K3 Business Technology Share Discussion Threads

[yump] 22/3/2012 17:09

Having got a spare wad of cash floating about, I'm wondering whether this might be a no-loss 'hedge-fund' type investment. ie. if its pretty certain to get taken over and the price is pretty certain to be at least 200p, perhaps I should load up seriously. Average would probably be around 190p.

I don't normally do that sort of thing, but if it works for a hedge fund with Cadburys...

[philo124] 22/3/2012 15:44

Thanks guys; good to be over £2; 280/300p would be very good result.

[dpmcq] 22/3/2012 15:14

Yump I was looking at a fair price of £2.80 but will gladly take you valuation ;-)

[yump] 22/3/2012 14:55

Would have thought that a reasonable valuation would be around 300p, that would only be a p/e not that much above 10, for what seems to be a solid business.

[orange1] 22/3/2012 14:45

Nosy buying today and the market makers are seemingly very short on stock.

Next Tuesday marks the end of Phase 1 of the sale process since indicative proposals have to be submitted before then.

A recap on how the sale process is to proceed:

¨The Company is proposing to conduct the formal sale process through its financial advisers, Deloitte Corporate Finance (contact details are provided below), in the following manner. Any interested party who approaches Deloitte Corporate Finance will be required to enter into a non-disclosure agreement with the Company on reasonable terms satisfactory to the Board and on the same terms, in all material respects, as other interested parties, before being permitted to participate in the process. Once the non-disclosure agreement has been signed the participant will receive a copy of an information memorandum and information pack. The Company requires that indicative proposals are submitted by interested parties by no later than 27 March 2012.

It is intended that those parties who submit indicative proposals that are acceptable to the Board and its advisers will be taken forward to the next phase of the formal sale process and will be given access to a data room and further access to management, following which interested parties shall be invited to submit revised proposals to the Company. The Board will then discuss acceptable proposals with relevant parties with a view to agreeing an offer with one party which it is able to recommend to shareholders.¨

[yump] 06/3/2012 09:31

imo a huge proportion of investors who used to look for small companies that would grow reliably for years have turned into gamblers who are just looking for the BIG ONE that's going to be global, or the one that's going to discover oil, or the one that has a story that sounds great, even if they don't understand it.

Hence the overblown series of shares that are anything to do with mobile, internet, video etc. etc. Anything that could go global, regardless of its actual qualities.

Everyone wants to be special, even if its as meaningless as getting lots of dosh by accident, have a f..k-you 4x4 with a personalised numberplate to make them feel like they've accomplished something significant, or thinking that they've stumbled upon something that nobody else has.

In the words of a commentator years ago:

"The crowd are booing the referee; they must have seen something nobody else did"

[dpmcq] 06/3/2012 08:37

Phil0124, hence the opertunistic take out offer from one of the directors.
Can't blame him though when the market can not see past the end of its nose.
Prob because although it is a solid buisness it is just not a name that is on everyones lips.

[philo124] 06/3/2012 08:12

Good outlook; 215p before the end of the month would be good. How crazy was 120p share price!

[yump] 06/3/2012 08:00

Solid set of interims. It looks crazy cheap to me unless I've missed something - p/e well below 10, which can't be right - its not exactly a humdrum business. Put it up to 10 for a full year and it would give a share price of at least 240p, but that's without the implied increasing revenues. (That's on basic eps, never mind adjusted).

[yump] 05/3/2012 12:07

Had forgotton about interims. 7th. last year - I can't find a reference to this year in the RNS's. Must be in there somewhere.

[rogash] 05/3/2012 12:04

I understand the interims are out to-morrow.

[felix99] 01/3/2012 11:51

Reckon this has to go for more than the placing price of 205p for sure and I reckon it should make 225/230p if a couple of people come in or more. I think a bid is basically a cert its just a question of from whom and at what price.

The way I see it is that the big shareholder put a low ball bid in designed to flush out other bidders. The company will now be sold either at a very good price to a third party that directors are happy to flip the company to or they will MBO the company at a price just better than the lowest bid.

either way I think its got to be north of the placing price as Inst will not sell for less which gives you 12p profit currently and hopefully another 20% perhaps on top if a few throw the hats in the ring.

If I recall they used to be the biggest Sage support dealer in country so it would be a natural fit to me for Sage to acquire it to use as a base to expand their business upstream or downstream as it were into higher margin consultancy with a readymade customer base.

Good luck all - wish I had added a few more after the termination but hey ho. Bought some more this am

[yump] 01/3/2012 10:05

Well it seems to move quickly on quite low volumes so any sort of attempts to add to or build a stake in the market could be interesting !

[dpmcq] 01/3/2012 09:46

A bid war would be nice ;-)

[dpmcq] 01/3/2012 09:46

This is a good company, and obviously worth more than the market valued it at, hence the multi offers.

[yump] 01/3/2012 08:25

Several indicative offers materially higher will do for me.

[philo124] 01/3/2012 08:12

Yes, great. Was wandering what happened to the review; looks like we might get over 200p now.

[cambium] 01/3/2012 08:05

Great update

[orange1] 27/1/2012 09:04

The share price is performing better than some on this thread had expected and is higher than before the approach to the company was first made. Some are speculating that a better offer from a third party could be in the pipeline.

[rogash] 27/1/2012 07:07

A trading update is now due.Perhaps this will offset a decline.

[yump] 26/1/2012 22:24

Will be interesting. The 'bid' rise happened just before quite a few smaller companies rose well off their lows, so KBT could now be sitting at the level it would have recovered to, except it was already there courtesy of the bid possibility - if you get my gist. So perhaps the general reassessment of sound SME's will keep it around this level, especially if some folks didn't buy in for longer term growth because of the bid.

I certainly wouldn't have, because I had it earmarked as a growth company, so the bid effectively would have taken it off my 'buy some growth SME's near the bottom' list.

There, that should send it down 30p !

[philo124] 26/1/2012 17:55

Not suprised; just have to be patient; could fall 30p unfortunately.

[orange1] 26/1/2012 17:26

Micro Focus is an interesting precedent. They were the subject of unsolicited interest from two Private Equity funds last spring/summer.

Price before interest was indicated: around 290p.
Rumoured take out price: 425p
Price whilst talks were ongoing: 360-395p
Price(lowest)after talks led to nothing/offers were rejected by the company: 240p
Price now: 445p

[stegrego] 26/1/2012 17:12

This is on a sub 7 pe so selling at this price is daft anyway. I note that they turned the offerer down and not the other way around.

Will no doubt be marked down by the MMs in the morning but could be a buying opp IMO.

[orange1] 26/1/2012 16:52

No (acceptable) offer - strategic review continues.