Civica Share Discussion Threads

[rogerl] 19/10/2004 14:18

I have this as a long term hold, it seems a good solid business with lots of upside and little downside an investors stock not a speculators stock

[johnroger] 19/10/2004 14:00

LONDON (AFX)- Civica PLC, a software and IT services group, said it expects
full year trading to be in line with the groups expectations.
The group said revenues were driven by a number of public sector contracts
during the past financial year.
The IT group has agreed in principle to buy Vehicle Intelligence LTD, a
provider of vehicle data to the UK Police and Government departments, having
recently completed the 14.2 mln stg acquisition of Radius LTD.
Meanwhile, Civica said it has won a ten year contract with the Royal Borough
of Kingston-upon-Thames to provide managed software and IT for the Council's
parking department.
[e-mail]

[johnroger] 16/10/2004 20:41

Times Online 16/10

Civica, the software house floated on AIM at 175p in March, hardened 1p to 203p on talk that Monday's pre-close trading statement will be upbeat. Shore Capital believes that Civica is well positioned across key public-sector markets, and believes its local government and criminal justice operations are trading well.

[johnroger] 23/7/2004 13:56

IC rates Civica as a buy

23 July 2004

CIVICA (CIV)

183p - software services - The chancellor's recent spending review is welcome news for local-authority software supplier Civica. The review's intention is to step up efficiencies at local government level. So, since over 90 per cent of its revenues comes from the public sector, Civica is well-placed to benefit. Its shares have marked time since joining Aim in March at 175p but, at current levels, they're worth a closer look.

Civica was formed two years ago when Sanderson Electronics went private with the backing of venture capitalist Alchemy. The company supplies software that is used for benefits systems, library management, and parking enforcement, as well as legal and environmental applications. Although Civica may not be a household name, it's behind the transactions of 15m citizens and businesses. The customer base spans over 700 local authorities in the UK, Australia and the US.

Third-party software accounts for three-quarters of total sales, but higher margins are achieved in proprietary software and managed services. The latest results confirm that Civica has secured 15 new customers and that it has beaten the targets it set when it floated.

Recent contract wins include a five-year deal with Kent Police to supply automatic numberplate-recognition software. With heightened security measures currently in place in the UK, Civica hopes the system will be more widely adopted - indeed, contracts have already been signed with eight forces.

Other recent wins include a five-year contract in the London borough of Southwark, worth £1.3m, to provide software for the administration of road-traffic legislation. Its system issues tickets and automates payments. Civica is the market leader in this field, issuing over 2m tickets a year.

The current pipeline of new business is at record levels - 10 per cent ahead of last year. This is a highly fragmented sector, estimated to be worth £2bn, and Civica is keen to make acquisitions. Altium has a price target of 245p. Buy.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ord price: 183p Market value: £83m
Touch: 180-185p 12-month High: 203p Low: 174p
Dividend yield: 1.0% PE ratio: 14*
Net asset value: 147p Net debt: 22%




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Year to Turnover Pre-tax Earnings Dividend
30 Sep (£m) profit (£m) per share (p) per share (p)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2001 77.5 6.47 - -
2002 91.4 6.75 - -
2003 90.3 9.32 - -
2004* 100.0 8.60 13.2 1.8
2005* 96.6 9.70 15.0 2.0
% change % change +13 +14 +11

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Market makers: 5
Normal market size: 5,000
*Seymour Pierce's estimates
Last IC view: 18 Jun 2004, page 47

BULL POINTS
Shares trade at discount to peers

Heavy exposure to public-sector work

Record tender list

BEAR POINTS
Limited track record as listed company

Competitive trading environment

[rogerl] 23/6/2004 10:21

up again today - looking good, I.C is right on this one

[aly48] 19/6/2004 14:02

Apparantly there was a buy note in IC yesterday

[rogerl] 18/6/2004 10:51

up again this morning - steady as she goes

[rogerl] 16/6/2004 17:26

Rising on comment as I predicted after the results. A couple of shrewd aquisitions (plenty of cash in the bank) will amend market perceptions to a growth stock with PE 18/20 as stated by Tech, giving a target price of around 270-not geewizz but fairly certain IMHO

[tech] 16/6/2004 14:39

Still very much undervalued. Would expect a PE of 18/20 for this stock.

[johnroger] 16/6/2004 14:32

Comment from the Independent

Civica stands out in tech sector and is worth buying

Civica, the software business supplying local authorities and police forces, beat expectations with maiden interims yesterday and looks decent value for intrepid technology investors.

Although it focuses on the public sector, it is not dependent on the public spending cycle for its turnover. Its software drives various initiatives for efficiency improvements in the public sector; a theme dear to the heart of Gordon Brown.

It announced a new contract win yesterday with the Kent police force to supply car number plate recognition systems - a good example of the type of business it is involved in.

It came to the market in March at 175p and the shares yesterday were 193p. For the six months to the end of March sales were up 19 per cent at £52.5m and profit before tax was up 12 per cent at £3.8m. Turnover rose across all three main areas of its operations. Software systems were ahead from £33.9m to £41.2m. Managed services, such as processingroad traffic penalty notices in the London borough of Southwark, was up from £5.3m to £5.6m, and Civica's consultancy business sales rose from £4.8m to £5.5m.

Civica shares are on a price earnings ratio for the current year of about 14. In a technology sector where many valuations are looking stretched, this stands out for its fairness. Buy.
16 June 2004 14:30

[johnroger] 16/6/2004 14:18

aly48 - thanks for the Citywire post.

[aly48] 15/6/2004 22:03

Good set of results, you get the feel right from the start that this is a strong company, not always the case with companies coming to AIM

Good article on City wire .............


Civica maiden figures vindicate shrewd backing
Published: 11:42 Tue 15 June 2004

IT software and services company Civica today showed the sort of form and prospects that encouraged so many shrewd investors to pile in at its AIM flotation in March.

Civica (CIV) specialises in consulting and IT systems for local authorities and the criminal justice system. As Citywire highlighted, we found no less than nine shrewd investors taking a stake at the placing in March, at which time Alchemy Partners, the investment company of maverick entrepreneur Jon Moulton, sold down its stake to 38.8%.Today the company reported turnover for the six months to March of £52.5 million, up 19% on the previous year. Gross profit rose 14% to £16.3 million and pre-tax profits were up 12% to £3.8 million. Diluted earnings per share before amortisaion and exceptional charges were 5.4p, up from 4.9p. The company generated net cash at 156% of operating profit, leaving it with some £6.1 million in the bank at the end of March. Civica has bank borrowings of £20.5 million.Chief executive Simon Downing told Citywire that Civica has strong domain expertise in areas such as revenues and benefits, parking services, life-long learning, and it uses this in its consulting business to help local authorities improve efficiency and often to secure central government funding for system improvements.If it does its job right it should then be able to 'pull through' its own software to provide the systems required to run these local authority functions.What would have interested the shrewd investors, who include the likes of AAA-rated fund manager Giles Hargreave, AA-rated John Dodd of Artemis, A-rated Bob Brown, Carl Stick at Rathbone, Framlington's George Luckraft and Brian Watson and former fund manager Leonard Licht, is both Civica's track record and its prospects.The company has been going since 1987. Alchemy bought 1104 in when the management bought the business out from its parent Sanderson Group in January 2000.Apart from being profitable and cash generative when it came to market this year, Civica's prospects look better than ever as one of the handful of major IT suppliers to the local authority sector. Competitors include Anite, Northgate Information Systems and ITNET, and each of these is benefiting from increased government spending on joined up government as well as the drive to improve efficiency and cut costs within local councils.To date, all of Civica's growth has been organic, but it has identified some 'gaps' in its portfolio, such as for example housing and social care, and it intends to fill those gaps in order to have a complete offering for local government. To that end it is looking for appropriate acquisitions, and Downing said there are still a large number of specialist niche players, ripe for consolidation
As well as growth through acquisition the company is increasingly providing its software as a managed service, thus building contracted and recurring revenues. Two recent wins include a three-year, £1.7 million deal with Transport for London and a five-year, £1.3 million deal with Apcoa parking to provide services to Southwark Council.
Civica is also looking at bidding for larger, central government projects, and believes its new profile as a public company will help with this.
House broker Seymour Pierce is looking for sales of £100 million, (boosted by some exceptional sales of Microsoft software) profits before write-offs of £9.6 million and earnings per share of 13.2p this year. For next year it expects turnover of £96.6 million, £10.7 million profit at 15p per share of earnings.
Shares are up 2.5p at 193p. The broker says that at 14.8 times this year's earnings and 13.1 times next year's the shares are at the low end of the peer group, which is at an average of 17 times.
Citywire Verdict:
There does seem to be enough on the horizon - organic growth through managed services and central government and acquisitions – to make this an interesting growth story.
The price does still look reasonable in the current market, but since flotation the shares have bounced around a bit having been issued at 175p and gone as high as 200p.
Still, the shrewd money is in there and for the longer term Civica looks a fair bet.

[rogerl] 15/6/2004 10:24

Interims look good - t/o +19% GP +14% PBT +12% Cash Flow +156% of OP, Div 0.6p Full details on their web site www.civica.co.uk.
Positive comments suggesting ahead of budget, confident of finals ahead of budget.
Looks like the good solid company I expected and the shares should show a steady rise once the newspapers get round to commenting on the results. Well done Civica.

[johnroger] 08/6/2004 21:25

Interims due June 15th - should spark some interest.

[johnroger] 09/4/2004 15:52

Techinvest continue to rate as a buy at 189p

[rogerl] 04/3/2004 10:18

Up 4.5% this morning, after the weekend tipsters it will do better.

[johnroger] 03/3/2004 12:40

Comment from the Times
March 02, 2004

Technology back in favour after Civica's debut
By Nick Hasell
Smaller Capitalisation Shares



AIM followers were heralding a resurgence of interest in technology new issues after Civica, the software house which marked the junior market's biggest flotation this year, jumped 8 per cent in first-day dealings.
The £45 million offering was seen as a test of both investor's appetite for IT stocks and the corporate finance skills of Seymour Pierce, the sponsoring stockbroker,m which is typically used to smaller fundraisings. On those counts, Civica - which develops software used to process penalty tickets for bus lane and parking infringements - was an unalloyed success. The shares, placed at 175p, closed at 189p, giving Civica a stockmarket value of £86 million.



If last year's flotations of Northumbrian Water and Center Parcs UK - which both raised money prior to admission - are set to one side, Civica marks the largest such AIM fundraising since that of PRI Group, the insurer, in June 2002

[wole] 02/3/2004 16:47

It is one of the safer bets. It will double in price before most are aware of it! One hopes they keep the news flowing since these guys win contracts and orders ever so often...

[rogerl] 02/3/2004 12:10

Looks good and expect various pundits to recommend in the comming weeks, may not be the most exciting on the block but should be safe punt on 12 month view. Bought in today at 193.

[wholden] 02/3/2004 05:56

looks good for a long term punt. imho

[johnroger] 01/3/2004 20:59

Techinvest rate as a buy

[wole] 01/3/2004 17:56

Decent start to Civica's public life. Closed today at 187/191p. Not that many sellers also.
Given the issue price was 175p this looks like a good buy for now.
Definitely worth monitoring at least.

[wole] 27/2/2004 18:44

Plenty of upside IMO: Ratios as of 27/02/04.CompanyPEMktCap/TOCapita37.972.028LogicaNegative1.256Civica8.60.878