Member Info for wolfhound

Interim just paid in Jan. Y/E is 31 March, last yr final results published 22 May.

I could see analyst re-rating SP even higher on foot of an intention to go to the main market. Daily volumes would shoot up with ETF and tracker funds needing to hold. Awards reinforce their market leading product, and ability to assimilate in acquisitions to bolster their product space. 2015 could see this stock price on steroids IMHO.

spot on Chrismevans.....guess that is why is a journalist and not a trader :)

Steady on there Rhambo - Kames still hold something like 5% of OPAY shares - hardly abandon ship !! BTW the RNS relates to position as at the 12th just reported on 16th. Funds divest for a variety of reasons - sometimes wider market sentiment and their own investors force their hand or perhaps they trade through a stop loss and risk policy takes over irrespective of the investment mangers preference. too complex to simplify or draw parallels - sometimes they are what they are. No board is going to go on a fools errand of issuing statements for every time there is negative share price movement, that would just be self defeating. Besides what do you want them to deny - that the CFO is changing - so what it happens all the time. In fact we are going to have two CFO to produce accounts this year and results will "meet market expectations" ( directly related to role of CFO) so you can expect a sp of £5+ in the near term IMHO. As to the whole CFO change I think this has been factored into Lenhoff's plans for a long time as he repositions the firm as more of a technology play rather than a payments company - he is getting a top rated 20 yr Technology veteran in the CFO role to support him in the next stage. Conveniently the incoming CFO's "gardening leave" with his old firm has just expired after 12 months - how convenient :).... That all bodes well for the future and therefore the share-price.

A lot of volume after the close at prices well north of official close.

I think the initiation of coverage by Citi with a tsp of £8.40 is significant and quite a healthy premium to pre-coverage price, the reinforcement by Citi of what smaller brokers have been saying is very encouraging and will no doubt make this share more appealing to more institutional buyers into a growth sector.

nakedtraitor - no doubt there will be bouts of intraday volatility - but that is just a buying opportunity IMHO - this share can gap up very quickly - as we saw two weeks ago when it broke. OPAY have something pretty special to suit the digital age - OPAY is a bit like the guy who sells shovels in a gold rush - nice steady income with little or no risk and very nice premiums due to demand - at some point I think a big player in payments will want to buy it and have exclusivity to give them a market differentiator - in a digital age payment security and risk mitigation are core to successfully growing market share.

Kudos Draey - call was spot on

That news came out mid day on Friday but market had already priced in and as such it did not move share price. See link below for fuller story. The same article also noted STAN were a very credit worthy organisation and management are taking steps to address. I am of the view that current share price does make STAN a very attractive bid opportunity with SP at a discount to book value, Asia for all the talk of slowdown still has growth levels well in advance of the west and that makes STN franchise in this area v attractive to some of the banks looking to expand into this area, its nearest rival in HSBC is too big to be a viable acquisition. And given the share holding of the likes of Temask and Aberdeen that will need to be at a significant premium... post X-mas is always a fertile M&A period. Be greedy when others are fearful :) http://www.bidnessetc.com/30013-sp-downgrades-standard-chartered-on-exposure-to-credit-losses/

when this first arose a couple of weeks ago I admit I had concerns because I didn't have a full understanding of all of the moving parts to form an opinion, however having spent some time analysing this over the last few weeks there are distinct differences between OPAY and QPP. 1. Lenhoff has confirmed his intent to repay loan 2. Lenhoff has 4mn shares plus some 2mn+ options due to vest by mid 2016 - so his vested interest is in a strong share price, if share price hits £6 ( which is v doable as a analyst consensus) then his worth is £36m compare that to the £4m loan - clear his interests are aligned to those of shareholders. 3. OPAY has significant cash, excellent margins, business model where additional sales flow through to bottom line, massive share in a growing market 4. If EFH did sell the shares then they are well under water right now and that only gets worse if and when they have to re-buy them in the market - in fact £1.5mn shares is equal to the daily volume on OPAY 5. Lenhoff would have had a massive tax bill on the shares awarded, due to way tax works that liability is payable when shares vest - therefore I think a large portion of this transaction is probably to fund that tax liability on the £4mn shares awarded but without having to sell shares and miss out on the upside. That is a big vote of confidence in the future of the company and its sp by Lenhoff. 6. The company is debt free and cash positive with growing profits and customer base of blue-chip partners with a global business model. 7. most likely outcome here is IMHO is that OPAY will become a target for takeover - which is where I think Lenhoff has mentioned in the past and indeed makes him a very wealthy man 8. Recent tie ups with folks like Apple, Visa, Masercard all point towards an intellectual property in OPAY that is worth a premium and not easily replicated - only a matter of time before someone snaps that up for what long term will seem like the buy of the century. 9. Just look at how Black Friday has not only gone global but is increasingly digital - perfect opportunity for the likes of OPAY to grow revenues exponentially - the world is changing and these guys are positioned to capitalise on it. So read it as you will but 1.5mn shares is insignificant in the big picture of things and Lenhoff stands to gain shed loads if the share price continues to rise. That is very different to QPP scenario

Todays results are as expected, and as such the SP looks overdone to me - SP down some 50% this year versus a 20% decline in profits. In the absence of a massive uptick of business travel then industry consolidation cannot be too far off IMHO. Increased consolidation will allow for greater leverage of the technology and people improving profitability - less competition will also aid margins, I wonder when one of the big airlines will perhaps see this as a "natural" fit to creating sticky business clients. We have seen the recent tie-up of Ryan-air with bookings.com, someone like a HRG with a Global Airline guaranteeing best business fares could be a market leader.

The question that the RNS does not answer is - do the loans have recourse to Lenhoff beyond the shares pledged ? If not then this will run imho, a stain of non transparency in something like this has negative consequences irrespective of how the business is performing, it now requires chairman to investigate and make a statement before markets open.

Betwin have confirmed they are in talks with a number of possible suitors bwin.party shares jump on confirmation of acquisition talks 12 Nov14 bwin.party has seen its share price increase by more than 13 per cent after confirmation that it has entered into discussions with interested parties that may result in an offer being made to acquire the business. The company issued a statement Wednesday in response to media speculation, confirming that it has begun preliminary discussions with a number of interested parties regarding "a variety of potential business combinations designed to create additional value for shareholders". This, bwin.party said, may or may not result in an offer being made for the company. However it stressed that these discussions were at a preliminary stage and that there could be no certainty as to whether they will result in any form of transaction. bwin.party did not disclose any further details of the talks, but chief executive Norbert Teufelberger revealed earlier this year that the company would look to generate up to €40m through the disposal of various assets. Its 40 per cent stake in sports betting operator Betbull has already been sold, while its payment processing business Kalixa is likely to be spun off into a separate business. bwin.party's US-facing business has also been suggested as a potentially valuable spin off. However, following this morning's bond issue by Playtech, observers suggest that the gaming technology and services supplier now tops the list of bwin.party's potential acquirers. Shares in bwin.party digital entertainment plc (Co.Data) (LSE:BPTY) jumped 13.82 per cent to 122.70 pence per share in London Wednesday following the announcement.

Interesting war chest being put in place by ptec.... are we about to see a period of consolidation in this sector ?

Playtech plans €315m bond issue to make acquisitions Shares in online gaming software group Playtech retreated after it unveiled plans for a €315m convertible bond issue in order to pursue acquisitions. The FTSE 250 company, which had cash of €402m at the end of September, is offering senior, unsecured convertible bonds due in 2019. It said the proceeds of the offering are intended to be used for pursuing acquisitive and organic opportunities for Playtech. "Playtech's board believes there are a number of opportunities ahead that will create significant value to shareholders," it said. The bonds are expected to carry a coupon of 0.125%-0.875% and will be priced at a 25-30% premium to Wednesday's volume weighted average price, representing approximately 10% of the current share issue. "Such a move is likely to increase speculation that a sizeable acquisition is close," said broker Shore Capital, noting "the mechanics of a sizeable cash return also works". "It is worth noting that the company have issued debt previously which was later cancelled."

the key question for me is who might the target be - multiple small deals or one big deal ? I tend to favour the latter given existing war chest and now the issuance - an acqn somewhere in the region of £750m. I think they will want to buy someone with explosive growth, high margins and that will add something to their existing offering. That only leaves a handful of possible targets. DYOR , BOL

Reduced concern on Ukraine has helped recovery, co broker target of 575 looks beatable in near term subject to US wire act deliberations, if resolved could become a target for M&A at a healthy premium to current price IMHO.