Toluna Share Discussion Threads

[diogenesj] 22/9/2006 12:46

The IC is pretty inconsistent in its coverage of smaller companies, and this is a busy time for them.

[kenmitch] 22/9/2006 11:46

Surprised to see no mention of the results in Investors Chronicle today. It must be an oversight as they have covered TOL well in the past. So I've e-mailed in the hope that they will cover them next week.

Point taken that the results needed to be good because of the current PE ratio. But that will fall to a much more modest figure if growth in profits remains rapid, and every sign is that it will. And we've even got a surprise dividend now.

Incdidentally it is interesting to see Investors Chronicle tipping Allergy Therapeutics today even thought they concede that the Company is unlikely to be profitable until 2010. Far far riskier imo than investing in the on-line research sector where all three Companies are already profitable and growing at explosive rates. Well TOL is, YOU seem to be too, with RNOW not that far behind. Happy to be corrected by RNOW fans if you know different.

[diogenesj] 15/9/2006 22:27

Very good results indeed, but yes, they needed to be.

[wjccghcc] 13/9/2006 23:30

Good results but not sure they justify a mkt cap 3x RNOW's (similar revenue growth, profits about 2/3).

[kenmitch] 13/9/2006 21:04

Surprised and disappointed that these excellent results seem not to have been noticed. Ditto a maiden dividend. That was a pleasant surprise and shows confidence in prospects too.

A few brief highlights. EPS 1.7p. PBT about £900,000 and cash generation of £886,000.

Revenue growth across the 3 core services.

Clients grown from 121-215.

Repeat business accounts for 71% of revenues up to June 30th 2006. Happy customers obviously.

Technology. All clients have renewed contracts. Again shows the quality of the offering. Also 16 new clients.

Prospects very positive. Particularly take note of this bit:-

"The group continues to focus on developing further initiatives in order to capitalise on its strong position in a fast growing market place."

With some Companies sort of statement can mean little.Unlikely to mean little when issued by TOL or EVT. It was only a bit over a year ago that EVT and TOL issued a similar statement re. TOL. Then it was about doing more to maximise the value in TOL. It wasn't a bland statement. Within weeks TOL had floated on AIM at 70p. And what progress since then!!!

Seems that still a lot of investors have failed to cotton on to this very successful and fast growing sector, with TOL confirming today how well they are doing.

Is anyone else still here , other than theohphilus - or have anything to add, or agree/disagree with?

[theophilus] 13/9/2006 07:20

ToLuna offers three core services to the market research industry:

- Access to its online panellists;
- creation of dedicated online panels; and
- licensing of its own hosted proprietary technology.

The group operates across Europe and the United States of America with offices
in London, Paris, Frankfurt and its recently opened New York office.

Chairman's Statement

I am pleased to report the results of the group for the six months to 30 June
2006. Comparative figures are given for the period from incorporation to 31
December 2005 and proforma 2005 full year figures, as no directly comparable
figures are available for the six months to 30 June 2005.

Results

The period has shown significant growth both in revenue and profit with both
already exceeding full year proforma 2005 figures by approximately 20 per cent.
with revenue for the six months of £3.6 million, and profit before tax for the
six months of £904,000.

Cash generated from operations for the six months was £886,000 compared to £
528,000 in the period to 31 December 2005.

The number of clients has grown from 121 to 195 during the six months to 30
June 2006 and is currently in excess of 215. An encouraging feature of our
business model is that repeat business from our existing clients represents 71
per cent. of revenue in the six months ended 30 June 2006.

I am also pleased to note that this growth is happening in a period of
continued investment in human resources, panel building and technology
infrastructure.

Demand for our services remains very strong as the market research industry
continues to migrate online.

Dividend

Based on this strong half year performance, the Board is proposing to pay an
interim dividend of 0.25 pence per share payable on 22 October 2006 to
shareholders on the register of members at close of business on 22 September
2006. This is our first dividend and reflects the success of the Company since
its AIM float in May 2005.

Operational Review

In the first half of the year, revenue has grown across all three business
activities, namely panel access, panel building and access to technology
services.

This continued improvement in performance has resulted from:

* the successful strategy of continuing to build and develop operational
offices combining sales and client management;

* the successful integration of the German online panel pioneer, Speedfacts
which we acquired in December 2005. The Speedfacts team has expanded and
has been fully integrated into the group;

* our capacity to combine panel and technology which offer to our clients a
complete line of services.;

* an ongoing policy of strengthening our management team in sales, IT,
finance and operations; and

* the broadening of our portfolio of clients both in panel provision and
technology services. We continue to attract high quality clients of
international standing, such as Barclays Bank, Radiospares (part of
Electrocomponents PLC group) and leading online corporations such as
Meetic.

As previously announced the group has recently increased its presence in the
United States market by opening an office in New York.

Panel Access and Panel Building

The number of individuals participating in our online panels now exceed one
million in 13 countries; at the end of August, we had 1,120,000 panelists.

Panel sizes are strictly construed to meet our clients' needs and offer a
balance of panel members in the required market areas.

Our `testandvote' and `toluna' online communities have been enhanced by the
introduction of our established French consumers' opinions platform in Spain,
Italy, UK and Sweden, gathering thousands of independent opinions from our
panel members.

This platform is being launched in Germany and The Netherlands as we continue
to increase our interaction with panel members.

Technology

Since the half year, our portfolio of technology clients has continued to grow,
with the addition of 16 new clients. The revenue of our technology products
continues to show substantial growth and to date all of our clients have
renewed their contracts.

Prospects

I am pleased to report that the group continues to trade strongly in the second
half of the year, giving the board confidence of further growth for the full
year. The group continues to focus on developing further initiatives in order
to capitalise on its strong position in a fast growing market place.

George Kynoch

Chairman

13 September 2006

INDEPENDENT REVIEW

Report to ToLuna plc

Introduction

We have been instructed by the company to review the financial information for
the six months ended 30 June 2006 which comprises the consolidated income
statement, consolidated balance sheet, consolidated cash flow statement,
consolidated statement of changes in equity and the related notes. We have read
the other information contained in the interim report which comprises only the
highlights and Chairman's Statement and considered whether it contains any
apparent misstatements or material inconsistencies with the financial
information. Our responsibilities do not extend to any other information.

This report is made solely to the company in accordance with guidance contained
in APB Bulletin 1999/4 `Review of Interim Financial Information'. Our review
work has been undertaken so that we might state to the company those matters we
are required to state to it in a review report and for no other purpose. To the
fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to
anyone other than the company for our review work, for this report, or for the
conclusion we have formed.

Directors' responsibilities

The interim report, including the financial information contained therein, is
the responsibility of, and has been approved by the directors. The directors
are responsible for preparing the interim report and for ensuring that the
accounting policies and presentation applied to the interim figures are
consistent with those applied preparing the preceding annual accounts except
where any changes, and the reasons for them as disclosed.

Review work performed

We conducted our review in accordance with guidance contained in Bulletin 1999/
4 'Review of Interim Financial Information' issued by the Auditing Practices
Board for use in the United Kingdom. A review consists principally of making
enquiries of management and applying analytical procedures to the financial
information and underlying financial data and, based thereon, assessing whether
the accounting policies and presentation have been consistently applied unless
otherwise disclosed. A review excludes audit procedures such as tests of
controls and verification of assets, liabilities and transactions. It is
substantially less in scope than an audit performed in accordance with
International Auditing Standards (UK and Ireland) and therefore provides a
lower level of assurance than an audit. Accordingly, we do not express an audit
opinion on the financial information.

Review conclusion

On the basis of our review we are not aware of any material modifications that
should be made to the financial information as presented for the six months
ended 30 June 2006.

GRANT THORNTON UK LLP

CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS

LONDON THAMES VALLEY OFFICE

SLOUGH

13 September 2006

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cheers

Th

[theophilus] 13/9/2006 07:16

TOLUNA PLC

(the "Company" or "ToLuna")

Interim Report

for the six months ended 30 June 2006

ToLuna, the leading European independent provider of online panels and
technology services to the market research industry, today announces its
results for the six months to 30 June 2006. Comparative figures are given for
the period from incorporation to 31 December 2005 and proforma full year
figures, as no directly comparable figures are available for the six months to
30 June 2005.

Highlights

* Revenue for the six months of £3.6 million already exceeds full year
proforma 2005 figures by 20 per cent.

* Profit before tax ("PBT") for the six months of £904,000 exceeds full year
proforma 2005 PBT by more than 19 per cent.

* Basic earnings per share for the six months of 1.70 pence increased from
full year proforma 2005 of 1.46 pence.

* Maiden interim dividend of 0.25 pence per share.

* During the period, panel membership grew to be in excess of 1 million and
currently stands at over 1.1 million.

* Opening of US office with senior appointment of online media expert.

* Strong growth continues in second half.

Commenting on the results, Chairman George Kynoch said, "Our results for the
first half of the year validate our strategy of combining panel and technology
services to the market research industry whilst being truly European with
strong teams and operations locally. I am pleased to note that our Company not
only participates in but anticipates the growth areas of the online data
collection space. This continues to be a key part of our long term plans"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cheers

Th

[kenmitch] 07/9/2006 16:25

Just a couple of points on the news today, which judging by the number of trades some may have missed!

1. Expanding into the US has proved a disaster for some British Companies but presumably won't be for Toluna. i.e opening this office won't involve significant costs, and in the unlikely event of their having to shut it, the same would apply.

2. The announcement today seems to confirm that they are not trying to compete with similar US Companies in a much more mature market than the European one, but simply providing their US clients access to their European research panel and delivery services.

It must be more convenient doing that from the US office at US hours than dealing with US clients from Paris during the middle of the night or even later than that.

Separately I've checked to find out when the next set of TOL and EVT results will be. TOL results likely to be around the middle of the month - earlier than I had expected - and EVT towards the end of this month.

TOL shares have risen since the last set - reasons why in past posts on this bb for those new to the Company - but not as fast as YOU in recent weeks. Hoping that the results will confirm again the rapid expansion both in turnover and profits and that TOL shares too will get another boost.

Another way into TOL is to buy parent Company EVT - they own around 60% as well as other goodies like KSS and Magenta.

[diogenesj] 07/9/2006 09:52

Thanks, T. Missed that.

[theophilus] 07/9/2006 09:25

An anouncement today.

NB. This was not "flagged up with an "A" on the monitor screen and so could easily be missed.


7 September 2006


ToLuna plc

("ToLuna" or "the Company")

ToLuna expands into North America

New York office reflects growing demand for specialist European online
fieldwork.

ToLuna PLC (LSE: TOL), Europe's leading independent provider of online panels
and technology to the market research industry, announces its expansion into
the North American market with the opening of a New York office.

The move signals increased focus on the North American market providing local
bid and delivery capabilities to further improve service levels to clients.
This is in direct response to the demand for ToLuna's high quality European
panel from North American research agencies.

CEO Frédéric-Charles Petit stated: "This is a natural move for ToLuna and
inline with our stated strategy. For the last 12 months we have achieved our
key objective as Europe's leading independent provider of online panels and
technology to the market research industry. ToLuna has expanded its European
panel to over 1.1 million panel members thus reaching critical mass whilst
enhancing the depth of qualification of our panellists into 14 specialist
sub-panels from Automotive to Healthcare and B2B. We have established offices
in Paris, London and Frankfurt since the acquisition of German online panel
pioneer Speedfacts. The very strong demand we are already seeing for our
services in North America augurs well for our New York office".

The new office will act as the hub of US and Canadian operations and will offer
US clients local project management and account handling staff for our full
online panel services

Holly Williams, formerly VP Interactive Media Sales of Simmons Research, an
Experian company, is heading up the expansion as General Manager ToLuna North
America. Holly comments...

"Not only am I enthused by the dynamics of the online panel market but equally
by ToLuna's commitment to providing the highest quality European research panel
and delivery services. ToLuna's reputation in the US as the de-facto European
expert is well deserved. I look forward to building on that foundation."

About ToLuna

Since 2000, ToLuna has created some of the world's largest, and highest
quality, online consumer and business panels for market researchers. It has
pioneered the development of market specialised panels ranging from Automotive
to Fashion and Mobile communications.

ToLuna, which floated on the AIM market in May 2005, currently works with over
200 of the world's major market research agencies, and has rapidly acquired a
reputation for industry leading panel capacity even for the most challenging of
projects.

Using its online panel management expertise ToLuna has developed
'AutomateSurvey', a powerful hosted survey and panel management solution which
allows organizations to survey manage and reward their panels.

www.tolunapro.com

Contacts

Frederic-Charles Petit, chief executive 00336 33 08 03 91 / 06 33 08 03 91

Holly Williams, general manager North America 001 646 723 4595

David Worlidge John East & Partners 0207 628 2200


Cheers

Ch.

[kenmitch] 03/9/2006 19:07

VERY interesting Snowman69.

Now that a decent interval has elapsed allowing their subscribers to buy, can you tell us more?

Plenty here btw - maybe already covering what was in Quantum Leap?

[snowman69] 01/9/2006 11:15

Full page tip in Quantum Leap on 26/08 at 169p. Speed of growth in both turnover and profit is phenomenal. I'll be coming on board if I can free up some funds. Congrats to all long term holders. DYOR

[kenmitch] 11/8/2006 14:35

Yes. Have a look at the chart. Same pattern for ages. Spells of nothing happening followed by a good run up. Long may it continue!

[dave88] 11/8/2006 10:09

Nice move this morning quietly chugging along.

[rambutan2] 06/8/2006 00:09

note featured investments - july...

[kenmitch] 27/7/2006 16:17

bingobarnes. The following is from a detailed post from last December. Post 12.

"OK current PE ratios for Toluna seem high, but that's hardly surprising given the huge growth potential. The tax adjusted PE for 2006 is 24 and 17 for 2007. Now these figures do not take into account the forecast QUADRUPLING of profits between 2005 and 2007 thanks to triple digit revenue growth and margin expansion. And that gives a PEG rating of 0.5 for 2006 and 0.4 for 2007 - low for an already successful, profitable and fast growing Company."

Newsflow and results since then have been even better than expected, so the prospective PEs and PEGs could well be lower than suggested then.

I've been wary of investing in Companies with high PE ratios when the evidence that that PE ratio was going to come down fast was sketchy. But that does not seem to apply to shares in the thriving on line market research sector including TOL. They are providing plenty of evidence of explosive growth, TOL every bit as much (maybe even more) as YOU.

Investors Chronicle in a write up on YOU earlier this year said their shares were a sell. Again, as you are (understandably) doing, they based that on the PE ratio for YOU at that time, rather than the great prospects. After that sell advice YOU shares rose even further and Investors Chronicle then changed their sell advice to fairly priced acknowledging the excellent YOU progress when they announced their results. Since when YOU shares have continued to rise, including a one day rise of 37p a few days ago.

So best to ignore the current PE ratios and focus on superb prospects for the next couple of years imo.

btw from memory the last Investors Chroncicle comment on TOL was "good value."

As you probably realise there is very strong Institutional support for TOL with - again from memory -around 90% of the shares held by Institutions or Directors.

So some have cottoned on to the huge growth expected - and being shown already - in this sector, and I,m confident that there is more to come and that TOL shares are well worth holding. Should there be any temporary weakness on a general market markdown then well worth adding to holdings too as I'm confident that the shares have a good bit further to go yet. Of course any significant rise in the TOL share price should also lead to a rising EVT share price too.

[bingobarnes] 27/7/2006 13:02

got my eye on this and YOU but with a PE of 165 seems a little steep to me. Does anyone know the projected PE going forward?

[melody9999] 08/7/2006 09:32

good to see share price rise here...this one only just hit my radar but very bullish about sector too. bought into RNOW recently and expect rises across the board as the sector growth becomes more widely recognised

[rambutan2] 04/7/2006 13:08

up on this...

4 July 2006

Eurovestech plc

("Eurovestech")

Portfolio Update

Eurovestech, the development capital investment fund, announces an update and
commentary on recent developments regarding its principal portfolio companies.

ToLuna plc ("ToLuna")

ToLuna is a leading European independent provider of online panels and
technology services to the market research industry.

On 29 June 2006, Cenkos Securities Limited, Eurovestech's broker, placed
2,245,000 ToLuna shares with institutional clients at 130p realising £2.9
million before costs. The disposal proceeds represent a significant return over
the book cost of £2 million, being Eurovestech's total cost of investment in
ToLuna to date.

Following this transaction Eurovestech now holds 20,475,300 shares, equivalent
to 57 per cent. of ToLuna's issued share capital.

At 3 July 2006, based on the mid-market share price of ToLuna, Eurovestech's
residual holding is valued at £29.5 million.

In May 2006, ToLuna reported that the move to conducting market research online
was accelerating in Europe and that it was experiencing a rapid growth in
revenue and operating profits, which were both ahead of expectations.

[egoi] 04/7/2006 09:45

Bought back in this morning, like the institutions getting further involved and think the continuing growth prospects look absolutely genuine. Nice company!

[kenmitch] 29/6/2006 16:33

Hi rambutan2.

That reduced the EVT stake of course. Provides EVT with cash - but what for? Interesting.

Presumably this is the only way Institutions keen to buy Toluna can get hold of shares as so few are in free float?

Will be interested to see if the Institutional buyers are existing TOL holders increasing their stakes, or new holders.

[rambutan2] 29/6/2006 12:25

good news...
("ToLuna" or the "Company")

Notifiable interest

The Company was notified that following a sale earlier today of 2,245,000
ordinary shares to institutional buyers at 130p, equivalent to 6.25 per cent.,
Eurovestech plc now holds 20,475,300 ordinary shares in ToLuna, equivalent to
57.01 per cent of the issued share capital of the Company.

[kenmitch] 28/6/2006 17:01

Yes, and a very positive trading statement from YOU the other day which lifted the YOU share price by 10% to close to new highs.

Almost certain that things are going just as well at TOL - or maybe even better! No movement in the share price YET. Could go lower if markets throw a real wobbly - ideal topping up chance if that happens. Failing that probably best to add well ahead of the next results.

Still seems the vast majority of investors are clueless about this sector and shares like TOL. e.g ZAK MIR tipped YOU the other day, following a tip for YOU in the Sunday Telegraph. He admitted he had never heard of YOU until reading the Telegraph piece. That's amazing - YOU feature in so many news programmes and newspapers - e.g whenever there is a new YOU opinion poll. But if the likes of him have not heard of YOU he/they is/are even less likely to have heard of TOL. Suggests the sector is little researched. If I've got that wrong please post.

[cortez] 23/6/2006 00:15

Excellent results from RNOW. Sold these a while back, looks like I was a bit impatient. Higher margin here than RNOW according to me, more panelists and potential from Speedfacts should mean good results and a higher rating at some point.