Member Info for lavenonews

CLCO second half covered period April to Sept - there must have been times when business literally ground to a halt, so it is hardly surprising the second half saw a revenue decline.
Far more interesting is what has happened since with more normal business conditions since Autumn and clients starting to have to make decisions on investments into IT to shape their businesses for the future.

that's what I wanted to see, conversion of EBITDA to cashflow.
no more crossing of fingers, they are well on their way to self financing growth in very attractive sectors and territories.

thanks for posting that. covers everything i have said and more, which is rather comforting.
the one other factor I would re-highlight to investors is the pedigree of the Chairman.

also, if they show positive operating cashflow for the full year (this has always been an issue) then the investment case looks very different.
predictable, stable free cashflow and cash at bank = invest in business from own resources = continued growth = higher shareholder returns.
should get a year end update in the coming weeks. fingers crossed yet again.

good to see some momentum.
good also that at the heart of these contracts is the scalable software solutions, which suggests the transition into recurring style revenues over complex consultancy is gathering momentum.
much more attractive profile of revenue for investors.
what this business does is quite hard to get your head around, but hopefully people will start to see it is operating in the right sectors and geographies, where there is spend going on for the foreseeable future.

Let's Hook off the Hook on the debt.
Er, sorry why are you paying 10pc on secured debt of 3m when the replacement cost of your assets is so high? And you have freehold land with planning permission? And bank debt is only 1m? And you dropped the conversion price to 90p ?Why oh why? You really do have some explaining to do here. And your FD must be hopeless in terms of capital management. As for the 4 non execs, thanks for representing all shareholders equally.
I am invested here long term as the two operating businesses are great, there is value here but it makes me mad that the NBI Board is getting away with such an awful decision on the debt without far more criticism from shareholders and accountability.

Stable profitability, cash generative, asset backing and 20% gearing - congratulations to all Board Directors who analysed the situation carefully, did not panic mid COVID and dispassionately concluded that paying 10% interest on a SECURED convertible loan note (and dropping the conversion price) represented a good outcome for shareholders other than Gresham!
Bravo and great work!

Note the bid by private equity for Aggreko.
Power reliability, rental business - different scale and wider applications to Crestchic but nonetheless the long-term prognosis for this sector as a whole and all the parts within it must look attractive.

Still liking the geographic and sector exposure for 2021.
Considering they are through the turnaround stage now, and that some project demand maybe pent up, 2021 might be an interesting growth year for them.
And if they keep transitioning the model to more recurring revenue, the valuation will reflect that.
At last! (as I am sure many shareholders will be saying).

What a curious stock exchange announcement.
Most of it reads more like an Info Memo for potential purchasers but I guess I am at risk of seeing things only in the light of what I think is happening here.
A trading update with no numbers. Weird.

I just cannot stop wondering at what point Peter Harris (70 next year) and Eric Hook (68 next year) will want to call it a day.

If I was them, and owned shares personally, I would have an eye on capital gains tax rates.

Also Gresham who state their investment thesis is ideally 3-5 years are fast approaching 5 years from first investment.

Whilst I absolutely abhor the 10% secured loan note and 90p conversion charade, there is probably a couple of decently positioned underlying businesses here. Tasman is geographically in the right part of the world and Crestchic has some real growth opportunities opening up. Not sure what £1.5m of head office costs and, 3 execs and 4 non execs are really bringing to the party for these two businesses.

75p per share looks good value to me but it could be a bumpy ride towards a final end game.

I think Andrew Jacobs is responsible for property leases and sites.
If he is buying, that is probably a sign of the quality of sites and terms now available post COVID.
A great time for a maturing leisure brand to be expanding.

Delighted.
There was no need to sell this out to private ownership just as it has got its house in order and hand all the upside over to private equity. So sick of seeing that happen.
Let's see where it can go as a publicly listed company under the strong hand of current management.
Highly cash generative, back into organic top line growth, operationally in great shape with minimal CAPEX and efficient margins, and opportunities to move forwards via acquisition.
I'm in it for the long term, and trust the board to make the right capital allocation decisions on cashflow.

Not surprised to read the comment today.
I went to the Norwich site recently and it is an outstanding location with heavy footfall. Not in the least bit surprised it has got off to a good start.
I didn't play the game but the group who did said it was 5*.
The staff were very friendly and overall a great leisure activity.
Nothing to change my mind that this is the right business in the right space for the future, just a difficult time with restrictions on operations outside their control.
I invested with a 3 year horizon, and am confident it will ride out this tough period and come out a major winner.

True re the month extension option. I would hope this is not needed as it is a cleaned out balance sheet these days, but they need to make a public statement if they are going to extend for a month. As usual, retail shareholders who joined in the rescue financing in 2018 will be the last to know anything.

The admirable level of financial detail in the AGM statement combined with the improved margins suggest that Graham Bird has brought some much needed rigour and discipline to the financial and strategic execution of this company, that has been so lacking since original listing.
Big question marks still hang over the CEO and his enormous base salary (where is the performance link so desperately needed, all the pain of 155p to 7.5p has been taken by everyone else but the man responsible!! He even got a catch up payment in bargain shares!). Time will tell if he can up his game with a stronger presence alongside him but investor patience must surely be in short supply for any more failures to deliver.

I think you are right to flag that £220,000 is an enormous salary for the CEO of this micro business, and the uplift from £200,000 in 2018 was entirely unjustified by financial performance. His reward should not be salary driven, the remuneration package is wrong. There have been many 'strategic objectives' not delivered since the initial listing, but on balance also finally some signs of progress pre-COVID. However, I don't see there can be much more investor patience left (none in your case!!) and any failure to deliver on objectives for 2020/early 2021 must surely signal the end of the road when you are being paid this sort of salary, either do a Lineker and take a reduction or get someone worth this money in.

playful... as you know I only pop up occasionally from behind the sofa... but your wd40 posts on advfn have amused me!
norwich is now taking bookings. chipboard!

Redcentric - once a business sorts itself out like Redcentric has there are 10-15 private equity backed roll ups in the sector, it's a natural end game for IDE.
Computercentre - trading is buoyant, materially ahead of forecasts, this is not a bad sector to be in.
IDE has its own challenges that it is working through, but there is every hope that with decent management there are better times ahead for shareholders, particularly those that helped in the rescue fund raise two years ago.

Yes and it will be interesting to see what 'acceptable levels of profitability' means. And whether the outlook points to the delayed bigger projects now getting underway in H2 to underpin a better second half.

IDE generated positive operating cash in 2019 and felt able to make a small acquisition in June 2020... just small signs there is a brighter future ahead. It's taken a bit longer than hoped but the tone of the annual report was encouraging.

Like you say, the next update due by end Sept will hopefully confirm the recovery story is moving on from stabilisation to growth.