Porta Communications Share Discussion Threads

[guildedge] 16/2/2016 17:27

A large buy for 546437 shares at 7p has gone through as a late trade. Could things be about to get interesting?? Doubt it is a director with discussions on acquisitions ongoing.

[zipstuck] 16/2/2016 07:19

China - Retail Sales Up - plenty of opportunity there

[guildedge] 16/2/2016 00:14

Wasn't intending to be patronsing about how markets react. Fact is if an II/large investor wants out it will cause a share to fall even on a day where the market rises. That was my point.

Well the firm has 6 months from year end to produce it's accounts. Would be nice to see the results sooner but they are not breaking any rules by waiting till May.

The share will bounce back if the results are good, the new acquisitions add value and when this seller is done. Patience is the key here.

[markie7] 15/2/2016 21:53

Totally agree oldie

[oldie52] 15/2/2016 21:36

Thanks for your explanation of markets! FYI all indices went up today on generally positive sentiment. Porta went down and continues to trade well below the par value of the shares (10p). As ever the blame appears to be a rogue II. The hope is for more acquisitions when we still don't have much indication that previous acquisitions are growing strongly.
My point is why do we have to wait 5 months for the results when we can see the like for like growth rather than the less than enlightening puffery of the trading update. Most decent AIM stocks get their results our by the end of March

[guildedge] 15/2/2016 20:52

Porta and market have no correlation these days. Market moves based on Oil and commodity prices. Plus banking fears. Porta is not a FTSE 100 company so probably not on everyones watch list. Overall the fall is due to II selling in my view.

I expect acquisitions to happen before April to allow the directors time to buy in before the results. Otherwise they may wait until May? They'll want to buy up any cheap stock they can after the results. Were still waiting on the hire news too. Steffan suggested news in next few weeks in his interview.

The results are always released at end of May. Has been for last 1-2 years. I see no reason for them to change that date.

[oldie52] 15/2/2016 15:39

Markets up - Porta down! What excuses can the usual cheerleaders think up this time?
I expect we will have to wait until late May for the 2015 results. They do like to take their time adding up the umbers.

[salpara111] 05/2/2016 11:39

Still not clear on how they plan to fund any new acquisitions.
I don't think the big investors who bought the last rights at 14p will tolerate any further fund raising.
As far as I am concerned I want to see them spend the next year getting the current business in better shape before considering any further acquisitions.

[jefftwo] 05/2/2016 07:13

Oldie spot on and look at this mornings announcement.A very good operation and seems to be the jewel in the UKs crown.Can only enhance the bottom lineThe lock in means the Redleaf management are tied in so lessons must have been learnt from the pastImho

[oldie52] 04/2/2016 21:14

Porta own 51% of Redleaf so they are motivated to maximise the value of the 49% Porta are contracted to buy. Hopefully unlike Threadneedle they won't thenride off into the sunset, or set up in competition.

[guildedge] 04/2/2016 16:40

The acquisitions will be worked out on book value going forward not just by the share price. Plus the value Porta will bring to the new firm. Look how Redleaf has done under Porta??

Still undecided on if a II is still selling here. I think more news will arrive soon given Steffan's video. He states a few weeks. Senior hires could be announced sooner.

Sure debt is an issue. Plus buying out rest of Redleaf. I do think Steffan is switched on. He gave a very confident interview.

Paul Scott still has a long position here. He is still positive from previous director buys and the collection of PR groups that Porta is bringing together.

Once the acquistions are done I think the directors could buy in just before end of March? Timing will be everything. I bet Steffan will want to open his account. Maybe the options were his way to do this. Let's see what happens.

[jefftwo] 04/2/2016 08:43

High Revenue low market cap Borrowings need to be reducedSp needs to be double IMHO to support acquisitions.That to one side we should see some northerly movement in SP

[guildedge] 03/2/2016 13:45

There will be no director buys here. Closed period due to acquisitions. I was right about acquisitions. Not worked out numbers here.

Unclear if sells from ii.

[kimboy2] 03/2/2016 12:56

Proactive have an interview with Steffan. ADVFN won't let me post a link

[karm] 03/2/2016 11:21

Think we will get more Directors buying today, they want to get this back over 10p to start the acquisitions.

[speedsgh] 03/2/2016 10:01

Great post, Adam. I'm not falling for the hot air/PR applied in lashings to this morning's rns. Seen it too many times from PTCM. I'll reserve my judgement until final results when we hopefully will have a complete set of hard figures to analyse.

I have to say that I am disappointed that they are talking once again about acquisitions with the share price at this level. Is David Wright the new Rob Terry (ex-Quindell) i.e. a serial acquirer? At some point you just have to stop + concentrate on proving to markets that the businesses you have acquired are actually doing what they were acquired for. Otherwise the figures are constantly being muddied by exceptionals etc. Aimho

[adamb1978] 03/2/2016 09:49

Need to have a look through the figures this evening - I had bought a while ago from prices in the 13p-14p range right down to 5p-6p and then managed to exit at 9p mid-last year roughly washing my face.

The major problem I have with Porta is that I don't trust the management team. They put so much spin on RNS announcements with comments such as 'EPS on EBITDA' and are constantly trying to buy growth, which makes it difficult to understand the true performance. Some of the above comments about this mornings announcements suggest more of the same, though I need to look at it properly again. And I heavily discount any director buying with them given that they are paid grossly inflated salaries - taking a huge salary and then buying some shares is the same as taking a lower salary and not buying....however the former case creates positive market noise.

[pelliot] 03/2/2016 08:38

Directors only bought because there were no institutions interested in mopping up the sellers. Who on earth reports gross profit as a metric? When will we ever see a proper PBT figure - it's taken 5 years to get this far and still no such thing as a profit. Hardly surprising when the CEO and FD are taking over £250k each.

[salpara111] 03/2/2016 08:23

Happy with the update, but less happy to hear them talk about more acquisitions, having said that they will struggle to fund them as the big players are unlikely to support another rights issue until the share price has at least surpassed the level of the last one and I think that they will know that.
The only reason I have held on here was due to the big buying by directors with their own money. I feel a lot more comfortable now as it would appear that they are not a bunch of idiots throwing their money into a failing business.

[markie7] 03/2/2016 08:06

No like for like gross profit comment. All that gross profit growth is therefore acquired. Key question is is it growing or shrinking organically. This question not answered.

[kimboy2] 03/2/2016 07:50

Gross profit last year was £19.4m and this year is £27m

Certainly much better than expected and looks as though this year may deliver some real profits.

I wonder how they will pay for these acquisitions.

[janeann] 03/2/2016 07:46

and what does this mean ...... leaving full year growth at some 40 per cent compared with the £19.4m achieved in the previous year.

[markie7] 03/2/2016 07:32

Much more muted tone than before.No like for like comment (real growth, not deal driven growth)No comment on balance sheet.Exceptionals are 'high', and it doesn't drive cost cuts, they are going to hire other expensive people in the coming year. Weak Aussie dollar. Apart from that. Fine. :-)

[oldie52] 03/2/2016 07:21

I hope the AIM team look into this. A jump in share price the day before a Trading Update reflects very badly on Porta and their advisers.

[qs99] 03/2/2016 07:12

Thoughts? Interesting to see that spike yesterday thought something was up!