Comptoir Share Discussion Threads

[torabora] 24/4/2006 21:48

How cheap is this company? It has rents of 6.5m comming in p/a. Property in the books [at cost] 65m pounds.Todays Going rate to buy commercial property is on a 4.5/5.5% yield. If the lot was sold off on a 5% yield it could pull in 130m pounds.This would give 65m pounds of uplift to add on to the 15m nett assets in the accounts. That gives us around 80m pounds. Less a big hit of capital gains tax, however if they change over to a REIT in Jan 07, this will fade away into a little 3 m pound hit So we are left with 77 m pounds = A share price of £16.90p. Todays share price is £5.50p to buy ie just one third of what the real value might be.

[maestro.] 23/1/2006 01:07

Business Focus

The dotcom boom is back. Will it last this time?
Less bubble less squeak. The web is now in the hands of big players less likely to get caught in the mouse trap

By : Tony Glover - Technology Editor January 22, 2006

THE GROWING NUMBERS OF investors convinced the dotcom boom had returned got the fright of their lives last week. Their nightmare started when a little- known Japanese internet company, Livedoor, was raided by Japanese investigators last Monday. So overwhelming was the panic caused by the news, which added to worries about oil prices, that the selling of Japanese technology stocks forced the Tokyo Stock Exchange to close its doors for trading – for the first time in a generation.

The Nikei 225 Index fell nearly 6% on Tuesday and Wednesday. Fears that the good run in technology stocks over the past year might be about to come to a painful end quickly spread to Wall Street and other markets. The Dow fell 213.32 points or 1.96% to 10667.39 on Friday erasing all gains for 2006. It was the worst session since March 2003. The S&P's 500 shed 1.83% to 1261.49. The Nasdaq slumped 2.35% to 2247.70, its biggest decline since August 2004 as the markets succumbed to mounting fears about earnings.

By Monday, it is likely that traders will have relaxed and reverted to their previous belief that a new tech boom has just started. But for all investors, the events of last week raise a fundamental question which demands an answer: will the new dot.com era last or will it turn into a bust like the previous one, wiping out hard-earned savings and dashing the hopes of millions?

This is an especially important question in Japan where share prices in Tokyo surged by 40% last year. Livedoor had been a favourite stock among small investors in Japan. Investors panicked on hearing that the company was being investigated by Japan's Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission. Its offices in Tokyo's Roppongi Hills were raided after allegations that it had mis-stated losses from its 2004 results and spread false information to boost its share price. Television pictures of the raid were flashed around the world, spooking investors.

Frightened Tokyo brokers stopped accepting Livedoor shares as collateral and demanded that investors cover their trading positions with cash. As clients were forced to sell in a falling market, other technology stocks were dragged down.

Japan's dotcom flu soon started to mutate into a global pandemic. Lower-than-expected profits from Yahoo and Intel last week were seized upon as evidence that tech stocks were in deep trouble.

News of good earnings from two other technology darlings, Apple and eBay, were also viewed with suspicion by investors; even Google, the world's favourite dotcom stock, suffered. The Wall Street Journal, although noting that Google's profits are still climbing and that analysts are generally upbeat about its prospects, added this warning to its report last week: "But few investors are focusing on the growing number of restricted shares and options that Google is handing out to employees which will emerge as a sizeable expense in the next few years."

By the end of the week calm had partly returned in Japan. The panic was over and the consensus among analysts was that investors had over-reacted to the Tokyo crisis. By Thursday, the market was even able to keep its poise even after absorbing disturbing news that 38-year-old Hideaki Noguchi, a senior adviser to Livedoor, had been found dead in a Tokyo hotel. The Nikkei Index recovered around 2% with internet and technology stocks leading the way.

But there were plenty of scars left -- and in the US at least the worst was yet to come. The first signs of trouble ahead was when Yahoo's share price fell by a hefty 12% on news that fourth-quarter earnings had missed analysts' average estimate by 1 cent a share. Earnings had come in at 16 cents a share against the 17 cents expected, hardly a disaster.

Far from being a dotcom promise that was not delivered, Yahoo had managed to grow annual revenues by an impressive 47% from $3.6bn (£2.1bn, E3bn) to $5.26bn over the year and its profits had risen by 126% from $840m to $1.9bn. Figures like these would normally be a cue for celebration and for sending the stock flying to new highs, rather than provoking a sell-off.

To some sellers Yahoo's latest figures were interpreted as an indication that the stock may have reached, or be nearing, "maturity", another way of saying that growth rates on this scale cannot last. Growth is certainly slowing: Yahoo doubled sales between 2002 and 2003 before tripling them in 2004. But Yahoo's decline was only a taste of things to come. On Friday, Google's share fell 8%, leading a severe decline in the US markets on fears about earnings, energy prices and just about everything else. With a bit of luck, the markets will recover this week but questions will continue to be asked about the durability of the current boom.

The most bullish analysts argue that the recent resurgence of the technology sector has several features that distinguish it from the late 1990s boom and subsequent bust. At that time the internet, e-commerce and web publishing sectors were untested concepts. Young dotcom entrepreneurs convinced venture capitalists to back their business plans. Because few investors understood what they were up to, a brash culture arose that declared it was creating "new economy" stocks.

The Nasdaq, which lits shares of technology stocks, has doubled since October 2003, but is still only half way to the heights (5132.52) of October 2000.

US interest rates have been rising steadily but there is lots of cash in the US parked in real estate that has not yet migrated into shares. Higher employment has returned to Silicon Valley (mostly in software), though there are still a quarter million fewer tech jobs from the 2000 peak. Attitudes have changed. A survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation showed Silicon Valley residents now prefer salaried jobs with established companies, rather than huge stock options with risky start-ups.

Another indication Silicon Valley is more mature is the increase in spending by American venture capitalists, 25% of which ends up in Valley firms. A total of $4.21bn in venture capital was invested in the Valley in the third quarter of 2005, compared with $6.09bn for all of 2004.

In 2000, in a blind frenzy, investors poured $30bn into thousands of dotcom start-ups. Virtually none of them made a profit. By the end of 2001, an estimated 80% were out of business. Tens of thousand jobs were lost and $2trillion in share value wiped out. The tech sector has revived since those dark days and the current boom has a different look, the most notable being that mergers and acquisitions have become the way for start-ups to cash out, rather than initial public offerings (IPOs). VCs are looking for fundamentals not visionaries, cashflow more so than hype.

Harry Dent, an economist who predicted the last tech boom and bust in his 1992 book The Great Boom Ahead predicts a bigger boom growing over the next five years. But there is a sting in his tail. Dent sees the Nasdaq rising to 13,000 (it is now at 2,258) by 2010. "We see a broader tech boom, including biotech, resuming now that we're over this crash," he told an interviewer at Wired.com, another survivor from the last crash.

"Businesses have cut costs and expanded their ability to grow with past investments. Now, businesses are going to have to catch up and reinvest to keep up with consumers, who never stop spending. Businesses will come back big-time, and that money largely flows into information technology."

Dent, however, predicts a crash at the end of 2010 worse even than the previous one in 2001. He says this is largely because there is no large Baby Boom generation coming up to pick up consumer demand, which he attributes to the tech revival. "You've got a smaller generation following the largest generation in history," Dent said. Rather than thousands of start-ups, the current rebound is confined to established online advertisers such as Google, Yahoo and AOL, electronics firms such as Apple, as well as biotech, telecoms and software developers.

"It is more isolated than last time," says a leading analyst. "[The rebound] is not insignificant, but it is in smaller pockets."

The market still sees Yahoo's big rival, market leader Google, as the leading internet growth stock. Most analysts believe Google is firmly in a growth phase, while conceding that its shares are highly valued. Google trades at roughly 90 times current earnings. By contrast, Yahoo's shares trade at around 60 times earnings. But analysts believe internet stocks like Google have room for faster growth than non-tech companies. According to Cyrus Mewawalla, analyst at Westhall Capital, internet companies have substantial growth potential while traditional telecoms stocks are overvalued. "There will not be overall growth across the sector. Already, clear winners and losers are emerging. Telefónica, for example, probably bought O2 at the top of the market.

"The bottom line is that telecoms operators like Vodafone derive about 80% of their voice while internet players such as Google [and now Tesco] are starting to offer voice [telecom] services on the web that are virtually free," said Mewawalla. "Internet stocks are set to benefit from customer losses that will severely impact traditional telecoms operators."

France Telecom's profit warning earlier this month was attributable to loss of business to internet-based services and evidence of a shifting power base from old communications suppliers such as the former national telecoms operators to the internet-based economy.

According to a survey, 592,000 France Telecom customers ended their fixed-line contracts with the phone operator during 2005 – six times as many as the year before.

The survey also revealed that 2005 saw a spread of alternative phone operators, with a further 2.23m customers switching to other operators for the internet and other services, but retained a fixed-line contract with France Telecom.

Ian Lobley, a senior partner in 3i's venture capital business, said he believes the balance between old and new communications players will shift dramatically during 2006. "Investors will start to find companies' roles increasingly confusing during the course of the year," predicts Lobley. "We are already seeing TV companies selling phone services and phone companies becoming TV companies."

Overall, the view is that today's technology sector is different from the dotcom bubble seven years ago and that the boom has barely begun. JP Rangaswami, global chief information officer of Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, says the internet is entering the second stage of its evolution and that the medium, like the early days in Hollywood, is "only just

at the Keystone Cops stage of its development".

Speaking to entrepreneurs in London recently, Julie Meyer, founder and chief executive of Ariadne Capital, an early business development adviser of internet voice specialist Skype, was bullish about prospects for 2006. She likened the recent evolution of the internet as comparable to other periods in history that brought about sweeping social change.

One venture fund manager attending the event said: "The buzz is just like it was at the start of the last dotcom boom. We are only at the start of the next cycle – 2006 is going to be an incredible year."

[maestro.] 20/1/2006 11:20

come on guys...still time to join the party...its only just started

[maestro.] 14/1/2006 07:00

'Twas the season to be merrily shopping online
By Dominic White Communication Industries Editor (Filed: 14/01/2006)


Internet shopping came of age this Christmas, with many of Britain's biggest retailers seeing explosive growth in their online retail operations, according to trading figures this week.



Millions of consumers shunned the high street crush to order gifts such as cameras, mobile phones, video games and perfumes from the comfort of their own homes using higher speed broadband connections.

Boots revealed that its online sales are now bigger than those at its largest store in London's Oxford Street due largely to people buying its health and beauty products. While the high street chemist's underlying same store sales were up just 0.3pc, sales at boots.com soared more than 40pc.

Carphone Warehouse saw a similar surge. The mobile phone emporium's online business saw revenues rise 40.1pc to £55.5m in the 12 weeks to December 31.

While selling over the internet remains a relatively small part of most traditional retailers' businesses, it is growing fast as consumers become increasingly confident about using their credit or debit card details to order online.

James Roper, chief executive of IMRG, the e-retailing industry body, said: "People also find going to the shops a hassle at Christmas. The weather's bad, you can't park, the trains are rubbish, and there are queues everywhere.''

Consumers are also less scared about late deliveries. ''There is a lot room for improvement,'' added Mr Roper. ''But retailers have got better at not selling stock they can't deliver on time.''

Argos, part of GUS, said sales ordered on the net increased by 37pc, contributing 6pc of sales.

Jessops, the camera chain, said that direct like for like sales, covering mail order, telesales and the internet, rocketed 74.3pc.

Game Group, which got a huge boost from sales of Sony's new PlayStation Portable, said web sales shot up 70pc to represent 4pc of total revenues.

HMV, which saw same store sales slump 5.5pc, said sales at hmv.co.uk, it's online CD and DVD ordering business, were up 78pc.

Even the Body Shop benefited. Despite a disappointing 1pc rise in same store sales, The Body Shop At Home - its internet and door-to-door shopping unit, saw sales rise over the Christmas period.

Nevertheless, Mr Roper said the take up of internet retailing by big high street brands continued to remain ''patchy''.

''Some are brilliant at it, some are very bad, and some have just plain missed the boat,'' he said.

[maestro.] 22/12/2005 21:32

AFN letting the trio down...maybe a santa claus rally tomoro?

[maestro.] 01/12/2005 16:38

come on advfn you are letting the side down...how about a little rocket tomoro?

[maestro.] 21/10/2005 11:01

LOOKS LIKE THE CITY HAVE UNDERVALUED INTERNET STOCKS AFTER THIS INCREDIBLE PERFORMANCE BY GOOGLE...

[maestro.] 12/9/2005 22:54

Wall Street analysts estimate that Skype will have revenue of between $50
million and $60 million this year, which means eBay is paying at least 50 times
revenue for the company.

[maestro.] 12/9/2005 22:54

Wall Street analysts estimate that Skype will have revenue of between $50
million and $60 million this year, which means eBay is paying at least 50 times
revenue for the company.

[adorling] 12/9/2005 10:14

Does anyone know of a commodity fund that includes the soft commodities as well as more talked about oil and metals (Merrill Lynch World Mining) to invest long term in my SIPP. Thanks!

[torabora] 11/8/2005 20:57

PE OF SIX, SECTOR PE AROUND 20.

[torabora] 11/8/2005 12:53

Todays Shares magazine; Stock £65m, rents £7m. Stock is at cost, so what is the up to date NAV Per share?

[latifs100] 13/7/2005 13:21

this has a habit of sleeping most of the year and shoot up.. missed it again.

ANY IDEAS ON THIS ONE CASH AND DEBT LVLS, SHAREHOLDERS ETC..

[maestro.] 12/6/2005 09:08

advfn ready for blast off?

[maestro.] 12/5/2005 19:01

i think the time has arrived,chow..see ya in monte carlo!

[maestro.] 06/3/2005 07:54

The Sunday Times



March 06, 2005

Is it dotcom mania all over again?
Five years since the height of the boom, technology stocks look ready to take off again. By David Budworth



IT IS five years to the day since the peak in Britain's Techmark index at the height of the dotcom boom, when technology stocks echoed the madness surrounding the South Sea Bubble nearly 300 years ago.
Investors who bought into the hype when the bubble was about to burst have had little cause for celebration. On Friday the Techmark, which measures the London market dedicated to technology firms such as Amstrad and ARM Holdings, closed at 1,175, down 80% since the peak of 5,743 on March 6, 2000. Its US counterpart, the Nasdaq, has slumped 59% from its peak to about 2,050.



If you had invested £1,000 five years ago in the average tech fund it would now be worth just £257. The same amount invested in the worst-performing scheme, Framlington Netnet, would have shrunk to just £144, according to Lipper Hindsight, a ratings agency.

But despite the gloom, advisers are urging investors to take a chance on technology once more, ahead of what they hope will be a sector rebound.

Alan Steel of Alan Steel Asset Management, a financial adviser, said: "The sector is at the bottom of the heap, but history shows that that is often the best time to invest. Over the next two years I think a lot of money will be made."

Investors are returning to the stock market after a strong start to the year by the FTSE 100 index. Around 58% of experienced private investors are planning to increase their stock- market exposure, according to the Association of Investment Trust Companies. This is up from just 46% six months ago.

But in January only £4m was invested in technology unit trusts, making it one of the least popular sectors, according to the Investment Management Association. This opens the door for canny investors to pick up unloved shares before they become popular again.

Fund managers and professional investors are also backing technology. Last month Patrick Evershed, who manages the New Star Select Opportunities fund, told The Sunday Times that technology is his favourite sector.

Bernard Fairman, who manages technology venture-capital trusts for Foresight Venture Partners, said: "We are in the early stages of an upswing. It feels like the position we were in back in 1995, before the last tech boom really took off."

Although some managers and advisers are enthusiastic tech supporters, there is little sign of the late 1990s fever, when investors were happy to pour money into any firm with ".com" in its title, no matter how improbable its business plan and how far off the prospect of profits, let alone dividends.

Commentators believe there are sound business reasons to back tech firms now.

John Bearman, head of UK equities at Insight, Halifax's fund-management arm, said: "Investors can feel more confident that they are buying sound companies at sensible prices. Normality has returned."

Some dotcoms have survived. Lastminute.com and Ebookers.com both made solid businesses out of linking customers to travel services via the internet. Although Ebookers was taken over recently, Lastminute is still thriving.

There are positive signs that corporate spending on tech and telephone networks is also growing.

US spending on information technology was up 12% last year at $484 billion (£254 billion), the first year of double-digit growth since 2000. But which new developments are the ones to back?

[maestro.] 06/3/2005 07:53

The Sunday Times



March 06, 2005

Is it dotcom mania all over again?
Five years since the height of the boom, technology stocks look ready to take off again. By David Budworth



IT IS five years to the day since the peak in Britain's Techmark index at the height of the dotcom boom, when technology stocks echoed the madness surrounding the South Sea Bubble nearly 300 years ago.
Investors who bought into the hype when the bubble was about to burst have had little cause for celebration. On Friday the Techmark, which measures the London market dedicated to technology firms such as Amstrad and ARM Holdings, closed at 1,175, down 80% since the peak of 5,743 on March 6, 2000. Its US counterpart, the Nasdaq, has slumped 59% from its peak to about 2,050.



If you had invested £1,000 five years ago in the average tech fund it would now be worth just £257. The same amount invested in the worst-performing scheme, Framlington Netnet, would have shrunk to just £144, according to Lipper Hindsight, a ratings agency.

But despite the gloom, advisers are urging investors to take a chance on technology once more, ahead of what they hope will be a sector rebound.

Alan Steel of Alan Steel Asset Management, a financial adviser, said: "The sector is at the bottom of the heap, but history shows that that is often the best time to invest. Over the next two years I think a lot of money will be made."

Investors are returning to the stock market after a strong start to the year by the FTSE 100 index. Around 58% of experienced private investors are planning to increase their stock- market exposure, according to the Association of Investment Trust Companies. This is up from just 46% six months ago.

But in January only £4m was invested in technology unit trusts, making it one of the least popular sectors, according to the Investment Management Association. This opens the door for canny investors to pick up unloved shares before they become popular again.

Fund managers and professional investors are also backing technology. Last month Patrick Evershed, who manages the New Star Select Opportunities fund, told The Sunday Times that technology is his favourite sector.

Bernard Fairman, who manages technology venture-capital trusts for Foresight Venture Partners, said: "We are in the early stages of an upswing. It feels like the position we were in back in 1995, before the last tech boom really took off."

Although some managers and advisers are enthusiastic tech supporters, there is little sign of the late 1990s fever, when investors were happy to pour money into any firm with ".com" in its title, no matter how improbable its business plan and how far off the prospect of profits, let alone dividends.

Commentators believe there are sound business reasons to back tech firms now.

John Bearman, head of UK equities at Insight, Halifax's fund-management arm, said: "Investors can feel more confident that they are buying sound companies at sensible prices. Normality has returned."

Some dotcoms have survived. Lastminute.com and Ebookers.com both made solid businesses out of linking customers to travel services via the internet. Although Ebookers was taken over recently, Lastminute is still thriving.

There are positive signs that corporate spending on tech and telephone networks is also growing.

US spending on information technology was up 12% last year at $484 billion (£254 billion), the first year of double-digit growth since 2000. But which new developments are the ones to back?

[wonder woman] 20/1/2005 11:20

krutt,I came up with this late last year,They are the same.

[krutt] 17/1/2005 13:31

Some confusion on the ticker COM is it Comland commercial or Comland communications? are they same or different?
Krutt

[wonder woman] 02/1/2005 15:50

IF 2nd half is the same as 1st half, ie a pre tax of around 7m. MARKET CAP JUST 16.8million = PE 3.5

[maestro.] 19/10/2004 07:52

looks like advfn could blast off today with the latest news...

[maestro.] 17/10/2004 16:34

FRONT PAGE OF THE BUSINESS......
GOOGLE RESULTS HERALD NEW DOT.COM BOOM

FILL YA BOOTS NEXT WEEK OR MISS THE BOAT...YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

[maestro.] 19/8/2004 07:02

fill ya boots!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1