Amey Share Discussion Threads

[cheesemonkey] 01/12/2002 13:08

Should see £1 in the near future.

Predators line up for Amey
By Clayton Hirst
01 December 2002
Vultures are circling Amey, the support services company that looks increasingly likely to be broken up and sold off in the new year.

No formal approaches have been made to Amey's board. But French construction group Bouygues, water and services specialist AWG, construction company John Laing, US engineering giant Bechtel and Swedish construction firm Skanska are all interested.

It is understood the companies won't make a formal approach until Amey has completed its deal to run a section of the London Underground as part of the Tubelines consortium.

They will also wait until Amey's £50m sale of its Private Finance Initiative investments to John Laing has gone through. Both deals are expected to complete this month. There is widespread speculation that Amey's chief executive, Brian Staples, will step down in January.

Almost a quarter of Amey's shares are now controlled by activist investors after Swiss corporate raider Tito Tettamanti last week upped his stake to 8 per cent. Meditor Capital, which has publicly called for the business to be sold, owns nearly 15 per cent.

Both shareholders are understood to have held informal talks with the companies eyeing Amey.

The company's shares crashed this summer after it abandoned controversial accounting practices. The move turned a £56m profit into an £18m loss and Amey's market capitalisation has slumped to £76.7m. But some analysts believe that the company's £6bn order book means its true value is £200-£300m. Amey's rail and road maintenance businesses are seen as its most valuable parts.

[quidzinn] 29/11/2002 13:16

Good to see a bit of blue on the screen after a morning in negative territory.

Q

[petersmith6] 29/11/2002 11:50

80p then 150p after a year of LUL

[hallow] 29/11/2002 09:10

Halfpenny has been posting the same old drivel on the Skyepharma board and probably others. Ignore him he thinks he is pushing the share price down so he can buy in. He is an irritating idiot who should be filtered

[halfpenny] 29/11/2002 08:37

looksl ike dropping to 16p sooonnn

still very risky....book value 16p or less...


16p to come soonnnn

[taylorag] 29/11/2002 00:11

ck22, the signing date is due some time week commencing 9 December I believe, however see my previous note re CEO of Jarvis (Part of the tube consortium) who was on Bloomberg Tuesday & almost implied that a further delay in signing may occur. Isn't this tied up with another challenge from that damn Ken chap?

[quickflutter] 29/11/2002 00:00

25% of shares in hands of activists, gooooo

[petersmith6] 28/11/2002 21:59

but for HOW MUCH???????????????????????????

[ildamiano] 28/11/2002 14:13

Taylorag - due date for signing is indeed December 9th, but last Sunday's Telegraph said that the deal should be signed this week, and that Tubelines would get an agreement from the Government that they would get their money and costs back if any appeal against the legality of the deal was upheld. I myself would be surprised if the contract was signed this week, preferring to stick to the December 9th timeline.

With the price rising, and more large-sized deals going through today, it looks like Sterling and/or Meditor are continuing to stake-build. They would have better access to news on deals, contracts and accounts than we would, so if they are happy to keep on buying, I am happy to keep on holding.

[petersmith6] 27/11/2002 20:12

prob friday,gives the MM something to ponder over the weekend and the sundays to write about

[ck22] 27/11/2002 14:24

when is the big announcement boys and girls? to finalise the tube deal?

[ildamiano] 27/11/2002 11:30

So Tito Tettamanti continues to build his stake in the company, and now holds 8%. When will he stop buying shares? He must have an excellent broker, as the stake has been bought without too much upside to the share price.

[ildamiano] 26/11/2002 16:33

Taylorag - did he talk about the Tube contract or the Tubelines consortium in general? Any further info much appreciated.

The spread has just shortened, with the bid up 0.5p and the offer down 0.5p. Looks to me that the MMs might be looking to stimulate trade somewhat. Given today's lower-than-recent volume, this may well be the case.

[taylorag] 26/11/2002 16:18

The CEO of Jarvis was on Bloomberg this morning - No definate date for signing tube contract mentioned. More delays?

[ildamiano] 25/11/2002 14:29

This from www.tubelines.com

TUBE LINES WILL SAVE COMMUTERS
OVER 430,000 HOURS IN FIRST YEAR

Commuters using the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly (JNP) lines will be saved more than 430,000 hours in reduced delays during the first year of Tube Lines' contract to modernise the three lines, Chief Executive Terry Morgan announced today.

The greatest improvement will be on the Piccadilly line, which will see delays fall by 17% within the first year. The Northern line will also see substantial improvements with an initial 6% reduction in delays in the first year. In the first year, these reductions in delays will save passengers 432,731 hours, equivalent to 150 working man-years.

Commenting on the figures, Terry Morgan said:
"Improving reliability is an absolute priority for Tube Lines. We know that delays to the service are the number one gripe for passengers so we are investing heavily to address the underlying causes. This includes an intensive rolling stock maintenance programme to reduce the incidence of mechanical problems and over 50 miles of track replacement which will reduce the number of speed restrictions in place.

"Cutting delays on the Tube is just one of a whole range of improvements which will begin once we have begun our programme for the Jubilee, Northern & Piccadilly lines. Tube Lines is ready to begin this contract. We have our finances in place and three years of preparation and planning behind us. We cannot wait to get started and begin to deliver to London the Tube service it really deserves."

Tube Lines will achieve these improvements in reliability by tackling the root causes of delays. This means the number of speed restrictions will be reduced by increasing the rate


TUBE LINES WILL SAVE COMMUTERS OVER 430,000 HOURS IN FIRST YEAR
21 NOVEMBER 2002
PAGE 1 OF 2
at which track is replaced by 50%, a targeted programme to reduce the number of signalling pinch points will commence and there will be heavy investment in the maintenance regime to reduce the number of rolling stock failures.

ENDS

For further information, please contact:
George Hutchinson 020 7067 0342 / 07909 925039
Chris Rumfitt 020 7067 0344 / 07979 600571

Notes to Editors

1. Hours lost to delays per 4 weeks

Currently After 12 months % reduction in delays
Jubilee Line 69,968 68,939 1½%
Northern Line 106,231 99,910 6%
Piccadilly Line 175,382 149,445 17%

2. Once the public private partnership is underway, Tube Lines will be responsible for the maintenance and upgrade of the infrastructure on the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines. London Underground will continue to be responsible for operating the Underground, for employing drivers and station staff, for ticketing and fares, and for the Tube's safety regime.

The Tube Lines consortium consists of Amey, Jarvis and Bechtel, and brings together some of the most experienced providers of business services with specialist skills in the rail industry, including track and signal renewals, plus project and operational management. They will second some of the best project and operational managers from around the world to work on the modernisation of the tube system.

[petersmith6] 24/11/2002 22:30

i work for one of the consortia,were curently on full alert.there is a hell of alot of work involved on this one.

once all the i's are doted and the t's crossed we should see the big institutions jumping in.this should boost EVERY one involve in the under ground

[ildamiano] 24/11/2002 20:23

If confirmed, this is the news we've been waiting for. A signing of the contract this week would provide a massive boost to the share price. Couple that with the money that is forthcoming from the PFI sale to John Laing, and you have a company that's firmly on the bounce. I'll wait for confirmation of the contract signing, however, before cracking open the champers. Good luck to all fellow holders - sounds like this will be a defining week!

[cheesemonkey] 24/11/2002 15:53

No lose situation for AMY.

Tube consortia get Government indemnity
By Edward Simpkins (Filed: 24/11/2002)


The deal to privatise part of London Underground, that has involved a three year war of attrition between the Government and Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, is finally expected to be signed this week.

The Government has been forced to promise the private sector consortia spending billions of pounds upgrading the tube network that it will indemnify them against Livingstone winning an appeal to the European Commission and having the privatisation declared illegal.

By providing a "comfort letter, the Government is potentially creating a £7bn liability for the public sector. This may spark new allegations that its claim to have passed the risk of upgrading the Tube network to the private sector is a sham.

The two consortia are Tube Lines, made up of Amey, Jarvis and Bechtel, and Metronet, made up of WS Atkins, Balfour Beattty, Adtranz, Seeboard and Thames Water. They take the threat so seriously that they have refused to sign up without an assurance that the Government will cover their costs and repay money they have spent if Livingstone wins.

Tube Lines, which has agreed a £1.9bn debt facility with a consortium of banks, and Metronet, which will raise a £1bn bond early next year, will need the letter to finalise their funding.

Both consortia are expected to reach commercial close on the privatisation this week. Tube Lines is due to reach financial close and actually take over the maintenance and upgrading of the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines on 7 December.

Metronet is likely to reach financial close in February and will take control of the maintenance of the rest of the network then.

[petersmith6] 24/11/2002 15:42

no dead ,just held up,leafs on the line,wrong type of snow,no drive . well it is the under ground,so delays and cancelations are bound to occure

[quidzinn] 22/11/2002 00:38

I'd hazard a guess that they were buys as the price has returned to par.

Q

[ildamiano] 22/11/2002 00:14

Hmmmm......over 3 million shares traded in 2 chunks at the prevailing mid-price of 31p. I imagine that an announcement of increase/reduction of holdings will have to follow either today or tomorrow.

[monman] 21/11/2002 23:21

the tube deal looks dead in the water l would get out of these

[protec] 21/11/2002 18:40

My company does a lot of business with AMY and have not been affected by any late payment of invoices of late, have been one or two problems while the change over was going on but we are certainly getting paid on time.

[james111] 21/11/2002 18:01

hey guys isnt life great without halfpenny, long may it stay so!!!