Aa Share Discussion Threads

[essentialinvestor] 26/2/2018 13:38

M, keep in mind DLG's offering with Green Flag, plus Direct Line have already
made significant investments in telemetrics.
To younger drivers I am unsure if the AA brand has anywhere near to same
meaning as to my generation or older.

[minerve] 26/2/2018 13:24

The debt issues concerning the AA should not be ignored but it is easy to take a negative stance when in fact they might actually not be as bad as some think. The refinancing of some bonds seems to have been completed at more favourable rates in July. I am not convinced interest rates in the UK are heading back to normality anytime soon and with the protection of the WBS I could see debt costs decreasing over the next few years without any pay down.

As far as brand, they still own the driving schools and a connection opportunity does exist with the young - digitally - and the right person in Simon Breakwell is in place to grasp this opportunity. It will take time though.

[srpactive] 26/2/2018 12:49

rns holding Citi again is it a increase of 300000 or not?

[badger60] 26/2/2018 12:09

Forget broker forecasts, they are complete pants! eg. Liberum Capital ( whoever they are?) 8th Feb..buy 250p......21/22/23 Feb reiterates buy recommendations but now with a price target of 100p!?!?......Imo AA will struggle with its huge debt burden and pension black hole, regardless of any new initiatives, and eventually sink into obscurity. Fwiw, imo, the "AA" brand is worth very little, except for a bit of nostalgia......

[zho] 26/2/2018 11:44

Broker downgrades being dicussed at

[minerve] 26/2/2018 11:33

I will be buying when the time is right. I am in no rush.

[tsmith2] 26/2/2018 11:32

ML buying?

[minerve] 26/2/2018 11:16

There is no hurry to buy in here folks. Be patient.

If you don't understand the debt and the bankcruptcy/rights issue scenarios I would recommend you first read about Whole of Business Securitizations which is what the AA is from its PE days. Once you understand this legal structure you will be better informed for your investment decision.

I am here to help sensible investors if they want to learn about this structure.

There is a good article on it here, you will have to excuse his English, it makes it slightly more difficult to read. His foreign language skills are much better than mine, so is his English! LOL

[srpactive] 26/2/2018 11:04

BB

I never said it did, I said this ( 80.5p ) now.

If I read the holding rns right, I think Merril Lynch have increased slightly,
I stand to be corrected.

[srpactive] 26/2/2018 10:58

This the figure ( 80.5p edit) it fell to on the Wednesday news,
which I bought at, so bought a few more, dyor.

[blueball] 26/2/2018 10:36

Whats it worth about 40/50p..?

[blueball] 24/2/2018 08:10

Stay short.

[blondeamon] 23/2/2018 13:19

Nothing can prevent a crash except for some dashcam systems with ADAS that are life-savers(TRAK soon to launch its ADAS) but even then there's no guarantee as the driver needs to listen to it.

What we discuss here is preventing breakdowns: bad brakes, bad battery, ignition coil, tyres etc. These are all absolutely preventable and can save you thousands of ££ if you catch them early. Modern cars only have a few buttons for issues and you need to go the garage to connect an OBD port reader to scan through all the fault codes and see what's wrong.

The Car Genie is doing that on the fly 24/7/365 for you. With the first appearance of a fault code you are notified and informed to visit your local garage. Imagine how useful that will be for B2B as any downtime makes the company lose ££ in way more serious manner than the family car breakdown.

This tech will massively reduce the breakdown assistance from the AA while also charge them more for the device and data. Happy customers, happy company...a truely win-win situation.

Then they can offer through their insurance underwriter a telematics insurance policy to those with already a Car Genie in their car. So you save up to 40% of your premium without doing anything else than what you already do, just drive your car.

Next they can say, why not install a dashcam if you want and cut another 10%? All through your Car genie app: find your car(find it if stolen), look at your dashcam live view), see if you have fault codes you need to have checked.

The possibilities are endless and many road clubs already do that across the US and EU and Australia. AA is leading this through Intelematics Australia/EU and Arc Europe Group.

A recent EU decision forbid car manufacturers from owning the data so there is nothing they can do to block OBD ports etc. The data belong to the consumer and he/she can give them to whatever company they want and get their services.

A better play to benefit from this is TRAKM8 as the sole telematics supplier of the AA as the benefits in the share price will show there much faster as the products and services will be bought soon but it will take 1-2 years to show the results in the AA. Both companies have excellent entry points at today's share price and good growth prospects.

The AA is not going anywhere, it's a landmark UK company with excellent brand recognition. It is investing in technology for the next 20 years and the next years won't be very profitable but it will pay off long term in my opinion.

[minerve] 23/2/2018 11:19

I don't see how Car Genie prevents a crash - that is rather a limited opportunity.

Crashes are predominantly human error not failed brake systems for example.

I agree that there is opportunity to use the data from Car Genie to improve logistics for breakdowns decreasing costs and adding Car Genie sales revenue and also using the data to manage underwriting risks on insurance offers by analysing car (driver) behaviour.

I am concerned as to how the B2B side will view Genie as it potentially could take business away from their service departments and hence the car manufacturers might want to implement a similar integrated product themselves.

[srpactive] 23/2/2018 10:01

B

Very good post indeed, very good knowledge,
please continue to post. I will look at TRAK
I have also bought here on the Wednesday drop,
I feel it will trade between 85p and 92p for a
few weeks until hopefully better news appears.

Edit
Yes Badger 60, the above worked out wrong,
you might be right.


active

[blondeamon] 23/2/2018 09:03

Massively reducing the calls to breakdown while also earnign extra fees from preventive algorithms running on the Car Genies will be a double win for the bottom line.

People who prevent a crash are much happier than those who are rescued. And they'll pay to have that extra comfort. Soon they could make dashcams part of the deal and offer black box insurance 40% down by using the data from the Car Genie.

The technology here is opening doors previously unheard of for the AA. And they plan to do the same to their B2B clients as well, 10m at present numbers.

The plan initiated here is the same as road clubs across Europe, ANWB and OAMTC do exactly the same through their Intelematics Europe partnership that AA is a leading member of.

I have lots of shares in TRAK that supply the telematics devices and the data to the AA and other road clubs in the EU but at these levels I am considering an entry point here as well. The plan will take years to implement but it's the right one.

[careful] 23/2/2018 08:23

turnover £940m.
debt £2.6bn.

looking at this, but the debt kills it off.
can't be any way back.
negative net worth.

[spob] 23/2/2018 08:21

Yes i am sure battery "Issues" :-) are the biggest earner in the winter

[pbutterworth1] 22/2/2018 22:56

The AA and RAC make millions from battery issues and with increasing electronic devices these opportunities will increase not decrease :-)

[pbutterworth1] 22/2/2018 22:54

Minerve, I can see where Woodford is coming from. There comes a time when the s price becomes to low to ignore. That time was today. GLA.

[srpactive] 22/2/2018 16:23

AI

At university and does not know what a battery looks
like, really.

[minerve] 22/2/2018 16:11

I am surprised Woodford just added. Surely wait to see if the strategy starts to work first or for the final results on the 17th April? I really don't see what the hurry is. Averaging down for the sake of just averaging down is stupid. Could be just throwing good money after bad. I am positive this can turnaround but I am not going to part with my money that quickly.

Woodford should be looking for evidence on output not promises on input.