Member Info for Pharmhall

Rich62...you have summed it up very well. There is no point in focusing on history. Sales are really gathering momentum as demand for cybersecurity is only going one way. PBT in 2025 will be modest (and covering 15 months), so it will be the profit forecast (ca.£1m) and EPS (ca.4p) that drive future performance. Sitting on very good profit, but happy to leave it in play as I see further upside.

Excellent and informative presentation by CEO & CFO this afternoon. As we have seen with the trading update, they like to keep a little up their sleeve to offset any unexpected events from one division or another. Recent acquisitions bedding down well and providing a new sales and profit stream. Fabulous group client list and plenty of work. Main risk is the oil price – business can be switched off in the event of a significant oil price crash. Very good long-term holding that will generate really good shareholder returns.

JL...I agree with you. consequently, I am going to try and make it to the AGM this year in order to question the management team and get a better feel for its thinking and timing.

Simpiles, you miss my point....for years CPI was very willing to take fees for advising clients on IT services, while continuing to run largely defunct, certainly, superseded, software itself. It may well have upgraded its own systems prior to the data breach, when it was forced to do so, but that was no way to run a company.

I also accept this is all history now and momentum is certainly with the company at the present time.

IMHO, I think the old data breach is no longer an issue. However, to provide some informed background to it, it was always considered an incredible irony that Capita provided and sold IT services to its clients, but internally worked off dilapidated systems. For example, CPI was still using Windows 7 in-house when the rest of the world and its clients had moved on to Windows 10 & 11. CPI only updated its own operating system when Microsoft stopped supporting Windows 7. It was the same with its IT security, so was absolutely no surprise to me when it got hacked. However, that is history and today the situation is entirely different. It still makes me laugh though.

My similar fortunate story occurred over 40 years ago. When I got married, the family tradition was to give the newlyweds money rather than buying presents. We received £4k, which was a lot of money back then. I phoned my bank (which was also my broker) on Monday and bought £2k worth of, dare I say, Maxwell Communications Corporation at 20p, largely because good old Robert had just bought significant amounts himself at 20p. I signed the dealing forms the next day, sent them back to my bank, and went on honeymoon. After I got back two weeks later, it was discovered that the young lad at the bank who received my dealing form did not know the dealer had already dealt (and then also went on holiday) so he executed the instruction again. When this was discovered about one month later (deals were all settled in a two or three week account system then), the share price was 42p, so I sold the second tranche and left my original purchase in there for nil cost! These were sold just over 2 years later for 320p. Nice wedding present! That became the deposit on my first property. LOL

RM50....I have some sympathy on COST....but fortunately, I took the view that 40p was ridiculous only just over a year ago and more than doubled up. The performance since then made COST my largest holding and I sold 50% last week at 145p. It is still one of my largest holdings and, I think, a very safe (and still cheap) play in the current environment. Onwards and upwards!

JL...the results show properly, like in annual report, on www.investegate.co.uk Here is the link:

https://www.investegate.co.uk/announcement/rns/ms-international--msi/final-results/8953287

Now looked at cash. I must admit I had not realised that it had spent £4.5m on its share buy-back, plus £1m extra on dividend, reduced trade creditors by ca.£4m and ca.£6m higher inventories. It all adds up and explains the lower cash pile. Also, it is owed an extra £9m in trade receivables (probably already received by now). Not an issue, simply difficult to forecast from the outside.

The more I look into the results, the more comfortable I am. The driver of sales was defence (actual growth 22.6% vs 20% f'cast), with forgings (-2.19% vs -13%) and Petrol Stations (-19.1% vs -12%) slightly worse, and corporate branding stabilised. This led to better gross margins of 34.0% vs 32.5% f'cast. Distribution costs were much higher than expected (4.0% sales) offset by lower SG&A (14.0% vs 16.0%). Higher tax rate at 27.5%.

For 2026, sales (with no changes to previous expectations) are coming out at £130m (of which defence £99m); EBIT £22.8m; PBT £24m (+20%); giving EPS of 108p based on 28% tax charge. The share price fall today leaves the stock trading on a P/E of only 10.6x (based on offer price of 1140p).

I'll now look at cashflow.

These results are excellent and, apart from sales which was exactly in-line with forecast, the PBT and EPS (90p vs 81pfcast) are above expectations. This board of directors is never overly bullish or forthcoming, so my reading of the statement is one of modest optimism. Like JL, the only item that I did not foresee was the cash position, much lower than expected. It will need more work than a quick read through to understand, but increased inventories is one big point and aligns with the comment about not recognising revenues until product delivered is exactly the same as stated in the interim statement.

IMHO, market reaction is stupid. Even on modest EPS uplift to 100p in 2026, it is trading on 12x, which is ridiculous for a largely defence stock. Expect it to recover when more comments start to appear. I'll provide more detail when I've looked at the divisional performances properly.

I was up early for the results release Tuesday....then Wednesday....again today.....all to no avail! Typical MSI. Sounds like it'll be better luck tomorrow.

Thanks...more research needed. Agreed 62.5m shares would be ca.15% of TAO alpha in issue, so declarable. I will search for relationship between Singapore and alpha.

I'm sure someone else has beaten me to it, but I could not find answer. TIR invested £0.25m in AAO on 9th May (announced 10th May) at ca.0.4p per share, so should have a holding of ca.62.5m shares. At 18p, this would be valued at £11.5m . Given its other investments as well, with a market cap of under £3m at 8.52p, TIR has a long way to go.

Company is currently in a close period, so unless there is anything dramatic to report, no RNS is likely before the FY results to 31st March, which were released on 24th July in 2024. Must be patient and forget about small daily movements. Observation: Goh bought 2.9m shares (ca.£40k) on 21st/22nd May; just days before company entered its close period....hmmm.....he's certainly not looking to lose that £40k in two months.

Held this through the long suspension and was disappointed by market reaction when it returned. Doubled up at 8p (too early) and again last week at 6.2p. My confidence is driven by the recent 2024 and 1Q'25 results, but, more importantly, by the fact that Andrew Knott put yo £2m of his own money a year before suspension and a further £1m at 7p when stock resumed trading. That is serious money that I am sure he would not want to lose. Very different to directors that hide behind options and have no skin in the game if shares collapse – they lose nothing.

I don't overly disagree with you and am a happy holder. However, it will not be EPS (can be fiddled/manipulated easily) or divvi (negligible when it returns, so insignificant) that provides the positive momentum. Its ALL about cashflow. Generating sufficient internally so as not to need further capital (equity issue) and delivering on strategy. IMHO

I, too have been watching closely. There is absolutely no news and other defence stocks are not performing the same way. Therefore, with my cynical hat on, the draft of the results release (and the outcome of the strategic review) will have been written and circulated to its NOMAD (Shore Capital) by now. Do you think that there might be a whisper in the bathroom that its market maker should not be short of stock going into the numbers next week !?!? LOL

Bullish article in Saturday FT Lex column about UK defence stocks still being cheap despite the large rises so far in 2025 and compared to global defence. Momentum likely to be maintained with regular newsflow on defence issues likely from UK and European governments and NATO. Nothing that we have not heard/discussed before but good to have support from Lex.

I believe that we will get the strategy outcome with results, based on the RNS statement at interim stage and subsequent communication with company. While it might have been a long wait, if my memory serves me right, the share price at 1200p (offered) is an all time high. Happy days!