Investors Chronicle articles from November 2002

Investors Chronicle archives from November 2002

Aim & Ofex Company News Digest.
November 8, 2002... OASIS TAKES A SHINE TO DENTAL FIRM ORA Dental practitioner Oasis Healthcare is broadening its smile as well as its geographic reach with the GBP5m acquisition of Ora. Consolidation in this sector has been picking up thanks to increased...

Shoulders of giants.
November 8, 2002... Economics can help you make money Im an economist. If I were to live down to the image of my vocation in the media and financial services industry, I would just write about interest rates, fiscal policy, GDP and inflation - and investors...

Banking revisited.
November 8, 2002... Simon Thompson believes investors are being overly cautious with the banking sector "Wall Streets graveyards are filled with men who were right too soon." Sadly, I know that feeling all to well. Thats because I called the bottom of the...

Hedging your bets.
November 8, 2002... Many hedge fund managers lack the necessary experience In theory, hedge funds are a fantastic product. They are designed specifically to have a low correlation with traditional equity markets, to make money when these markets are falling,...

Large Company News Digest Part One.
November 8, 2002... PizzaExpress offer looks opportunistic Hugh Osmond wants another bite at PizzaExpress It was only a matter of time before PizzaExpress attracted the attentions of a potential buyer. And its no surprise that interest should come from...

Whats in store for T&S?
November 8, 2002... We all know that long ago Tesco abandoned the policy of its founder, Sir Jack Cohen, to"pile it high and sell it cheap". But something tells me that as natural and determined a trader as Sir Jack was, he was also pretty good at buying it cheap....

In stock we trust.
November 8, 2002... Shareholders want to trust the City - but they need a sign that its cleaned up its act Ive been in Northern Ireland over the past few days, and theres a success story about shares that I would like to trumpet... if only because its about...

Large Company News Digest Part Three.
November 8, 2002... Report questions buy-back motives Company directors may be using share buy-backs to boost their own pay packets rather than create value for shareholders, claims a new report from the Economic & Social Research Council. London Business...

Large Company News Digest Part Two.
November 8, 2002... Misery loves company Logica and CMG have turned to each other for support in the stormy IT market and have been rewarded by a strong share rally. Since merger plans were announced last month, shares in the two companies have soared by 22...

Ryanair (RYA).
November 8, 2002... Ryanair chief executive Michael OLeary was at a loss to explain why fares havent fallen faster. The average fare was expected to drop by 5-6 per cent, but only fell 2 per cent. At the same time, costs-per-passenger fell 11 per cent, resulting...

SCOTTISH POWER (SPW).
November 8, 2002... scottish power needed to deliver A plain set of results in line with City expectations to underline its credentials as a stable utility business, not the unnerving box of surprises that it had become. At least the firm achieved this aim. While...

Shanks (SKS).
November 8, 2002... Shanks results added a further stench to an already putrefying waste sector. Poor numbers were expected, but the outlook seems worse than anticipated. Profits are declining after stiff competition in landfill. In some regions, competitors have...

Charles Stanley (CAY).
November 8, 2002... Charles Stanleys profits were hit by a combination of tough equity markets and costs associated with integrating recent acquisitions. There are few signs of better times ahead either, and private client transactions fell 15 per cent on a...

BETT BROTHERS (BTB).
November 8, 2002... Bett has been investing heavily in northern England, and the benefits are beginning to show. Completions rose from 644 to 916, with the average selling price increasing by GBP5,000 to GBP125,000. With operating margins up to 14.8 per cent, and...

LIONTRUST ASSET MANAGEMENT (LIO).
November 8, 2002... In a world where grim equity conditions are cutting most fund managers to pieces, Liontrust is doing remarkably well. Funds under management grew by a solid 5 per cent to GBP1.86bn in the first half and, since the period ended, thats grown to...

UMECO (UMC).
November 8, 2002... UMECOs first-half comparatives last year didnt reflect the calamitous impact of the 11 September terrorist attacks on the civil aerospace industry, so the company wants you to compare these figures with the previous six months. On this basis,...

CARPHONE WAREHOUSE (CPW).
November 8, 2002... Just when it looked as if the mobile phone market was picking up, an old ghost has come back to haunt the market: low-margin pre-paid phones. The networks have started subsidising more phones, realising that"last year they had been too...

Thus (THUS).
November 8, 2002... Chief executive Bill Allans latest mantra should be music to the Citys ears."Were not prepared to sacrifice the bottom line for the sake of sales," he said at Augusts first-quarter results and again at the interims. Hes got sound reasons for...

SCIPHER (SIP).
November 8, 2002... Sciphers chairman, Dr Ken Gray, is confident that his company will move into cash profits on schedule in the second half of this year, despite the global slump in technology spending. The reason for this resilience, he says, is that firms in a...

MINORPLANET SYSTEMS (MPS).
November 8, 2002... Minorplanets poor history of cash-generation has long been a concern. Management attributes the problem to its fast-expanding European operations. In the US and UK, around 80 per cent of the finance deals agreed with customers for the firms VMI...

AVEVA (AVV).
November 8, 2002... Having shifted software licensing to a rental model - which has proved more attractive to recession-wary customers - and reshuffled its management team, Avevas US operation recorded a 42 per cent jump in sales to GBP5.3m. Engineering...

British Airways (BAY).
November 8, 2002... Hats off to Rod Eddington, British Airways chief executive, and the rest of his management team. Faced with the most serious crisis in recent aviation history, theyve got their plane back under control and are plotting a sensible course. ...

Electrocomponents (ECM).
November 8, 2002... Life hasnt been particularly easy for Electrocomponents over the past couple of years. But while management admits that an immediate upturn is unlikely, it also believes the worst is now behind it. The groups toughest market remains its...

Jarvis Hotels (JVH).
November 8, 2002... Shares in Jarvis Hotels have looked pricey in relation to earnings for quite some time. But theyve also consistently traded at a yawning discount to the worth of the companys underlying property assets. So the decision to unlock some of this...

Big Yellow (BYG).
November 8, 2002... The self-storage concept is slowly gathering pace in the UK. In the US, people are used to putting excess furniture, business archives and other temporarily unnecessary items in storage. Big Yellow hopes to promote the concept here with its...

BAA (BAA).
November 8, 2002... BAA and its shareholders will have to wait another month before they find out how much the company can raise landing charges. Thats when the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is due to report its draft regulatory proposals. BAA hopes that the CAA...

Marks and Spencer (MKS).
November 8, 2002... Today, Marks and Spencer launches its Christmas TV advertising campaign - earlier than it has ever done before. And it has continued to shake off its reputation for being aloof from high street competitors, by recruiting the ubiquitous David...

Punch Taverns (PUB).
November 8, 2002... Perhaps the licensed retail sector isnt as defensive as many people assumed. Worrying signs have emerged recently that pub operators are struggling to grow underlying sales. And the pressure is only likely to increase in the coming months as...

SILENTNIGHT (SNGT).
November 8, 2002... Silentnight shareholders have endured a torrid six months. In August, the Clarke family - which controls 50.5 per cent of the shares through its Famco vehicle - tried to take the company private following a profit warning two months earlier....

HARVEY NICHOLS (HVY).
November 8, 2002... Chairman Dickson Poon has reiterated his commitment to take Harvey Nichols private at 250p a share. The company is persuading shareholders that this is a fair offer by copying a trick of Philip Green, who stressed the volatility of current...

Associated British Foods (ABF).
November 8, 2002... It says a lot about the company that its cash pile fell during the year by just GBP1m. It was still sitting on over GBP1bn at the end of 2001, even though it has finally opened its wallet and started spending some money."I dont think people...

Danka Business Systems (DNK).
November 8, 2002... Danka is making some headway in dealing with the problems that started when it took over Eastman Kodaks photocopier business in 1996. The company is still up to its neck in debt, but no longer drowning. It managed a free-cash inflow of...

BARCLAYS (BARC).
November 8, 2002... The UKs big banks have been having a rough ride. High-profile corporate failures - Enron and Worldcom - and the financial crisis in Argentina have increased the sectors bad debts. Meanwhile, in the UK, the competition regulators hostility to...

HALMA (HLMA).
November 8, 2002... Halma has proved a useful defensive play during the economic downturn. While other engineers have seen profits collapse, Halmas varied collection of businesses - with activities ranging from fire and gas detection to electronic sensors - have...

SYGEN INTERNATIONAL (SNI).
November 8, 2002... It is now one year since the Pig Improvement Company (PIC) decided that it should re-christen itself. It was a sad day for fans of quaintly-named listed firms, but a good day for its shareholders. In the past 12 months, the shares have...

How the mighty fall.
November 8, 2002... Germanys economy is in deep trouble Are General Electric, Microsoft and Vodafone great companies? They should be, because these three alone are worth more than the whole German stock market. To most observers, this isnt a sign that...

It doesnt pay to diversify.
November 8, 2002... international markets might not always rise and fall together International markets are mov- ing almost in lock-step with each other. During the past year, weekly returns on UK equities have had a correlation with eurozone or US stocks of...

Money troubles in the US.
November 8, 2002... Slower growth in the money stock is bad news for shares The recovery in the US stock market could soon end, because there isnt the money to support higher share prices. Figures from the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis show that the...

In step with the Germans.
November 8, 2002... Problems in Germany affect the UK, too MY favourite German word has to be either Handschuh, meaning glove (literally hand-shoe) or Krankenschwestern, which means nurses (or sisters of the sick). But many Brits favour Schadenfreude - the icy...

Empty offices as demand withers.
November 8, 2002... Falling rents and empty buildings are just two of the problems, as James Chapman reports From villas in tuscany to Farmhouses in Provence, UK investors have long seen the appeal of buying property on the continent. Less obvious have been...

Train operators face reduced role.
November 8, 2002... Perhaps the best thing that can be said about this weeks announcements from the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) is that they reduce short-term uncertainty. But they appear to confirm that the role of train operators is to be diminished going...

RAC ON THE RACK?
November 8, 2002... Is the RAC too keen to get its moneys worth out of its core business? If I was a shareholder in the RAC, Id be VERY interested in a report published in Novembers Which? magazine. Supported by grisly stories about impolite staff, roadside...

BAT (BATS).
November 8, 2002... Has the tobacco sectors rally finally run out of puff? Recent profit warnings from world number one Philip Morris of the US and its domestic rival RJ Reynolds have raised doubts over the industrys resilience in a recession. But the...

GWR (GWG).
November 8, 2002... Shares in Capital Radio and GWR both went into steep decline at the end of May, but Capital arrested its fall in August while GWR has kept on falling. Deeper earnings downgrades are the most likely culprit, combined with continuing concerns...

Chemring (CHG).
November 8, 2002... According to countermeasures maker Chemring, everything is ship-shape, apart from issues surrounding its US Kilgore facility. But these are pretty big issues. An explosion at the Tennessee factory back in April 2001 led Chemring to file a claim...

IMPERIAL CHEMICALS INDUSTRIES (ICI).
November 8, 2002... ICI has spent much of its difficult, and often painful, transition from industrial bellwether to niche speciality chemicals supplier disappointing the City. Since announcing its $8bn acquisition of Unilevers specialities businesses in May 1997,...

Shire Pharma. (SHP).
November 8, 2002... In a bolt from the blue, Rolf Stahel, chief executive of Shire Pharmaceuticals and the driving force behind the companys stratospheric growth over the past nine years, last week announced he was standing down. While the company went to great...

STAGECOACH (SGC).
November 8, 2002... long-suffering Stagecoach investors saw another 40 per cent wiped of the value of their shareholdings in the past two weeks following yet another profit warning from the public transport operator. The can of worms that is Stagecoachs north...

AXIOMLAB (AXM).
November 8, 2002... Axiomlabs year-end cash balance follows two fund-raisings: nearly GBP6m at 5p when it joined Aim in August 2000 followed by just under GBP12m at 5.75p via a placing in June 2001. Like StartIT.com (see this page), it invests in start-ups and...

WARTHOG (WHOG).
November 8, 2002... Warthog is more profitable than most computer game makers, and less risky as most of its income comes in the form of up-front fees, plus a royalty when unit sales pass a target. Its game pipeline is impressive, but this years results may be...

HANSARD (HSD).
November 8, 2002... Hansard joined Aim in November 2000 via a placing at 25p. It followed last years loss with 2002 interim profits of GBP16,000, against a GBP26,000 loss - on turnover up by half to GBP309,000 - in the previous half-year. Tough stock markets mean...

MICROGEN (MCGN).
November 8, 2002... Microgen faces weak demand in all three of its markets: e-billing services, IT consultancy and the recently-acquired OST, whose software integrates City office systems. Following 2002 interims (profits almost doubled to GBP103,000 but were hit...

Aim & Ofex Company News Digest.
November 15, 2002... Excel Airways to join Aim Charter airline Excel Airways plans to join Aim next week by way of an introduction that should value the UKs sixth biggest operator at GBP85m. Excel was founded two years ago when new management bought the assets...

Bridging the gap.
November 15, 2002... How the government intends to close the pensions savings gap The governments Green Paper on pensions, due at the end of November, is unlikely to back compulsory pensions. But it could still bring bad news for investors. While compulsory...

Large Company News Digest.
November 15, 2002... Corus shelves Brazilian deal Uncertainties in the global business environment are blamed Corus has shelved its high-risk plans to buy Brazilian steelmaker Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (CSN) for GBP2.7bn. The news might have lifted...

Large Company News Digest.
November 15, 2002... Shareholders stymie Harvey Nichols bidder Shareholders have succeeded in blocking chairman Dickson Poons first attempt to take Harvey Nichols private. The Hong Kong entrepreneur is trying to buy out the 49 per cent of the shares he does not...

Large Company News Digest.
November 15, 2002... nCipher raises hopes of tech cash returns The planned return of GBP65m to shareholders by internet security software specialist nCipher has raised hopes that other cash-rich technology firms might soon follow suit. nCiphers chief executive,...

EMAP (EMA).
November 15, 2002... If anything, these results are a slight improvement on Emaps September trading statement. French advertising, which was then described as slowing, is now improving while radio advertising, which was then declining, is now flat. Visibility is...

Pizza the action.
November 15, 2002... PizzaExpress shares are only worth what someone will pay for them Since I added my e-mail address to the bottom of this page, youve been good enough to send me some interesting and thought-provoking comments. Last week, I received one...

Large Company News Digest.
November 15, 2002... Retail sales show strong growth A renewed surge in consumer spending could stop interest rates falling, say economists. The British Retail Consortium reported this week that retail sales rose 7.1 per cent in the year to October, the...

DCC (DCC).
November 15, 2002... DCC may operate an odd collection of businesses, but diversity helped it turn in another robust set of results. The current star performer is the energy division, where strong volume growth in oil and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) distribution...

AZLAN (AZL).
November 15, 2002... Life remains difficult for Azlan, but in a demonstration of confidence in its own profitability, the group has reinstated its dividend. Turnover in Azlan's core communications products distribution division grew just 1 per cent, to...

RADSTONE TECHNOLOGY (RST).
November 15, 2002... As the assassination of six suspected al-Qaeda members by a CIA-controlled unmanned drone in Yemen demonstrated, George Bushs war on terrorism is heavily reliant on technology. Radstone supplies the battle-hardened embedded computing products...

Wincanton (WIN).
November 15, 2002... While some rival logistics companies have become mired in the economic slowdown, Wincanton goes from strength to strength. One of its principal assets is a blue-chip customer base. This includes several food retailers who are relatively immune...

FENNER (FENR).
November 15, 2002... One year on from Fenners ambitious acquisition of rival Unipoly for GBP47.5m, and management says GBP10m of costs have been stripped out of the acquired business on an annualised basis. Still, more work will have to be done for managers to...

Renold (RNO).
November 15, 2002... Substantial losses and a slashed dividend left chain maker Renold looking like the weakest link last year. But it hasnt taken things lying down and now the benefits of a cost-cutting programme are starting to show through. Despite falling...

McCarthy & Stone (MCTY).
November 15, 2002... McCarthy & Stone has a strong reputation for financial performance, but its latest set of figures are almost indecently good. Operating margins rose four percentage points to 40 per cent this year. Most other housebuilders are pleased to reach...

LUMINAR (LMR).
November 15, 2002... As the likes of PizzaExpress and SFI have shown so graphically of late, consumers are already eating and drinking out less. Not all licensed retailers are suffering quite as badly, but it remains to be seen whether Luminar can shine forth from...

YATES GROUP (YTE).
November 15, 2002... Theres not much cheer in Britains high-street bars right now. Pulling the punters in is proving difficult, so bar operators are resorting to discount offers to win business. With bargain booze king Wetherspoon about to make its offering even...

XKO (XKO).
November 15, 2002... News for the first half included a return to the black and the timely acquisition in June of enterprise resource planning vendor, Aran - which was immediately earnings enhancing, and delivered 400 new customers. XKO is now keen to seek out...

WYNDEHAM PRESS (WDSW).
November 15, 2002... Wyndeham achieved these profits without any help from a recovery in the printing market. Rather, they are the fruit of heavy investment in printing technology, made over the past five years, which enabled the company to win market share....

VOLEX (VLX).
November 15, 2002... At the peak of the tech bubble, Volex was valued at more than GBP600m. The cable maker made real profits too, but since then collapsing demand among its customers has short-circuited growth. Now the GBP28m-rated firm can only boast a minuscule...

SYNERGY HEALTHCARE (SYR).
November 15, 2002... After buying Hays Clinical Support Services earlier this year, Synergy has doubled in size. The deal boosted the groups sterilisation services business, and enabled cost-savings in a buoyant marketplace. The firms underlying performance remains...

INTECHNOLOGY (ITO).
November 15, 2002... Intechnologys business has two main strands - data storage solutions, and managed data services - the former accounting for GBP72.3m of the GBP76m total sales for the six months to 30 September. In the immediate term, industry-wide pricing...

CELSIS INTL. (CEL).
November 15, 2002... The combination of restructuring, product consolidation, exceptional write-offs and fluctuating exchange rates account for much of the movement in Celsis latest set of results. The microbial testing firm, which has disappointed in the past due...

LATCHWAYS (LTC).
November 15, 2002... Shareholders in safety systems group Latchways have endured a dismal two years, but this set of figures gives some hope for the future. The UK still provides the bulk of sales, and the performance here has been at record levels. Earlier this...

PENNA (PNA).
November 15, 2002... Penna isnt convincing investors that integrated HR consulting is better business than bog-standard recruitment. The recruitment division was unsurprisingly weak, but the career consulting business should have been booming. Although revenues...

WHITEHEAD MANN (WHT).
November 15, 2002... Its tough being a head-hunter when heads are rolling in your key markets. Despite having held up better than most other recruitment firms, Whitehead Mann finally succumbed to the pressure in September and issued a profit warning. Accordingly,...

UNIQ (UNIQ).
November 15, 2002... This is the first time that Uniq has made a first-half profit since 1999. Shareholders must hope that this signals an end to the continual restructuring and profit warnings that have dogged the company since it demerged Wincanton. And its...

NORTHERN FOODS (NFDS).
November 15, 2002... Sainsbury's and Asda cancelled their biscuit contract with Northern and that dragged down an otherwise solid first-half performance. Grocery sales fell by 2.3 per cent, taking the shine off excellent convenience sales, up 8.9 per cent. Northern...

BOC GROUP (BOC).
November 15, 2002... Economic conditions may be tough, but BOC is proving more resilient than most. Excluding exchange rate movements, group sales rose 3 per cent, while operating profits before exceptional charges were broadly flat at GBP500m. Particularly...

Business Post (BPG).
November 15, 2002... The bad news is that Business Posts planned assault on the UK business mail market has hit delays. Postcomm, the industry regulator, had been expected to finally resolve an argument over handling charges between Business Post and Consignia by...

Vodafone (VOD).
November 15, 2002... Theres an old investment saying that sales are vanity, profits are sanity and cash is reality. If thats the case, Vodafone is enjoying a plentiful dose of reality. While the sales boost is largely a one-off relating to the inclusion of Japanese...

BT GROUP (BT.A).
November 15, 2002... Missing targets is never a good thing, but its even worse when they are missed just seven months after being set. Chief executive Ben Verwaayen has admitted his 6-8 per cent annual turnover growth target is no longer possible - although many...