Acal Share Discussion Threads

[she-ra] 24/7/2008 14:30

Aleman - But there were no takers.I think you can ignore alot of that goodwill from the non current assets in this current climate.

[aleman] 24/7/2008 14:26

Market cap £34m. £35.6m cash. Cash net of short term debt £25.7m. Current assets (which include the £9.9m short term debt) at £39m. Net assets ex-goodwill £47m - about 175p per share. Property plant and equipment is likely undervalued at £4.4m. Another electronics company can get the trading business for free - whether it wanted to close down competition or rationalise or expand strategically. There looks to be good value here with minimal downside. Balancing payables and running down inventories might squueze some of the short term debt so most of the £35m cash should be available for acquisitions in what are distressed markets. It is a good time to be hunting if they don't get hunted first. It is a too good a business to give away for free.

2008
£m
Non-current assets
Property, plant and equipment 4.4
Goodwill 53.4
Intangible assets - software 1.1
Investments in associates 5.7
Financial assets 0.3
Deferred tax assets 3.4
68.3
Current assets
Inventories 19.3
Trade and other receivables 36.0
Cash and cash equivalents 35.6
91.5
Current liabilities
Trade and other payables (34.2)
Short-term borrowings (9.9)
Current tax liabilities (5.2)
Provisions (3.2)
(52.5)
Net current assets 39.0

Non-current liabilities
Long-term borrowings (0.1)
Pension liability (3.8)
Deferred tax liabilities (1.2)
Provisions (1.5)
(6.6)

Net assets 100.7

[she-ra] 24/7/2008 13:16

Aleman - They have net cash of £25 million not £35 million.I think you have done your sums wrong.

[targatarga] 24/7/2008 11:09

Aleman - let's pity the forced sellers! must have been quite a few traders in for the bid above £2. regards

[aleman] 24/7/2008 10:32

Here we go again. Cash 135p and NAV ex-goodwill 179p. They are now trading below cash value. Somebody could bid for the company and take the cash, and it wouldn't matter what they got for the trading business. In many ways, the "increasingly challenging" market is good news. They will get acquisitions with the cash pile at a better price. Expect the dividend to be cut, though, given that they had already suggested this.

[targatarga] 10/7/2008 09:57

back to the 140's trading range then!

[targatarga] 12/6/2008 13:44

aleman - xd yesterday....regards

[aleman] 12/6/2008 11:14

If, as I believe, the company is generating post-tax cash at the same rate it is paying the dividend, then next week the shares will be 145p after going ex-dividend and cash will be 135p per share. The business will be on a p/e of about 0.6 net of cash.

Net Asset Value ex-goodwill 179p.

[liveinhope] 11/6/2008 16:02

targatarga - probably reaction to Wall Street expecting to open lower, which it did. As Aleman says, they have lots of cash at bank at present. Currently yielding well.

[targatarga] 11/6/2008 15:06

it's a weird world, purchased a few earlier paying 170.5 and the mm moved the bid price lower

[aleman] 11/6/2008 11:49

They sold ITS for £41m. It had profit of £0.9m. THey will get over £2m interest on that cash annually . Call it a rise of £1.2m comparing the interest received this year to the earnings of last for a full year . It was in the bank for 3 months of last year so this year will gain only £0.9m. Add that to operating cashflow of £8m and compare to a dividend that costs £5.8m. Earnings would be about 17p with no growth (17.8p forecast) compared to a 21.9p dividend but cashflow after tax should exceed the dividend before working capital and debtor/creditor movements. Cash could actually increase in coming months. Acquisitions in a weak market could be significantly earnings enhancing. After the dividend is paid out next week the market cap will be about £5m above cash on the balance sheet (based on the current price dropping 15p) compared to EBITDA of £6m. . Put simply, the company is on a p/e of 2 net of cash and the cashflow should cover the dividend even if earnings only cover about 80% of it.

[liveinhope] 04/6/2008 15:12

Aleman - pleasing they have a lot of the cash in the bank but can they sustain dividends at same level?

They are saying, "Although the year's dividend is covered by earnings including discontinued activities, it is not covered by earnings of ongoing activities before exceptional items. The Board will keep Acal's dividend policy under review recognising that, in the longer term, distributions
are only sustainable if covered by earnings."

[aleman] 03/6/2008 14:50

Anybody left here? I bought back in on the strength of yesterday's results. Earnings only 2/3rds cover the 11% dividend but cashflow comes closer and profits are forecast to increase. Then you must consider that 70% of the market cap is in cash so it could be paid for years with no trouble. The real potential is in making acquisitions. Others may not be have such a generous cash outlook in the middle of a credit crunch so there may be some bargains about. There looks to be extremely little downside but a reasonable potential to push the shares North.

[pejaten] 21/5/2008 15:40

well another spike up today with reasonable trade, Interesting

[liveinhope] 14/5/2008 16:40

Acal results out on Monday 2nd June.

[value viper] 12/5/2008 12:25

Peter Webb flagged this baby up in this week's IC Comment as essentially a sitter special situation - fairplay mate. Respect.

[2shemshersingh] 28/4/2008 17:43

this stock is so iliquid that a small purchase or sale could move the price.

[liveinhope] 28/1/2008 13:14

See Capital Group have increased their holding to 6.4938%. Interesting.

[rohkap] 06/1/2008 15:13

Following the sale, doesnt the resulting cash balance means that Acal trades on an exceptionally low EV/EBITDA ratio?

[liveinhope] 18/12/2007 09:59

Big fall in share price yesterday and early doors today despite completion of sale news. Could do with some Director buying to soothe City nerves?

[liveinhope] 29/11/2007 08:20

Acal results out today. Pleasing that Interim dividend of 7.2p held. At last nights closing price shares are yielding well. IMHO Acal trading in H2 expected to remain static reading between the lines.

[jonwig] 31/10/2007 16:19

Hi Simon.
No, I'm not buying this either.
There are just too many tempting stocks out there, but the value is probably an illusion.
I imagine I'll succumb and buy COL before long.
Meanwhile, will look at ABU and ERT.