Bond International Share Discussion Threads

[jonwig] 06/4/2011 08:27

Cenkos have

PBT £2.00m, eps 3.40p, dps 0.90p for 2011 and £2.90m, 5.40p, 1.00p for 2012
'Buy' dated 05/04.

[boadicea] 05/4/2011 23:16

Asagi - ".... its the recovery I'm holding for."

I would question what we should mean by recovery. It can't and mustn't 'recover' to where it was - that's how we got into the current mess.
The economy has a vast mismatch of resources and demands.
Why are some sectors desperately short of the human resources they need in a time of supposed underemployment?
At least this shortage is one reason why the recruitment services sector hasn't been quite as hard hit as I might have expected.

Our (UK-wise) problem is the inability to produce what is needed and saleable. One might have added, "at an economic price", two years ago, but the slide in the pound has cured that to some extent. Now we just don't have the capacity. So recovery will entail a slow build up; it can't just be turned on like a tap.
And the last thing we want is a "recovery" in the financial sector so they can repeat the gross misallocation of capital that caused our downfall in the first place - i.e. lending to non-productive causes that lacked the ability to service their debts; lending against assets way above their cost of creation; churning assets for a slice of every churn.

As a country we expect other parts of the world to supply us with cheap goods made by people who are not provided with the welfare benefits we award ourselves. Those benefits are provided largely by the taxation applied to UK output costs and in particular are borne by employers in one way or another. Is it surprising that we find it difficult to be internationally competitive?

It worries me that the virtue in this respect of VAT is not more widely appreciated. It is charged on imports and rebated on exports. If it were the main source of UK tax revenue (ok, that would require a higher rate and/or wider application), so that employers' NI could be eliminated (as possibly the most damaging tax we have) I believe the whole economy would be revolutionised to the advantage of all.

Sorry - I've gone a bit o/t there but feel better for getting it off my chest!

[asagi] 05/4/2011 16:22

The acquisition of VCG completed on 12th November.

From my quick calculations, in 2009 sales to the US contributed 42% of group sales in H1 and 39% of group sales in H2.

In 2010, sales to the US contributed 37% of group sales in H1 and 42% of group sales in H2.

I cannot read much into that.

Anyway, I don't care much about the past. The economy has gone through a horrible panic-stricken recession, its the recovery I'm holding for.

Asagi (long BDI)

[wjccghcc] 05/4/2011 14:56

Agreed jonwig.

[jonwig] 05/4/2011 14:54

WJC ...

Your comment about schools services is a bit incomplete. They say:

Strictly Education has had another successful year with revenues increasing by 51% to £4,906,000 compared with £3,252,000 in 2009 and operating profit before amortisation increasing by 73.7% to £563,000 (2009: £324,000). The growth has been achieved through a combination of organic growth and the acquisition of Strictly Education Solutions in July 2010. This acquisition has also added the ability to provide schools with additional services such as ICT support and ancillary services such as cleaning, special needs assistants and grounds maintenance. The government's announcement to allow schools to apply for academy status has allowed Strictly Education to offer assistance and it is in the throes of helping over 50 schools go through the necessary steps to achieve this, with many more in the pipeline.

So they've acquired a bit which includes those services.

Perhaps it will be classed as non-core if things don't work out. There would be plenty of buyers.
From past experience (I was a teacher) schools are very open to cross-selling of facilities; for obvious reasons ... not enough on-site experience, perpetual change imposed from above, etc.

Diluting something 'highly cyclical' obviously looks bad if you expect the cycle to turn up. At other times the view might be rosier!

[wjccghcc] 05/4/2011 14:24

Still got most of my MCGN - 3 bagger so far and I reckon will get bought out in the next 2 years if Aptitude keeps growing.

I'm trying to talk myself into buying here but I worry they've diluted the highly cyclical recruitment software to only 50% of the business now so any bounceback won't be as significant as the last cycle. I also worry that a software company has diversified into providing "cleaning, special needs assistants and grounds maintenance" for schools.

[rivaldo] 05/4/2011 13:56

Mas, jonwig :o))

True WJ. Instinctively however (and I haven't looked yet to prove this) I think that BDI have been investing heavily in new software for products just launched or about to launch, so the level of R&D for the last couple of years may be disproportionately high?

Don't talk to me about MCGN, I thought I'd done well selling at (from memory)around 100p :o((

[masurenguy] 05/4/2011 12:55

Hah - fancy bumping into you here riv - this has just gone back onto my watchlist too ! :o)

[wjccghcc] 05/4/2011 12:20

riv, I don't mean always to come across as mister negative but that 3.31mm operating cash inflow is a bit of a con - they conveniently ignore the 3.26mm they spent on R&D which for me is part of a software company's operations. Net that off and they're still only operating cashflow breakeven.

I agree things should improve from here but if they expensed all R&D like MCGN or IGP, I'd be a bit more enthusiastic.

They also seem to have a bit of a mishmash of businesses than a few years ago when I last held them.

[jonwig] 05/4/2011 12:13

Hi, Rivaldo.

Long time since our paths crossed!
For the past year and more I've been moving into large-caps and fixed interest (mostly prefs), so this kind of share is a novelty for me now. It's an age thing, I think.

[rivaldo] 05/4/2011 11:44

Yep, BDI are back on my watchlist.

Compare a £16m m/cap or so with the £3.31m operating cash inflows last year for a start! And almost all that cash inflow was in H2...

Then you have the Constellation stake as mentioned above.

Watching closely.

[jonwig] 05/4/2011 10:44

Two years since I last held these, but I bought back in this morning - the only trade showing

A surprising lack of interest, especially since they are calling the bottom and the revenue stream looks more secure each year.

The stake held by Constellation is surely significant - they do takeovers, not just passive hanging around.

[ammons] 05/4/2011 07:12

Nice set of results this morning

[boadicea] 05/4/2011 00:27

With only half a dozen or so modest trades on a typical day it's not difficult for someone with a foot in the door to get the price down by strategic selling in order to set a low base price for a subsequent offer.
Equally, it could be loss realisation to offset gains for cgt purposes.

There are a lot of odd price movements in the less liquid shares at the moment, incidentally creating buying opportunities for the brave, but they require careful picking.

[sper] 04/4/2011 13:05

This fall was a surprise to me and a huge concern, although I hold only a small number of shares in the grand scheme of things. Everything I hear from colleagues I have in the recruitment sector (and there are quite a few predominantly London based MD's and recruiters) indicate business is on the up. If that is the case, whilst I can still see pressure on BDI, it should mean some alleviation of risk or pressure on recurring business.

[spooky] 01/4/2011 13:43

Anybody got any thoughts on Bond,they have been going straight down ever since i started looking at them.My inclination is to believe that they have to be worth more than today's 46p but there is obviously someone who disagrees with that view.

[spooky] 01/4/2011 12:07

Anybody got any thoughts on Bond,they have been going straight down ever since i started looking at them.My inclination is to believe that they have to be worth more than today's 46p but there is obviously someone who disagrees with that view.

[markt] 17/1/2011 15:46

Micheal Page up 4.4% with over 1M shares traded....

with strongly rising chart...

...it is a user of Bond Software I believe....as is Hays and other major recruiting companies...

[markt] 13/1/2011 19:16

....a buy went thru of 25k shares at 55p today....for bdi its sizeable...

[sper] 12/1/2011 16:20

I hold these but am sitting on a loss. It's only a small amount and I was in for the long term. I know Bond, they were a supplier when I worked in the sector. Not sure if that works to my benefit or not :-)

[markt] 12/1/2011 13:05

...no one else watching this one ?!

...recruitment companies have all reported better trading..Hays, Page, Manpower etc..and their shares have gone up noticeably....

...I am assuming that Bond will follow suit....(Bond supplies the S.W. to these cos and I beleive gets a payment related to jobs processed.....)

a lot of turnover is recurring....SaaS...

share price at 1/2 of turnover....too cheap imo....small murmur of ok news or a contract and I think share price could go to 75p area in shortish time without too much volume needed, illiquid for large volumes....

...and trade of over 200k a few days ago ...a buy...big holder(s)increasing their stake(s)...while p.i. sell a few days shares due to boredom, lack of news....small murmur of ok news or a contract and I think share price could go to 75p area ....and the big holders will be proved right, imo...

[markt] 07/1/2011 12:38

...just been looking at the past Constellation deals...

...looks like Constellation is planning or 100% expecting that Bond will make further acquisitions in the future....if that was from Constellation then it would make sense...(or a company that Constellation has a large stake in...and Constellation has stakes in various companies and various subsidiaries inside Constellation)..

Constellation can NOT convert its 4M convertible shares (at 75p/share) unless the total number of shares of Bond is increased massively ...'cause Constellation is already at or close to its agreed limit of 24% of the total

[markt] 07/1/2011 11:22

....250k traded...

rns soon ?

Constellation increasing their holding ? or ?

or maybe a personal buy by the new director on the board from Consellation....if he likes what he has seen inside bdi