Business Direct Share Discussion Threads

[granny7] 27/2/2008 08:10

MM's hope for very cheap shares has'nt materialised yet,maybe if everyone holds on they will hold up abit! Dammed if I'm giving them mine for 1.5p.

[dibbs] 26/2/2008 23:05

New board, same problems! They still seem unable to read the business going forwards given the forecast improvement that has failed to materialise.

"The Board now expects the pre-tax loss (before exceptional items) for the 12
months to be of the order of £3.4m (2007 13 months: £1.9m). Accordingly, the
result on that basis for the second half is now expected to be worse than the
£1.6m reported for the first half, rather than the considerable improvement
forecast in the Interim Announcement of 18 October 2007."

I luckly have no position here, but contine to follow BDG. I think that putting out RNS's after hours makes a company look very naive in the extreme. Do they think that no one will notice or that people will have forgotten by the morning! It is one of my pet hates that says a lot about a company for me. It leaves me wondering what else they might be trying to hide away...

Dibbs

[funkyceo] 26/2/2008 22:23

Guys, you seem to forget that apart from Tim Houstoun the board is all new management, the CEO only joined Feb 2007 and all of which have put their own money in.

[granny7] 26/2/2008 21:13

As I know that the BDG office looks at this site,may I suggest that they put their hands in their pockets and buy tomorrow to shore up the share price They seem to have cost the company enough so time to give back huh!!

[8trader] 26/2/2008 19:20

Market cap of 5 million at this price + debt.

It's way overvalued now, you can buy numerous stocks debt free
and profitable for around that amount or even less so it wont
be pretty tomorrow.

[topdoc] 26/2/2008 19:09

No wonder CEO got booted of Business Post. They have been saying profit in sight since 2005. So now it has become 2010 if they still have cash to survive. In addition this extra funding for 44 months comes at the expense of their German operation.Agree with Granny hardly worth selling

[granny7] 26/2/2008 18:14

Hardly worth selling tomorrow if the price is hammered!

[funkyceo] 26/2/2008 18:06

Am i missing something - the improvement in the 2nd half would have been there (i.e better than the 1st half) if they didn't have the £.06m exceptional costs?

Is this not good news that they have off loaded the loss making Watford location and £.6m from costs for the next few years?

[tara7] 26/2/2008 16:59

Well, that was nice of them, NOT. however not bust yet, we can only hope a few deals are on the cards, or a bid for parts of the group. 40%-60% off at 8am?

[barn owl] 26/2/2008 16:47

Yet another naughty AIM stock that issues a profit warning after hours!
Slap slap.

[cyberpost] 26/2/2008 16:32

Trading Statement




RNS Number:8014O
Business Direct Group Plc
26 February 2008


BUSINESS DIRECT GROUP PLC


Trading Statement


Business Direct (BDG:AIM), the leading specialist provider of logistics
solutions to the field-based personnel market, provides a trading update ahead
of its intention to announce its results for the year to 31 January 2008 on or
around 29 April 2008.


The Board now expects the pre-tax loss (before exceptional items) for the 12
months to be of the order of £3.4m (2007 13 months: £1.9m). Accordingly, the
result on that basis for the second half is now expected to be worse than the
£1.6m reported for the first half, rather than the considerable improvement
forecast in the Interim Announcement of 18 October 2007.


The shortfall can primarily be attributed to three main areas. Firstly,
Specialist revenues, which fell short of expectations by £0.8m as the
pre-Christmas peak and a one-off project in January 2008 failed to materialise,
albeit, the latter is still expected to happen. Secondly, whilst In night
revenues held up, the mix reflected more bias towards In-boot work which
generates a lower margin than ParcelXchange work. Thirdly, there are additional
overhead costs resulting from write offs of Balance Sheet items.


Relative to the 13 months to 31 January 2007 (on a 12 month pro rata basis),
unaudited management accounts for the year to 31 January 2008 show an increase
in both turnover (by approximately 5%) and gross profit. The adverse variance is
in the area of overheads as the new management team invested substantially for
the future in people, processes, and service enhancements.


Commercially, a considerable amount has been achieved in the year, with a
financial benefit that is mainly in the future.

* The In-Night Division:

- increased ParcelXchange occupancy to 60% from 51%;

- established and secured substantial contracts for its in-bound freight
service from Germany (which contributed significantly towards a 25% increase
in divisional turnover in the second half relative to the first half);

- trialled a P.U.D.O. (manned pick-up, drop-off) service with a leading
trade distributor of building products; and

- tested a B2C ParcelXchange solution aimed at consumers ordering goods online.



* The Specialist Division:

- secured a 5 year contract with Computacenter;

- moved from a fixed to a variable cost model;

- enhanced its IT systems;

- renewed its vehicle fleet; and

- traded out of some low-margin accounts.



* The Worldwide Licensing Division:

- was established to lease ParcelXchange internationally;

- secured its first customer; and

- entered discussions about possible business with several other very large
entities.


So as further to improve the prospects of the Specialist Division, the Board has
decided to close the under-performing Watford location. This will entail an
exceptional charge in the year to 31 January 2008 of approximately £0.6m, but is
expected to generate annual savings of the order of £0.6m.


With net debt at 31 January 2008 totalling £3.8m, the Group has recently secured
substantial further funding for its future working capital and capital
expenditure requirements. This totals £2.2m and derives from the sale to a
specialist funder, Total Asset Limited, of future receivables arising from the
Jungheinrich European in-bound freight contract. The agreement has a term of 44
months and involves the Group receiving the discounted value of future revenues
at today's value.


The Board now considers that an underlying pre-tax profit is unlikely in the
year to 31 January 2009, but believes that substantial progress will be made
towards a break-even result, with further substantial financial progress being
achieved in the year to 31 January 2010.


Commenting on performance and prospects, Business Direct's Chief Executive, Paul
Carvell, said: "The Group has been through a difficult period of restructuring
and reorganisation. With most of this now behind us, we are confident that the
strategy we have adopted is capable of delivering long term value for our
shareholders."

[granny7] 18/2/2008 15:57

Better late than never!

[scottie01] 18/2/2008 15:55

aww well a few weeks late;)) results shortly so could be interesting.

[scottie01] 30/1/2008 18:51

might get a tick up tomorrow,l2 3v1

[granny7] 30/1/2008 12:25

Surprised there's not abit more interest here with the preliminary results out in March.

[scottie01] 29/1/2008 20:30

Probably be deleted granny.

[granny7] 29/1/2008 11:13

Late reported sell of 283,334 @ 2p....Friday also had a sell of 283,334 @ 2p.

[granny7] 28/1/2008 18:36

Surprised they never issued a RNS with this news so that the market can keep up with developements at BDG.

[tara7] 28/1/2008 16:36

This is a big contract, 500 service engineers, plus spare parts.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[funkyceo] 28/1/2008 16:23

Euro inbound proving a winner

[tara7] 25/1/2008 16:54

well if they have stock, they would slash the price to off load it, they are fine buying in at 2p, infact they love it.