Member Info for mulledwine

Outlook Overall the group remains well positioned for the remainder of the financial year. The Banking division continues to see prospects for growth and Asset Management remains on track to move into profitability during the course of this financial year. Winterflood continues to be affected by difficult trading conditions but remains well placed for when market conditions improve.

Group and divisional performance The group has made a solid start to the year with a strong performance in the Banking division although the market environment for Securities remains challenging. The group has maintained its strong funding position and capital base. The strong performance in the Banking division has continued in the first quarter. The loan book increased 4% to £4.3 billion (31 July 2012: £4.1 billion) at 31 October 2012 with growth coming primarily from motor finance, asset finance and Property. As expected, the net interest margin has reduced since the last financial year, principally reflecting ongoing changes in the product mix. The bad debt ratio has continued to improve in the period reflecting strong credit quality across the portfolio. Performance in the Securities division has remained slow. Winterflood has continued to be affected by the low volume trading environment, with average bargains per day reduced compared to the last financial year, while income per bargain was broadly stable. Seydler's performance continues to be affected by low trading volumes although capital markets activity has increased. The Asset Management division has made good progress in the first quarter as it moves towards profitability. Total Assets under Management ("AuM") increased 2% to £8.5 billion (31 July 2012: £8.3 billion) reflecting positive market movements and the revenue margin has also increased principally reflecting the greater proportion of higher margin private client assets.

http://www.investegate.co.uk/close-bros-grp-plc-(cbg)/rns/interim-management-statement/201211220700127451R/

Standard Life, the Edinburgh-based insurance giant, has confirmed plans to cut 139 jobs as it restructures its UK business in preparation for radical reforms in the pensions industry. The group said it needed to introduce “more streamlined and flexible organisational structures” to meet the twin challenges of the retail distribution review (RDR), which will ban commission payments to financial advisers from next year, and new rules forcing employers to provide pensions for all eligible members of staff. [The Scotsman]

Tempus says that Hyder Consulting is where it wants to be, focused on growing markets such as the Middle East and Australia and on areas such as energy, transport and the environment where the margins are rather better than in those it has exited, such as consulting and architecture. So it is only reasonable that shareholders should begin to benefit from this repositioning. First-half revenues to the end of September were 8% higher at £150m, and profits before tax and one-offs 28% up at £12m. Large projects, such as reservoirs and roads in Qatar, a country that the company has been targeting, are now contributing, while the company is well placed to win work from the metro being built in Doha, the capital. In Australia, Hyder gets about two thirds of revenues from transport and so is not exposed to a downturn in mining. China suffered a small halfway loss as work slowed down ahead of the country’s change of leadership.

Tempus in The Times says the warning from Johnson Matthey that hit the market yesterday was not quite as drastic as those that have afflicted other global industrial producers this autumn, but the burden was much the same. The outlook for the global economy, and for key sectors such as American trucks and new investment in Chinese industry, is, at best, uncertain. In addition, about half the group by revenues is involved in the refining and distribution of precious metals, such as platinum and palladium. While plainly these feed into the group’s catalytic convertors and other products that go into vehicles and industrial processes, performance here is driven by the background price of such metals, as well as demand from producers of jewellery and the like. This side has been hit by lower prices, with platinum off 16% in the first half to the end of September. The main concern for the market was that the outcome for the second half of the year, which traditionally is about 10% stronger in profit terms, will be little-changed on the first half. Pre-tax profits will come in, therefore, 10% or so lower this year, at perhaps £385m. This puts the shares, off 135p at £21.90, on about 14 times’ earnings, after a decent run over the past year helped by the special dividend. At that level, and with no prospect of an immediate recurrence of that special payment, it is hard to see any reason for a short-term outperformance.

Valuation: EV fails to capture opportunity Our 17 October 2012 report highlighted that a single 2,500bopd plant generates an NPV of £18.8m. With each 2,500bopd plant capturing 0.01% of the potential addressable market, the current EV is implying a 0.4% chance of securing 10% of the addressable market. Today’s announcement continues to suggest that this seems low relative to other industries (oils, biotech) where probabilistic evaluation is used

http://www.edisoninvestmentresearch.co.uk/researchreports/OCGupdate19112012.pdf

CONT Some of our markets, particularly financial services, remain sluggish and visibility is poor however we expect to achieve low single digit growth in NFI in 2012 compared to prior year and several of our niche businesses continue to demonstrate encouraging growth. Correspondingly we have not seen the level of growth that we anticipated, particularly in permanent fees, in the period since late summer which is traditionally our strongest trading period. As a result, the Board expects that the underlying EBITDA for the year will be in the region of £2.2m (adjusted to remove the impact of charges related to share based payments). This does not include an exceptional credit to our income statement arising from the settlement of our warranty claim against the vendors of CCL which is expected to make a positive impact of £1.0m to the profitability of the Group with a positive cash impact this year of approximately £0.85m after paying costs associated with the claim. Our balance sheet and cash collection remain strong and year end group net debt is expected to be similar to, or slightly less than 31 December 2011. Despite current headwinds the Board remains firmly committed to its strategy and to building a strong platform for long term organic growth. We have made significant investment into the business and remain confident that our strategy will see us emerge as a much stronger IT recruitment business that is better positioned with our clients and better able to capture opportunities for growth. For further information please contact:

Trading Update InterQuest Group plc (AIM: ITQ), the specialist technology recruitment group, provides an update on trading. As we noted earlier in the year we have continued the restructuring of our business to align our strategy towards sectors of the market we believe will provide us with increased opportunities for future growth. We have made deliberate and targeted investments in several areas including our first overseas office in Singapore, consolidating our Financial Services businesses onto a single operating platform in a new office in Canary Wharf, investment in new fee earners and migration of all of our candidate-centric recruitment business into a single, separate practice aimed at placing niche candidates into niche roles rather than just filling vacancies. We have made these investments for the medium/long term at the expense of short term 2012 profit and are confident that we are building a platform for increased organic growth in the future.

http://www.investegate.co.uk/interquest-group-plc-(itq)/rns/trading-update/201211220700107444R/

Valuation: Premium to sector The P/E for a calendarised 2013e is 15x, a noticeable premium to the broader asset management sector (c 13x). But Record holds a cash balance of c £26m, nearly 50% of the market capitalisation, and the yield is attractive, with consensus forecasting growing dividend cover.

http://www.edisoninvestmentresearch.co.uk/researchreports/Recordqv191112.pdf

Richard Parris, Chairman & Chief Executive of Intercede, said today: "We have continued to make good commercial progress in challenging markets while resolutely laying the ground for our future strategic development. As governments and corporations become increasingly aware that identity assurance is a critical cornerstone of cyber security, the need for Intercede's MyID software platform is becoming more widely recognised. To exploit this opportunity we have made excellent progress in developing a number of new solutions and partnerships that we expect to announce in the coming months. We are confident and committed to our investment plan in support of Intercede's 2020 vision for high growth in the medium to long term. In the short term shareholders should be comforted that, in spite of a period of increased investment, our cash position is stronger than ever."

rim Results for the Six Months Ended 30 September 2012 Intercede (AIM: IGP.L) is a leading producer of Identity and Credential Management software, called MyID, which manages the secure registration, issuance and life cycle of digital identities for a wide range of uses. SUMMARY Sales of £3,508,000 (H1 2011: £3,528,000); Loss before tax of £185,000 (H1 2011: Profit before tax of £653,000); Basic and fully diluted loss per share of 0.2p (H1 2011: Earnings per share of 1.4p); Continued programme of investment to expand market presence and sales infrastructure, develop products and create additional revenue streams; Cash balances of £7,183,000 at 30 September 2012 (30 September 2011: £6,563,000) demonstrating financial strength of business; Launch of management solution for Microsoft Windows 8 Virtual Smart Cards.

http://www.investegate.co.uk/intercede-group-plc-(igp)/rns/interim-results/201211220700107446R/

Outlook Performance in the first six-month trading period has been positive with strong Jet2.com Summer passenger volumes underpinned by the continued successful growth of Jet2holidays and no doubt assisted by the particularly poor British summer weather. Fowler Welch has traded in line with expectations in a sector that continues to experience tight margins. As previously noted, our leisure travel operations are becoming increasingly seasonal as we continue to grow the business, and therefore increased winter losses are to be expected. Notwithstanding this, and the current economic climate, the Board expects to exceed current market expectations for the year ending 31 March 2013.

Interim Results Dart Group PLC the Leisure Airline, Package Holidays and Distribution & Logistics Group (the "Group"), announces its interim results for the half year ended 30 September 2012. These results are presented under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Chairman's Statement I am pleased to report on the Group's performance for the six months ended 30 September 2012 in its three businesses, Jet2.com, the North's leading leisure airline, Jet2holidays, the ATOL protected package holidays operator, and Fowler Welch, one of the UK's leading logistics providers. Group profit before tax was £57.0m, an increase of 37% on the previous half year (2011: £41.6m); turnover was up 31% at £584.5m (2011: £445.7m). The increase in profitability reflects a strong summer for Jet2.com, underpinned by the continued successful growth of Jet2holidays. With our leisure airline concentrating on great leisure cities, and Mediterranean and Canary Islands sun destinations, the business is becoming increasingly seasonal as it continues to grow; therefore higher losses are to be expected in the second half of the year. Net cash flow from operations of £81.0m was generated in the period (2011: £10.7m). The increase over the previous half year reflects the impact of improved trading performance in both Jet2.com and Jet2holidays, together with significantly increased forward bookings for both this Winter and next Summer. Total capital expenditure amounted to £26.1m (2011: £10.6m), with this growth reflecting further investment in the Group's aircraft fleet. Cash and money market deposits increased by £54.8m in the period (2011: £0.6m), resulting in a balance of £206.8m (2011: £107.4m) at the end of the half year, including advance payments from Jet2.com and Jet2holidays customers of circa £98m (2011: £63m). Earnings per share increased to 30.11p from 21.82p. The Board has decided to pay an increased interim dividend of 0.54p per share (2011: 0.43p), in recognition of improved profit performance. The dividend will be paid on 1 February 2013 to shareholders on the register at 28 December 2012.

http://www.investegate.co.uk/dart-group-plc-(dtg)/rns/half-yearly-report/201211220700087430R/

Peter Nottage, vice president of Cobham Aviation Services said: "We are delighted to continue to provide FIFO services to remote regions in Western Australia."