units." Cash dropped from £51.7m to £48.1m, slightly lower than expected. The final dividend is 1.1p, bringing the total dividend for the year to 1.9p compared with 1.7p the previous year.

AIM-listed homeland security services provider Digital Barriers has acquired the assets, intellectual property and customer contracts of ThruVision Systems. The purchase was made for £0.95m in cash, to be paid once the acquistion is complete. Digital Barriers believes that ThruVision's technology, namely screening products that can detect objects under a person's clothes, will be of "significant interest" to security and defence organisations around the world and is complementary to other products within the group. ThruVision's latest unaudited accounts for the financial year ended March 31st 2011 reported turnover of £2.30m with an operating loss of £1.12m. Colin Evans, Managing Director of Digital Barriers said: "We believe that ThruVision's passive standoff detection is the leading technology of its kind anywhere in the world. Our security and defence customers around the world are now looking for such capabilities as they seek to protect the public from concealed weapons and explosive devices and to address the challenge of smuggling through borders and checkpoints

Redhall is emerging from a difficult period and the resolution of the Vivergo contract dispute could produce a useful cash injection. The key energy and defence divisions look well set to maintain their impressive progress and an improvement in the global economy could improve prospects in the process division. Investors have cottoned on to Redhall's recovery and the share price is starting to motor. Even so, the shares are still rated at just seven times this year's forecast earnings

The energy division's principal activity is at the Sellafield nuclear plant in Cumbria, where it carries out maintenance and engineering work. New nuclear represents a huge opportunity for Redhall and it is already bidding for pipework contracts at Hinkley Point C in Somerset with French partner Nuvia. Another joint venture is also bidding at Hinkley C for contracts worth up to £25m to Redhall, and the company is seeking a third partner for £50m-worth of contracts. True, the timing of new nuclear contracts is always fuzzy. Even so, the nuclear build programme should produce further significant opportunities over the coming 12-18 months. The defence business remains positive, with revenues up 19 per cent in 2010-11. Work with the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston and BAE Systems at Barrow looks secure, with Aldermaston funded up to 2015 and the Astute submarine project at Barrow likely to keep Redhall active until 2020. Activity in the process division, which supplies commercial clients in food processing and chemicals, has been more subdued. But heavy spending programmes for the UK announced by Kellogg and Mars are encouraging and a £25m five-year maintenance contract with chemicals business Huntsman started in January

Specialist engineer Redhall has been through an awkward period. Rapid expansion on the back of acquisitions in 2007 came unstuck when the UK's economy went into reverse in 2008 and 2009. But a period of consolidation, the potential resolution of a disputed contract and the imminent commencement of contracts for the UK's next generation of nuclear-power plants suggest recovery is on its way. Certainly, Redhall's executive chairman David Jackson could not be more confident. At the presentation for the group's 2010-11 results in December he said: "We are on the cusp of the biggest opportunity in the engineering industry for decades with the commencement of the UK nuclear new-build programme. We have the best tender prospects that I have seen in this business and an order book with good gross margin potential." At the end of September, the company's order book was worth £116m. Yet analysts at broker Canaccord Genuity reckon there is another £200m of business in the bidding pipeline, much of which could become firm orders by the end of the year. Redhall's trading performance improved markedly in the second half of 2010-11 and this is reported to have continued into 2012. The company offers specialist engineering services through three divisions: defence, energy and the process division. Prospects in the first two look strong; conditions for the process side are tougher. The energy division was hit in 2010-11 by the loss of the Vivergo Fuels contract, an £18m deal to supply pipework for a huge bio-ethanol plant near Hull. Redhall was sacked last March as the project fell behind schedule, but a court has ruled that the termination was unlawful and Redhall's bosses hope the issue can be resolved soon. They made an £8m provision in last year's accounts to reflect the contract's loss, but now Canaccord's analysts think the compensation could be as high as £15m

MoneySwap Plc ("MoneySwap", the "Group" or the "Company") Loan Conversion The board of MoneySwap Plc (AIM:SWAP), the prepaid card and currency exchange business, is pleased to announce that it has served notice on Power Capital Exchange Corp. ("Power Capital") to convert the outstanding loan facility of US$1,349,000 to 21,174,254 ordinary shares of 0.1 penny each (the "Conversion Shares") at the price of 4 pence per ordinary share. The conversion price represents a 28% premium to the closing mid-market price of 3.125 pence on 2 March 2012, being the date that the notice of conversion was signed. The loan facility was entered into with Power Capital on 9 May 2011 for a period of 2 years from 31 August 2011 (being the date of MoneySwap's admission to AIM). The loan was interest free and able to be converted into ordinary shares at MoneySwap's sole option at any time during the term of the loan, it being originally agreed that the conversion price would be expressed as the average mid-market price of the ordinary shares in the 10 business days prior to the notice of conversion being given to Power Capital. The Company has made the strategic decision to exercise its conversion rights now in light of its recent efforts to explore new business opportunities. In doing so, the Company believes that it will be advantageous to have no debt on its balance sheet. The Company believes that this decision will help it develop business initiatives and create confidence with its prospective business partners. Application has been made for the Conversion Shares, which will rank pari passu with the Company's existing ordinary shares in issue, to be admitted to trading on AIM ("Admission"). It is expected that admission will be effective on or about 8 March 2012. When issued the Conversion Shares will represent 5.03 per cent. of the enlarged share capital of MoneySwap. The total issued share capital of MoneySwap following Admission will be 420,870,655 ordinary shares of 0.1 penny each in the capital of MoneySwap. The above figure may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the share capital of MoneySwap under the Disclosure and Transparency Rules. Chee Boon Lee, CFO, commented: "We are pleased that Power Capital has agreed to convert the loan at a large premium to our current market price, despite the contractual terms of the loan entered into last year. Their decision demonstrates the confidence Power Capital has in both the near term and long term future of the Company. "Being able to present a clean balance sheet to our prospective business partners at a time of key growth for MoneySwap is considered extremely important by the Board." About MoneySwap (www.moneyswap.com)

MoneySwap Plc ("MoneySwap", the "Group" or the "Company") MoneySwap Launches Pre-Paid VISA Card for Asian Travellers MoneySwap Plc (AIM:SWAP), the online peer-to-peer currency exchange and payment platform focused on the Asia market, is pleased to announce that it has launched a pre-paid VISA card aimed at Asian travellers. The pre-paid VISA card (the "Card"), will be issued by a Swiss bank, and will enable Asian travellers access to local currencies from ATMs, point of sales and on line purchases in Europe and the United States. The Card will be available to customers in US Dollars, Euros and British Pounds. Cardholders will pay an annual fee to MoneySwap and the Card will entitle cardholders to certain benefits typically associated with such cards, such as travel insurance. The Company has already received a large number of orders for the Card and expects that it will make a material contribution to the Company's revenue for the current financial year. Under an agreement entered with an established outsourcing partner,the appointed programme manager will be responsible for the underlying web and telephone interface, programme management tools and card functionality.

Is there anyone there lol.....

Positive Points: •The blue-chip asset manager continues to enjoy diversification in both product and client type, along with its geographical footprint. The group had previously noted that two thirds of group revenues arose from clients outside of the UK. •The firm saw an injection of institutional money keep its net inflows for 2011 in positive territory. •Within private banking, the investment manager saw profit more than double to £23.8 million (2010 - £10.1 million). •A progressive dividend continues to be pursued A full year dividend of 39 pence per share has been recommended (2010 – 37p).

Negative Points: •At the heart of any asset manager is the investment team. As with any fund management business, there is a risk that if a "star" manager leaves, investors and assets under management may follow. •Schroders has significant exposure to UK, European and Asian equity markets. •Increased competitive pressures could dampen revenue margins. •The Financial Services Authority's, Retail Distribution Review (RDR) continues to provide a degree of uncertainty.

Schroders delivered a pre-tax profit of £407.3 million in 2011 (£406.9 million profit in 2010), against a challenging backdrop and exceeding City expectations. In full year results announced today, Schroders received £3.2 billion of inflows in the 12 months to 31 December2011, compared to a net inflow of £27.0 billion in 2010. While overall 2011 sales, including institutional funds were positive, the group’s retail product range suffered a £3.8 billion retail outflow in 2011 compared to a £7.9 billion inflow in 2010. Tough market conditions put downward pressure on assets and the firm ended the year with £187.3 billion under management, down from £196.7 billion a year earlier. "Concerns over the level of government debt in developed economies, the impact of deleveraging on economic growth and the instability of the Eurozone weighed heavily on equity markets throughout 2011," said a statement from the group. Accompanying management outlook comments remained cautious, highlighting that financial markets in 2012 are likely to remain volatile and economic growth subdued.

The Group's core activity is that of fund management services. The group manages over £180 billion for a variety of institutional and retail clients. In addition, the group provides private banking facilities to high net worth clients

I Must say i agree with alot of what you are saying,there isnt really alot to look forward to in the coming month's and years...

Hope you are well,I agree with your summing up,just hope the markets turn the corner again soon good luck.........

Held very well yesterday in terrable market conditions imho...