Blancco Technology Share Discussion Threads

[robow] 16/3/2017 09:48

Hargreaves Hale took the opportunity to increase

[weatherman] 15/3/2017 12:55

Was it a profit warning?

"In erasure, Blancco grew its sales at a rate of 10% on an underlying constant currency basis, which is a performance below the long term trend. The root cause of this slow down was insufficient headcount in the direct sales force, which with hindsight we did not expand sufficiently over the previous financial year, when the revenue line grew by 35%. From a sales force sizing perspective, strong performance with large orders over the previous financial year allowed the business to expand revenues ahead of its sales force capacity.

This sales force sizing issue has been addressed in the half year just ended, in two ways, driven by our new Chief Revenue Officer, Steve Holton. Firstly, we have added 17 new direct sales employees across our geographies, which has begun to grow the sales and pipeline in the second half of the year. Secondly, we have built out the partner business development function announced in our last results, with five relatively senior hires..."

The company is trading on 5x turnover, which suggests it is still not cheap despite this hiccup. Time will tell whether this is a short term blip, but the troubles of NCC show what can go wrong with rapidly growing cos.

[tournesol] 15/3/2017 12:24

I had a large holding in Blancco which had done very well and was up about 30%.

Yesterday I sold first thing and saved myself losing 20% of my stake.

That is not panic, that is good management.

When/If I return I will have more money to reinvest than would have been the case if I had stayed put.

[chasbas] 15/3/2017 12:15

Hi velod....maybe the CFO's resignation was not that sudden given that he has been immediately replaced by a quality interim CFO...the CEO states: "the board remains confident in delivering market expectations for the full year."
Can I point out that Panmure Gordon (joint broker) published a long supportive note + long notes from Edison and Equity Development. ED are running a webinar tomorrow. Does this mean: 1. Blancco is rubbish and needs lots of positive support - a sign of weakness or 2. There is a fundamentally positive story to tell? Institutions are clearly buying quite big.
Time will tell. My personal view is that private investors panicked out yesterday and will regret it. In one year I bet Blancco will report a stonking H1 and, importantly, the figures will be clean. Good luck everyone.

[varies] 15/3/2017 11:29

Edison Investment Research has just initiated coverage with a long article (16 pages).
I am working my way slowly through this but see that they forecast "strong profitable growth".
They explain why the balance sheet has deteriorated but I have my reservations.

[velod] 15/3/2017 10:44

Chasbas - contrary to your assertion that no profit warning has been issued, a shock resignation of the CFO without any advance warning or reason given, IS a profit warning.

[velod] 15/3/2017 10:36

Overall a well reasoned post Weatherman, but I'd take issue with your inference that sales are poor possibly due to a lack of sales staff.

. . . When sales are slow or down you've got to be able to say each salesman is breaking budgeted sales forecasts so if only we had more sales staff we'd do more of the same.

. . . Unless the current sales staff are breaking their sales targets then I don't think more sales staff producing similar mediocre performance can be held as the remedy alone.

[weatherman] 15/3/2017 09:40

Some small buying this morning. What seems to have happened, partly reading between the lines of the statement, is that the company was experiencing slower growth due to insufficient numbers of sales staff. They say they are trying to resolve this. Also there may be a lack of focus on recovering unpaid bills. This may have been laid at CFOs door, hence his removal. Just guessing on this last point. I am thinking of reinvesting once it becomes clearer that the slow down is sales is just a short-term hiccup. So I think the price will hover around current levels for a few months, but I may be wrong.

[brummy_git] 14/3/2017 16:28

Research out earlier from Equity development

www.equitydevelopment.co.uk/edreader/?d=%3D%3DgM3IjM

[chasbas] 14/3/2017 16:26

BTW there is clearly some institutional buying

[chasbas] 14/3/2017 16:24

IMO and at risk of appearing hopelessly naive: despite disappointing numbers and shock departure of CFO this was NOT a profit warning. Assuming management sheds some light on Thursday during webinar re departure of CFO I think the share price will stabilise...nothing fatal has happened to the business, just growing pains particularly re the establishment of new and larger sales channels. Remember this business cannot be easily or quickly replicated by competitors.

[mfhmfh] 14/3/2017 15:27

interesting note by equity development today.

panumure gordron and peel hunt target prices unchanged.

[bulltradept] 14/3/2017 14:10

Perhaps around the £1.97 - £2.20 mark might add some value for people looking to take a punt on it?

[rivaldo] 14/3/2017 10:06

Nurdin, I use Barclays and was lucky that there seemed to be some demand out there on the bell, so could get rid of some stock online. After the first minute or so it became a lot more difficult!

I feel sorry for the pre-open buyer at 308p...

I also noticed this:



"ITRenew Prevails in Patent Non-Infringement Lawsuit Against Blancco

by ITRenew | Mar 9, 2017 | News from ITRenew - An Industry Leader in ITAD Solutions, Relevant - 3 Vulnerabilities - blog post | 0 comments

Suit dismissed after two separate examinations by a Blancco-appointed expert found no evidence of infringement by ITRenew’s Teraware

ITRenew, an industry leader in IT asset disposition (ITAD) and data sanitization software for large-scale data center decommissioning, today announced that the company’s patent non-infringement lawsuit brought against Blancco Technology Group has been dismissed. Blancco had been court-ordered to file infringement claim by March 2, 2017, which would have required the company to produce actual evidence of infringement. Blancco instead filed stipulation for voluntary dismissal after two separate examinations of ITRenew’s Teraware by a third-party digital forensics expert found no evidence of infringement of a Blancco patent covering a particular method for erasing data from solid-state drives (SSDs).

“It is extremely unusual in such cases that a countersuit asserting actual infringement is not filed, which speaks clearly to the irresponsible allegations made by Blancco,” said Aidin Aghamiri, vice president of corporate strategy at ITRenew. “By filing the voluntary dismissal, Blancco effectively retracts its unfounded allegations, but that’s not what the company will lead the public to believe.”

With no good faith basis to assert counterclaims, Blancco contends in a press release it issued last week that Teraware uses compressible data, and any system that uses data compression is a security liability. According to ITRenew’s director of product management Matt Mickelson, who was closely involved in technical analysis of the patent claims, Blancco’s position is both inaccurate and misleading.

etc"

[ali47fish] 14/3/2017 09:45

this is the most rediculous scenario of a company that hs been presented by the managers as incredibly innovative and in a niche business and we get an rns which seems to read positively and then we see a n share price in free fall- well i hope i have done the right thing and sold as well

i am curious what on eartyh they are going to say in the webinar in 2 days time?

[ny boy] 14/3/2017 09:29

Avoid when a CFO departs suddenly

[chasbas] 14/3/2017 09:11

Disappointing results + unexplained departure of FD = shock factor but no profit warning for future. Fundamental positives remain intact. I'm a buyer

[nurdin] 14/3/2017 09:04

I could not get a market quote with TDW..... fill or kill didnt work either.Who are you with Riv ?

[rivaldo] 14/3/2017 08:53

I too sold out today, largely first thing on the bell at around 295p.

At this high rating the management, numbers and prospects need to be clear and trustworthy. Management seem to be all over the place - the CFO's departure so quickly is indeed a bad sign. The numbers seemed somewhat lacking, and prospects good but maybe pushed out further into the future with the problems in sales force recruitment and costs therein.

As tournesol said, too many red flags. Back on the watchlist.

[petes5] 14/3/2017 08:27

Got out first thing this morning. Could not make head nor tail of the debt or most of the numbers. If its not clear to me what is happening its time to get out, plus the CFO change. Have held these for a while and still believe its a sector to be in, but I shall be watching from the sidelines for now. Good luck to those still holding.

[tournesol] 14/3/2017 08:17

CFO has departed 6 months after being appointed. No explanation given.

Red flag.

I've sold.

[pj 1] 14/3/2017 08:13

A little worrying as to what is behind the Board changes (again)