Chieftain Share Discussion Threads

[veryniceperson] 01/11/2005 18:09

And still they nudging upwards and not on a lot of volume.

[veryniceperson] 17/10/2005 13:50

There seems to be a few sales today, but price is stable. Is somebody mopping them up?

[davidosh] 16/10/2005 02:18

Just spotted these too....

Seems a little negative to reduce earnings expectation for this year as guided by the compaany but not to then increase expectation for next year by the amount carried forward.....the announcement stated that the delay to the contracts would just mean profits booked next year not a reduction overall.

Does this suggest the delay will be creating so much extra workload in 2006 that other orders will be pushed back also into the following year or is the broker being ultra conservative with his 2006 expectation having missed the 2005 figures now??

I will personally be disappointed with less than 13p in 2006 if 2005 ends with 6.65p and the new order growth should deliver 15p+ in 2007 with the visability of some of these two year contracts. The lumpiness of the earnings however will not necessarily give an instant rerating but the dividend growth will soften the pain while we wait......this is a two year hold which is why the Aim move will do no harm in the grand scheme of things.

[penpont] 15/10/2005 19:43

Agree it would seem likely eps will be upgraded CR - the deferred stuff has to go somewhere and very poss some will come in a bit early...

Also poss they will be taken over but would prefer them to remain on the market - good ylds. hard to come by these days.

[cockneyrebel] 15/10/2005 19:01

I suspect these will get taken out in a bid Penpont. a forward PE of 7 and some nice longer term contracts.

Year end Dec 31 - I think they are likely to post an ahead of expectations at or after the year end as delayed stuff falls into this year imo.

CR

[veryniceperson] 12/10/2005 14:02

Moving back up nicely. Still worth holding and very illiquid.

[deswalker] 02/10/2005 13:59

Also happy to hold.

Earnings always likely to be lumpy for such a tiddler reliant on a smallish number of contracts. But the contracts are still there, they're confident about the future as shown by the divi, and they're hiring experienced people (who presumably aren't cheap) so they must be optimistic.

May add if the drop continues.

[veryniceperson] 02/10/2005 13:44

Hi Penpont

Been holding for 3 to 4 years now, I like the divi, it comes in twice a year about 3 weeks before the July meeting at Newmarket and 2 weeks before the Fakenham meeting in October. Treat it as a couple of free day trips. In all honesty I like the company they have no debt and will come good. Originally brought in for about 42p and very happy to hold.

[jeff h] 02/10/2005 13:17

I've held as it's a good income stock...not easy to buy and sell....it's earnings as you point out penpont are often lumpy, but disappointing news all the same.

[cockneyrebel] 02/10/2005 11:31

Sorry Penpont - I got lucky in that I sold a little while after the results when they started to drift and I lost my bottle. I had the intention/hope to buy back lower before the next results then they hit the news with this. Pretty poor in that it was so soon after the results that were more upbeat saying 'confident for rest of the year, revenue visibility good etc.

May be cheap now - I'm a watcher at the moment.

CR

[diogenesj] 02/10/2005 10:42

Bad luck, penpont. I did sell mine a week or two ago, for no reason except that the price was going nowhere, I didn't think they were particularly cheap any more, and I was nervous about the recent weakness in smaller company shares. I was caught holding them in my September Stockchallenge entry though, and knocked down to unlucky 13th place. Why the hell couldn't they have waited until Monday before warning? Cheap now, of course, but as you say they could be held back for a while after this.

[penpont] 02/10/2005 09:34

Am I the only one who'll admit to be still holding these?....

Fridays warning was a bit unfortunate given they only released results 3 weeks ago, but they still seem confident for next year.

Their reputation for earnings lumpiness will not be helped though and ultimately this may well affect the rating.

It's probably dead money here for a while until next results at least but I'm prepared to hold and take the good divis.

[madasafish] 02/9/2005 09:40

value will out. Eventually:-)


(I hold Emerald Energy: a similar story. Profitable, 100% successful drilling program, loads of cash, output doubling every 6 months and pirce going nowhere:-(

[cockneyrebel] 02/9/2005 09:35

well, as I was saying :-) .............there was alway a lot of unjustified gloom in the p[rice imo - looks like investors agree this morming - rightly so imo.

Should easily match last years earnings after todays statement imo, PE still only 8.5 and a 4% yield - looks cheap especially when you see the cash they have - 1.2m when the market cap is £6.4.

CR

[penpont] 02/9/2005 08:59

Interesting that despite the HI shortfall they didn't actually warn for the FY and in fact said 'The progress made in the first half gives us confidence for the remainder of the year'.

Bearing in mind that they made 6p of last years 8.7 in H2, and also taking into account the substantial recent order intake there seems every chance they will make a very strong second half showing.

Even if they dont quite make the 8. 9p predicted they should still be one of the lowest rated engineers out there and taken together with the excellent yld are well worth holding IMO.

[cb7] 02/9/2005 08:37

anticipated results for 06 look good, but thats some time away before they show through. In the meantime things look more subdued, a poor H1 means they have to motor in H2 to just to match expectations, (which may be lowered). The best that can be hoped for is that the share price tracks sideways. More realistically and looking at the graph a break below 60p looks more likely.

[jeff h] 02/9/2005 08:25

I've added on the medium term outlook

[veryniceperson] 02/9/2005 07:57

I would expect to see them marked down, but still good long term. An increase in dividend is nice.

[cockneyrebel] 02/9/2005 07:41

disappointing. but looks like a lot more could balance up in H2. You have to think there isn't much fatored into the shareprice at this level either, not with the cash they have. A buy if they dip significantly perhaps.

CR

[veryniceperson] 02/9/2005 07:31

Chieftain Group PLC
02 September 2005

2 September 2005

For immediate release



Chieftain Group Plc ('the Group')



Unaudited results for the six months ended 30 June 2005





Chairman's Statement



Introduction



As reported in my last Chairman's Statement in March, the Group experienced a
slow start to 2005. This is reflected in results for the first half which show a
profit of £1,000 against a profit before tax of £302,000 in the corresponding
period last year.



Although this figure is modest, it disguises the very substantial progress made
at an operational level over the period. Our order intake in the first half of
the year was £12 million, increasing our order book value to £25 million. This
compares with an order book of £18 million at the end of 2004, an increase of
39%.





Dividend



As a sign of confidence in the future and recognising the strength of the order
book, the Board has declared an interim dividend of 1.25p per ordinary share,
representing a 25% increase on the corresponding figure for 2004.





Financial Overview



Turnover for the period was £4.7 million, slightly down from the £4.8 million
achieved in 2004. After the slow start, profits are reduced by additional
management costs incurred in securing major contracts which are scheduled to
commence in the second half of the year. Earnings per share were 0.01p, against
2.43p for the first half of 2004.



The Group traded throughout the first half with a cash surplus, ending the
period with funds of £1.2 million. The bank facility of £1.5 million was unused
during the period.





Operating Review



We have been successful in winning a number of major contracts for pipework
fabrication which are now in production.



The labour supply sector of our business also continues to make good progress
with an increased client base over the period.



The mechanical services sector of our business is now trading strongly and we
are confident of tendering for major long term maintenance contracts which will
provide a sustainable quality profit stream.



The Group continues to trade in its long-established business of outfitting of
sea-going vessels and offshore oil and gas platforms, underpinned by long-term
contracts for the outfitting of the Astute class of submarine.



Our environmental services activities have continued to expand geographically to
all parts of the UK, servicing work for prestigious national clients.





Other Developments



In May, the Group successfully transferred to the AIM market from the Official
List. This is regarded by the Board as a more appropriate market, given AIM's
growing reputation and the Group's ambitious plans for growth.



We were delighted to obtain the internationally recognised certification to ISO
14001: 2004 Environmental Management Systems Standard Approval. This is
testament to the hard work of our employees and reinforces the Group's quality
offering to customers.



We were pleased to welcome a number of new senior personnel to the Group during
the first half.



In January, we appointed Mr Chris Fleetwood to the Board as a Senior Independent
Non-executive director. Chris' services have been very much appreciated since
his appointment.



Mr Malcolm Oliver, with many years of industry experience, joined the Board in
February and he is now responsible for developing the company's mechanical
services operations.



In order to strengthen our Company's culture of safety, health, environmental
and quality management, we promoted Mr Ralph Brown to the board of our wholly
owned subsidiary, R. Blackett Charlton Ltd. Ralph has been with our Company for
the past 7 years.



An addition to the team in the near future will be Mr Tony Jester who was
previously with Aker Kvaerner Engineering Services Ltd, where he worked with Mr
Malcolm Oliver for a number of years. Mr Jester will join the board of R.
Blackett Charlton Ltd.





Outlook



We have set ourselves challenging targets for 2005 and are working hard to
achieve these. The progress made in the first half gives us confidence for the
remainder of the year. More importantly, the contracts signed during the first
half provide the Group with good visibility on revenues for 2006, and the
operational steps taken during the first half to prepare for a rise in activity
levels serve to confirm that the Group has firmly laid the foundation for
significant and profitable expansion in 2006 and beyond.



P Wardle

Chairman

2 September 2005



For further information, please contact:


Chieftain Group Plc Tel: [phone]

Buchanan Communications
Eric Burns Tel: [phone]

[madmix] 01/9/2005 11:19

Hi,

Looks like they usually put out results at 7am, though I see that their Finals on 19th March 2002 were released at 3:12pm. Interestingly, these results were good, so no reason to suspect they're trying to slip out bad news whilst the market isn't looking.

Cheers,

Chris

[chessfou] 01/9/2005 10:40

As per my TMF post - maybe they were out late celebrating the capture of young Mr Owen.

At the moment I'm simply assuming they saw no reason to rush for a 7.00 a.m. release (lunchtime?). They obviously don't realize that we're all waiting with bated breath.

[veryniceperson] 01/9/2005 10:07

Perhaps there something big in the offering (or bad) who knows! But they should be out soon.

[penpont] 01/9/2005 08:38

I notice that on the company website financial diary they say:

'Interim results - TBA (August 2005)'

So, obviously going to be later than that - hopefully not too much.