Direct Line Insurance Share Discussion Threads

[rivaldo] 12/1/2006 14:27

Good point Jimcar.

20k shares just bought at 16p, 0.5p above the offer...nice.

[jimcar] 12/1/2006 14:01

And hopefully if the share price recovers they will be able to pay for the acquisitions with paper rather than by taking on debt as happened with the last one.

[rivaldo] 12/1/2006 09:51

Thx keifer. It's been a volatile ride, but yesterday's acquisition should lower the 2006 P/E even further.

There are dangers inherent in expanding too fast, but hopefully DLG have learnt their lesson as explained above in informing the market fully of what's going on and of biting off more than they can chew.

Assuming DLG meets expectations for 2005, we could see a doubling of the share price in 2006 given that the 2006 P/E is probably now down to around 7, with more acquisitions almost certain.

[keifer derrin] 12/1/2006 07:34

found this in the share magazine

After prematurely pumping up investors' expectations last year Delling (DLG:AIM) appears to be taking a more considered approach to announcing new
contracts. The outsourcing marketing services company announced four new contracts in February last year, but they took longer than initially
expected to get up and running – hence the profit warning and wilting share price.

Now it seems management has learned from its mistakes following the recent
announcement of the new McDonald's contract in Norway which explicitly states the contract will run at full volume from February. 'This is an
important point given earlier contract wins have taken several months to get to full volume,'says Seymour Pierce analyst Alan Matthews.
When Delling takes on new contracts, producing materials like leaflets, there is inevitably a delay as existing printing contracts expire. But this year
management has held off announcing the McDonald's deal until 'the point where it can go into full volumes', explains Matthews.

The contract will generate about £500,000 revenue for Delling this year although this is already factored into Matthews' £10 million sales
forecast. But, on a prospective 2006 PE of around eight, if
Delling hits forecasts a re-rating could follow.

[ph1ts] 11/1/2006 16:31

I think we all are, certainly it's all gone quiet from the Enterprise!!! Unfortunately, my confidence was premature and I invested much too early. As a result, I won't be really happy until we get above the 19p mark! All that said, I am a lot brighter than I was last Friday!

[papalpower] 11/1/2006 16:26

Doing very well here rivaldo, well done to you ! To think a few days ago I could have purchased at 9p and sold today at 14p.

Kicking myself I did not !!!! There you go, this is life.

[rivaldo] 11/1/2006 16:22

40k shares bought at 15p, 0.5p above the offer! No wonder the spread has closed right up.

[rivaldo] 11/1/2006 13:19

Decent buying today - looks like sellers are played out. If results and prospects live up to recent statements we could see a return to 18p-20p within the next couple of months.

[maxk] 11/1/2006 08:32

Markets



The Times January 11, 2006

Rumour of the day



Delling Group, the AIM-listed marketing services provider that won work from McDonald's, the hamburger chain, in Norway on Monday, firmed ¼p to 11½p on talk that it is close to an acquisition in Sweden. It is said to be buying n3prenör, a privately owned document production company, for £1.6 million. About £1.2 million of the consideration is expected to be paid in cash.

[rivaldo] 11/1/2006 07:58

Even fully taxed DLG have made this acquisition on a P/E of just 5.7! Bargain.

Excellent client list too. This looks to be another company-transforming deal.

[keifer derrin] 11/1/2006 07:38

just found this from the Times Rumour of the Day - I might have to start looking a this more often, seeing as how right they where

Rumour of the day



Delling Group, the AIM-listed marketing services provider that won work from McDonald's, the hamburger chain, in Norway on Monday, firmed ¼p to 11½p on talk that it is close to an acquisition in Sweden. It is said to be buying n3prenör, a privately owned document production company, for £1.6 million. About £1.2 million of the consideration is expected to be paid in cash.

[keifer derrin] 11/1/2006 07:21

Delling Group PLC
11 January 2006



For Release 7:00 am 11 January 2006


DELLING GROUP PLC
The AIM-listed marketing services group


£1.6 million Acquisition in Sweden

Delling Group PLC ('Delling Group'), the AIM listed marketing support services
group, announces that in line with its acquisition strategy, it has exchanged
contracts to acquire n3prenor, a private Swedish document production company.
The total consideration payable of £1.6 million is equivalent to approximately 4
times n3prenor's pre-tax profit for the year ended 30 June 2005.

The acquisition, which is due to complete on 1 March 2006, will be satisfied by
a cash payment of £1.2million funded by a bank loan from a Scandinavian bank. A
further £115,000 shall be paid through an issue of Delling shares based on the
average Delling share price during the month of June 2006. In addition, an
earn-out of £300,000 shall be paid in cash if the total profit of n3prenor
during the first half of 2006 exceeds £600,000.

n3prenor is a privately owned Swedish business and for the year ended 30 June
2005 had a turnover of £2 million and a pre-tax profit of £400,000. Over the
past 5 years n3prenor has consistently had sales over £1.5million and net
margins of at least 20%. n3prenor is a leading niche player involved in the
production of annual reports and other corporate documents particularly for
large listed companies in Sweden. The acquired business has an impressively
strong customer base, which includes Swedish listed companies and household
names such as Nordea, Posten (the Swedish Post Office), Ohrlings
PricewaterhouseCoopers, NCC, Enskilda Securities and Assa Abloy. The Board of
Delling believes that there are substantial cross-marketing opportunities and
excellent potential for Delling to exploit n3prenor's customer base.

Commenting on the acquisition, Aksel Bratvedt, Executive Chairman of Delling
Group, said:
'This acquisition represents an excellent platform in support of Delling Group's
strategic model for strong growth, whilst also exploiting increasing corporate
demand for fully serviced outsourced marketing. I am confident that our growing
acquisition pipeline will lead to both further acquisitions of varying sizes in
the coming months and our continued profitable development.'

For further information please contact:

ENDS

Contact:
Delling Group Plc
Aksel Bratvedt, Chairman Tel: [phone]
James Robinson, Finance Director Tel: [phone]

Binns & Co PR Ltd
Tarquin Edwards/Peter Binns Tel: [phone]




This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
CQGUUPPGUPQGMU

[rivaldo] 10/1/2006 07:59

A lickle mention in the Independent:


"Finally, Delling, the AIM listed marketing services group, unveiled a £500,000 contract from McDonalds. The deal will see Delling, 0.5p higher at 11.25p, provide the fast food chain will all its marketing material requirements in Norway."

[rivaldo] 09/1/2006 15:56

Who knows PP - perhaps there was a delay in the final paperwork so it was signed with a few days' retrospective effect? Doesn't seem an issue to me, PLC's issue RNS's asap (in theory anyway), they can't issue them just to support a share price.

The news has prompted Seymour Pierce to upgrade DLG to a Buy:


"Monday, January 09, 2006 9:15:23 AM ET
Seymour Pierce

LONDON, January 9 (newratings.com) - Analyst Alan Matthews of Seymour Pierce upgrades Delling Group Plc (ticker: DJJ) from "hold" to "buy."

In a research note published this morning, the analyst mentions that the company has received a contract from McDonalds in Norway for providing marketing-support services for a period of two years. According to the analyst, the contract is likely to generate annual income of about £0.5 million for Delling, assuming full volumes by February."

[papalpower] 09/1/2006 09:13

the question raised of course rivaldo is why so late to announce, it commenced on the 1st Jan so therefore was signed last year. I would say its very poor PR to blast it about now after a big drop in the price, where it would have had a much better and stabilising effect if released when signed, and it could have helped prevent any drop ??

[james t kirk] 09/1/2006 07:37

And what an RNS to support the strong buy reccomendation. Any deal with a company liek MacDonalds is very significant. 20p per share today??

[rivaldo] 08/1/2006 13:06

For Pugugly, have a look at Delling's history and web site - it's slightly more high-tech than you might have thought:



So DLG has performed another flip-flop - first trading was down, now it's up, then they were gung-ho for the UK, now it's exit the UK and into Eastern Europe. I wouldn't have thought the City would warm to this story until things start to settle down.

I'm sticking with DLG as it's collected together for not much money a collection of businesses with blue chip clients, and it seems to have solid and expanding reach in its home markets and in Scandinavia. And the Eastern European connection could pay off big time.

Also, as a 2-year hold to maximise AIM tax benefits DLG could turn out to be a multibagger, whereas I can't see too much downside from here on a Price/Sales ratio of just above 1. That doesn't stop me being a bit nervous about it though given past events!

Anyway, good to see t1ps.com are backing DLG too. And Growth Equities have just e-mailed their monthly free summary out - and they've upgraded DLG to a Strong Buy:

"The roller coaster ride that is Delling continued over the past month. On 13th December the company published an upbeat trading update. On 6th January the resignation of director Michael Hudgell rather deflated expectations. But we are not altering our forecasts and believe that the shares look very cheap indeed.

Scandinavian based and with a Scandinavian management team, Delling was established (as Depicta) in 1998 but changed its name to Delling and embarked on its current strategy of aggressive bolt-on acquisitions to complement its own organic growth in March 2004. It listed on AIM in the Autumn of that year.

Key Data
EPIC DLG
Share Price 10.75p
Spread 9.5 - 12p
NMS 3000
Market Cap. 7.1 million pounds
12 Month Range 12.25 - 24.5p
Market AIM
Website www.dellinggroup.com
Sector Services
Contact Aksel Bratvedt
0207 010 8210

Delling is a market support services company - it provides out sourced services to the marketing department "back offices" of companies predominantly operating in Scandinavia. It is a pioneer in the application of the latest IT technology in the creation and efficient management of new and developing marketing channels. It has an impressive client list of over 300 companies including such giants as Statoil, Norsk Hydro and SAS. It has used AIM wisely, raising 2.2 million pounds and making three, largely paper funded bolt-on acquisitions.

The financials for calendar 2004 were pretty irrelevant since they largely related to stockmarket pre-history. But for what it is worth, sales of 2.2 million pounds were head of forecasts and the loss of 2.5 million was in line. What that pre-tax loss masks is that the company actually made a gross profit of 1.37 million pounds implying that it does not need that dramatic a ramp-up in sales to cover the high central overhead and take the company into profitability.

However the interim results - a loss of 1.6 million pounds on sales barely ahead of last year at 2.35 million pounds - indicate that the take-up of new business has been far slower than expected. Margins on new business remain high, at c55%, but its advent has been delayed. The company still has adequate cash resources. An October trading statement stated that 20 new customer wins since August had pushed sales ahead sharply. The December trading statement made it clear that expansion in Scandinavia and also in Eastern Europe was already benefiting the top and bottom lines.

The departure of Hudgell happened because Delling dropped plans for a UK acquisition and now plans smaller bolt-ons in the UK to allow it to service the British needs of existing Scandinavian clients. It will not be making a major push on the UK market and so Hudgell's role became superfluous.

We expect calendar 2005 sales of 6 million pounds and a pre-tax loss of 2.2 million pounds. We have trimmed only that sales figure to take account of the non-completion of a UK acquisition. For 2006 we expect sales of 13.5 million pounds and a pre-tax profit of 1.5 million pounds which equates to 2.2p of earnings. We have not altered our forecasts because while the UK growth will be slower than expected this will be offset by more rapid expansion in Scandinavia and in Eastern Europe. At 10.75p on a 2006 PE of 4.9 and valued at just 53% of 2006 forecast sales our stance is upgraded to "strong buy."

Year to 30th June Sales (million pounds) PTP (million pounds) EPS (p)
2004A 0.096 0.174 0.4
2005E 1 0.2 0.35
2006E 1.8 0.93 1.8 "

[james t kirk] 07/1/2006 08:58

I thought there must have been a tip on this share for all that buying. This has happened before as the same company has tipped Delling several times, but what happens is that everyone sells shortly afterwards and you're back to square one, will it happen again?

I feel slightly sorry for mr 250k who sold at 7.5p...

[the bull] 07/1/2006 00:26

Another City Equities duff stock

[papalpower] 07/1/2006 00:09

t1ps.com came out in the afternoon with a "its all ok so now its not a buy but a very strong buy" which I think effected the reversal. Will have to see how long it lasts, I remain not in until I see figures on a balance sheet.

[james t kirk] 06/1/2006 17:14

No mate by the time I left the office this was heading the wrong way, now I'm home I'm stunned to see a complete reversal. I should have trusted my instincts that the RNS underlying message was good - oh well...

[ph1ts] 06/1/2006 15:37

Congratulations anyone that managed to get them at 8.5p or below! JTK hope u took the opportunity to get back in.

[pugugly] 06/1/2006 13:37

Just dropped by to look at this coy as a result of the drop in share price and todays rns. While they talk about "suport for marketing services" on their web site most of tthe services quoted for clients appear to be the purchase and supply (in the broadest sense) of Advertising and Display Material. This I unserstand to mean everything from showcards, instore displays, up to singing and dancing spectaculars.

Could anyone who has followed this coy for some time please verify. In my day we might have called this sort of exercise either a Print Farmer or a Sales Promotion Agency. Am I correct in my supposition?

[james t kirk] 06/1/2006 13:15

Someone's keen to shed their shares 200k at 7.5p, not looking very good at all..