Fulcrum Utility Services... Share Discussion Threads

[roper] 01/12/2015 21:49

A very strong close as well....suggests it goes again tomorrow.

[topvest] 01/12/2015 20:52

Well a very pleasing day if you are a Fulcrum shareholder. Management have done really well. Next step is to get a decent sales team in place to get some bigger contracts. They seem to have a quality service so they shouldn't be pushing water up hill.

[sideshowbull] 01/12/2015 20:22

Stevo just scuttled the ship a bit.

[penpont] 01/12/2015 17:23

Took the market a while to catch on today. Upgrades as below from IC tip update. Basically they are making next years numbers this year...

'Fulcrum Utility Services (FCRM) chief executive Martin Donnachie is right to claim his team "has proved itself adept at turning this business around". The question now - particularly in light of a modest 2 per cent rise in revenue at the half-year stage - is where the top-line growth will come from.

Not that these financials disappointed the market. Shares in the energy and multiutility services group rose 28 per cent on results day, which brought news of a further £0.5m cost reduction, a maiden half-year dividend and a more than doubling of underlying cash profit to £2m. But if it wants further growth, Fulcrum knows it needs more projects such as the recent framework contract extension with British Gas, or the £4m deal to connect four whisky distilleries in Speyside with Scotland's gas network.
To do this, Mr Donnachie has doubled the size of his business development team and launched a new group focused on multiutility contracts for housing. The company also wants to continue building its lucrative estate of pipeline assets at current levels. In the six months to September, Fulcrum expanded its portfolio by 8 per cent, thereby increasing its annualised gas transportation income from £0.9m to £1.1m.
Following upgrades, broker Cenkos expects full-year adjusted pre-tax profit and EPS of £3.3m and 1.9p, respectively, up from £1.6m and 0.9p for the 12 months to March 2015.
Sensibly, Fulcrum hasn't sacrificed investment at the altar of cost-cutting, which in time should lead to further growth. The shares, well up on our tip, still trade on a cash-adjusted PE ratio of just nine times next year's earnings forecasts. Buy.'

[topvest] 01/12/2015 08:18

Fantastic interim results. Look at the gross margin improvement. Just need to get some real revenue growth and this could be a very profitable business now that the heavy lifting and business model has been corrected.

[penpont] 01/12/2015 08:13

Added this morning. Looks to me like there is now some reasonable chance of an upgrade for the year,

[jeanesy2] 14/11/2015 16:03

I missed the contract news. Looks positive from here!!

[topvest] 13/11/2015 20:55

The British Gas contract extension gives them much better visibility on medium term revenue and with costs hopefully reducing from the in source of the operational teams this now looks quite encouraging. Just need some larger tender wins.

[edale] 13/11/2015 09:02

I can't get to the article but it looks to have been an IC buy recommendation yesterday.

[jeanesy2] 29/8/2015 13:10

Only just started researching these. They have a large contract that is up for renewal in november dont they? How confident are people that this will be renewed?

[topvest] 19/7/2015 15:56

This new contract could add about £1m to profit. A very good way of under-pinning short-term results. Be interesting to see how things go with the 99 workforce that has been taken on from McNicholas. Probably makes sense for them to set-up a direct workforce in the South as well where they are still using a sub-contractor. The cost base has been cut to the bone and so any increase in revenue will be very positive to results. Miton seemed to get on board at the right time, albeit not at the 8p I paid earlier into the recovery.

[greatwhitefunkmaster] 17/7/2015 18:02

I've sold all but a few.

[topvest] 17/7/2015 17:10

This is great news. I disagree on the balance sheet though. It's absolutely fine given the way they get "payments on account" for every job. A net cash position is nice and robust. They could always sell the pipeline assets if they ever need more cash.

[dorset64] 17/7/2015 09:02

More growth and the share price keeps rising. They are now taking back a big slice of the UK so plenty to go yet me thinks.

[edale] 02/7/2015 08:22

I see we had a mention in the Telegraph yesterday :-

[shanklin] 03/6/2015 07:30

topvest, yes I agree that is all fair comment.

[topvest] 02/6/2015 18:03

Yes, but this is also probably a strength - i.e. they get large payments in advance ahed of the work being completed and so the business can run on a tight balance sheet. Agree that the balance sheet is not that strong, but they have net cash and get payments in advance so I'm less concerned.

[shanklin] 02/6/2015 14:33

Having had more of a look at FCRM (and assuming I understand this correctly) I see their net cash of circa £5m has been achieved primarily through the up-front payment of a total of circa £21m by customers for services they are yet to receive. I do not feel entirely comfortable with this situation, so have taken the small profit currently available. I may well be wrong as my wife frequently tells me :-)

GLAH.

[topvest] 02/6/2015 12:03

Yes, all looks very encouraging indeed and the maiden 0.4p dividend a real bonus.

[shanklin] 02/6/2015 08:06

Bought a few at 14p. Is the turnaround already in the price?

EDIT: HL still have them available at 14.1p for 50k.