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http://investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201107180700085261K

CONT. The Advanced Engineered Products businesses have made excellent progress. Demand for our niche critical application product offerings has been extremely strong. Our seals business has continued to experience high demand from the oil and gas and general hydraulic sectors. The integration of Multiseals in Singapore, which was acquired in April 2011, is progressing well with satisfactory trading in the short period of ownership. The Precision Polymers business had a solid third quarter of trading, well ahead of the comparable period in the previous year, underpinned by economic recovery and growth in new markets. Our Medical business continued to flourish from new organic investment and the development of incremental revenue streams. Whilst the Group's borrowings remain in line with our expectations we anticipate increasing our rate of organic investment across a range of development opportunities. On 27 May 2011 we announced a placing of US$ 200 million of private placement loan notes with maturities of 10 and 12 years at an average coupon of 5.3%. These notes have enabled us to further expand our funding sources and extend our debt maturity profile. With trading results comfortably meeting our expectations, we remain confident in the outlook for the remainder of the current year.

Interim Management Statement Fenner PLC today issues an update of events since its half year results which were released on 27 April 2011. Trading across the Group in the third quarter of the financial year has been strong with continuing growth in both the Conveyor Belting and Advanced Engineered Products divisions. During this period, revenue has increased significantly over the comparable period of the previous year at constant exchange rates. In the Conveyor Belting division, demand patterns from the coal sector have been robust with end users placing orders to secure forward supplies. A continued recovery was evident in industrial markets which added volume to plant throughput. We have experienced a period of rising input costs in an environment of escalating raw material prices which has necessitated selling price adjustments. Margins have been maintained ahead of those of the prior year. On 4 July 2011 we announced the acquisition of Statewide Belting Services Pty Ltd. Based in Burnie, Tasmania, the business specialises in the provision of belting products, accessories and installation services to the mining and manufacturing industries in Tasmania. This acquisition extends the geographic coverage of our Australian service network.

http://investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201107180700085307K

Shareholders who backed a GBP200m fund raising by SVG Capital to cut the investment group’s hefty debt pile in early 2009 have seen the value of their stakes triple. SVG has 80% of its assets tied up in Permira’s private equity investments, but now comes the crunch, suggests the Sunday Times. Permira’s portfolio is maturing and cash from forthcoming disposals, such as television producer All3Media, should increase. That should narrow the discount at which the shares are trading. Oriel Securities has raised the top end of its forecast for SVG’s net asset value from 380p to 390p against 351p at the end of March. SVG still has GBP302m of debt, but shareholders are beginning to ask about improving capital returns. In short: how does 20% shareholdeder Coller, which doesn’t keep many listed investments, get its money back? The easiest way could be to put SVG into run-off, but the management has other ideas, including backing Permira’s next fund raising, which is due this autumn. Mindful of 3i‘s troubles and Candover’s demise, the listed private equity sector could do with a poster boy. All SVG needs is a shareholder register that is four-square behind it.

Telecom Plus trades under the name Utility Warehouse and is the only business to offer gas, electricity, phone, mobile and broadband services all together. Midas in the Mail on Sunday recommended Telecom Plus exactly three years ago when the shares were 318p, and they have since more than doubled to 678p. A trading statement last week was confident about the future and chief executive Andrew Lindsay hopes to increase customers from 380,000 to more than a million over the next few years, but investors who bought in 2008 have been well rewarded and should consider taking some profit. The Mail suggests selling half your holding and keeping the rest.

Panmure Gordon has reinstated its buy recommendation on bingo hall and casino operator Rank Group, saying that Rank remains “a compelling investment proposition”.

And more of the same on the subject. UBS has upgraded satellite broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) from neutral to buy and lifted its target price by over a third, saying that the risk reward is attractive. “BSkyB (Sky) is the leading player in UK pay-TV and we expect it to deliver 6.0% [per annum (pa)] revenue growth over the next three years driven by rising pay-TV penetration (2.1% pa subscriber growth) and take-up of new services driving [average revenue per user] (3.9% pa). With a relatively fixed cost base, this results in 14.9% pa [earnings per share] growth,” the Swiss broker said. Also, with US media conglomerate News Corp having abandoned its bid for the company, UBS thinks that shareholders will now look towards cash returns. The broker thinks BSkyB could make £2.4bn (137p per share) in one-off returns over the next 12 months. The target price is hiked from 640p to 860p.

Xanth - Are you still managing to hold. Could be a turnaround here coming. BSkyB directors will consider a payback of up to £2bn for investors and discuss James Murdoch's future as chairman when they gather in 10 days for a board meeting. In a move designed to placate disgruntled investors, who saw £2.4bn wiped from Sky's stock market value following the withdrawal of News Corporation's proposed takeover, the board will consider whether to pay a special dividend or buy swathes of the company's own shares to push the price back up, the Guardian writes.

Rumours that Imperial Tobacco could be a takeover target for British American Tobacco may look wide of the mark, but they illustrate that chief executive Alison Cooper still has to convince investors she knows what she is doing after a year in the job. She seems determined to do so, the Sunday Times notes. In presentations last week, the company explained how it intends to boost sales, with increased innovation a particular focus. Products launched in the past three years account for less than 10% of sales against 15%-20% at other consumer-goods groups. Geographical spread may explain why British American Tobacco shares have been doing rather better than those of its smaller UK-listed rival. While BAT has outperformed the FTSE All-Share index by 9% over the past year, thanks to its exposure to emerging markets, Imperial has underperformed the index by 3.6%. Several analysts believe Imperial should be worth £24 a share or more, against £21.50 last Friday. If concerns over Spain ease further, the company might just manage to get there, the Times suggests.

Electrocomponents' shares have lost one-fifth of their value since Questor in the Telegraph last said buy – but these falls look overdone, Questor believes. Friday’s statement was reassuring. The main cause of the recent slide was some dire results from Electro’s peer Premier Farnell. Sales growth has seen something of a slowdown at Electrocomponents too – but nothing to get spooked about – especially as there were strong comparators. It is also important to note that, since Questor last gave an update on the company, consensus for revenues, profits, earnings per share and the dividend have all moved materially higher. The shares are also yielding a safe 5.2%, so this should support any downside. First tipped on July 19 2009 at 140½p and trading on a current-year earnings multiple of 11.3, falling to 10.1, the shares remain a buy at 238.7p, the Sunday Telegraph says.

Brewin Dolphin upgrades Domino's Pizza from add to buy, target price cut from 579p to 520p.

I went back to Trinity Mirror (TNI) and bought at 46p. So far, not so good. But one either believes that the NOTW demise is good for the Sunday Mirror or one does not. It is hard to see how it can be bad. 13/07/2011 An extract from the diaries of infamous bear raider Evil Knievil

13th July 2011 As it happens, my flat is served by two nearby Cineworld (CINE) cinemas and my wife and I enjoy them. (She walks fifty yards behind me as I waddle to the nearest one in my pyjamas: she declines to be associated with my sort of public style. My only objection to this visitor experience is that the seats are too small and made smaller by silly Coke and popcorn tub holders. I have often tried to snap these off but have found this creative act of vandalism quite impossible. My chief intention is to sit comfortably but another gain is that each seat that is ruined in respect of its tub-holding function is one less in which the outdoors feeding classes can function in their usual noisy manner.) However, I have taken to reflecting upon Cineworld, now 193p, at which level I have shorted it. Net tangible assets are minus 60 million pounds. This is of course because Cineworld is yet another derivative of private equity rubbish (progenitor: Blubgurn Brown). So the business has financial gearing. However, it also has operational gearing. Gate money is currently about 340 million pounds p.a. and it does not take much of a decline in the gross profit before the bottom line, pre tax profit of the order of 30 million pounds, gets well and truly hammered. There is good reason to think this hammering will occur since the citizens’ spending money is currently being radically cut back and, I am told, consumers are acutely conscious that 15 pounds spent on a takeaway pizza is a better buy. In the short term, the incidence of blockbuster films will determine matters. But, on a one year view, I would expect Cineworld to warn and warn again. An extract from the diaries of infamous bear raider Evil Knievil

Electrocomponents' shares have lost one-fifth of their value since Questor in the Telegraph last said buy – but these falls look overdone, Questor believes. Friday’s statement was reassuring. The main cause of the recent slide was some dire results from Electro’s peer Premier Farnell. Sales growth has seen something of a slowdown at Electrocomponents too – but nothing to get spooked about – especially as there were strong comparators. As an analyst at Seymour Pierce said on Friday: “If proof were needed that the recent problems at Premier Farnell were of their own making and unrelated to deterioration in market conditions, it was provided in today’s trading update from Electrocomponents.”

Private client investment manager Brewin Dolphin can trace its roots to the mid-18th Century and was a founding member of the London Stock Exchange, writes Midas in the Mail On Sunday. It has more than 100,000 clients, and since the turn of the century the proportion of clients who are taking the firm's discretionary services rather than making their own decisions has more than doubled from 26% to 60%, and executive chairman Jamie Matheson hopes to increase the percentage still further. The shift is important because the more discretionary clients Brewin has, the more annual fee income it receives and the more robust its profits are. Profits for the year to September are forecast to rise more than 15% cent to £46m, with another 18% increase to £55m pencilled in for the year to September 2012. Dividends are expected to move in tandem, increasing from 7.1p last year to 7.3p in 2011 and 7.6p next year. This growth is likely to come from an expansion of services and increased geographical reach. The firm is also engaged in a comprehensive update of its systems, which should cut costs and help customers who enjoy checking their portfolios online. Brewin Dolphin is trading at 160p and after recent falls the shares are now cheaper than those of many rivals, even though growth prospects are good and the dividend yield is almost 5%. Buy, says Midas.

The coming week On the corporate front, Dr. Archer's "fiscal squeeze" may well have been a factor on the recent trading of do-it-yourself retailer Kingfisher, at least in the UK; the company's French operations may have had an easier time of it. "We expect UK LFL [like-for-like] sales at B&Q to be down strongly in the second quarter, given seasonal sales pull forward, poor weather, a clearance event at Focus following administration and a tough underlying environment. However, with 30 Focus stores set to be converted to B&Qs by the fourth quarter and many others exiting the market, fiscal 2012/13 may see a strong uplift for the group and more than offset short-term weakness," according to Nomura Securities. "Despite a top-line slowdown in France in the second quarter relative to the first, we continue to expect positive LFL sales trends. Gross margin initiatives, such as direct sourcing and common product, continue to flow through, while a favourable sterling/euro exchange rate should help offset UK weakness," the Japanese broker added.

Investors are in talks to resurrect failed care homes operator Southern Cross with a cash injection of between £50m and £100m and new management, the Sunday Times reports. It is not yet clear which shareholders would support the move. Southern Cross’s three biggest investors are Henderson, JO Hambro and Waterfall, the family office of the Israeli tycoon Meir Gurvitz. Scottish Widows and RCM also have stakes. Chai Patel, founder of the Priory healthcare chain, has been tipped as a potential chief executive of the new business.

Buy Messaging International (MES) at 0.975p Says James Faulkner of WatsHot.com In terms of outlook, the company recognised that the telecoms sector is experiencing a "challenging period" but also states that, with this in mind, "operators continue to search for new revenue generators in order to meet the changing needs of the increasingly technically-aware consumer." The company also spoke of its "healthy new business pipeline" and "excellent relationships with major telecom operators", and said it expects to report "another successful period of trading" at the time of its interims. Bearing in mind that MES added seven new telecom operator customers in 2010, and that 2011 will benefit from a full contribution from Mobile Gateway and other products and innovations released during 2010, I think it is fair to expect another year of progress in 2011. There are no forecasts in the market at present - another factor which suggests this is well beyond the gaze of the investing public - but with the historic rating a mere 6.5, the valuation looks undemanding. The shares are worth a speculative buy at 0.975p.

Another rejection - a wise move? time will tell