Clinton Cards Share Discussion Threads

[s34icknote] 25/6/2009 18:41

wheres that broker with a 2p target! mmm!

[the big fella] 25/6/2009 13:38

Indeed. Only wishing I had bought more further down.

[longshanks] 25/6/2009 11:42

I wish I could hand my bank the keys to my house and then buy them back for £20K.

Lewin certainly has chuzpa. At the price he has agreed, you would have thought the 1400 employees of Birthdays could have come up with a better offer between them and put a big squeeze on Clintons market share to boot. Ho hum - good for Clinton's shareholders.

[handycam] 22/5/2009 22:58

£7m better off per annum is worth the current mkt cap alone. F/Cast was £11.5m. Now one can call it £17m, say.

[joshalexander] 22/5/2009 08:19

What is the current net debt? - looked high last time I looked.

[dusseldorf] 22/5/2009 07:41

Shroder - stores and revenue are meaningless if they are always loss making, yesterdays move just improved profitability by a potentially £7m / year or an additional 4p/share EPS or there abouts vs. with Birthdays. It's not PI's taking this higher, it's those with a longer view

[topinfo] 21/5/2009 23:45

"It is sad that we have reached this position but this action will be earnings
enhancing for Clintons and I have every confidence in the future of our
business."

[topinfo] 21/5/2009 23:44

Shroder...Administration for the loss making part of the business, the bit that is eating away at profits. Look at the positive forward looking statement announced, thats why its positive and the marekt loved it. Take a look at the volume and the trades, they werent PIs, they were the big boys coming back in after a soothing forward looking statement. This should test 30p 2moro.!!!

[shroder] 21/5/2009 22:38

I think it could have gone either way, normally RNS announcements with the word "administration" are not good news -

Fortunately the market took it as a positive step, but did anyone see this coming?

That's a heck of a lot of stores to lose not to mention turnover.

[mutleymagic] 21/5/2009 22:25

I've been in for a long time - hardly a peep on this BB for months, now its started to come back to life - as the price goes up - lol - MM

[topinfo] 21/5/2009 18:39

Financing and restructure in place...no resistance until 40pish...Oh and the best thing this has risen on merit and large buying instead of small PIs pumping the BB....Only a handful of posts today on here. Game on.!!!

[topinfo] 21/5/2009 18:17

30p time 2moro...look at volume today anf the rise was significant on a very red day on the mkts...closed intraday high so bodes well for 2moro..

[dusseldorf] 21/5/2009 14:30

Such strong buying indicating an institutional return IMO at this rate it could be 30p by end of week

[shroder] 21/5/2009 09:55

well i bottled it this morning, came out of left field but does indeed look good - well done if you held on!

[handycam] 21/5/2009 08:28

V. positive, as Empire states.

[empirestate] 21/5/2009 08:15

looking decent so far, forget about a non cash write down this is positive news for the future that decisive action is being taken to stop losses, ease pressure on funding and streamline the group ops

[empirestate] 21/5/2009 07:51

they the admin of birthdays will be earnings enhancing so it could go the same way as AXN when bay trading was put into admin ie seriously up

[masurenguy] 21/5/2009 07:42

Thats a £44m investment blown away in 5 years !
...............................................

RNS Number : 6074S
Clinton Cards PLC
21 May 2009

Administration of Birthdays Ltd
The Board of Clintons announces that it has taken the difficult decision that
Clintons can no longer continue to provide funding to its loss making subsidiary Birthdays. As a consequence, the Birthdays' business was placed into administration and three Zolfo Cooper partners were appointed as Administrators of Birthdays on 20th May 2009. Birthdays' Irish subsidiary, Birthdays (Ireland) Limited, has not been placed into administration and will continue to trade as normal. All of the Clinton Card stores operated by Clintons are completely unaffected and will also continue to trade as normal.

Clintons purchased the Birthdays' business in December 2004. Birthdays has
continued to incur losses since that time and, although its sales performance
has been improving, Clintons has had to continue to provide a significant amount of financial support. Given the current economic uncertainty and the structure of the Birthdays' business, the Clintons' Board believes there is little prospect of Birthdays generating a profit in the near future. Following deterioration in the wider economy since last autumn, approximately 50% of all Birthdays' stores are now loss making meaning that a solvent restructuring of the business is not considered to represent a viable solution. The Clintons' Board therefore believes that placing the business into administration is the right course of action as the funding of the ongoing losses of Birthdays has become unsustainable. It has therefore acted now to protect the stable core Clintons' business as well as its shareholders, staff and suppliers. Prior to placing Birthdays in administration, the Clintons' Board consulted with the Group's banks who confirmed their support for the Clintons' business going forward.

The 332 Birthdays' stores, employing approximately 2,100 people, will continue
to trade as usual while the Administrators explore all options available to
secure the future of the Birthdays' business. Clintons will continue to provide support services to the Administrators to enable the business to operate as normal in the near term.

Trading Update
In accordance with Clintons' stated policy to update the market with its
quarterly sales performance, it reports that in the 13 week period from 2
February 2009 to 3 May 2009 like for like sales for the Clintons group (the
"Group") were flat. This comprised a slight decline of 0.6% for the Clinton
brand and an increase of 2.3% for the Birthdays brand. At 3 May 2009 Clintons was trading from 692 stores, employing approximately 6,200 staff, and Birthdays was trading from 332 stores employing approximately 2,100 staff.

Given the timing of the Birthdays administration, coming relatively close to
year end, it will not have a material impact on the Group trading results for
the 52 week period to 2 August 2009. However the Group expects to incur a
non-cash asset write-down of approximately GBP44m, including all intra group
liabilities.

Clinton Cards Chairman Don Lewin said: "It is with deep regret that we have taken the decision to place the Birthdays' business into administration. Everyone at Birthdays has worked tirelessly to try and turn the business around and I would like to thank everybody for their hard work and dedication over the past 5 years.Nevertheless in the current environment, the Group cannot sustain supporting losses of approximately GBP7m a year at Birthdays with limited opportunity to improve on that performance in the foreseeable future. "Although this has been an extremely difficult decision it is my genuine belief that there is a significant element of the Birthdays' business that will have a profitable and sustainable future and there are still opportunities to make it a success. It is sad that we have reached this position but this action will be earnings enhancing for Clintons and I have every confidence in the future of our business."

[dusseldorf] 21/5/2009 07:40

So what's happening today then with the share price - Short-term financial impact, but longer term, Clintons is coming back and obviously prfoitability will increase...perhaps drop for a couple of days then steady climb?

[shroder] 19/5/2009 15:43

a nice slow burner this one -

[empirestate] 17/5/2009 20:20

i will be buying some of these tomorrow

[mr hangman] 30/4/2009 16:43

If you want some peace & quite go into a Clintons Cards shop, there is never
anyone in them buying their overpriced cards, supermarkets have nicked their
buisness,lol

[shroder] 30/4/2009 16:05

Oh dear are you one of the 6% still short of these?