Investors Chronicle articles from November 2006

Investors Chronicle archives from November 2006

Private equity is coming.
November 3, 2006... In the early days of stock exchanges, dodgy entrepreneurs often used so-called 'investment companies'. Masquerading as investment trusts, these vehicles were used to stockpile larger and more riskier holdings than any investment trust would...

Vaulting for a fall.
November 3, 2006... While he was umming and ahhing about whether to slice up the king of Scotland for his personal gain, Macbeth fretted about "vaulting ambition, which o'leaps itself and falls". The trouble was that his dear wife soon conquered his doubts, and...

Dot-con bubble.
November 3, 2006... Tuesday 5 September: Penny wise, pound foolish Phoned up Dot, finally tackling her about her stockbroking account and its strange invalid password. "Have you tried to use your account, Mum?" "You mean, the interplane thing?" ...

Autumn Fall out.
November 3, 2006... October was a spectacular month for share crashes. The US gaming debacle should have provided enough share-price disasters to last many months, with PartyGaming, Sportingbet and a host of bookmakers taking the sort of drubbing unseen since the...

Chinese whispers.
November 3, 2006... How did the Chinese gain a reputation for inscrutability? You could try asking any Chinese acquaintances you may have, but presumably they wouldn't tell you directly, and the men among them may even ask you, enigmatically, to guess their height...

Oil's well that ends well?
November 3, 2006... Can it really be True? The UK's two oil majors have just updated investors on their latest progress, and Shell came out ahead of BP. The company beat consensus forecasts in every part of its business. Production volumes of 3.25m barrels of oil...

Money supply rises.
November 3, 2006... Figures this week show that companies' bank deposits have risen 11.6 per cent in the past 12 months, the highest growth for six years, while non-bank financial institutions' deposits have risen by 30.6 per cent. In both cases, ratios of...

Public sector slow to get the builders in.
November 3, 2006... Local authorities are tightening their purse strings, reckons trade body the Construction Products Association (CPA). According to the CPA's most recent survey, government spending on projects such as social housing has fizzled out. The...

BioProgress deal heightens us presence.
November 3, 2006... BioProgress announced the $8m (GBP4.2m) acquisition of US speciality pharmaceutical company, airPharma, this week. The deal will boost BioProgress's presence in US chronic respiratory conditions treatment. The company also announced a placing...

Cairn unveils Indian float.
November 3, 2006... Cairn Energy said that the planned Indian flotation of a 30.5 per cent share of its flagship Rajasthan oilfield assets should see around GBP618m available for return to shareholders. The new Indian entity will retain GBP316m for working...

Grainger Trust to reassess valuation.
November 3, 2006... Regis Group, the would-be bidder for Grainger Trust, has said that it no longer intends making an offer for the residential property company. Following Regis's initial approach, as well as rejecting the advances, Grainger's board said that it...

RHM holds up well.
November 3, 2006... Higher energy and wheat costs continue to take a bite out of RHM's profits. Hot weather and tough competition also affected progress at its culinary brands arm, which includes the Bisto and Sharwood's brands. However, the food producer has...

Emerging markets boost WPP.
November 3, 2006... International communications group WPP has reported that like-for-like revenue growth in the third quarter was 4 per cent, with gross margins up 4.6 per cent. The group also won GBP1.4bn of new business, which is encouraging for 2007. Emerging...

Online Vegas wedding.
November 3, 2006... Are the UK's two leading online gambling giants about to combine their chips? Less than a month after new laws in the US forced them to withdraw from their most profitable market, PartyGaming and 888 have apparently discussed joining forces....

Allianz in Laing shock.
November 3, 2006... Analysts found it hard to make their sums justify the price tag Henderson's bid put on private finance initiative (PFI) specialist John Laing, so Allianz's 385p recommended offer this week - an 8.5 per cent premium to Henderson's - comes as a...

Interest rate rise.
November 3, 2006... Next Thursday's probable rise in the repo rate, to 5 per cent, might not be the last, economists warn. They fear that the 13.7 per cent rise in the money stock in the past 12 months - the fastest growth for 16 years - could lead to higher...

Wellington supports low Catlin bid.
November 3, 2006... Wellington Underwriting has recommended a bid worth GBP591m from Catlin, a rival Lloyd's insurer. Catlin is offering 0.17 of its shares and 35p in cash, valuing the bid at 121p a share - a 25 per cent discount to Wellington's share price prior...

Uncertainty for Gaming VC.
November 3, 2006... The chief executive of Gaming VC, which issued a profit warning in September, has stepped down to a non-executive position. The company has also been served a lawsuit from US business Fort Knox, alleging Gaming VC has not complied with an...

ID Data joins up with vanguard.
November 3, 2006... ID Data has signed an exclusive distribution and licensing deal with US technology company Vanguard, designer of the patented Tesco Clubcard key fobs. The deal covers Europe, Africa, India and the Middle East, and chief executive Peter Cox...

La Tasca's tasty morsel.
November 3, 2006... Having stayed away in June to watch the football World Cup, diners are returning to La Tasca's 70 restaurants. Although the Spanish tapas bar-chain owner does not disclose underlying sales figures, it says that trade has returned to normal...

Microgen misses expectations.
November 3, 2006... Software and services company Microgen has said that its full-year revenues will slightly miss analysts' expectations, although margins remain steady. In a board reorganisation, Martyn Ratcliffe has been reappointed executive chairman, chief...

More bitter than sweet at Cadbury.
November 3, 2006... Britons may guzzle more chocolate than any other nation, but our appetite melted during the hot summer weather. So, as the UK's leading confectioner, Cadbury Schweppes' sales suffered as a result. However, it did win further customers away from...

A spending spree for Eckoh Technology.
November 3, 2006... Eckoh Technology says it intends to "evaluate a number of strategic options" this year as it ponders how to spend the GBP11.2m that it received for selling its 65 per cent holding in Symphony. With cash and liquid investments of over...

Persimmon results cement future sales.
November 3, 2006... The UK's largest housebuilder, Persimmon, said this week that trading is in line with expectations. Visitor levels are still good, and house prices remain firm, although in some cases incentives are still being used. Persimmon also said that it...

Sandvine reports robust trading.
November 3, 2006... Sandvine, which develops software for internet service providers, has announced a strong set of third-quarter results. Revenues doubled to C$8.1m (GBP3.8m) and the company delivered a net profit of C$200,000 after a loss of C$1.4m last year....

Inspicio share seals future sales.
November 3, 2006... Inspicio has paid GBP1.2m for a 5 per cent stake in Concateno, a shell company with which it shares a chairman in Keith Tozzi and financial backer in Marwyn Investment. So the closeness between Inspicio and Concateno looks somewhat unsettling....

Myerson floats South Africa fund.
November 3, 2006... Activist investor Brian Myerson has floated South African Property Opportunities - a GBP30m fund. It intends to build a portfolio that could include development opportunities, mezzanine financing deals and special situations. "There is a great...

Rio Tinto ups shares buyback.
November 3, 2006... Rio Tinto has increased its current-year share buy-back programme by another $3bn (GBP1.6bn), citing record cashflows. Only $600m of the original $4bn 2006-07 capital management programme was left to disburse. Rio has also just made its first...

BHP Billiton expansion raises hopes for china.
November 3, 2006... BHP Billiton says that expansion of its Olympic Dam uranium mine in South Australia, the world's largest known uranium resource, could be predicted on sales to China or India. China has already subscribed to a safeguards regime permitting...

O2 Hands it to ComputerLand.
November 3, 2006... ComputerLand's period-end trading statement has forecast pre-tax profits in line with board expectations, and "significantly ahead" of last year, largely down to the performance of its managed services division. The company won its largest deal...

SurfControl surges ahead as sales rise.
November 3, 2006... SurfControl's first-quarter results saw billings up 21 per cent, with 10 per cent overall like-for-like growth. However, losses widened to GBP1.6m as costs increased, due to the acquisition of BlackSpider Technologies, a managed...

Lonmin sales soften results forecast.
November 3, 2006... South African platinum miner Lonmin trailed its upcoming results with full-year production figures showing sales of 950,000oz of platinum, in line with the company's last guidance. But one-fifth of this business is accounted for by lower-value...

Alphabet strategy for letter portfolios.
November 3, 2006... Here's a simple strategy that would have beaten even the best fund manager during the past 12 months: simply buy an equal amount of every stock in the FTSE 350 beginning with the letter K. The six you could have bought have given a return...

Celoxica sizes up asset sale.
November 3, 2006... Software developer Celoxica has warned that the embedded systems market is growing more slowly than expected. In response, house broker Arbuthnot reduced its 2006 sales forecast from GBP6.1m to GBP4.5m. Celoxica is now considering a sale of...

Antrim Energy in canadian cash call.
November 3, 2006... Antrim Energy has raised C$48.7m (GBP23m) through a Canadian fund-raising method known as a 'bought deal'. The money will be used to develop North Sea oil assets and for general corporate purposes. Bought deals are often done at a discount,...

Napo announces drug trial progress.
November 3, 2006... California-based Napo Pharmaceuticals has announced that its partner, Trine Pharmaceuticals, has begun enrolment in a Phase IIb study, to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Napo's lead product, Crofelemer. Within 30 says of initiating the...

Cautionary tales.
November 3, 2006... So Dave decided to open a contract for difference (CFD) account to hedge the risk in his portfolio. He considered several possible CFD brokers, including Blue Index. Mike Estrey, Blue Index's head of research, had written to Dave to answer...

Week Ahead...
November 3, 2006... News TUESDAY 7 November Associated British Foods announces its full-year results on Tuesday - and investors will ask whether an improved performance from the retail side has been enough to offset a decline in profits from the sugar...

Cenkos, a ray of light on the IPO horizon.
November 3, 2006... Shares in stock broker Cenkos Securities started trading this week in spectacular style. They achieved a 43 per cent premium, above the offer price, on the first day of trading, However, from a price-to-earnings (PE) ratio of 8, based on the...

Oil majors face Russian pressure.
November 3, 2006... A chill wind is blowing over supermajor oil companies working on large hydrocarbon projects in Russia under agreements struck in the 1990s. When these deals were signed, a weak Russian government desperately wanted to attract foreign investment...

For richer or for poorer?
November 3, 2006... In last year's pre-budget report (PBR), chancellor Gordon Brown upset many would-be investors by reversing his decision to allow self-invested personal pensions (Sipps) to hold direct residential properties. One year on, and, with the new...

Friends Provident sets ambitious targets.
November 3, 2006... Friends Provident accompanied news of strong third-quarter sales with an ambitious target of tripling its UK new business by 2008. Third-quarter sales rose by 40 per cent to GBP1.6bn, boosted by a number of large policies being written. At...

Tax tricks for landlords.
November 3, 2006... There are a range of ways for homeowners and landlords to cut their tax bills - the trouble is they are not well-publicised and the Treasury has been cracking down on some schemes. Tax saving is important, though. Rising house prices mean...

Cardinal benefits from ukrainian test.
November 3, 2006... Shares in Cardinal Resources rose 11.6 per cent, or 1.25p, to 12p after testing on a well on the company's Ukrainian Bilousivsko-Chornukhinsa license showed a flow of 4.05m cubic feet of gas per day. Cardinal remains on track to produce 3,000...

Be a global property mogul.
November 3, 2006... The time has come to take the overseas property plunge, but I'm not investing in a home overseas using my self-invested personal pension (Sipp). I'm talking about gently increasing my exposure to global property funds through specialist...

QXL RICARDO (QXL).
November 3, 2006... The big news for QXL, the leading online auctioneer in Switzerland, Denmark, Norway and Poland, has been the re-acquisition of the Polish business on 10 August 2006. This follows a legal dispute over the ownership of that operation. Now,...

CHRYSALIS (CHS).
November 3, 2006... Chrysalis remains hampered by the advertising downturn, and chief executive Richard Huntingford is honest enough to say that he can't see any improvements on the immediate horizon. Even so, the group's radio business outperformed the radio...

ALTERIAN (ALN).
November 3, 2006... Alterian gets Revenue, if not much profit yet, by selling its marketing software through marketing service providers (MSPs). Indeed, signing more of these partners in the US, where it now claims eight of the top 10 MSPs, helped boost North...

EGDON RESOURCES (EDR).
November 3, 2006... Aim-listed Egdon Resources does have some small oil and gas exploration prospects across the UK and France, but the big story with this company is its planned Portland gas-storage facility in Dorset, which could hold 5 per cent of the UK's...

Cash in on fast-growing mid-cap shares.(Company overview)
November 3, 2006... Investors are obsessed with growth. Type the word 'growth' into the FT.com managed funds search tool, and it will return an incredible 2,785 funds that feature the magic word in their title. That's because growth is at the heart of investing....

LANDROUND (LDR).
November 3, 2006... According to new chairman and company doctor David Owen, "the job [at Landround] is half-way done." So, on cue, comes news that he and a completely-changed board are looking for extra finance. It's needed because, in the short term, a change in...

EUROPA OIL & GAS (EOG).
November 3, 2006... Europa turned loss-making on a post-tax basis this time round as a result of a deferred tax charge of over GBP1.08m. However, that's not the main reason why the shares have failed to perform after our buy recommendation at 28p (2 June 2006)....

CHEERFUL SCOUT (CLS).
November 3, 2006... Cheerful Scout has a lot to be cheerful about. It has just reported its first profit after floating on Aim in April 2002, and one broker even forecasts a dividend following a 1:25 share consolidation later this November. A quarter of sales...

CONDER ENVIRONMENTAL (CDE).
November 3, 2006... Conder Environmental has had a decidedly uneven flight path ever since it demerged from Southern Vectis in December 2000. But last year's large loss was slightly different to previous problems as it was linked to the purchase of a clean-water...

CLEARSTREAM TECHNOLOGY (CTN).
November 3, 2006... Ireland-based ClearStream joined Aim in November 2004 via a share placing at 79p. And like other medical micros, it has taken the company just over two years for it to appear to be making tangible progress towards profitability - and at a much...

Chip makes hit inventory problems.
November 3, 2006... Given that 11 out of 13 US-listed chip makers have lowered their fourth-quarter outlooks since September, investors' euphoria that ARM held forecasts steady this week is understandable. In fact, despite missing analysts' third-quarter...

INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL DEVICES (INT).
November 3, 2006... Like ClearStream, International Medical Devices (IMD) is a medical micro company that investors were well advised to avoid until it could show some more substance. The company's shares have more than halved over the past year, and they took a...

DEBTS.CO.UK (DETS).
November 3, 2006... Like others in the Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) market, debts.co.uk is experiencing impressive growth. In January, it processed 60 cases. By the time it floated in May, that had risen to 100. And, this month, the company should...

PROMETHEAN (PTH).
November 3, 2006... Private-equity investment vehicle Promethean raised GBP48.4m net of expenses when it floated at 100p in June 2005. It targets non-core and underperforming companies and will aim for a return of 25 per cent a year. In its first 12 months, it...

CLINPHONE (CNP).
November 3, 2006... About 80 per cent of pharmaceutical companies still use paper-based systems when processing drug-development data. Yet, with growing regulation and a need to process results faster, that system is proving too inefficient. So ClinPhone - which...

INGENIOUS MEDIA ACTIVE CAPITAL (IMAC).
November 3, 2006... Ingenious Media, which was admitted to Aim in April, has a straightforward investment strategy: it seeks to invest in predominantly unquoted media companies, with the intention of selling those investments on at a profit. Specifically, it hopes...

MJ GLEESON (GLE).
November 3, 2006... Gleeson has been busy selling off its non-strategic and loss-making businesses, and now concentrates on three markets: urban housing regeneration, commercial property development and strategic land trading. During the year, it disposed of its...

INSTORE (INST).
November 3, 2006... Operating losses more than doubled at Instore as its new management decided to bite the bullet and slashed bulging stock levels by GBP12m, or 30 per cent. As a result, gross margins took a heavy hit, falling from 10 per cent to 6.2 per cent....

MATALAN (MTN).
November 3, 2006... Discount retailer Matalan marked what is likely to be its swan-song results with a modest fall in sales and operating profits. This comes before founder, chairman and major shareholder, John Hargreaves, takes the firm private by purchasing the...

ITIS (ITH).
November 3, 2006... ITIS motored ahead in the first half, with rapid profit growth driven by the expanding market for in-car satellite navigation. The company collects traffic information from a fleet of moving vehicles, and then supplies that information to...

ELECO (ELCO).
November 3, 2006... Building Systems - the larger of Eleco's two divisions - is performing well. The business produces a range of ready-made building products and delivers them in a ready-to-use state to building sites. Sales of its FastBuild rooms for hotels and...

BRAEMAR SEASCOPE (BMS).
November 3, 2006... The shipping market can be as choppy as some of the seas that tankers sail. One minute freight rates are riding the crest of a wave; the next, they're tumbling into a trough. For example, the shipping market peaked in 2004, and high oil prices...

BLACKS LEISURE (BSLA).
November 3, 2006... Following a profit warning in August, outdoor sports and leisure specialist Blacks Leisure reported profits broadly in line with broker's downgraded expectations. Underlying sales fell by 0.5 per cent in the first half, and, though hardly...

TATE & LYLE (TATE).
November 3, 2006... Focusing on more specialised products continues to make for mellifluous growth at Tate & Lyle. The maker of the Splenda branded sugar substitute is achieving particularly strong progress in the Americas, where its profits surged by 58 per cent...

CHLORIDE (CHLD).
November 3, 2006... Chloride continues to profit from keeping the lights on at companies such as Vodafone, UBS, HSBC and Bank of America. Its business is focused on preventing disruption to power supplies, and it is currently experiencing strong demand -...

UMECO (UMC).
November 3, 2006... Umeco's chief executive, Clive Snowdon, reassured investors that delays with the Airbus 380 programme should only cut sales this year by less than 1 per cent, and that, in any case, this would be made up for through work for Boeing. However,...

ACCUMA (ACG).
November 3, 2006... Accuma is enjoying impressive growth in its core individual voluntary arrangement (IVA) business. It completed 330 new cases last month, up from 205 in October last year. And each new case brings both upfront fees and supervisory fees over the...

IMPERIAL TOBACCO (IMT).
November 3, 2006... The forthcoming public smoking ban in its largest market holds little fear for Imperial Tobacco. "We do not expect bans in the UK to have significant long-term effects on our business," says Gareth Davies, chief executive of the tobacco giant....

LADBROKES (LAD).
November 3, 2006... 415p - Travel & leisure - While the stock market value of the gambling sector has fallen hugely as a result of new restrictions in the US, traditional bookmakers have been unaffected. And even though Ladbrokes does offer betting and gaming...

CONNAUGHT (CNT).
November 3, 2006... 228p - Aim - On Monday, Connaught will buck the current popular trend by moving up from Aim to the main market. In recent years, many companies have moved in the other direction, citing lower costs and less regulation as reasons. But,...

SCOTT WILSON (SWG).
November 3, 2006... 245p - Support services - The growth plans of engineering consultancy Scott Wilson took a significant step forward this month when it announced the GBP10m acquisition of Ferguson McIlveen, a leading consultancy in Northern Ireland. Scott Wilson...

HIDEFIELD (HIF).
November 3, 2006... 7p - Aim - Hidefield shares have risen since we last recommended buying them back in 2004 at 6.88p, but the company hasn't been one of Aim's stellar performers. Not only have the shares consistently struggled to trade above their 2000 listing...

RURELEC (RUR).
November 3, 2006... 42P - AIM - Rurelec, which was spun out of chief execUtive Peter Earl's Independent Power Corporation, began life by providing electricity to isolated off-grid communities in South America. But it has since has grown to become a mainstream...

MEGGITT (MGGT).
November 3, 2006... 331p - Aerospace & defence - Meggitt supplies complex electronic systems and components that can withstand extreme vibration, impact, contamination or temperature. So its products are used in lots of industries, especially defence, nuclear,...

WOLFSON MICROELECTRONICS (WLF).
November 3, 2006... Wolfson's shares have dropped like a stone - down some 35 per cent - since announcing disappointing third-quarter figures last month. The group, which makes chips for such electronic gadgets as MP3 players and mobile phones, forecast that...

AVIVA (AV.).
November 3, 2006... New business figures from the Uk's largest life assurer, Aviva, were boosted by a strong performance in the UK, with long-term savings new-business sales up by 39 per cent to GBP10.46bn in the nine months to end-September. The group's overseas...

AVIS EUROPE (AVE).
November 3, 2006... Avis found itself in the slow lane a few years ago when it was overtaken by a new breed of sprightly low-cost competitors. The price war that ensued made a wreckage of Avis' profit margins and sent the share price tumbling. Avis has since...

CATLIN (CGL).
November 3, 2006... Pulling off takeover deals in the Lloyd's market is usually tricky. Talks do take place, but, due to such difficulties as trying to consolidate teams of often egotistical underwriters, they usually come to nothing. However, bucking the trend,...

Respect due.
November 10, 2006... What makes Britain great? In a week that has seen anti-social behaviour orders (Asbos) described as a "badge of honour" by members of the 'Is you disrepectin' me?' generation, healthy school dinners rejected by parents of the 'shut it,...