Porta Communications Share Discussion Threads

[fillipe] 30/8/2019 10:06

Mmmm.

f

[guildedge] 01/8/2019 10:05

In terms of CAG the cost was not in the price paid but the price paid for their loan facility which cost Porta circa 1m.

SEC spa share price down 38% today. Company is barely worth 5.25m. Morton converted loans are supposedly worth over 5m. Wonder if this would kill the deal?

Sec is getting close to worthless?It was previously a £15m firm. Italian accounting. Hmmm.

[slevy8] 18/7/2019 18:22

They are going to merge with 80 million turnover so will only grow from here

[slevy8] 18/7/2019 18:19

Why you say that ?

[markie7] 14/4/2019 18:11

CAG didn't cost them anything.

[guildedge] 12/4/2019 17:38

Looks like they started to run out of cash in June 18. Failed to pay their debt interest. Some parts of the business are doing well. Especially abroad. Just UK operations not run efficiently. Too slow to merge up all these acquisitions. CAG was an acquistion too far that they simply didn't have the monies to pay it's debts.

I figure the costs of restructuring ate up most of the working capital here.

[guildedge] 10/4/2019 23:30

Well Asian business hit 1.5M profit. Sadly UK business lost nearly 5-6m.

Overall I expected losses of circa 4m. (1.9m H1) Not really delved into the numbers. Appears they need 1.5m more in loans. Albeit 500k of interest written off. At 8% Morton can afford to do that. 10 billion debt guess was about right.

A merger with Sec seemed only way forward here. Doing it at 0.85p seems really low. Again the lack of news suggested something major was about to be announced.SEC simply did not have the funds to buy Porta and it's debt.

Question is what cost savings can they now make with SEC? Sec have a lot of offices in the UK. Including one in London that can move into the Porta HQ. Could also see a lot of head office staff going at SEC? They will want to find 1-2m cost savings here. Pending who is running the company and if it happens?

Question is how much of this 4.4m loss was one off and write offs. Porta has very little assets left to write off. It is cash positive now.

My guess is this deal would not happen unless they saw something there to create a business making millions. See what happens.

[speedsgh] 10/4/2019 13:52

Final Results -

Notice of General Meeting & Funding Arrangements -

Statement regarding possible all-share merger -

[guildedge] 03/4/2019 00:04

They might do same as last year and make a big announcement before the results. Overall the last TU had zero effect on share price due to background sellers. No idea when the results might be. Late April?

They have been announcing quite a few new clients. Including for Newgate - Moorepay, Koovs plc, Fogchain, Partnership with LSE Elite Group, financial PR for Digitalbox IPO.

Jurys Inn, Foxy Bingo and Seiko for Publicasity.

All since Feb and these are only the ones we know about. Also dealing with Earthport takeover? May have missed some?

They also announced a number of their UK offices had expanded. Be interesting to see how their UK Research arm does in the months to come. Not sure how their Asian businesses are doing. Q4 and 2019 Q1 are the key periods here.

The impression I get is they are ahead of where they planned to be given the huge cost savings happening in the UK office. Plus the continual feed of new clients.

See what April brings.

[geraldus] 14/2/2019 07:03

Was hoping for an update.If not then on to April.

[guildedge] 13/2/2019 21:59

Agree share price is not good. Someone in background clearly wants out.

I think all the bad news is out there now. CAG and Summit now gone. Brand write downs nearly also done. 400k for Redleaf to follow.

Publicasity has announced another contract win too with Jury Inns. So contracts are being won and costs slashed and dead wood removed.

I think deal on debt will see rates reduced. i think if this firm can turn a profit of 2m a year a debt of 10m will not matter hugely if the rates on the debt are manageable. All indicators suggest business is ahead of budget. That was what their last RNS suggested too. They have anounced at least 5 new hires since then!

Company certainly has a future. It's turning over 40 million and has an Asian business generating 1-2m in profit. As said previous the last 6m showed a positive cashflow on the account.

See what happens here.

[oldie52] 13/2/2019 13:41

I do admire your patience and optimism Guildedge. After all these years porta has still not made a profit and the share price has NOW slipped below 1p. Valued at £4m FFS
Clearly most investors dont share your optimism nor your views on the ability of Emma Kane and John Foley.How you can believe this company has any future at all is beyond me.

[qs99] 13/2/2019 12:39

You miss the bit about what "deal on debt" would actually mean at this share price level? care to comment on that? would be interested to get your view. Ta

[guildedge] 11/2/2019 21:35

I think the business is doing very well. Last 4 months they have announced 4-5 new hires due to new clients. Staff page up to 92 employees and they have ditched a lot of the high salary staff.

Also.... 'The full impact of the circa £3m of non-performing costs removed from the UK businesses expected to be realised in Q4 2018'

I wonder how much this will add to the bottom line? 1-2M? Including 200k saved from Redleaf. So Q4 2018 is where we will see how these cost savings have helped Porta. Could they now be profitable? Over 300k saved on Stefan Williams alone.

Publicasity have just secured Seiko Watches as a client. They have a joint Newgate/Redleaf unit now working as one unit.

They are trying to replicate the success of the research arm of Australian Newgate operations in the UK. Dan Clay is the managing partner of the UK operation for this. This could work really well here.

They got rid of Capital Access group and the 1m they are liable for. They now get paid rent by them. So 100k yearly loss turned into a profit from rent. Savvy business.

They lost 2m in H1 after payouts to third parties. Much was down to Depreciation and amorisation. That and cost of losing staff. Plus the loan facility. They actually made a surplus 72k cashflow in H1. Still some costs for H2 on restructuring. Plus 400k write off for Redleaf brand.

Someone in background dumping shares still with another party pretty much mopping them up. Someone bought nearly 900k in 4-5 trades on Nexechange recently. Could be the shares given to the foreign buisnesses.

Emma Kane and John Foley are not stupid. I suspect once the deal on the debt is announced and a strong Q4 announced the Sp will likely bounce to 2p+. Watch for buys as the results get closer.

They are winning clients and have a strong team to turn around the business. John Foley is an expert on turning around companies.

I would say quietly getting on with the job. H2 will likely show a loss due to write offs and other one off costs but q4 could show a profit? That is how I would spin it. If debt goes to 3.99% that will reduce repayment costs too for 2019.

[geraldus] 07/2/2019 14:18

Might be due for an update soon.Hold on to your hats.

[oldie52] 28/1/2019 12:44

As the share price sinks ever lower not a word from this "leading" communications group!

[guildedge] 24/11/2018 11:37

I think the idea was to grow hugely and start making cost savings by major acquisitions. If these were in planning stage they never happened. By buying big you can shave out 1-2m in costs and take on profitable businesses at the same time.

This started to go downhill when part of the business turning over 8-10 million lost a major client and went under. I forget the name but I did meet the owner at the AGM.

They have been making 1-2 million or in cost savings over last year or so. Have to see what this is doing for the bottom line.

You can still be a loss making business and be successful in your area. They won a financial award in Asia for being a financial comms. See Holmes report.

Also up for THE GOLD STANDARD AWARD FOR REGIONAL NETWORK OF THE YEAR

Shortlist:

The Hoffman Agency Asia Pacific Carves Out a New Path
Newgate Communications
Weber Shandwick Asia Pacific.

The main issue with Porta is debt and the cost of this. I think they also had a lot of expensive employees not paying their wages through clients. Right now they appear to be focusing on where the money is and have a clear plan how all the businesses can work together as one unit.

I do hope they can turn this around. Q4 2018 is where the savings should start to kick in. They have ditched Redleaf offices. They do have a profitable Asian network and hopefully they will eventually set up a strong PR network in China. That could be huge.

I wonder too what economies of scale could be made with SEC and Porta merging. Newington have offices in London that could be moved to Porta HQ.Trouble us at 1p this won't happen.

[graham1ty] 24/11/2018 07:56

I am still puzzled how any client takes seriously a PR and IR adviser which has never made money. It is all very well being No 5 in the Far East and having great brands, but who cares if you never ever make a profit and have significant debts.

How about getting yr own house in order first ?

[guildedge] 23/11/2018 23:16

Still about. Just not much news to report. Most news they do have seems to go on their Twitter account.

Or their website.
hxxps://www.newgatecomms.com/blog/index.php/2018/11/21/seneca-im-appoints-newgate/

Looks like they now only have 3 brands Newgate, 2112 and CAG. Their staff page with Newgate, Redleaf and Publicasity staff has 92 people now.

They seem to be hiring with 6-7 new clients lately. Again hard to know which clients have left when the expensive senior hires were kicked out. Most of David Wright's senior hires have now gone. Simon Gentry is still there.

Seems to be 2 people/investors in background exchanging shares here.

Overall this needs some big news to move northwards. They could well be holding back for now. Last TU seemed to suggest trading ahead of expectations. I expect next one in January. Plus maybe some debt news. Also how partnership with SEC is going.

SEC announced a takeover of a firm on 21st November 2018. Looks to be a French firm. This will be costing them 500k a year for 10% chunks. The new firm appears to be making money on turnover of 4m.

SEC still not tempted for a Porta takeover yet. Porta need to show they can make money first. Plus SEC last cash call barely raised 1m. Not great.

[albie two shoes] 06/11/2018 12:58

With the slow sink having stabilised, I added more last week.

[albie two shoes] 11/10/2018 15:24

For a communications company they don't do a lot of communicating. Slow sink on silence.

[oldie52] 04/10/2018 12:27

As this gradually sinks into oblivion anyone got any good news to cheer the increasingly poor investor.
Guildedge where are you?