Actual Experience Share Discussion Threads

[james 2] 13/7/2004 12:28

Actif Group 4.25 down 2.62
Full-year profits warning late yesterday; 'hold' from 'buy' - Seymour Pierce

[andysand] 13/7/2004 09:00

Just out of bed but put in a sell order last night. I was out this morning at 4.5p for a loss os £970. Could have been worse....Not yet showing as above NMS I suppose.
It's 46715 shares.


Andy

[tonyx] 13/7/2004 07:44

Big mark down as expected.

[tonyx] 12/7/2004 19:04

I don't think Ted Baker will be too impressed-they hold 15% of ACT from memory.

[barnetpeter] 12/7/2004 18:57

May have to take a loss .... if the market will take any stock. The real worry is if they are stuffed full of summer clothes which then has to be marked down and sold off cheap. They do not have the financial clout to ride through a big downtrend. Not good.

[andysand] 12/7/2004 18:21

There is no way to dress this up as positive really. The wholesaling is good of course but retailing sucks at the moment. Actually I have some small experience of this as I own a small shop as a sideline business and it's tough out there!


Difficult to know what to do as the shares will be significantly marked down in the morning of course and selling will be pretty much impossible. Too illiquid.

I will suffer a fair loss but nothing that will hurt too much....probably between 1-2000 pounds. Ouch...



Andy

[andysand] 12/7/2004 18:17

For those that are having trouble getting the news from this pitiful service on ADVFN lately, here it is.....

Actif Group PLC - Trading Update [DLDTGFP]

RNS Number:7572A
Actif Group PLC
12 July 2004



Actif Group plc

Trading update

At the time of the interim results announced by the Company in March this year,
the Chairman reported that good progress had been made towards increasing sales
and margins of Elle merchandise across both the wholesale and retail
distribution channels. However he also stated that the Group was finding
post-January trading in its retail formats to be unpredictable and took a
cautious view about the short term outlook for Elle retail.

Since then retail trading conditions in Elle prime stores and concessions have
deteriorated sharply resulting in total retail sales for the 23 weeks since 31
January 2004 being 14% below last year, which represents a like for like decline
of 18%. This is attributed to difficult market conditions, where the cool, dull
weather since Easter contrasts sharply with the prolonged spell of hot, sunny
weather enjoyed last year. This is a similar situation to that being experienced
by other High Street clothing retailers, but has been exacerbated by a poor
performance of High Summer ranges, especially within the Tops category, which
accounts for approximately 50% of the retail sales mix.

This sales shortfall will have an adverse impact on profitability, and the Actif
Group Board now anticipates that the outcome for the year to 31 July 2004 will
be significantly below market expectations, coming in at around the break-even
level. The Group continues to generate good cashflows and net debt at the end of
the year is anticipated to be in line with last year at around £1.1m, following
capital expenditure of £0.7m.

Sales within the wholesale business have remained strong, building on the growth
seen in the first half, with full year sales increasing by 35% on last year.

Mark Evans, Chief Executive of Actif Group comments:

"This is a disappointing set back to the profit recovery of the Group,
particularly given the improvement in the wholesale division. The weakness in
our retail summer ranges has been compounded by more challenging market
conditions.

The necessary actions have been taken to address the product weaknesses
highlighted in the Spring / Summer season and the results of these actions are
evident in the strength of Autumn / Winter 2004 wholesale sales.

We remain confident in the Elle brand appeal in the UK market and in our future
development."


Enquiries:

Mark Evans, Chief Executive, Actif Group plc Tel: [phone]
Julian Ghinn, Finance Director, Actif Group plc Tel: [phone]

Jessica Rouleau, gcg hudson sandler Tel: [phone]




This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

END
TSTEAXXAFFALEFE
12Jul04 16:13 GMT
Symbols:
gb;ACT
Source RNS London Stock Exchange Regulatory News
Categories:
R/GB L/EN MST/RNS

[barnetpeter] 12/7/2004 17:51

No but I bought some at 7p expecting a good rally up to results. At 2.5 million cap (i.e. around 4p) they will look ok but buying losing stocks is not my style. Shame, coz up till 5 I was having a flying day too.

[tonyx] 12/7/2004 17:45

bp,

Are you a buyer @ 4.5p?

[barnetpeter] 12/7/2004 17:40

Will be around 4.5p in the morning - biggest faller of the day I suspect.

[tonyx] 12/7/2004 17:40

Yes,very poor-no wonder they released it after close.

Was lucky to reduce my holding last week into the rise and only hold a few.

May well be a bloodbath tomorrow :-(

[aly48] 12/7/2004 17:32

Poor trading update.
Any views anyone?

[alistair richmond] 06/7/2004 13:58

Looking good for you all!.......Why todays rise????....i wouldn"t say there was a lot of volume!??

[james 2] 06/7/2004 09:47

EDIT see trading update !

[tonyx] 06/7/2004 08:17

Still on the move up-have reduced my holding though. Only hold a few now.

[tonyx] 05/7/2004 17:12

30K @ 7.25p...nice!

[james 2] 05/7/2004 16:30

KBC & WINS both on the 6.75p bid now, SCAP still holding up the proceedings.

rgds
j2

[james 2] 05/7/2004 11:52

aly48 - I agree, and maybe you should tell/ask them - you might even get yourself a contract :-) My email may be a coincedence ! Does anyone on here have the broker report ?

rgds
j2

[aly48] 05/7/2004 11:45

Thanks tonyx
James2, it was one of the reasons I didn't buy a couple of weeks ago. As it's a front for the brand it should be up to date at all times so I was interested to see how quick they would fix it. As you emaled then I guess you get the brownie points :-) but I hope they remember to check it more in the future.
I know they don't sell direct online but it would be a good to see a dedicated "Elle" website showing a few more products and styles, also the list of online sites should have through links to the selling sites, may as well try and help with the sales where possible. It's probably the cheapest form of advertising available but it does need to be maintained to look fresh.
I'm in the website/marketing/fashion game and there is a lot of money to be made if they get it right. From my point of view Elle has a nice brand line so it's worth a small punt to see how they run with it. If they have turned the corner then it could be a good time to get in before a good rise but 'aint that always the hard bit to guess ?!!

[chris001] 05/7/2004 11:25

topped up today

[james 2] 05/7/2004 10:56

aly - I mailed them about the website last week , as well as asking some other info (which I didn't get !).

[tonyx] 05/7/2004 10:44

Welcome aboard aly48. Still cheap as chips!

[aly48] 05/7/2004 10:37

Bought 50k earlier but still not showed, must be a few transactions still to come through.
Glad to see website updated.

[tonyx] 05/7/2004 09:47

Blue 2 days in a row...surely not!! Still cheap!!