Bond International Share Discussion Threads

[flagon] 23/9/2016 08:06

ESW Capital counter ?

[cockerhoop] 23/9/2016 07:45

'The crowd are on the pitch, they think it's all over'...........

[asagi] 23/9/2016 07:33

'the Bond Directors now unanimously recommend that Bond Shareholders accept the Revised Offer'



Asagi (long BDI)

[aishah] 23/9/2016 07:15

Revised offer 115.5p

[weatherman] 13/9/2016 16:41

So about 120p in all ? 105p by end of Oct, but it can take a long time to get final settlement. I am still waiting for BGlobal find payout after liquidation.

[asagi] 13/9/2016 13:50

I will admit I missed this yesterday - sale of the software business for £17.25m. V. disappointing but at least a process has been adhered to and this is the outcome of what had effectively been an auction.



I do not think that this should have been RNSd at 5:54pm ('no-one is watching o'clock') but held until 7am today.

the price is quite amazing. I never imagined that a software business with so much recurring revenues would sell for 1 x sales. V. disappointed.

Asagi (long BDI)

[eezymunny] 13/9/2016 13:46

I'm surprised you can buy at 110p or less still. Latest offer gives 113-114p+property proceeds (5p?) with some (i think very small given this is the preffered route of directors)) risk from warranties on earlier sales (max 10p?). 101-105p returned by end Nov takes out much of the risk.

Upside is increased bids in next week or two from either Constellation or ESW (or A N Other?).

Not very exciting but I've nibbled a few more today.

What could possibly go wrong? Cough...

[davidosh] 13/9/2016 13:25

It look a pretty impressive building to me and occupies a very large site

[aishah] 13/9/2016 12:43

TechMarketView:

Bond sets higher bar for Constellation with new US bidder

Another new bidder has entered the fray to buy up the rest of Bond International’s business, in the shape and form of US-based, tech-focused private equity firm, Symphony Technology Group (STG).

STG has offered to acquire Bond’s remaining recruitment and HR software units for £17.25m cash (expected £18.4m after adjustments), valuing the rump of the business at some 113-114p per share, materially higher than Toronto-based software aggregator, Constellation Software’s 105p offer. Constellation had recently lowered its bid acceptance threshold from 90% to 50% in the wake of a speculative approach from Texas-based software aggregator, ESW Capital (see Constellation lowers sights on Bond bid). It appears that Bond management will not get out of bed (again) unless Constellation raises its offer to at least 115.5p per share.

Failing that, and if the now recommended STG bid goes through, Bond will be left as a cashless shell owning the company’s real estate, which will be sold off and the company wound up.

But, who knows, there may be another twist and turn in this saga yet to come.

[asagi] 13/9/2016 09:05

davidosh,

The Courtlands offices are on a road in a residential area but I wouldn't call it a 'main road' (if that makes a difference). Street view here:
hxxp://goo.gl/maps/qa4Ep8tVDfD2

Asagi (long BDI)

[davidosh] 12/9/2016 21:05

When I drove past the offices a couple of years ago they seemed to be on a main road in a residential area so may have a much improved value if the land can be used for residential development.

[eezymunny] 12/9/2016 20:36

Property 2.25m-2.75m? Giving a final return of c. 118p? Not very exciting but this may flush out a higher bid from the other 2 bidders I suppose...

[flyfisher] 12/9/2016 18:49

Good to have a third bidder.

What are the freehold offices, bought in 1998 for £1.4m worth now ?

[asagi] 08/9/2016 13:10

The £4.3m owed to Bond following the sale of Strictly Education has been paid to Bond. That deals with one material uncertainty.



Asagi (long BDI)

[pj 1] 08/9/2016 11:04

Yes. I thought he was Sicillian. He made me an offer I couldn't refuse :-0

[stevemarkus] 08/9/2016 10:49

IronPyrites - I was also rung up by a man with a strong French accent who wanted to ask me questions about the Constellation offer. I told him I was not going to accept the offer and like you asked him a number of questions which he couldn't answer.

Be interesting to see what happens next.

Cheers,
Steve.

[asagi] 07/9/2016 13:27

Dear IronPyrites,

According to Bond's AIM Rule 26 disclosure, Constellation + Liontrust = 43%.

hxxp://www.bondinternationalsoftware.com/investor-info/aim-rule-26/

Asagi (long BDI)

[ironpyrites] 07/9/2016 12:09

Hi All

Phoned by a guy today who said he has been recently employed by Constellation asking what my intentions were regarding my holding on BDI and the 105 takeover offer.
In June Constellation held 27% and Liontrust Asset Management 15% of the shares and he said Constellation controlled 42% - so I presume this means that he was indicating that Liontrust will be voting to accept?
I'm not sure what they were trying to achieve by the call as the share price is now over 110p and if I was wanting to cash in selling today in the market would be better than accepting the 105 offer.
He was clear that I was under no obligation to answer his questions and in fact I asked a number of questions he didn't know the answer to and he admitted that he had only just been employed to phone shareholders up and was presumably working from a script.

Interested to know if anyone else has received such a call.
It would seem that Constellation have got the jitters over the ESW interest but I am still not sure what the objective is of phoning up small shareholders. I can't see how with the current share price they can expect to convince such shareholders to accept 105.
Any thoughts.

Regards
Iron

[milesn] 03/9/2016 12:26

Message for battlebus: could you ping me an email. We both look at a lot of the same stocks! [e-mail]

[boadicea] 02/9/2016 09:11

EWS - an interesting company -


As it would not appear to fit directly into their own business I suspect they
may see it as a component in a two way deal involving another client.

[aishah] 02/9/2016 08:59

That's more like it - an auction!

[boadicea] 02/9/2016 08:01

This is the only good news I have had this week. (VEC, CAR, ECK nearly
all bad news and share price responses to match!)
Given the amount of cash now on the BS, I had rather expected that any
bid would come from a listed company on the grounds that purchasing BDI
for partly or mainly paper could be almost as good as a share placing for
the buyer.
In contrast ESW is a LLP and presumably it would therefore be an all cash
offer - Good!... as it removes the dilemma of whether to hold or sell.
As Battlebus suggests, one would expect any offer to be in the 115p+ area.

[asagi] 01/9/2016 18:50

here is the RNS from ESW:



But now ESW have until October 10th! Groan!

Asagi (long BDI)

[eezymunny] 01/9/2016 18:36

Looks credible. Recent buyers might be "lucky" after all ;)

[battlebus2] 01/9/2016 17:24

Another suitor for Bond... ESW to make offer for all of the company...yes!!
Must be atleast 10/15% higher than 105 imho....