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http://www.edisoninvestmentresearch.co.uk/researchreports/nord250113update.pdf
Rotala Buy 24-Jan-13 £107,500.00 John Gunn 250,000 @ 43.00p
Mothercare Buy 24-Jan-13 £59,553.28 Simon Calver 18,310 @ 325.25p
Jan Castro, the non-Executive Chairman of Sierra Rutile, an AIM-listed producer of titanium feedstock industrial minerals, bought 113,750 ordinary shares just two weeks after the group posted a 39 per cent increase in total rutile production for the year. The shares, which were of no par value, were priced at 60p each, costing the director £68,250 in total. It followed a similar transaction on January 11th when he purchased 460,000 shares at 53p per share. He currently holds 1.46m shares in the group, equal to 0.28% of the issued share capital.
Valuation: Large discount to the sector Since the beginning of the year, the share price has drifted down from 145p to 132p, and after Friday’s announcement, fell a further 17%. On our revised forecasts, the company is trading on very depressed multiples of 5.7x FY13e EPS and 4.1x FY14e EPS. Key triggers for share price appreciation would be the signing of the delayed retail deals, evidence that debt is being repaid, conversions of the AX for retail pipeline and customer wins in Managed Services.
http://www.edisoninvestmentresearch.co.uk/researchreports/K3update210113.pdf
Valuation: Unique business with attractions H R Owen has, until recently, been accorded a substantial premium rating in the automotive retail sector to reflect its unique product and customer bases. The 7.2x prospective rating implied by our 2014 profits indication is at a 24% discount to the 9.5x average of the four leading quoted dealership groups.
http://www.edisoninvestmentresearch.co.uk/researchreports/HRO210113update.pdf
Valuation: Discount in line with longer-term averages The current discount, with debt at market of 10.3% is broadly in line with its longerterm averages of 9.9%, 9.8% and 9.0% over one, three and five years respectively but slightly higher than the AIC peer group (9.1%), whilst the dividend yield is slightly larger (2.5% vs 2.2%)
http://www.edisoninvestmentresearch.co.uk/researchreports/FRCL210113.pdf
Wetherspoon CEO trades in 6,000 shares days after margins disappoint The Chief Executive Officer of pub group JD Wetherspoon has sold 6,000 shares in the group less than a week after it revealed a drop in its half-year operating margin. John Hutson traded in the shares at 502p a time, pocketing £30,120 before tax. The group said it expects its operating margin for the half year ending January 27th to come in around 1.1% lower than the previous year at 8.2%.
Valuation: Catching up with peers Although disappointed by the muted share price reaction to news, we are positive about the company’s ability to deliver on its growth plans, which is a key element of its investment case. At 3.6x 2013e EV/EBITDA, the stock looks cheap relative to its peers, which are trading at a weighted average multiple of 6.5x. Despite the moderate downside risk to consensus, which appears to be already priced in, we believe the stock is past the trough and should be supported going forward by the positive earnings momentum driven by the expansion and operating turnaround. Our DCFderived valuation of NORD is US$6.8/share and based on an 11% WACC and a flat US$1,676/oz gold price. It implies 65% total return.
http://www.edisoninvestmentresearch.co.uk/researchreports/nord210113update.pdf
Given the expected progress made by the Spanish airline Iberia, Credit Suisse has lifted its recommendation for parent company International Consolidated Airlines Group (known as IAG) from 'neutral' to 'outperform'. "If Iberia management can negotiate a satisfactory deal with labour, or unilaterally reduce headcount (plan B), we think Iberia should limit its 2013E operating loss to c€100m (despite 1Q weakness)," Credit Suisse said. This compares with the estimate €334m loss in 2012.
Charles Skinner, Chief Executive of Restore, commented: "In 2012, we continued to grow profits at the same time as securing market leadership in UK office relocations and rationalising our operational structure. Our markets, particularly records management, remained robust, and we continue to have an excellent platform for profitable growth."
Year End Trading Update Restore plc, the UK office services provider ("Restore" or "the Group"), is pleased to confirm that trading for the year ended 31 December 2012 was in line with our expectations. Following the disposal in August 2012 of Peter Cox, our building repair business, the Group has two divisions: Document Management, whose main activities are records management, document scanning, and secure shredding and recycling, and Office Relocation, which includes Harrow Green, Sargents, Global Moving Solutions and a 50% stake in Relocom, the IT relocation specialist. The Document Management division continued to perform strongly, driven by our records management activities. The integration of Harrow Green's records management activities was successfully completed, and we continued to achieve attractive operating margins. Our scanning and shredding operations benefited from being fully integrated within the division during the course of the second half. The Office Relocation division, which primarily comprises the Harrow Green businesses acquired in March 2012, experienced stronger trading in the second half than the seasonally weaker first half, as anticipated at the time of our Half Year results in September. This outcome was achieved against the background of a programme of significant post-acquisition restructuring and cost reduction, together with disruption to some of the division's key trading months due to the Olympics. The Group's Full Year results will be released on 20 March 2013.
Commenting on today's announcement, Ken Randall, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Randall & Quilter, said: "This transaction evidences our continued success in providing exit solutions to captives. Having acquired five run-off captives in 2012 and another captive already in 2013, this latest transaction demonstrates an alternative exit solution whereby R&Q take on the liabilities by way of novation. This method is proving to be of great interest to captive owners who wish to continue using their captive but want to remove legacy or long tail liabilities. We are seeing a healthy pipeline of future opportunities as captive owners become increasingly aware of the exit solutions available."
Captive Exit Solution 21 January 2013 Randall & Quilter Investment Holdings plc ('R&Q' or the 'Group') is pleased to announce that it has effected a novation of policies from SL Insurance Limited ("SLI") to R&Q Insurance (Guernsey) Limited ("RQIGL"). SLI is a Guernsey domiciled captive insurer that provided aviation hull and airline liability cover to airlines in the Virgin Group and has been in run off since May 2011. SLI is executing a number of novations that will remove these insurance liabilities from its book. SLI has been advised on the transaction by insurance broker and risk adviser Marsh in London.