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anyone in the know will be on the insider trading list and I know that it taken seriously by the Co Sec at Capita.
Takeover been denied per some earlier posts on this forum and holding the line that the only businesses for sale are ESS and the "special division"
Not an employee
I know several Capita employees and your description of Jon Lewis is not the one I hear consistently, he has lost the changing room and the exit of talent has been and will continue to be damaging to the prospects of any turnaround.
@Bertles I do not disagree with your sentiment I am still trying to work out what madness made me dive in last week at 33p
it is a very different animal to when Paul Pinder was in charge, his successor did some good things but was very keen to push growth in via acquisitions which also muddied the water and now Jon Lewis has run out of rope before the job is done. He can continue to slim down through selective disposals but what is the end game, £2bn turnover on less than 5% margin?
they cannot say the whole group will not be sold - that is down to the shareholders and someone offering a premium and an end to the downward spiral will probably gather a lot of support. The management team are spent they must be hoping someone ends it soon...
They are in bed with a FM type business already - high (used to be a lot higher) revenue low margins
Much better PE or software business who can extract more value and therefore might value higher
Elon musk vs Jon Lewis says it all :-)
You are not alone I cannot believe I jumped in either - my US holdings in Tesla, Shopify and the like through a fund manager are such that it is taking my focus away from the losses on Capita - hopefully all will right itself otherwise early retirement is going to fade away as well
time will tell but swapping out an asset generating more than any other part of the group in terms of cash and profit for a reduction in debt does not seem like a strategy for improving the share price - closing offices cost cash which they dont have so it will take time - bid target I do hope so because i think that is the only way this goes up materially
he was not cheap to hire and the decision was based on the previous turnarounds in oil and gas I believe at the time. Cannot believe I took a punt with a small purchase last week I thought the market was reacting irrationally and that if a rumour boosted the price by 14% then actually activity might push it higher still - nursing a small loss to remind me to stick to my guns in future
course it is my version would trash the share price even further but this board is full of questions about why the share price is "low" and why it does not rise its because people dont believe the current CEO anymore
if that was the case why was it not moved to the division of misfits to be sold? It is being sold because it is the single act which allows them to cover off their short term requirement to pay back loans - loans which they probably thought they could refinance cheaply until the profits failed to materialise - you talk of strategy when all I see is tactics to survive another day
you cannot blame PE for spotting opportunity which the equity markets ignore. I think any PE investor taking over Capita will earn their return
They forgot to sign off "but fingers crossed they make a bid and we can collect our £millions in bonuses and share purchases we have singular failed to earn over the last 3 years. We can then all be declared a success for selling a business valued at around 10x its current value when we stepped in"
not doing that well but what's new for me - small amounts but passes the time
you cannot apply multiples to Capita based on software its a small part of a big whole and dont forget most of the software divisions customers are also served by Capita which is why they can only sell some of them like ESS who the CEO describes as standalone
see my earlier posts - logic dictates that this does not end well for management, their best bet is to attract bidders which may explain depressing news of late and the equally depressed share price For all the talk of gold prices, Nasdaq movements and zooming to the moon because clanger knows something
it might hit a £1 but it should not. The loss of ESS profits will not be covered by the interest savings on the debt paid back with its proceeds. Interest cover therefore reduces, cashflow is weakened and onto the next asset sale until they remove the threat of large debt balances. If they could transform the business and get some leverage with the debt holders they might get to refinance on better terms but the results of late will not trigger a rush of cheaper debt - no way debt holders will sanction dividend payments until they are very comfortable that they will see there next few interest and debt repayments
if it goes that low and ESS is sold with the proceeds taking down a chunk of the debt I can see someone making a bid to take it private and do the turnaround without the public gaze. The current management team have had their chance a new owner and a new board might asset strip enough to give a large PE fund a return.
Maybe he didnt understand what he was taking on, talk of improving margins on call centres contract by using AI and the software division is easy, getting the customers to pay the same whilst you try to remove heads goes against many of the contracts they have on share of efficiencies/ gains. Culture clashes abound between those who fear tech because it threatens their divisions income and those who see tech as the only way forward.
@ No fear - thanks for the information I will certainly keep an eye on the RNS feed.
With regards Brokers they all have an axe to grind and I gave up listening to them a long time ago once I realised they were bias and never apologise for their constant inaccuracies.