Debts.Co.Uk Share Discussion Threads

[diogenesj] 04/8/2006 19:01

Citywire comment (from Wednesday):

[twentyoneeleven] 04/8/2006 14:16

Agree spiv 1 ... sentiment is definitely favouring this sector at the moment! If that dump was the last of a big sell, this one should rocket ahead of financials in a couple of months!

[spiv 1] 04/8/2006 13:58

BBC news main headline this lunchtime about soaring personal bankruptcies. Add to that an interest rate hike yesterday and the picture looks rosy for dets. Can't really understand why the shares are not sat at 220p. This share was almost twice oversubscribed when floating. I wonder if there has been a large seller in the market and that 115,000 dump today may signal the last of it. If that is the case I think we could reasonably see a sustained share price rally.

[twentyoneeleven] 04/8/2006 13:54

I like that vertical blue line that's just appeared on my screen! A very positive trading statement from another company in this sector (DFD) about half-an-hour ago may have helped push us up again?

[twentyoneeleven] 04/8/2006 08:26

"Britain's personal debt is increasing by ~ £1 million every four minutes."

[twentyoneeleven] 04/8/2006 08:05

(Friday 04 August 2006)

Bankruptcies set for big increase

Another sharp rise in the number of people going bankrupt is expected to be shown by figures.

Analysts predict the number of personal insolvencies this year will exceed 100,000 - almost three times the total before a law change two years ago.

This week all the major banks increased their provisions to cover debts that will not be repaid.

The law was changed in 2004 so people going bankrupt could be discharged - free of their debts - in under a year.

The total number of people declaring bankruptcy or using an "individual voluntary arrangement" to clear debts without repaying them in full in 2003 was 35,000.

Bad debt

This week Barclays' credit card business Barclaycard announced a 14% drop in profits to £297m as overall charges relating to the writing-off of debts rose by 30%.

Fellow High Street banks HSBC and Lloyds TSB have both recently reported a rise in bad debt provisions.

When the most recent set of quarterly figures were released they showed that more than 23,000 people became insolvent in England and Wales during the first three months of 2006, which was 73% more than in the same period last year.

[spiv 1] 03/8/2006 15:00

Yep, and Barclays announced in their results today that they have had to double their bad debt provision.

[twentyoneeleven] 03/8/2006 12:16

BoE interest rates just went up ... that should be good news for tickers in this sector!?!

[twentyoneeleven] 03/8/2006 11:48

"The Board of Debts.co.uk, the specialist advisors for personal debt solution
management, are pleased to announce that trading for the last quarter, since the
publication of the AIM admission document, has exceeded their expectations and
the Company is confident that the final results for the year ended 31 July 2006
will be in line with market expectations."

spiv 1 and DiogenesJ, I agree with your sentiments about the ambiguity of the RNS, but I'm reading it in that they've exceeded their (i.e. the company's) expectations and are therefore in line with market (i.e. the sector's) expectations of growth in this area. If that means they are increasing their business and experiencing the same growth as other tickers in this sector (e.g. DEBT, DFD, CLEA, etc) then I think we can look forward to some very good news in October!

Interesting to note that today's share price reduction was based more on the lines of a lower 'sell' price (currently 5p less than on open) than a lower 'buy' price (currently only 1p less than on open) ... i.e. increased spread with a negative bias!

[diogenesj] 03/8/2006 10:43

Yes, I was struck by the ambiguity in that statement too. As you say, the current share price fluctuations don't seem to mean much and we shall just have to wait.

[spiv 1] 03/8/2006 10:32

Thanks Diojenes. I think that the share price weakness may be down to investors being wary of the costs associated with the change of premises. I think we will have to wait till October now and the full results to get a clearer picture. The other strange thing I noticed in the rns was the statement about Q4 trading being ahead of expectations. If that is the case why are the full results only going to meet expectations. Do we have to infer that trading in Q3 or Q2 was weaker than expected?? Just a few thoughts to try to explain the lacklustre share price performance. There could of course be a seller in the market place but there again volumes are really small so I think the sells are really just bored retail investors.

[diogenesj] 02/8/2006 17:39

Looks very cheap, spiv, and a dividend! But we need to see the Seymour Pierce note to be sure, and I'm not sure whether I can get it. I'll have a try, though.

[spiv 1] 02/8/2006 17:12

Well a prospective 2007 PE of 14 times looks cheap for the obvious growth potential. A dividend would be nice too!

[diogenesj] 02/8/2006 16:59

I believe Seymour Pierce's forecasts dated 26/7/06 are as follows:

Yr to 31 July (price 192p):
2006 ptp £2.10m eps 8.50p div 0.00p PE 22.59
2007 ptp £3.70m eps 13.10p div 5.00p PE 14.66

Can't vouch for this personally, but I'm told these forecasts appear on ProQuote. Sharescope has the same forecasts for 2006 only.

If true, the shares are probably cheap, but the company is so secretive it's hard to be sure.

[spiv 1] 02/8/2006 13:23

Thanks Kamitora. Anyone know what the broker forecasts are (pre-tax profit, eps etc) for this year, next year etc etc??

[kamitora] 02/8/2006 10:58

Seymour Pierce has buy ratings for Alizyme, Antofagasta and Debts.co.uk, an outperform rating for Halfords and a hold stance on Spectrum Interactive

(bottom of third page)

[spiv 1] 02/8/2006 10:21

Yep, good news. It would be nice to see the share price up by more than a couple of pence though.

[currypasty] 02/8/2006 07:54

good update

[unisave2] 31/7/2006 16:15

have you seen that prestbury pbh have just announced in their interims that they are entering IVA market?

Interesting because they don't have usual marketing costs like other players as they have 200 advisors already dealing with people requiring secured loans etc. Also I believe they have partnership tie ups with several newspaper groups

[twentyoneeleven] 29/7/2006 14:48

Completely agree with your hopes for a strong share price performance spiv 1 ... just look at the ClearDebt Group (CLEA) trading statement from a couple of weeks ago (17/07/2006) and the result that had on their price! Could have sworn I read that the DETS figures were due out in July, but with Monday being the last day of the month I guess I was wrong ... still, not too long to wait! Seymour Pierce initiated with a 'Buy' rating (target unspecified) a couple of days ago ... but then they are their broker!

FT mentioned something about acquisitions too ... three companies involved and very close to a deal with at least one of them! Just looking around the Web and seeing how many websites relate back to Debts.co.uk and The Debt Counsellors in some way, I think it's fair to say they must have a bit of business coming in!?!

[spiv 1] 29/7/2006 13:52

Rang my broker and they seem to think interims due late August or early Sept so not long to wait. An earnings enhancing aquisition would go down a treat. These really are due a run given the strong share price performance of other stocks in the sector.

[moormoney] 28/7/2006 21:30

in the Times a couple of days ago a report said DETS rose 1.5p on rumours it was close to investing the 5 million raised on floating in acquisitions. no more details.

[twentyoneeleven] 28/7/2006 12:15

Can you expand on the acquisitions rumours moormoney?