Msb Share Discussion Threads

[cornelious billy bee] 11/10/2005 16:38

Could it be the end of the road for MSB?

[snappy] 11/10/2005 16:34

43-44p somebody must want out in a hurry

[cornelious billy bee] 10/10/2005 10:48

doesn't bode well for the results

[sharw] 07/10/2005 20:37

It may be as a result of the bad outlook statement from Spring (SRG) which operates in similar markets. Even after investors had been prepared by the trading statement, they still took fright on the 29th. and the price fell again.

The fact that MSB has not felt the need to put out a trading statement since the AGM is positive. We just have to wait until the 14th. to find out just how similar its market is to Spring's.

[1bensons] 07/10/2005 15:48

Any reasons why so flat...........No profit warning....

[1bensons] 21/9/2005 16:00

Thanks for that useful information.

There seems to be have been some activity in the shares over the recent couple of days

[sharw] 20/9/2005 14:06

Yes, its always worrying when results are late but at least the date has been announced.

eps to 1/05 were 2.57 of which 0.89 was in H1. Figures from JCF show one broker (Baird) recently dropping forecasts for eps from 5.35 to 1/06 and 7.11 to 1/07 to 5.07 and 5.84. PTP is not given but presumably this is the same revision as mentioned by snappy.

In recent results Quantica (QTA) was 'strongly ahead' in its IT division and at PSD net fee income was up 21% whereas Spring (SRG) put out a miserable trading statement - results are on the 29th.

[snappy] 20/9/2005 11:30

Baird are looking for full year results of £1.2m pretax having cut from £1.4m earlier in the year. They have also cut their rating to sell but have buy recommendations on other IT staffing agencies from what I can see.

Interim results are going to be a few weeks later than usual this year so I am wondering if there might also be something else to announce like another acquisition or something like that - but perhaps it's nothing.

So I would guess that we can expect to see at least £0.5m at the interims and hopefully a more optimistic forward statement than "markets remain unpredictable - the board is confident in the long term prospects etc etc"

It would be nice to see them come in with £0.7m though at the interims :-)

[1bensons] 20/9/2005 09:06

Can anyone tell me what the city is looking for when they report on the 17th of next month

[grigor] 07/9/2005 22:59

Bayfield Snr says, "I've been in the recruitment business for 35 out of the 45 years that I've spent in the IT industry as a whole and I know a thing or two about our market. These days I can see an up-swing before it happens – and here we have all the strands coming together to create the sort of booming market that we saw in the mid-nineties." It was around that time that companies like Spring, MSB, Parity and Harvey Nash were created and floated.

[1bensons] 07/9/2005 10:54

Any views out there on MSB on the back of Hayes results

Am I right in thinking that MSB are due to report beginning of October ?

[snappy] 17/8/2005 16:03

yep and a slice of humble pie for me :-))

[cornelious billy bee] 16/8/2005 10:40

nice rise for HVN today.

[wjccghcc] 11/8/2005 12:43

Prefer GLO myself. Only 34% of sales in the UK and 63% of business is telco engineer staffing which is going great guns in the US, Australia and beginning to take off in Asia. Very upbeat statement in the finals a month ago and trading on a PE of 13. Good presentation on their website as well

[snappy] 11/8/2005 12:06

billy

Your comments are duly noted.

I might buy a few HVN on further weakness, but even at todays price of 47p offer I don't see them as attractive at this time.

On the plus side though it is good to see the HVN top brass put some of their own £'s into share purchases. At least they are risking some of their own money as well.

g'luck

[cornelious billy bee] 10/8/2005 09:11

sanppy I agree, further investment in the business, but surely you have to specultae to accumulate.

HVN run a global staffing company and as such they have to go through the pain of setting up that infrastructure.

Companies like MSB can only run so far as they are pidgeon holed into just the UK GMT +2 Market, HVN wants to be a global player.

So while theye counterparts are lording it up in Elliots in Bromley after work, HVN global are stilll placing people round the clock

Reagrding profits, they are still paying heavily for that Tech parters aquisition,

I have faith in HVN and believe that given time they will get back to making a serious profit, clear the debts and move on.

[snappy] 08/8/2005 14:17

1. further investments needed in the business

2. difficulties in making a profit

that's why they are trading south of 50p again

[cornelious billy bee] 08/8/2005 13:59

Snappy, what difficulties at HVN?

[snappy] 04/8/2005 11:30

MSB cut to underperform at Baird last week and earnings estimates for this financial year cut back to £1.2m and EPS of 4p.

MSB have not been experiencing the same difficulties that Spring, Harvey Nash and Lorien have recently and I am not expecting a profit warning during August.

Margins are apparently rising in the spot market and a contact of mine who does contract project management suggested that there are very few contract project managers available at the moment.

Happy to hold my shares. Bought a further 10,000 earlier this week.

[sharw] 02/8/2005 11:34

In contrast with Spring, here is what Quantica (QTA) said about the IT division in today's Interims:

"In Technology we had a strong start to the year with activity levels on contracting continuing to be good, albeit slightly down on Q4 of 2004. Permanent revenue doubled over the same period last year and continues to be very consistent. Overall, Technology is 26% ahead of the comparative period last year and we anticipate a solid second half to the year".

[stemis] 29/7/2005 08:49

You didn't buy Gartmore's stake did you?

[kerpen01] 28/7/2005 08:10

You have convinced me. Looks undervalued and overlooked. I am in.

[snappy] 24/7/2005 12:12

Confidence is low because the management at Spring and Harvey Nash have made a pigs ear of running their businesses this last year.

This is a well managed business and is better able to adapt to changing market conditions, whether for increased levels of business or another slowdown.

With all the doom and gloom newsflow coming out of highstreet retailers and an expected soft patch for UK plc it is difficult to anticipate what IT recruitment is going to be doing during the next 2 years, especially given that the industry has already had deep recession.

[stemis] 19/7/2005 15:37

Plus no debt - net cash of £1,162,000 - and net assets of £13,617,000 (£11,583,000 of which are net current assets).

All for a market capitalisation of £13,640,000.