Ultimate Leisure Share Discussion Threads

[frizsand] 26/8/2005 11:17

Man Financial Increase again to 6.10% 1,508,719.

Looks like the exit of the board and sale of their holdings, are being given support

[frizsand] 24/8/2005 13:24

Man Financial Ltd has taken up some of the sale of shares they now hold: 1,453,319 /5.88% from a previous holding of: 943,750 /3.82%

Taken from RNS:
The Company was today informed that, as of close of business on 23 August 2005,
Man Financial Limited are the beneficial owners of 1,453,319 Ordinary Shares of
Ultimate Leisure Group plc representing 5.88% of the current issued share
capital.

[frizsand] 23/8/2005 15:26

I expect that we will see some softening of the share price until the shareholders of the outgoing board have finished selling. We will no doubt see some repositioning though. I expect to see holders or new entrants taking up the slack.

But a lot of us are in for the finish so we will wait. (or add depending on our nerve).

[frizsand] 22/8/2005 11:53

A snippet from the FT at the weekend:

A massive shareholder revolt at Ultimate Leisure, the owner and operator of bars and nightclubs in the north-east of England and Ireland, has sparked the removal of the company's founder and chairman as well as the chief executive, operations director and development director.

.....Dawnay Day, the financial services and property group headed by Guy Naggar, spearheaded the revolt and negotiated the departure of the senior team with Tom Knight, the senior non-executive director.
Dawnay Day has appointed Mark Jones, former chief executive of the Yates group of bars, as executive chairman. Colin Rowlinson has been named business development director.

.... Mr Jones said yesterday: "I am very excited about the opportunity here. We bring our results to the City in September and I look forward to unveiling our new strategy then."

We will see what exciting plans the new team have for the group soon enough. Ju

[frizsand] 22/8/2005 10:24

Well i said they would'nt take prisoners. Glad to see you are all alive and kicking. :-)

It is about time. Had to come before the next set off reporting.
Be good to see what lies ahead. Think that the last RNS gives some insight.

[phillis] 20/8/2005 19:02

prtdictable end

[yinyang42] 20/8/2005 12:44

Shareholders in troubled late night operator Ultimate Leisure have forced the resignation of founder and chairman Allan Rankin, along with other key members of the management team.

In their place, former Yates Group chief executive Mark Jones (pictured) has taken the helm at the North East based business in the role of executive chairman.

Along with Mr Rankin, Ultimate chief executive Bob Senior, development director Tim Wynn, operations director Alison Elliott, and board member Keith Atkinson have all stepped down.

A statement from Ultimate said the changes had been made "after consultation with certain shareholders and in order to pursue a new strategy."

Mr Jones led the £155m private equity backed buyout of Yates Group last year, and cashed in when the business was sold on to Robert Tchenguiz's Laurel Pub Company in May this year, for £202m.

He is joined on the Ultimate board by Colin Rowlinson as business development director. Mr Rowlinson is a chartered
accountant with a speciality in merger and acquisition activity.

Ultimate has been identified as a potential takeover candidate after two recent profit warnings this year. It operates more than 30 outlets, mainly large city centre sites in locations including Newcastle, Leeds and Durham.

[frizsand] 17/8/2005 18:59

It seems as if someone's looking to take up. On the bell 2 purchases of 125000 each, one T trade and one B trade. So expect to see something on rns
shortly. Hang on to the tree perhaps a shake is comming. Seems there is still activity. J

[frizsand] 17/8/2005 14:53

0800 - Why would the FT need to? I think that what the directors did or didn´t do is older news and therefore the FT did not need to cover. Right or wrongly their actions have been overshadowed now by the other main players taking up. They are not likely to to take prisoners.

I agree though that ULG´s performance has been down, but so has all of the sector.

I´m sure ULG will refocus with the help of the other Majors. They have already taken the right step in consolidating their position.

It certainly seems that there may be a takeover. With DD and some of the others holding, there will be a game plan. It will not be them i´m sure but they will perhaps broker a deal?.

We will all be interested to see what the end of year statement brings.
Maybe they will look cheap to someone. We shall see.

(can´t see Electra in all of this but who knows stanger things happen :-)

[0800] 16/8/2005 19:58

What the FT does not state is the performance over the past 6 months....remember well, the price was at 360-380, before the chairman and the rest of the board bailed out!
So, directors lack of confidence, profit warning, FSA issue (but nothing stated yet) has there been some poor investments? understand that trading for ULG in their heartland has been tough over the summer.
I did state in April on this thread that ULG were having a pretty tough time and were trading down,before the profit warning, and I do wonder what the year end statement will say.
Will they be taken out, possible, but by whom? Electra buying Urbium, will need to acquire, but Inventive looks a better bet for them, or maybe both


some great comments on this thread recently

[yinyang42] 14/8/2005 14:29

Urbium, the owner of the Tiger Tiger bar chain, has received an offer of more than £10 per share in a proposed takeover that would value the group at more than £100m.



The new all-cash offer is understood to have been made by Electra Partners, a private equity firm, which outbid several other private equity houses. Urbium's shares are likely to soar on the news tomorrow. They closed last week at 905p

[frizsand] 14/8/2005 12:14

Reported in the FT on Sunday:

"Ultimate Leisure, which operates large club-type bars, primarily in the north-east of England, is up 17.6 per cent from 250p to 294p over the past three months, outperforming the FTSE All Share by 6 per cent.

Again, takeover speculation has affected the company, following significant stake-building by its existing shareholders."

The article goes on to say that...

Analysts see two prevailing investment themes in this sector: First, is there a slowdown in consumer spending, whether caused by general economic uncertainties, terrorism worries or unexpected weather, affecting certain companies? Second, what do companies plan to spend on new site openings and is this the right level of expenditure?

Paul Hickman, leisure analyst at KBC Peel Hunt, notes that several companies, including Ultimate Leisure, have cut back on expansion plans to retrench their finances and strengthen balance sheets....

Ju.

[frizsand] 12/8/2005 15:23

Man Increases stake to 3.8%, so still showing appetite for shares. Ju

[frizsand] 08/8/2005 23:36

Bear Stearns hoovers up again. Will the saga never end. I am sure Ian, that F2 will have an imaginative take on it.

[frizsand] 08/8/2005 09:37

F2 - these wild guesses of yours will get us all in trouble; especially if it's true. So I told u get us a signed memo or some other incriminating info like a taped phone conversation.

Ian - Cheeky monkey.

Sorry guys cannot chat have to go to hairdressers, U know ladies that lunch and all that. Talk amongst yourselves until later. Ju.

[jeffian] 06/8/2005 00:16

f2,
I don't think Directors of public co's can go around building undeclared stakes via CFD's - that's a fairly wild guess.

Ju,
You sound like my kinda gal! (Excuse me, Friz). Think Marconi, think Railtrack, think any old thing that goes down and then....goes down some more!

Regards, Ian

[frances2] 05/8/2005 22:31

i think that Rankins or their proxies are behind the CFD positions....just guessin

[jeffian] 05/8/2005 19:39

frances2,
A word of caution about asset values in this industry. Fitting out bars and nightclubs is extremely expensive; the tendency is to 'capitalise' this expenditure and then amortise that sum against P&L account over a stated period. In the meantime, it simply gets added to 'Tangible Assets' on the balance sheet. I don't know how much of ULG's Tangible Assets are Fixtures & Fittings but you can get an idea of the sums involved from the last Chairman's statement at the interims which spoke of their refurbishment of the City Vaults in Bigg Market, Newcastle: "This £1.5m refurbishment of our freehold site means that we have over the last 3 years invested in excess of £4m into the Bigg Market". In the event of Armageddon, the freeholds will always have a certain value but the F&F is likely to be a write-off. The other side of the coin is that it is quite likely that these assets will be carried in the balance sheet at 'cost plus additions' and the underlying freeholds may not have been revalued to reflect current market values (I don't know because I haven't seen a full set of account including the notes on this).

I'm reasonably comfortable that there is an asset value underpinning a proportion of the share price, but I wouldn't be so sure that it is the figure stated in the Balance Sheet!

Regards, Ian