Benchmark Share Discussion Threads

[gucci] 10/3/2014 13:21

im in today

[aishah] 10/3/2014 13:21

Aah, didn't realise that. Anyhow I looked at them a few days later at couldn't see a value justification. I guess those eqd forecasts now have hit home how stretched this is at the mo.

[simon gordon] 10/3/2014 13:05

The actual price when SCSW tipped them was 125p and their followers were paying 140p+. 105p is a figment of SCSW's imagination, it was at that price for a very brief moment. Not cricket! Those SCSW followers are probably going to have a long wait to see 140p again.

[aishah] 10/3/2014 13:01

Agreed. Was surprised when SCSW made them a Nap @105p.

[stegrego] 10/3/2014 12:54

Still looks incredibly expensive here.

Cant see how this can be valued at more than IPO price at the moment, 68p.

That still makes it 52x 2015 and 16x 2016.

A lot of growth expectation priced in even at 68p, so at 100p its hardly a bargain...... and at 140p, which some loons were paying, its postively barking.

[gucci] 10/3/2014 12:24

buyers come back in

[nw99] 10/3/2014 11:43

Thanks stock looks to be a buy around these levels

[aishah] 07/3/2014 15:52

Vauation looks stretched based on those eqd forecasts imo.

[nw99] 06/3/2014 15:38

Very weak any news ?

[simon gordon] 26/2/2014 11:16

BMK have funded the cost of a broker note from Equity Development - 26/2/14:

Forecasts:

2014
T/O - 30.4m
EBIDTA - 1.5m
EPS - minus 1p
Net Cash - 8.4m

2015
T/O - 41.9m
EBIDTA - 4.4m
EPS - 1.3p
Net Cash - 3.3m

2016
T/O - 51.6m
EBIDTA - 9.4m
EPS - 4.2p
Net Cash - 8.1m

2017
T/O - 61.8m
EBIDTA - 13.8m
EPS - 6.8p
Net Cash - 16.6m

[hydrus] 17/2/2014 17:50

Mont this is already fully valued - more likely to be the reason for lack of movement

[simon gordon] 17/2/2014 16:03

FT - 17/2/14:

Slow supply growth raises 'peak salmon' fears

Could the world be facing "peak salmon"?

Strong demand and slowing production growth have sent prices to record highs, making life good for salmon farmers.

Export prices from Norway, the world's largest farmed-salmon producer, hit more than NKr50 ($8) per kg at the end of last year due to supply concerns.

Worries about "peak fish" – akin to the theory in oil circles of output peaking before declining due to limited reserves – have been around for years, but "peak salmon" could now turn into reality.

"The rise in prices is driven by the fear of lack of supply," says Piotr Wingaard of FishPool, which trades forward contracts for salmon. "It's very difficult to see substantial volumes coming through."

As a protein food and a leading source of Omega-3, a healthy fatty acid, demand for salmon has been soaring from developing countries as well as the US and Europe. Some industry experts and conservationists warn that the farmed salmon sector – which accounts for two-thirds of the salmon consumed in the world – is approaching capacity limits.

The issues surrounding the industry include falling availability of wild fish used as feed, geographical constraints in salmon farming, disease and environmental concerns.

One of the constraints to output is the accessibility of fish oil. Farmed salmon are mainly fed pellets made of, among other things, fishmeal and fish oil, and although feed companies have cut the fish meal content to 15 per cent of the pellets, they have yet to replace fish oil, the source of Omega-3, produced mainly from wild fish in Latin America.

"The peak in wild ocean fish means peak salmon," says Andy Sharpless, chief executive of Oceana, a marine conservation organisation.

Growth in salmon farming is also constrained by the handful of countries where profitable production is possible. Salmon is grown in clean, cold water with steady currents and protected coastlines, such as the fiords of Norway or the sea lochs of Scotland.

Each production area has a limited output capacity due to the potential threat of disease and environmental damage. Due to local opposition, competition from other industries such as tourism, and concerns about the ecological effects of farms, such as pollution and sea lice infestations, new sites are increasingly hard to launch.

Most countries regulate the number of farms and licences offered, with Norway – which accounts for slightly more than a half of the world's farmed salmon production – for example, not extending licences since 2009.

Production capacity for aquaculture is likely to be on the agenda this week as government officials, leading importers and exporters and NGOs gather in Bergen, Norway, for the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation's biennial forum for fish trade.

With 2014 expected to become a landmark for the fish industry, when consumption of the farmed fish surpasses that of wild varieties, they will also be discussing new developments that will help the salmon sector avoid reaching production constraints.

The elimination of bottlenecks will only bring you marginal supply growth
- Ejnar Knudsen, AGR Partners
As "fracking" allowed oil producers to release crude oil previously thought inaccessible, experts are hoping new technological developments in fish farming will help increase output growth.

On the feed issue, some companies are looking to extract Omega-3 from algae, while Monsanto is researching soyabeans that produce the fatty acid.

In order to reduce the amount of time the salmon spends in the ocean farms, companies are seeking affordable ways to lengthen the period that the salmon spend in on-land facilities.

AquaBounty, a US biotechnology company listed on the UK's junior Aim market, is looking to commercialise genetically modified salmon, which grow faster than the normal fish. There is also research under way for offshore salmon farms, say researchers.

Ragnar Nystoyl of Kontali Analyse, a research group specialising in fish, acknowledges that offshore production raises competition issues with other sectors, such as the oil and fishing industries, while access to land is an issue when trying to increase onshore farming.

"However, if demand continues increasing and prices continue rising, then these options will be more and more viable," he says.

It's great to be a salmon producer today and it looks like it's going to be great in the intermediate term
- Frank Asche, University of Stavanger
In the worst case scenario for salmon production, output will plateau, says Frank Asche, a marine economist and professor at the University of Stavanger in Norway.

Even with such breakthroughs, some experts are doubtful that additional supply will keep up with the growing demand, estimated at 5-10 per cent a year.

"The elimination of bottlenecks will only bring you marginal supply growth," says Ejnar Knudsen at AGR Partners, a California-based private equity group with a food and agriculture focus. He sees future production capacity being limited to slightly more than 3m tonnes, just 14 per cent higher than it is now.

The combination of limited supply growth and the push for healthy eating expected to keep demand growth for salmon buoyant means prices are expected to remain high.

"It's great to be a salmon producer today and it looks like it's going to be great in the intermediate term," Prof Asche says.

[montynj] 17/2/2014 12:19

Great news today. Company is still under many investors' radar hence the lack of movement today

[blondviking] 17/2/2014 07:47

Good news today, should lift profile higher. Very happy to sit with this one & watch it grow
- Benchmark, the international animal health, technical publishing and sustainability science business, is pleased to announce the purchase of aquaculture vaccine and development assets from animal health company Zoetis Inc. for a US$3m cash consideration. The deal also sees Benchmark acquire a worldwide license to utilise specific Zoetis 'know how' to help drive the future research and development of these aquaculture vaccines.

In addition to vaccine research and manufacturing equipment the portfolio acquired includes a number of developed and partially developed vaccines, seed stocks, isolates and vaccine technologies, which together very significantly advance Benchmark's aquaculture research programmes, and substantially complements the Group's existing research base.

[dlku] 17/1/2014 21:39

Landsdown Partners are buying, 5% all the way to 13%.Trying to get hold of all they can. They probably also bought your stock as you have sold out 10 days ago 25p lower. lol


Look back in 2 years at £4 i reckon

[stegrego] 17/1/2014 21:37

Diku,

They bought in the placing at less than half this price.

Would they buy now..... NO.

[dlku] 17/1/2014 21:30

apologies. edited but stop your deramping filth




Long may the mercury rise!!



Nice to see Jim Slater / Mark Slater buy a 3.5% holding in Benchmark


sic itur ad astra!!

[dlku] 17/1/2014 21:26

Long may the good times continue!!!!!!

[simon gordon] 17/1/2014 21:18

Good piece on high ratings:

FT - 17/1/14

Valuations: Is this nuts?

By Paul Murphy

Investors appear to have taken leave of their senses, pumping cash into projects regardless of profitability

This week Google agreed to pay $3.2bn for a privately owned four-year-old start-up. Nest specialises in smart gadgets for the home, such as a WiFi-enabled thermostat that might cut heating and cooling bills.

Whether Nest, founded by former Apple executive Tony Fadell , is worth $3.2bn, no one can say. The consensus among the technorati and in financial circles is that Google paid so much simply because it could, and it does not really matter anyway since it is acquiring the services of Mr Fadell, who helped develop the iPod.

Is this a sane approach to business investment? While macro strategists tell us that US companies in particular are over-investing in the face of sharp deflationary pressures and shrinking margins, is it really too cloddish to ask again whether, in a world awash with easy money, a combination of tech-fever and feverish greed has caused investors to lose touch with reality?

Fifteen years have passed since the Great Dot Comedy. The era has been mocked ever since, yet many specific instances of craziness have been forgotten or brushed away.

In the same way that a company can invest $3.2bn in a man producing thermostats and smoke alarms, there were similar examples of investors betting fortunes on individuals before those people even had a business to invest in. In short, investors were prepared to pay a premium for cash.

All that was needed was for three or four well-known business figures to band together and express their interest in acquiring something in the field of the internet. They could then list the resultant shell company, raise cash and watch as the value of their sole asset – money – set off in the general direction of the moon.

Investors suffered a collective psychotic episode. The fact that successful businesses depend on sane business models, which bring in customers and profits, had been scrubbed, temporarily, from their minds.

Yet, 15 years later, it is considered dull, stupid or both to question the $40bn valuation afforded Twitter. As the tech analysis team at London brokerage Aviate told clients at the time of the initial public offering: "The opportunity for Twitter is to become the largest real-time delivery system, large enough and pervasive enough to exert noticeable 'pressure' on the overall internet itself." Twitter, we were told, is "all about now".

Since the messaging service joined the New York Stock Exchange in November, Silicon Valley has continued in its role as a seemingly magical valuation creation machine. This week Square, the mobile payments business, was valued at $5bn after a private placement that allowed a number of insiders to cash out $135m of stock. There is no discussion of profitability anywhere near this. Revenues might get a mention but only as a secondary matter to market share.

These bubbly valuations are not restricted to west coast tech. With stock market indices also pushing to record highs in Europe, there have been a string of examples of listed company valuations parting ways with traditional valuation yardsticks. Asos, the London-listed fashion portal, is trading at almost 100 times forecast earnings. Ocado, an online grocer that has yet to turn a clean profit in 13 years, has been re-rated as a tech company, quickly doubling its value to more than £3bn. Moncler, an upmarket Italian ski jacket maker, surged 44 per cent when it listed recently in Madrid.

Similar dynamics are visible in other asset classes. Irish sovereign debt yields little more than UK Gilts, despite the trauma of Ireland's banking sector collapse; the yield on Portugal's 10-year government paper has fallen 30 per cent in four months.

All of these valuation movements, from Palo Alto to Lisbon, can be explained away individually. Maybe rich Russians will flock to Moncler's Alpine shops this season; Asos might achieve its global ambitions; and the thermostats of the future may be smart and beautifully designed.

But it is clear they share a common fuel: quantitative easing. Cheap money has given us a period of "wild abandon", says Andrew Lapthorne of Société Générale. Roll on QE4.

[dlku] 17/1/2014 20:45

Significant Shareholders
hxxp://www.benchmarkplc.com/investor-relations/aim-rule-26/



Director shareholding
% of issued share capital
Roland Bonney
11.1
Malcolm Pye
11.1
Ruth Layton
11.1
Jim Muirhead
3.99
Paul Cook
3.70
Significant shareholders as at 18 Dec-2013
% of issued share capital
Invesco Asset Management Limited
16.49
Lansdowne Partners Limited
13.56

Slater Investments Limited
3.48
Hargreave Hale Limited
3.30



Didn't mark slaters dad (Jim Slater) write ZULU principle. Highly interesting that ZULU master has been buying

[painter] 17/1/2014 15:30

Sold GLA all who still hold. If this turns out to be a ZULU stock after a few reports I'll be back.

No clue how to value it?

[bench2] 17/1/2014 12:21

This was a very difficult stock to value at issue and even more so now . My only conclusion why there is a steady stream of buyers ( and they are now paying 141p ) is that the issue was very well placed with Green / Environmental , Biotech growth investors and LT private clients who are used to special situations , such as Genus etc selling on sevral multiple of sales when in their infancy . All applicants were scaled back by circa 40 % , and most are prepared to sit this out as there are so few alternative UK listed companies that tick this box . This is also a bull market phenomenon , where caveat vendor is important as you need to find a better idea to switch into . Also momentum investors do well in this environment . BMK is not alone just look at Royal Mail the buy hold investors are winning vs the traders .