Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
I watch kier as they keep asking me to work for them as a subbie, i keep declining as i don't want to get caught, and to get credit insurance on them for me is quite financially onerous. The construction industry is so busy at the moment,even more than usual. Since 2008 the workload has been incredible, slight blip in 2018, but totally crazy throughtout the covid year, that any construction company that can't make money, is clearly pricing/doing due diligence wrong. Like i said before the subbies have the large players under pressure on rates, and someone said that the large players keep their subbies on contract terms, ive only come across this on housing contracts, never on infrastructure, in 40 + years in construction as a subbie
It will be interesting if the share spikes upwards at the end of the day, i think the market is struggling with the lack of info, still 3 weeks until the next update, should be some numbers then, it will be interesting if the same journalist/news wire, put out about KL sale they have been plugging since 2019. Either way it seems to be slowly ticking downwards
I see that in January's contracts league that kier were in 34th place, this is as i have said before, a long time ago that many smaller firms are stepping up to the plate, and being organised to take on the contracts normally set only for tier 1 contractors. Also in the news, the government have realised that frameworks don't really work that well and are setting about changes as per their construction playbook. This is going to help IMHO the smaller players to price more work, on a regional level, this will also put tier 1 companies under pressure.
The 'new' money you speak of, in my opinion is already priced in. The money has been in the sector and never left during covid, thats why construction never stopped. The big infra already started or about to, has been years in the planning. The issues that affect the biggest companies are their levels of debt. Also they price jobs, sometimes fixed price/all risks well in advance of a start date, to find that, especially in a very busy sector, that subbies rates and material prices have increased.
What i was getting at, was anything that diminishes the poss value, is not helping., in my opinion if KL is not sold around 100m +, it could knock confidence again and disappoint shareholders, and this could be detrimental to the share price.
I agree the ongoing saga of KL is very unusual, a lot of the time, when a story get to the press, the deal is done, with KL if they are developing their land bank and not replenishing, then they are creating short term revenue/profits, but diminishing the value of the company for a future investor and its earning capabilities.
The reason its not moving the shareprice, it is only turnover, got to see if profits can be extracted. Limited numbers in statement earlier this month and words like expectations, haven't stoked enough interest, markets want hard numbers, probably have to wait now until March, and where is the KL sale, that was only days away. Doesn't help confidence
I think it is not on that you have a go at the subcontractors, it is the projects, materials and the project managers, which dictate the quality, agreed housing seems to suffer from the lack of quality, but its the speed, the house builders want to work at, it is totally unreasonable, that trades can work in such a space effectively to build a house from 1st bucket in the floor to occupation in around 12/13weeks, more commercial projects have much more space and more realistic timescales, and again people making cheap snipes, i seen it all in my area of construction, from individual small extensions to the the large 100s of millions infrastructure projects, there is good and bad in everything. Remember the subbies keep the likes of Kier and others going, these firms have few number of direct employed personnel
But what is the difference, all building need all the same materials on and off site , and labour/trades, tower blocks to individual units either offices retail or housing.
I understand that infrastructure/roads is a different skillset.
But what is the difference, all building need all the same materials on and off site , and labour/trades, tower blocks to individual units either offices retail or housing.
I understand that infrastructure/roads is a different skillset.
Why are Kier growing a building side to the business, while KL has 'no synergies' with the group as a whole. Surely KL is the perfect fit and highly cash generative , with much better margins than construction. In terms of ROI long term, KL would be better to retain??
I thought these boards were a debating area, not a personal attack zone, but you carrying on, if it makes you happy, but everyone gets so stressed, possibly rightly so, because they want/need the share to rise, to cover their positions , I'm not trying to cover anything short or long, just like debate in an industry i understand, on that point, i think a company that has a good future after sorting itself out is gfrd, i think they are 1 to watch, IMHO
Why would an equity raise even be mentioned?? , if everything was sorted/turned around, 'significant liquidity headroom' is banking/agreed overdraft basically, especially if KL sale is to swell the pot/clear some debt??, and do many hedge funds, /large institutions own these shares now, where do you find this information??. Agreed the board have to be careful how/what they say now, but if KL sale doesn't move forward soon, the newswire, who keeps bringing the story, especially around results/market updates, should be looked at, all very convenient IMHO
I don't see how anyone is happy, with a company that hasn't stopped working in the last year on most of its contracts, and can't boast making money on the fantastic big infrastructure projects, probably because they are at best pulling 1 to 2%, and their debt they need to service is probably costing 3 to 4 %, so the game is evens, the banks /lenders making the money, and kier will carry on as a zombie company, it will be a long time before a divi is reinstated, and i can only see the share price bumbling around, IMHO, share price at close today is about the end of November price, I'm sure somebody will take exception to this, but see too many companies like this in the last 40 years, all rosy until the banks/lenders get jumpy, 2nd half of this year, i think there will be a credit squeeze, depends a lot on America and Joe Biden, and his stance on world trade, watch this space
No, but i can see nothing to speak of, debt the same,??, that means they've achieved nothing, same issues strangle this company, KL sale will only just clear, vat, and paye deferral, wait for the news in March, then it could unfold