Northamber Share Discussion Threads

[sleepy] 30/10/2014 10:17

The (only?) indicator as to performance in the nearly four months since year end for this company, which has lost over £1 million in each of the last 2 years, is that "Good Debtors" (sic) at 30 Sept are up 57%.

David - don't you have a responsibility to shareholders to tell them what is happening?

[cwa1] 30/10/2014 10:11

Indeed, lots of waffle. But it's the most upbeat waffle we've had for quite some time ;-)

[sleepy] 30/10/2014 09:58

Hard to know where to start with so much waffle this morning

For example the chairman keeps referring to avoiding "Empty Revenue" yet the gross margin has fallen from 7.6% last year to 6.8% this year

[sleepy] 30/10/2014 09:53

Hard to know where to start with so much waffle this morning

For example the chairman keeps referring to avoiding "Empty Revenue" yet the gross margin has fallen from 7.6% last year to 6.8% this year

[liarspoker] 30/10/2014 07:25

Interesting results this am.

I wrote about NAR recently: hxxp://bargainpricedshares.blogspot.ie/2014/10/what-is-net-net-stock.html

[rarther] 22/10/2014 08:41

Early christmas of which year?This has shown up on my value search...Watching eagerly after noting glen, hybrasil & others' interest.

[sleepy] 13/6/2014 10:04

And up again this morning

[sleepy] 12/6/2014 10:22

hybrasil - interesting how shares have moved since your post

(Incidentally results I posted just above are from some years ago - some things havn't changed much unfortunately)

[hybrasil] 11/6/2014 14:21

I have been in this share it seems forever. While I always believe that value will out- its taking an awful long time to come out here!

[sleepy] 07/3/2014 14:16

Our trading caution, driven by the UK economy and associated trade credit risks and expressed within my statement on our first quarter's trading, materialized, in reduced sales of £68 million

The resultant pre-tax loss of £304,000 (a pre-tax profit of £453,000) is an unavoidable consequence and our first reported loss in over 15 years or since the last UK recession. The amount of the loss was mitigated by £900,000 of further cost saving measures versus a year ago.

The trend over our first half-year with turnover almost 30% lower, also reflected UK sector statistics for sales of commercial hardware I.T. equipment.

Our product range largely encompasses discretionary corporate expenditure. The general and continuing uncertainty within the economy, and the market as a whole, remains the dominant feature of our marketplace.

The importance of cash ensures Northamber is in a particularly strong position with the strength of our balance sheet and cash reserves.

It has always been a primary feature of our management of the business that we focus on the conservation of our working capital. The current state of affairs within the industry and the country at large has once again shown this policy to be appropriate.

Because of our financial strength and being able to offer both our suppliers and our customer's opportunities, the rate of gross margin is slightly better at 6.9% than when compared with 6.5% a year ago.

Balance Sheet

Our well established policy is to conserve working capital and that we have continued to do. After £4.437 million in share buy-backs, dividends and returns to shareholders, we retained cash reserves of £10.5 million. This compares with £11.8 million. Total net assets comparatively declined from 102p per share to 90p, and a current NAV £26.1 million down from £30.1 million the result of the above.

Dividend

With our very high levels of cash, this aspect challenged your board. It was decided to mitigate the dividend choice to one of a reduced 0.6p per share (1.2p per share)

Outlook

With our strengths in distribution, together with what is becoming an essential re-engineering of the current model, we are well placed to evolve better trading practices with our partners in the trading cycle, i.e. our vendors and customers to the benefit of us all.

There seems little doubt that it may take some time before there is any noticeable upturn in the sector, therefore it would be wrong of me to be optimistic.

[spob] 07/3/2014 13:10

wakey wakey folks

results out today :)

[profdoc] 09/12/2013 10:35

The AGM was very interesting. The six shareholders who turned up were invited to sit round a table with the directors and ask questions. Thus we gained some insight. Main points: recognition that the business consists of a property division plus a cash division plus a loss-making operating division. General pessimism about the prospects for the operating division (badly hit by tablets and smartphones, competitors operating at a loss year after year), but there are profitable pockets which can be nurtured. Therefore the approach is to keep eliminating unprofitable activities while exploring alternative uses for the property. Thus more losses may be made in the short run but there are potential capital gains. The property is worth more than the BS states (indeed, more than the market capitalisation).
Cash holding need to be maintained to (a) avoid any dependency on a bank (b) reassure suppliers, especially those who do not purchase credit insurance for supplies to Northamber. This need for cash affects dividend and share buy back policy in the near term. But this may be eased over the next few years and higher dividends and buyback may be thought appropriate by the Board. There seemed to be agreement that gaining 1% on bank accounts makes little sense when shareholders could be handed the money to invest elsewhere in the equity markets. Chairman appreciated the praise about behaving honourably by taking a low salary at a time of poor performance. He referred to the suffering of those accepting redundancy and how distasteful it would be for him to take a big salary now. He has no plans for retirement. Chirman: 'I have no personal interest in taking this company private'.
I hope this helps, Glen

[profdoc] 27/11/2013 09:18

I'll make some notes, and report back. Glen

[feedthegoat] 26/11/2013 12:16

i would be interested to hear what was said if you are thinking of going
been holding since late 90's

[profdoc] 25/11/2013 09:49

Is anyone else going to the AGM? I intend to go and thank the Chairman for trying to preserve shareholder value in very difficult circumstances. I know what it is like to find yourself running a business with poor economics and then have to make people redundant to stop losses - very painful. As unprofitable activities are curtailed I would expect the value of the property+cash in Northamber to rise significantly above the current market capitalisation. Of course, if wholesale selling of tech becomes profitable, all the better. Just so long as we have someone at the helm who understands the importance of not throwing good money after bad and who treats minority shareholders well, I'll hold on, and lend David Phillips my support.

[sleepy] 25/10/2013 15:18

Shares up 50% in the last 2 months, most of the increase this week.

How much do they have to go up before company issues a statement?

[gingerplant] 25/10/2013 08:00

Well yes, you'd hope so in a reasonable world, but David Phillips does own >61% and it wouldn't take much to get the additional 14%.

[diku] 24/10/2013 20:48

Minimum 50p if that were to happen...

[gingerplant] 24/10/2013 17:29

MBO at 42p perhaps (complete guess)?

[arthur_lame_stocks] 07/10/2013 20:06

Pretty awful results and a poor outlook. No sign that they'll look to pack it in and preserve shareholder value.

Unless something drastic happens here these are only going to get cheaper IMO.

[chrisdgb] 07/10/2013 12:01

Heading back down on this grim outlook I would have thought...............

[sleepy] 25/9/2013 21:50

Anyone know when the results will be out?

[diku] 24/9/2013 22:41

Is this heading back to 50p?...