Compass Share Discussion Threads

[warranty] 05/1/2006 15:23

I would have thought Panmure dropping their claim of Compass bugging meetings would raise the price not drop it but hell what do I know???

[dhb368] 05/1/2006 11:46

A couple of 2m delayed O trades followed 3 mins after they showed up by approx 850K shares sold within a few seconds.
This share is fairly fragile and that probably scared a few ppl into sells.
Volume is still low and I would expect to recover most of the drop unless further delayed trades show up.

[betman] 05/1/2006 11:27

anyone seen a reason for sudden 4p fall, any clues on level 2 of a big seller

[warranty] 05/1/2006 08:48

Hope you're right evil with no nasty surprises. Revised bid talk would do me for a quicker hike in the SP, it must be a snip at this if things are really recovering.

[gulliverr] 04/1/2006 12:11

Good thinking. 2006 should see a steady rise to former levels.

[evilwebby] 03/1/2006 21:18

If this is any sort of a meaningful recovery, ~252p is the first target that must be taken out in order to post a higher high, and then the gap filled back up to 310p.

I'm buying CPG as a turnaround play and improving fundamentals rather than charts!

[warranty] 03/1/2006 19:37

Any of you chartists see a resistance point in the offing or are we likely to keep rising?

[evilwebby] 30/12/2005 14:33

You can never quite tell with CPG, but perhaps October 2005 will prove to be a watershed, and we have begun to reverse a 6 year slide.

Have we reached the bottom of a heavily cyclical market? If so, CPG could easily do an RSA or AZN in 2006. Dipped my toes in a few weeks earlier and hope to stay long throughout next year.

[dhb368] 18/12/2005 01:03

The following should help the share price If the price is correct its much more than I expected.

Benetton behind £1.4bn offer for Compass arm

A subsidiary of Benetton, the Italian clothing giant, last week made a £1.4bn bid for the retail food and drink arm of Compass, the troubled catering giant.

It is understood that Autogrill Group, which is 56 per cent owned by Benetton, is the only catering company to have been shortlisted in the auction of Select Service Partner, which is being sold by Compass as part of a restructuring.


Autogrill has 4,200 outlets in 15 countries and employs around 50,000 people

The other bidders are all thought to have been financial buyers, which are unlikely to be able to match the Italian company on price as they will have no operational synergies.

Whitbread, the hotels and leisure group, is understood to have expressed an interest but is not thought to have been included in the six-strong shortlist being draw up by bankers at Citigroup, the advisers to Compass.

Autogrill is one of the largest operators of motorway service stations in Europe and also has operations at airports and other travel outlets in the US. It has 4,200 outlets in 15 countries and employs around 50,000 people.

However, the UK is seen as a glaring gap in its European coverage and the group believes it will be able to substantially improve the quality of food on offer to travellers at the UK's railway stations and motorway service areas.

"These guys are the biggest sellers of coffee in Italy; you don't get to do that unless you do it well," a person familiar with the group said yesterday. "Autogrill claims to be the world's leading supplier of food to people on the move. That is their core business and they do it well."

Despite being majority-owned by the Benetton group, Autogrill is listed on the Milan stock exchange, where it is capitalised at around €3bn (£2bn). Last year the company earned revenues of €3.2bn, two thirds of which were generated outside of Italy.

SSP includes Moto, Compass's motorway service stations, Upper Crust, the railway sandwich shops, Millie's Cookies, the biscuit outlet, and Harry Ramsden's, the fish and chip restaurants.

Compass put the division up for sale in September after a tumultuous year which included a string of profits warnings, the announcement of the departure of the chairman and the chief executive and unwelcome involvement in a corruption scandal linked to catering contracts for the UN.

Compass has been embroiled in the investigation after a subsidiary, Eurest Support Services, was accused of involvement in corrupt buying practices for contracts relating to feeding UN peacekeepers. Compass has asked a law firm to carry out an internal investigation and has dismissed three senior managers.

In November the company announced that its profits had fallen from £645m to £581m after it was obliged to write down assets by £140m in the second half. Roy Gardner, who succeeds Francis Mackay as chairman of Compass next year, is leading the search for a replacement for Mike Bailey, the group chief executive, who said he will step down as soon as a replacement is found.

[sandeepgupta] 13/12/2005 14:23

what is happening to the price. More bad news in the offing ?

[bot_man] 12/12/2005 21:58

funny share this what way they going?

[amla] 07/12/2005 16:11

So what are we hoping for...250p?
Chart does'nt look so bad and they have SSP for sale,which should get a good price if there's a bidding war.It's about time the business was sorted out as it seems enormously unwieldy and cumbersome.Inherited these at £550 and never sold...idiot me.Lesson learned but it hurts all the same!

[wolfhound] 30/11/2005 06:58

Increase in free cash flow may permit LBO.

[warranty] 29/11/2005 20:28

Both probably tobler but who cares as long as it's up???

[tobler] 29/11/2005 16:42

good strong finish today...anyone any ideas why...pure relief at no more bad news, or bid rumours circulating again??

[careful] 29/11/2005 13:42

12 Billion turnover!
that is a lot of prawn sandwiches and turkey twizzlers.

must be worth a punt.

[strutt12] 29/11/2005 08:02

Above news already priced in compass shares have dropped 17% so far.
Looks like the recovery is on its way.

[jaafar1] 29/11/2005 07:49

Compass profits plunge
29 November 2005 07:14:00
Contract caterer Compass Group reported a plunge in profits for the last year as it said the UN investigation was ongoing and it would attempt to control costs going forward.

In October Compass instructed Freshfields to conduct an investigation into the relationships between ESS, IHC and the United Nations, eventually discovering the possibility that there had been improper conduct and a failure to comply with its statement of business principles.

"The investigation is ongoing and, as yet, no final conclusions have been reached," said Compass.

The group delivered a pre-tax profit on a reported basis of £171m, down54% on the £370m achieved last year while turnover rose 7.9% to £12.7bn in the period from £11.7bn. Underlying profit fell 10% to £581m.

"In the UK, cost pressures are expected to remain a significant challenge, however, actions are being taken to deliver a robust contract base with the aim of achieving a similar level of profit to that in 2005," said Compass.

The total dividend per share goes up 5.4% to 9.8p from 9.3p.

[halogen] 29/11/2005 07:35

Bonus 6.5>>>its a start.

[halogen] 28/11/2005 08:59

Divi wise what we looking at for tuesday ?

[5bertie] 12/11/2005 16:21

gulliverr. Steady as she goes, so far so good. Good luck and greetings.

[waldron] 11/11/2005 07:32

Compass Group prepares for 1 bln stg Select Service auction - report

LONDON (AFX) - Bidders for Select Service Partner, Compass Group PLC's
travel concessions arm, will next week be sent an information memorandum on the
business that could be sold for more than 1 bln stg, according to The Financial
Times.
The newspaper did not name its source, but said it is understood trade
buyers looking at SSP include Macquarie of Australia, Elior, the French contract
catering group Sodexho Alliance, Italy's Autogrill and the UK's People's
Restaurant, which is backed by Permira private equity, which bought Little Chef
from Compass in December 2002.
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