Brightside Group Share Discussion Threads

[masurenguy] 20/6/2012 06:30

Hmm........I wonder what that is all about ? He is both a co-founder of the company and also the largest shareholder. He has already been 'airbrushed' out of their website ! Holman was only appointed as a main board executive director 3 weeks ago. The omission of any "appreciation" of Banks contribution to the development of the business and the absence of any "best wishes" for the future does not suggest an amicable departure. The AGM is scheduled on Wednesday next week so perhaps that might shed some
light on this very sudden and unexpected departure.

RNS Number : 7291F
Brightside Group PLC
20 June 2012

DIRECTORATE CHANGE

The Board of Brightside advises that it has accepted the resignation from the board of its CEO Arron Banks with effect from 20 June 2012. The board has recently focused on succession planning and the Company's current insurance broking director, Martyn Holman will take over as CEO with immediate effect. Arron has taken this opportunity to step down from the board to review his options and will
remain focused on his private interests.

[simonh88] 07/5/2012 15:23

Interesting and informative post Masurenguy.

It does seem like a company which is steadily going places and having worked for a competitor on the software side of things (Innovation Group), I'd say their software offerings is several years ahead of TIGs already, which does bode well for the future.

I will put this on my watch list

[masurenguy] 07/5/2012 13:51

There has been considerable dilution since the IPO in January 2007, via 3 subsequent placings and a share issue, to raise further funds to finance acquisitions. This has somewhat 'muddied' the financial metrics over this period. There were originally 20.7m shares, valued at 69p, at the IPO in January 2007 providing a market cap of circa £14m. Subsequent dilution can be summarised as follows.

56m shares @19p in June 08 raising £10.6m
(250m shares also issued in June 08 as the balance of consideration due for Aust acquisitions).
90m shares @22p in Dec 09 raising £20m
36m shares @25p in May 10 raising £9m
Current shares in issue total 456m, with a market cap of £93.5m at Fridays closing price of 20.5p.

Once the outstanding deferred consideration payments for eCar and eBike are made in 2012 & 2013, they should have completed their phase of acquisitive growth and should then be able to focus on synergetic organic growth within these consolidated operations and also introduce a maiden dividend. With eps of 3p projected for the this year they are currently on a prospective PER of just 7.

Low liquidity is a fairly consistent feature of most AIM stocks but at least in this case two fifths of the shares are held by half a dozen institutions with circa 14.5% in free float after excluding insider holdings.
In relative terms that provides a reasonable level of liquidity for the vast majority of PI investors.

[simonh88] 07/5/2012 11:28

it does look like a well-run company and it's a company that came on my radar earlier in the year when I nearly applied for a job there, but decided against due to the location and poor holidays.

What does put me off though is the fact that about 85% of the shares are tied up making them illiquid

[masurenguy] 04/5/2012 10:04

Someone is bullish and bought 2.8m shares @20.5p (£574k) last week. This is well below the reporting threshold (0.6%) and it can't be an existing major shareholder since that should have triggered an RNS.

After the results Edison issued a bullish summary. "We forecast further growth in normalised EPS in 2012 (19%), which leaves the shares on a very modest valuation. The underlying business is cash generative; this raises the prospect of dividend payments once deferred acquisition costs have been met in 2013."

[molatovkid] 04/4/2012 11:19

bought a few of these yesterday myself...looks like a good. well run profitable business.

[masurenguy] 24/3/2012 16:14

No idea but with insiders & 6 institutions owning 85.6% of the shares, the free float is comparatively illiquid.

[nurdin] 24/3/2012 14:04

What is the NMS in this stock please?

[masurenguy] 24/3/2012 13:03

The Edison Note projects sales of £91.1m, PBT of £19.4m and eps of 2.99p for 2012. Their current valuation is based upon a PER 10.4 x 2012, after a 20% discount to reflect low share trading liquidity,
which results in a target share price of 31p, representing an upside of 47% from Fridays close.

[stegrego] 24/3/2012 07:40

New note out.

Cheap as chips.

[crawford] 23/3/2012 17:41

Also a 1.2m trade showing late on - someone was keen today!

Makes me thing it could be someone connected to the company as the buys started early - they wasted no time after the blackout period being lifted.

[masurenguy] 23/3/2012 16:22

Some consistent buying here with 848,000 shares bought, in what appear to be 15 connected transactions, within 5 minutes at around 3.00pm. I wonder whether we will see a Holding RNS next week.

[crawford] 23/3/2012 09:29

Masurenguy,
I was about to say the same thing, those buys certainly aren't PI's :-)

[masurenguy] 23/3/2012 09:23

Some interesting programmed Buys now appearing. Looks as though they could be institutional or insiders.

[masurenguy] 23/3/2012 07:38

I think that they are reasonable - the rate of return against their overhead base will also increase once the deferred consideration for the recent acquisitions has been paid off. The latter should also trigger the initiation of a dividend too.

The current share price does not reflect the value of the business in my view (trailing PER of circa 9.5) but it is a consequence of the overall lower ratings that are currently applied to the financial sector in general. I think that the share price will be rerated in due course especially when dividend payments commence.

[crawford] 23/3/2012 07:25

Masurenguy,
do you think my growth forecasts are accurate? Any growth should be largely at the cost of low increasing overheads?

[crawford] 23/3/2012 07:23

Slightly below forecasts I'd say but then the share price is underperforming these results.
2.05p EPS.

With growth of around 30% a year, I think these are worth 25p minimum right now.

[masurenguy] 23/3/2012 07:16

Good solid set of results although the growth in eps of only 14% in H2 was was much less than
I had expected after such a strong first half performance.
__________________________________________________________________________

RNS Number : 9224Z
Brightside Group PLC
23 March 2012

Financial Highlights
* Revenue increased to £80.4m (2010: £66.2m), up 21.5%;
* Profit before tax increased to £13.6m (2010: £10.1m), up 34.7%;
* EBITDA before exceptional other income and share based payments charges increased to £18.5m (2010: £13.5m ), up 37.0%;
* Earnings per share increased to 2.05p (2010: 1.48p), up 38.5%
* £10.8m of cash at bank and in hand available for general purposes.

Operational Highlights
* Insurance policy sales increased to 444,189 (2010: 339,916), up 30.7%;
* Lead generation increased to 311,251 (2010: 220,121), up 41.4%;
* On balance sheet premium funding of new loans increased to £117.2m (2010: £67.6m), up 73.4%;
* Medical reporting increased the number of instructions received to 37,431 (2010: 35,934), up 4.2%;
* Quote Exchange, E--Systems and eDevelopment acquisitions successfully completed during the year;
* In February 2012 the Group acquired MMT Centre Investment, who own Brightside's head office building.

Commenting on today's results, Arron Banks, Chief Executive of Brightside said: "2011 was the ninth successive record year for Brightside and has seen a 35% increase in profits before tax, 39% growth in earnings per share and 31% growth in policy numbers. We have made great strides towards our goal of becoming a become a major distributor in the UK insurance market with further development of the eCar panel, continued growth in our ancillary businesses and the acquisition of eSystems and eDevelopment which further add to the suite of broking assets held by the Group to create a fully integrated specialist insurance broking model. The Board of Brightside views the prospects for 2012 with confidence."

[masurenguy] 22/3/2012 14:12

Results for 2011 are due tomorrow.

A reminder of the year end TU issued on 27/01/12: "The Board is pleased to report a solid trading performance at the end of last year and therefore expects to report results for the year in line with
the expectations set at the time of the E-Systems and eDevelopment acquisitions in November 2011.
This will represent a record year for Brightside, reflected in a significant increase in reported Earnings
Per Share. The balance sheet remains strong and well supported by operational cashflows."

I'm looking for eps of circa 2.4p/2.50p, which would only give a modest trailing PER of around 8.

[masurenguy] 01/3/2012 13:53

Just a bored punter selling out. Only three transactions so far this week, totalling 25,500 shares ! The fundamentals remain strong and unless there is an unexpected fall in new business it is just a question of patience being rewarded. It also offers a good opportunity to top up too !

[crawford] 01/3/2012 12:32

Selling at 18p again, oh dear. The chart has yet to break that downtrend but the pressure must be considerable with the business performing well.

[masurenguy] 29/2/2012 08:42

In their y/e trading update the company stated that: "The Board.....expects to report results for the year
inline with the expectations set at the time of the E-Systems and eDevelopment acquisitions in November 2011. This will represent a record year for Brightside, reflected in a significant increase in reported Earnings Per Share. The balance sheet remains strong and well supported by operational cashflows."

Last years eps was 1.48p so I would expect that a "significant increase" should constitute at least 20% so that could mean an eps in the year just ended of circa 1.8p. If that proved to be the case then the trailing PER at todays shareprice would be circa 10.8. With the likely continuation in future profit growth, the PER based on next years profits should drop into single digits which would be well below the sector average especially for a cash cow like BRT. This should be more quantifiable when the final results are published in 4 or 5 weeks time at around the end of March - begining of April.

[crawford] 03/2/2012 10:56

Reminder on outlook:

" The Board therefore remains confident of delivering significant earnings growth in 2012 and for the foreseeable future."

[crawford] 03/2/2012 10:54

MM's walking this up, will now make a killing from the cheap shares they took on board.

[masurenguy] 02/2/2012 18:25

Nice close - that late reported Sell of 1.67m could be the recent seller exiting - we'll have to wait and see !