Northern Recruitment Share Discussion Threads

[freddie ferret] 13/5/2008 12:14

Looks as sick as a parrot but it will bottom somewhere or go bust.

[momentos] 07/5/2008 19:07

Damn, so tempted to buy @ 47.5 but didnt! Silly me. Hopefully can sneak in early in the AM.

All that cash sitting around, this and continuation of 5p final divi looked fairly likely. Still over 4m cash floating around, the buyback is limited to about 10% of shares (1.75m) see last AR.

[stemis] 07/5/2008 17:15

Yes, good decisive move by the company. That's 5.5% in one swoop or 11.1% of the shares not owned by Lorna.

I spoke to one of the senior guys at the company last week and didn't get the impression that there was anything seriously wrong.

[deswalker] 07/5/2008 16:52

A nice buyback. 955k shares at 45p.

[momentos] 02/5/2008 09:39

Well, if they have 4.7m (27p per share) and mcap of 8m, then to buy back the 50% not Moran owned costs only 4m of that cash!!

I wonder what if any repurchase authority they have...

[artfullfox] 02/5/2008 09:17

In my oppinion it, looks to me like this might be being prepared for a management buy out.

[momentos] 02/5/2008 08:48

THis may be heading into bargain territory never mind the warning.

Net cash at interims was 4.7m. Net assets 6.4m on a balance sheet carrying no intangibles.

At 46p with 17.5m shares in issue mcap is now only 8m with 4.7m cash (doubt they have burnt through much of it!).

NO trades I can see, even on Plus.

[deswalker] 02/5/2008 08:23

Yes, she looked to be the perfect custodian a few years back, what with such a big holding and all the history. But since then the only redeeming feature has been her desire for dividends which has suited me too. However, the company's performance and share price has been derisory and I'm surprised that someone with her experience and motivation has not been able to turn things round these last couple of years.

[stevemarkus] 02/5/2008 08:10

These do seem to serially underperform. I feel an unpleasant letter to the chairman coming on, as they should have bitten the bullet with NRG-Connect a couple of years ago - the writing was on the wall then and they should have acted to correct the situation. Very unhappy about the way this company is being run at present, despite Lorna Moran having a significant shareholding.

Steve.

[deswalker] 02/5/2008 08:00

I was right about that 10k trade and a subsequent 5k a couple of days later iirc.

Hopefully signalling that they intend to hold the divi though.

Miles under water here with my very small position. Will keep taking the divis and hope for a rebound. Or eventually it will be a handy tax loss :-(

[morwood] 22/4/2008 21:01

I am expecting a bad set of results. Here in the North East business seems to be slowing alot.

If share price falls lower I may be tempted

[deswalker] 22/4/2008 20:14

That 10k sell on Plus looks fishy to me. NRG are due a Trading Statement any day. Wonder if someone's got the nod that things aren't too good ...

Hopefully just a regular sale but I'm not so sure ...

[masurenguy] 20/4/2008 18:52

Quiet thread. Slipped back again since the interims with the market remaining pessimistic with full year projections.

[kickoff3pm] 03/3/2008 10:00

Just had a quote to buy 10k.

full offer 68p on a spread of over 10% ?

never going to happen with my cash, sorry.

KO.

[stemis] 25/2/2008 22:11

Results were reviewed in this weeks IC.

Some interesting additional information:

- Brokers estimate cash balance could top £5m by June.

- Sales at NRG Connect slumped from £850k to £50k.

- Their feeling seems to be that dividend payout will be maintained.

Price seems to have recovered a bit but still offers a dividend yield of 11.5%.

[stevemarkus] 11/2/2008 15:50

Hi Stemis. I quote from the results:

'Profitability in the first half of the current financial year was in line with
our budgets, and principally reflected the extremely low levels of activity at
our NRG Connect national response handling unit, compared with a period in 2006
when it handled a significant amount of major project work. The resulting
profit shortfall in this unit more than accounted for the overall reduction in
the Company's profit compared to last year.'

Clearly NRGConnect costs money to run, and with extremely low levels of activity it can't be paying it's way. Something needs to change, in my opinion, and the sooner they bite the bullet, the better.

Steve.

[stemis] 11/2/2008 13:31

Is NRGConnect making losses or just not making much profit?

[skyracer] 08/2/2008 15:14

Sorry, couldnt resist posting on my old thread. David you hit the nail on the head:

davidosh - 8 Feb'08 - 11:21 - 191 of 192

If they would just give up flogging that 'dead horse' that is NRGConnect instead of simply renaming it then surely earnings could improve drammatically going forward even in slowdown.

What are the likely closure costs ?

Lorna, you have worked hard on NRG, achieved much, and I respect you more than those posers at WHM. But as Kenny Rogers sang ;

" You gotta know when to hold em, know when to fold em "

[stevemarkus] 08/2/2008 14:30

Couldn't agree more, David. NRGConnect has been bleeding profits for at least a year and a half - they should bite the bullet and shut it down. Not sure what the chairman thinks he's doing here, but perhaps we shareholders should be having a few words with him.

Steve.

[davidosh] 08/2/2008 11:21

If they would just give up flogging that 'dead horse' that is NRGConnect instead of simply renaming it then surely earnings could improve drammatically going forward even in slowdown.

What are the likely closure costs ?

[campbed] 08/2/2008 10:59

SteMiS

I agree with you that NRG's interim statement was not too bad and current share price looks good value based on them achieving H2 EBIT around last year's ca. £900k. If they did that the FY EBIT would would be ca £1.3m EBIT as H1 actual was £0.4m. As they say that they "anticipate" profits in H2 above last year, hopefully equalling last year is not the high end of forecast range and they might do better than £1.3m which is the top of your range of £0.8-£1.3m.

But it's clear the market is pricing in an earnings decrease in future years in recruitment and NRG is likely to remain a value trap, because of its cash, for some time until that sentiment changes.

[stemis] 08/2/2008 09:37

Interim dividend now represents a yield of 4.7% just on its own.

Cash represents 27p a share (or net current assets 34p).

I didn't think the outlook statement was too bad

while we anticipate that Company profits in the second half will show progress compared with those of the first half, it is possible that they will not match those achieved in the second half of our previous financial year.

So an EBIT somewhere between £400k and £900k, making £800k - £1.3m for the year. Not too bad for an enterprise value of £4.57m.

[bench2] 23/1/2008 09:01

The prefix Northern is a real hindrance in this market , only 3 fully listed ,Foods,Recruitment and Rock all 3 are dogs.

[stemis] 18/1/2008 09:21

Dividend is 7.5p so a yield of 10.9%

[momentos] 17/12/2007 09:19

It is very cheap. Sitting on 5.3m cash (30p per share), Net assets nearly 7m (40p per share), and a balance sheet not pumped up by intangibles.

And an EPS of 8p, Divi 5p (7%). And a positive IMS.

BTW Leo Finn, chairman, is ex Chairman (I think) of Northern Rock. I wonder how much business NRG gets from NR and HMRC, centres of recent scandals. A lot I would have thought!