Batm Advanced Communicat... Share Discussion Threads

[fse] 05/3/2014 18:22

why do you think its stupid ?
If the Medical division keeps growing and the Telco division is not really seeing any real prospects of growth then why not sell this off and use the resources to grow the other division, and concentrate on that.
This is all assuming they could achieve a good price for it.
True thats not why any of us bought into the company in the first place but thats the situation at present.

[the crypt] 05/3/2014 14:02

why would they sell off te;lco arm? tht would be real stupid.

[fse] 04/3/2014 18:16

Stuck in neutral. No volume at all.
Never heard another mention of offloading the Telco arm, something at this stage I thought quite possible.

[reeltime] 26/2/2014 22:27

Northland Capital Partners View on the City: BATM Advanced Communications
By Northland Capital
February 25 2014, 8:22am

TMT: BATM Advanced Communications (LON:BVC)

PRELIMS: MEDICAL MOMENTUM, TELECOMS IN TRANSITION

Revenue and gross profit up marginally at $114.6m and $39.6m respectively but EBITDA halved to $2.1m and a reported net loss of $4.5m following a goodwill impairment associated with the 2008 Vigilant acquisition. Cash and cash equivalents and financial assets of $40.8m (H1 FY13: $44.5m) after the investment of $3.5m into the consortium building a fibre optic infrastructure network in Israel.
Medical division +8% to $53.1m with a 300bps improvement in GM to 24% but operating profit fell $0.9m to $2.3m. Distribution business accounted for c. 59% of divisional revenues with an improvement in H2 and the credit issues reported with certain major customers largely resolved. Expanded presence in Myanmar and also signed a cooperation agreement with Roche. Sterilisation accounted for 16.7% and achieved operating profit for the first time. 70% growth in units sold and plans to expand manufacturing capacity. Diagnostics business increased revenue and reduced operating losses.
Telecom division -5% to $61.1m following less than expected revenue from clients in the US and LatAm in Q4. Division also suffered from the shekel's strength. Gross margin flat at 44% but operating profit -$3.3m to $2.4m. New emphasis on Tier 1 and large customers and appointed a new MD. Transition to focus on Software Driven Networks and Network Functions Virtualisation.
Outlook – reports a strong year end, particularly in the Medical division. Trend sustained into FY14 and expected to continue with growth in the sterilisation business and diagnostics businesses. Outlook for the Telecom business is more mooted as it undergoes its strategic shift.

NORTHLAND UK VIEW: FY13 performance flagged in January with revenue in line with existing forecasts (better than expected performance in the Medical division offsetting weakness in Telecom division) but EBITDA lower reflecting the margin mix. FY13 actual at $2.1m is at the lower end of the guidance range ($2m-$2.5m). Momentum in the sterilisation and diagnostics businesses in the Medical division is encouraging but recovery in the higher margin Telecom business remains key to the investment case.

[...]

[fse] 26/2/2014 15:58

Just had a chance to listen to the webcast and it goes without saying that if you are invested in this company then its well worth listening to this report.
Its not embellished and stays right on the facts.
It confirms what I feel that the company is well into the turnaround phase.

The Telco division appears well positioned but it appears we were correct about upgrade delays remaining the thorn in their side. Dr Marom indicated that Cisco and Alcatel were hardly having an easy go of it either and thats something I have heard on numerous occasions. Its coming together but its all slow moving and I think we can expect another year of the same albeit existing contracts are going to start to register by the end of 2014. No indication was given that they might divest themselves of this division and no questions to that effect were answered so that remains a speculative maybe.

The medical division is expanding and the benefits of scaling up will improve margins. They appear to have achieved an impressive penetration across a range of markets.

Its hardly a weak report and there is plenty of hard fact to set a positive trend.

Again phda kindly posted the link. Suggest listening to the report.

[james dean] 26/2/2014 15:09

BATM Advanced Communications (LON:BVC)
's stock had its "corporate" rating restated by research analysts at FinnCap in a report released on Tuesday, StockRatingsNetwork reports. They currently have a GBX 20 ($0.33) price objective on the stock. FinnCap's price objective points to a potential upside of 23.19% from the company's current price.

BATM Advanced Communications (LON:BVC) opened at 15.75 on Tuesday. BATM Advanced Communications has a 52 week low of GBX 13.25 and a 52 week high of GBX 21.00. The stock's 50-day moving average is GBX 16.26 and its 200-day moving average is GBX 16.89. The company's market cap is £63.5 million.

BATM Advanced Communications Ltd. is engaged mainly in the research and development, production and marketing of data communication products in the field of Metropolitan area networks

--------------------------------------

Regards.

DYOR

[fse] 26/2/2014 14:39

>amt.... the company is very tightly held and would be a difficult take over target.
Investors see this also as being morphed into a medical company which is not what they signed up for so to speak.
If the medical division keeps growing at such a rate then the Telco division may well be sold off. We had a rumour to that effect but no follow on from that.
Yes they are valued at not much above break up value and have substantial real estate assets. Holding at these levels is hardly a large risk IMO.

[phda] 26/2/2014 09:09

hxxp://mp163422.cdn.mediaplatform.com/163422/wc/mp/4000/15208/30195/33304/Lobby/default.htm

Above link should take you to archived webcast from yesterday. may take a few seconds to start playing. Change hxxp to http

[amt] 26/2/2014 07:29

Good summary. It's the poor unreliable history that has reduced the share price to value the company at only just above break up value. So suprised that the Company has not been taken over.

[fse] 25/2/2014 21:25

Not a matter of being generous. This investment has been a later term disappointment for me and many others ... thats history.
When you look at an investment you have to look at the current valuation and where you think it might go from here. My perspective is from that viewpoint.

Do I think past performance has been cr*p .... ?
obviously its been very disappointing, albeit they are still around.

I do feel (cautiously) that this company has turned itself around. I run my own company which has nothing to do with this but still the indicators are there to see.

Calamity strikes with Nokia
Onset of a very trashed out market
Divesting the legacy business in the Telco division which substantially reduced revenue
Formation of the medical division to even out the volatility in the Telco supply sector
Restructuring of the Telco business.
Israeli infrastructure win. Several utility providers sign up.
Medical business grows rapidly albeit lower margins.
Medical division problems with manufacturers, and also credit worries with certain clients.
Medical division sorts out problems and is back in a strong growth mode with improving margins.
Telco division earnings weak but division restructured and future earnings improved.

Its a matter of where we are NOW

[pkvidean] 25/2/2014 20:21

This report is littered with bad news and the management are bordering on the dishonest with their rhetoric. The miss on EBITDA is the most glaring example of the companies failure, once again, to deliver. Have a look at the end of the interim statement on 15 Oct last :-

--
Outlook

As a result of the above, the Group maintains its outlook for 2013 that it expects to achieve higher revenues and EBITDA than in 2012.
--

Actual result :-
-- EBITDA of $2.1m (2012: $4.3m).

Not only that but Marom deliberately gilds the lily with:-

"Looking ahead, the momentum of the fourth quarter has continued into the new year, particularly in the Medical division.....

Whereas in fact revenues in the Telecom division were 5.2% lower in Q4 than in Q3 2013.

As a holder for about 12 years, I have heard this BS over and over again...basically the management are incapable of turning the company around and it seems to be run for kudos rather than profit and shareholder interest.

FSE, you are being far too generous. Others are merely deluding themselves.

[cumnor] 25/2/2014 20:01

Today was better than expected. No serious selling, just mms trying to grab a few off disgruntled PIs. Even then more complaining than actually selling. Medical business nice entity on it's own for this mrkt cap. Telco could do well if they watch costs and get lucky. Add real estate and $40ml in cash and I certainly wont be selling. Good value imo.

[fse] 25/2/2014 19:10

Thanks for reporting back on the conference call.

SP today ended up lower on marker makers whims as there was little selling on a very low volume. Hardly indicated investors running for cover.
I feel this price is a generous entry point and I do not see how anyone can expect management to be more transparent, They have laid it all out for us.
We all want to see the Telco side rebound as when it has in the past the growth is phenomenal but the caution with providers persists and delays to upgrades still dominate the lacklustre performance.
Technology advances so fast that products and solutions are out of date by the time they are installed nevertheless there are systems running on out of date structures. At some point most substantial upgrades have to be made ..

So we have the Telco side waiting in the wings but at least restructured and winning small contracts.
We have the medical side showing strong growth in sales and revenue with cost saving changes in place and a growing revenue from reagent sales.
A few caveats in there but manageable.

Back to sleep for a while longer ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz

[phda] 25/2/2014 17:27

Did anyone listen to the conference call this morning ?

The main points I picked up:

No indication of any sell off of the Telco side, they see both the telco and medical sides as intergral parts of the business.

The majority of growth in the short term is going to come from the medical side, especially the sterilization business and they will be moving into larger new premises in the Q2 to cope with demand. There will be cost savings and thus higher margins due to cost savings from upscaling of the production line etc.

Telco business is still unpredictable and they see the growth coming from the software side although they see trends in Telco business in terms of years rather than quarters so I'm not expecting any significant upside on the telco side in the short term.

First customers will be connected the the new fiber project by Q2 but there will be little revenue this year as the first customers will be consumers rather than business and the revenue will mainly come from the business side. The CFO of BATM has been appointed the CFO of the new fiber consortium.

Not alot else of anynote, unless I missed something.

[james dean] 25/2/2014 15:59

T C -

It pains me too.

I am still looking at the bigger picture, albeit it is taking longer than I envisaged.

FSE agreed - the future does indeed look brighter IMHO.

Regards.

DYOR

[rob1ng] 25/2/2014 15:59

I suppose the directors will buy again when the share price drifts,usual pattern .i wish someone would take them over and split the company ,lots of cash and real estate up for grabs

[the crypt] 25/2/2014 15:43

visible fropm where ???? the pie & mash shop!!!! heh heh hay

[fse] 25/2/2014 15:42

I thought amt observations very much the points to consider. FWIW
hardly clown like ....
another maintains a stranglehold in that department LOL

[fse] 25/2/2014 15:33

We already knew the content of these results as we were given a complete update some time ago as to what to expect.
Will comment more on the results specifically later.
There are some sensible comments above in this thread from the likes of gclark #13526 and the realization that the Telco side could be sold off as it does have significant value due to the Israeli infrastructure contract.

Its not accurate that the medical division margins will stay the same as they are as reported receiving larger amounts from the re supply of reagents.
This can be achieved without increasing staffing costs.

The big problem here is that the company have disappointed consistently over the past many years along with a diabolically weak market which is hardly surprising.
They are finally starting to make real progress but its all been slow and tenuous.
Its not IMO a time to be dumping these.
That decision should have been made years ago.
I feel the company has already turned the corner and I feel many would share my take on this if they took time to carefully read what is in front of them.
I am hardly enamoured with all of this before I get accused of putting a good spin on the results.
The results are a disappointment that was expected and we already knew about, but progress is most definitely visible now.

[david_99] 25/2/2014 13:38

The problem is that there would seem little (if any) money to be made here from an investment perspective ... bulls have hung on in here for months, nay, years (multiple years) - and to be honest, it's dead money.

The biggest question/concern would therefore be, will BATM ever actually come good - my conclusion is, NO, certainly not given the direction in which the company is heading now.

The teleco sector is taking second fiddle to the lower margin, safe but not exciting, medical division.


Better to be invested in a share price that has some decent upside as opposed to this stagnant, boring, drifter.


In the absence of any ground breaking news from the company I can see the share price drift back towards the 12p mark.


AIMHO. DYOR.

[the crypt] 25/2/2014 12:28

interesting......................NOT

[landsker] 25/2/2014 11:14

zvi maroms boffins in the lab have just not come up with the ground breaking products he was forcasting at the turn of the millenium

[gclark] 25/2/2014 10:21

obviously the results don't make us all excitable. But the spin you can put on the loss is that it was not a loss which impacted the cash position for the year - it was the result of a large right off of intangibles from a corporate purchase in 2008. The continuing business is making a profit, only small profit though.
It is all about what we think the future is going to be, and I am optimistic, primarily because of the growth of the medical division. There will be a lot of repeat sales of reagents (and chemical entities?). Perhaps one of the biggest problems in the past has been the lumpy nature of telecoms contracts. Now we may get more consistency, hopefully!

[stesh] 25/2/2014 10:10

The Board is confident of delivering improved results in 2014 compared with 2013.
Identical to what was said in 2012 about 2013. Something more positive is needed
for shareholders to be confident about anything. Getting weary of this jam next year company.