WSP Group Share Discussion Threads

[25babies] 01/8/2012 16:36

What a great ride - Olympic gold.

[praipus] 22/6/2012 10:05

And so they buy even more, check out the buy price!

[praipus] 21/6/2012 11:18

Hi aleks_atanasov, havent you got anything better to do? :-)

Good times for you. Have you looked at PON too?

[praipus] 20/6/2012 11:39

Noting First Eagle increasing their long CFD position here


I thought viewers may be interested to know what else First Eagle are investing in. So I have dedicated a post on the WAM thread to their known holdings.

[25babies] 12/6/2012 08:26

They have about 37% (unrevocable - mainly board members) agreement from existing shareholders - at this price cannot see a competing bid - they are just trying to make things simple - price being paid is not much difference from bid price - and some shareholders may just want to sell to get their hands on the money asap.

[aleks_atanasov] 11/6/2012 19:27

its interesting why Genivar bought 7.5% stake doesnt make sense, unless they fear a competing offer.

[25babies] 11/6/2012 13:28

20 Dec 2011

Good to see the directors buying at 188p today.

9 January 2012

WSP have been a prime candidate for t/o. They were in play at the time Scott Wilson were taken over. This sector will continue to consolidate with UK consultancies being swallowed up by US companies.


10 January 2012

I maintain that WSH is a likely t/o candidate - has been for some time. They are second rung (in size) competing with more global types - ideal material for providing muscle to an existing global player that needs higher exposure in non -traditional USA markets. Of course one of the larger UK consultancies may look at WSH as a defensive play as well - but less likely.

For once I got it right - ok it was a Canadian not a US company

[25babies] 11/6/2012 13:27

Who is next? Hyder or RPS?

[cerrito] 08/6/2012 09:01

Guess who sold out all his holding on wednesday having held them for 4 years odd; good for those who stayed.

[wjccghcc] 08/6/2012 08:41

435p cash offer. The Swedish business was always worth more than an share price of 250p.

One of my larger holdings. Nice end to the week :-)

[cerrito] 04/5/2012 16:04

Have neither bought or sold since March 7; tied up so could not make the AGM to look management in they eye; note recent IMS and share price seems pretty well equilibrated.

[25babies] 09/3/2012 13:47

"Whilst our performance in this region has improved it is not yet satisfactory and has been held back by a project in Abu Dhabi."

[norbert colon] 07/3/2012 18:08

I think you will notice that 'a certain project' in Abu Dhabi (or words to that affect) are still noted. These debts remain.

Nobby

[cerrito] 07/3/2012 18:05

Just got round to looking at the 2011 prelims and I would agree with the Chairman on 2 counts: that 2011 trading was resilient and that market conditions will remain unchanged.
I find it very difficult to value; certainly would not buy more but the lingering hope of a takeover and sterling's weakness do provide support. As I have stated before another consideration continues to be how much Scandinavian exposure one has in one's portfolio.
One item I have not really focused in on before is the pensions deficit which at£61.6m is getting rather large in the context of a current marcap of £166m odd.
Note no dividend increase and not realistic to expect one; I assume they would have been just as happy to cut but did not want to frighten the horses.
Was interested to see that current marcap is at a slight discount to book net worth at 12.11 of £177m but of course if one takes out the intangibles it has a net worth deficit of £32m. Given the importance of goodwill in the balance sheet I placed special attention on note 7 evaluating the Goodwill.
For a company like WSP this note is crucial but inevitably there is a lot of mumbo jumbo; I note given decrease in interest rates they lowered the discount rate from 10.7% to 9.1% and it would have been interesting to know how much the impairment would have been if they had not so lowered the discount rate.
Interested to see how UK Roads have affected them, while Costain today were very upbeat on UK roads.perhaps reflects that Costain more in maintenance and construction.
Compared the geographical source of revenue between 2009 and 2011: see that the UK went down from £254m to £209m-quite a drop but Europe up from £234m to £283m. Africa, India and Middle East fell from £73m to £60m. Incidentally was half expecting to see reference to bad debts in Abu Dhabi but perhaps that is all history.
At the end of all this not much clearer if I should hold or sell.

[bend1pa] 23/1/2012 19:45

Well I'm out today. A 28% gain in just over a month was too tempting. It has shot up a bit too far too fast for my liking, and I'm sure WSH will recover further in time, but there's plenty bad economic news to come this year.

[25babies] 19/1/2012 18:08

. . . and continuing to motor. Another 2 big buys today.

[25babies] 13/1/2012 21:29

Well that was an interesting week. share price up 50% from Dec 19 low and 20% up on the week. Maybe just overshot the trough - though I still view this as a possible t/o play based on last 18 months in the consultancy sector.

[moneybags] 13/1/2012 12:03

and the 5,000 buy was little me topping up with some friday pocket money

Regards , Moneybags

[25babies] 13/1/2012 10:44

2 50000 buys this am. let's see if they are sold later today.

[bend1pa] 10/1/2012 23:31

There's no bidding activity as far as I can tell. Although it's always possible WSP could be a bid target, these 'bid rumours' have been doing the rounds for years now, and they've always been proven to be unfounded.

What has been happening recently is someone buying up lots of 25,000, 35,000 and 50,000 shares, only to sell them on an hour or two later (eg see today's trades 9:52, 11.29, 13:40 and 15:30), This has been occurring quite regularly now since the new year trading and clearly it's someone manipulating the market and taking full advantage of the share price rises when these purchases cause the price to shoot up and the AT trades suddenly switch on to 'buy' The short-term outlook for the company is not good as WSP explained in their last trading statement in November, so that doesn't appear to be the reason for the share price surge either.

[25babies] 10/1/2012 12:21

The buying continues. I know that Panmure were very keen in their review post the before Xmas review - but this is looking serious investment in a thinly traded share.

[25babies] 10/1/2012 10:10

Another 25000 buy - this am.

I maintain that WSH is a likely t/o candidate - has been for some time. They are second rung (in size) competing with more global types - ideal material for providing muscle to an existing global player that needs higher exposure in non -traditional USA markets. Of course one of the larger UK consultancies may look at WSH as a defensive play as well - but less likely.

[bend1pa] 09/1/2012 23:14

No this doesn't look like takeover activity at all. Far too little trade even for a small company like this. You'd expect to see heavy trade for a number of days.

However again some rather strange happenings going on in WSH shares. There's usually little activity going on in these shares on a daily basis with small quantities of shares bought and sold. But on Jan 5th someone bought 2 lots of 50,000 and another lot of 25,000 which is conspicuous in itself. In the intervening days, again little trade until today. 2 lots of £50,000 are sold, then nearly 2 hours later another 50,000 bought with another 25,000 at the same time, all ordinary deals. Then 2 hours later 2 lots of 25,000 shares sold. I'm presuming all these deals are being done by the same people, meanwhile the share price has surged since December. With such a big spread normally on these shares it's difficult to comprehend why someone would risk trading these all within the same day and successfully by the looks of it.

[25babies] 09/1/2012 16:16

WSP have been a prime candidate for t/o. They were in play at the time Scott Wilson were taken over. This sector will continue to consolidate with UK consultancies being swallowed up by US companies.