Optare Share Discussion Threads

[m.t.glass] 10/3/2015 08:18

Good news yes - but a 54.5% jump in share price?

[jsbach123] 10/3/2015 08:14

What is really interesting about this RNS is the question it raises that is: where is the company going to get yet more money to keep the show on the road? The last £1.5 million of December will not last long.

[stud-muffin] 10/3/2015 08:10

If only they had stuck to making and improving the Solo and nothing else. Good looking product that operators seem to like and durable with it. IIRC it had earnings of circa £5m annually before it got Darwenised. Its been red ink ever since.

Instead ....

As JS said above neat moment to sell and buy back (if you must later) cheaper.

[jsbach123] 10/3/2015 08:05

Sadly not I think Kim - contract will add only £750,000 to bottom line but doubtless bottom fishers and rampers will pile in thinking the share looks 'cheap'. However a rise may give long-term suffering holders a chance to exit at a better price than recently IMHO. Good luck.

[kimoldfield] 10/3/2015 07:52

There may be life in the old dog yet!

RNS Number : 9659GP


CONTRACT WIN

The Company is pleased to announce that Optare has received an order to the value of £7.3 million from Stagecoach UK Bus ("Stagecoach"). It is expected that deliveries of new Euro 6 Optare Solos of varying specifications to Stagecoach will be completed by the end of 2015. This order is in addition to 5 fully electric vehicles to be delivered this month.

Enrico Vassallo, CEO, Optare, said, "We are delighted to be supplying more Optare vehicles to Stagecoach. In line with the Stagecoach greener, smarter, travel strategy these Solos will be the first Euro 6 vehicles Optare have supplied to Stagecoach.

[stud-muffin] 08/3/2015 19:33

This will become a Business studies module on how not to have run a company.

Shame on Sumner and the rest of the fools who literally took an OK outfit making Solo's (good niche product) and tried to resurrect bus building (ELC).

RIP OPE sleep well.

[kimoldfield] 06/3/2015 00:21

They say that no news is good news. Now is the time to prove that saying then! :o)

[steve517499] 05/3/2015 18:22

5!!!! The gross profit on those would only be a fraction of the months payroll ... let alone any other costs!

More worryingly from my perspective is the lack of any known orders for the MetroDecker. I still maintain this will probably be the product that makes or breaks Optare, and it is not looking like the former on present evidence.

[jsbach123] 05/3/2015 17:02

SMMT registration number for February is 5 (five). Is this an all-time low record?

If Arriva order only 6 new Solos then that some PIs may feel, tells a story.

The £1.5 million borrowed last December should just get them to financial year end I guess - I speculated before that it was a three-month sum so unless there is major and dramatic news in this month of March I would not be surprised to see Optare go the way of all... what's the mot juste I wonder? All comment IMHO and not intended as advice.

[steve517499] 05/3/2015 16:05

And Arriva order 6 more Solos.

[kimoldfield] 04/3/2015 17:38

7 more electric buses are to be added to Arriva's re-awarded TFL Route 312. Will they be Optare though?

[kimoldfield] 02/3/2015 22:14

Maybe we should substitute 'Where's Wally' with 'Where's Bonito'!

[jsbach123] 02/3/2015 17:37

If it were only 2p Kim!
Yes, many Optare buses on the roads all over the UK; my heart sinks when I see any one with the depressing thought that each new on the road for the last five years was sold by the company at a loss. Has anyone ever spotted the single Bonito that was sold?

[kimoldfield] 02/3/2015 10:42

Another 2p lost JSB! :o)



I was in Oban last week, there were a few Optare Solos buzzing around.

[jsbach123] 23/2/2015 13:11

If Optare lost only 1p on every bus built that would be a major step forward Kim!

[kimoldfield] 21/2/2015 13:45

£05m invested by Damory in 5 new Solos. Do they cost £100,001 each to produce I wonder?!

[kimoldfield] 18/2/2015 22:18

Lol! :o) Well, there may be a very small element of truth in the dream then!

[steve517499] 18/2/2015 20:32

Not sure what is worse ... Someone writing a blog about fictitious tender awards or you dreaming about it ;-)

TfL contracts are normally awarded 6-7 months of the start date to allow for delivery of vehicles ... so the timescales are not that FAR fetched

[kimoldfield] 18/2/2015 19:04

Aaaagh! I've been conned! I could not get the top half of the article to open for some reason, managed it now though! I did wonder why a contract was being awarded for November in January! Thanks for pointing it out Steve. I will go back to dreaming and wondering why anyone would want to write a fictitious blog about bus tenders!! :o)

[steve517499] 18/2/2015 18:21

Kim ... You might want to read the very top of that page.

[kimoldfield] 18/2/2015 17:17

Snippets from London Transport Blog show that the Metrodecker is go, as they say in 'Thunderbirds'!

WLTM Tenders January 2015 (from TfL)

Tranche 297:
32: Awarded to Uno (formerly Metroline) with new hybrid buses, contract start 6th November 2015 (Optare Metrodecker)

Other News:

New hybrid buses for London are on the 456, L1/Group's TP2000 and EW1, testing the newest hybrid technology available is being used on the TfL test route. In addition to those operator owned buses, a Wright Streetdeck and Optare Metrodecker hybrid is on the route (only the ADL products and the Optare Metrodecker have firm orders for TfL service).

[kimoldfield] 18/2/2015 15:51

AL may well have put Optare in the last chance saloon JSB, I think a lot hinges on the success or otherwise of the MetroDecker in London, together with the EVs there, on the other hand they may keep the company going for much longer than is sensible!

[kimoldfield] 18/2/2015 15:46

The 5,261,117 share deal at 0.17 today was probably a purchase as the bid price at the time was 0.15. Maybe someone has seen the MetroDecker on a test run and allowed themselves a touch of euphoria! ;O)

News on the Optare site today that Gateshead Central Taxis have taken on a new venture with the purchase of 5 Solos:-