1pm Share Discussion Threads

[owenski] 03/8/2015 09:35

They should inform you

[salpara111] 03/8/2015 09:27

Given that my shares are held in a nominee account, should my broker contact me to let me know about the open offer or do I have to hassle them?

[janeann] 31/7/2015 20:44

what surprises me is the price is below that of the previous placing in October last year - which was at 61p. at lest existing shareholders get a bite of the cherry.

[shanklin] 30/7/2015 08:47

Lazy advisors exploiting company by taking fees for an easy placing? A rights issue at (say) 60p with an institution or two on hand to take anything left would have been fairer to existing shareholders. All IMHO.

[salpara111] 30/7/2015 08:44

Surprised and not at all unhappy at the share price performance given the placing price but it really does beg the question why have we been diluted by flogging off a large tranche of the company at 60p?

[davidosh] 28/7/2015 13:10

The economies of scale should be good and the efficient systems operated by OPM can be used to check potential customers generated by the much larger group.

[ramridge] 28/7/2015 11:44

Well I will drink to that. Took a long position this a.m. / medium term investment

[davidosh] 28/7/2015 11:09

ramridge.....I will be very interested to see the dynamics but Ron Russell is a very strong character and has the largest stake in the company. He will have been closely involved and so I am confident the new non executives who are experienced guys and the chairman who has worked tirelessly since he arrived a year or so ago are all there to make sure the company continues to grow steadily and very healthily.

[ramridge] 28/7/2015 10:47

davidosh - unless I am mistaken this is the first acquisition for this company, and a big one too.
Current management's mettle will be tested to the full in the next 12 months.

[davidosh] 28/7/2015 10:17

I challenged the directors after the results about the dividend when they need all the cash fuel they can get for growth of the company so why pay one ?

They claimed the brokers had advised that payment of a dividend on AIM shows a level of maturity and security which then attracts more institutions to invest. Maybe they had this fundraising in their plans when setting out their dividend stall months ago. I still think it is fairly pointless and if the instos cannot see the investment case then leave them alone to invest elsewhere.

I suspect the brokers prefer the fees attached to raising the money each time and want their job as easy as possible so like a wide field to play in. Money given with one hand means money needs raising with the other...lol That said the total dividend payment was a fraction of the money raised here so not really material just looks silly !

Overall I like this deal but I do hope it does not change the dynamics within this small 'family minded' business as all those new directors is a big step change and potential mindset change too.

[ramridge] 28/7/2015 09:54

Agree, Salpara111. They could have easily got placing at below 5% discount given their strong performance. Also paying a divi when they were/ are on an acquisition trail doesn't sound good financial management. Badly advised by their investment advisers/ NOMAD IMO.

[salpara111] 28/7/2015 09:36

Like the look of the deal but don't like the fact that they offered an 11% discount, given their current trading performance I would have hoped they could have enticed in a few small cap fund managers at a 5% discount.
I am also more annoyed that they have chosen to pay a divi given that the money could have been put towards this deal.
Having said that I am inclined to stay on board for the next 6 months to see how this acquisition plays out.

[ramridge] 28/7/2015 08:39

Quick look at the numbers says:
- Acquisition revenues £5.1m / OPM revenues £5.5m
- Acquisition Profit before tax £1.8m / OPM PBT 1.6m

So the acquisition more or less doubles the size of OPM in one stroke.

And they are paying only £12m when the current MV of OPM is £22m

Looks a good deal to me.

All IMO & DYOR

[stegrego] 28/7/2015 08:28

Looks like they read your mind PJ.

[shanklin] 28/7/2015 08:02

Difficult to say from the information we have but, would this acquisition remove the need for repeated fund-raising to raise much of the case to be lent out by OPM. If so, it could put booster rockets under OPM's EPS growth. All IMHO.

[owenski] 28/7/2015 07:25

looks like this is what was holding the share price down

[pj 1] 25/7/2015 11:35

Morning.

I know nothing of 1pm and am starting to take a look. Its an area where I always struggle to make sense of the Accounts (small pos in AVAP)

Specifically what are the views on acquisitions here to accelerate growth? Is there opportunity, is it a fragmented area?

As they have invested in 'themsleves' would that give overhead saving with any acquisition?

TIA
pj

[salpara111] 24/7/2015 17:02

They spent a lot of money over the last 12 months investing in the business which means that as the business grows over the next 12 months the operational gearing should really kick in delivering increased profitability.
I would still rather not have the divi though!

[shanklin] 24/7/2015 16:29

Salpara111

I agree re the dividend. As today's RNS states, "The raw material for 1pm's business is cash". So why waste it on shareholders? If we want cash we can sell some shares. OPM should be maximising shareholder value by minimising the need to raise more equity cash.

I have just been re-looking at WH Ireland's broker estimates for OPM. I can see no way that the forecast 2016 revenue of £8.9m would turn into PBT of £2.0m. This would require OPM's operating efficiency to fall off a cliff. If the business runs at a similar level of efficiency to the last few years, I would have thought PBT of at least £2.6m would result from the estimated revenue. If, as seems more likely, the recent developments increase efficiency, the number could be even higher.

All IMHO.

Cheers, Martin

[salpara111] 24/7/2015 15:54

Looks like I might get the chance to top up again after all!
I was a little surprised that they chose to offer up a divi, at this point I would much rather that they keep the cash and invest it in growing the business.

[shanklin] 24/7/2015 10:14

Hi owenski

I have contacted OPM a couple of times over the last year. Its one of my larger holdings. Hopefully WH Ireland's coverage will clarify matters.

If not, I will contact OPM.

Cheers, Martin

[owenski] 24/7/2015 09:54

Hi Shanklin, you can always email the company on that point, they're pretty good at answering enquiries.

[shanklin] 24/7/2015 09:41

Hi davidosh

Was very impressed by today's results and hopefully, at some point, there will be upgrades forthcoming for next year. Little wonder that OPM is often viewed as one of the best run companies on AIM.

In terms of your post and what, unusually, was an unclear use of language by OPM, they use the term "Monthly sales" not "new business written".

In particular they state, "Monthly sales have doubled since the last financial year and the Board is confident that new business origination will continue to increase over the next 12 months."

Quite probably the two are the same but I would prefer it if OPM had been clearer, as I thought the language was so imprecise that I wondered if they did not mean "new business written" had doubled in the first part of the current year.

For example, do they actually mean:

"New business origination has doubled since the last financial year and the Board is confident that it will show year-on-year increases over the next 12 months"

A rare lapse IMHO.

Cheers, Martin

EDIT: P.S. In terms of the above, "Sales" could reasonably have meant "Revenue" given that the line below "Revenue" in the results is "Cost of Sales"

[davidosh] 24/7/2015 09:00

Significant piece of info for gauging growth is that new business written is currently running at double the level of last year. Overall in 2014 business was up 49%so to have increased even further to potentially 100% up in current year is great news. However bad debts are down at record lows which is excellent news.

In May 2014 they did 920k new business in the month of April 2015 they have just stated they did £2m. They are also recruiting another seven staff on top of the increase built into the office move last year. They are clearly booming and must benefit from great operational gains as the loan book grows