Direct Line Insurance Share Discussion Threads

[james t kirk] 23/10/2007 07:30

At the interims the company showed a profit of £200k on sales of £10.5m. However one division lost £430k, so if that has turned round, it would suggest the minimum profit for the second half is @£600k. However, sales and margins are up and costs down, so a 2nd half profit od £1m seems on the cards.

This suggests a year end profit of @£1.2m and teh company is valued at £8.3m so is on a current p/e of 7. Looks like there's plenty of room for growth in the share price, so how much will mm's mark this up pre opening?

[james t kirk] 23/10/2007 07:25

Excellent update this morning - is now the time to get back in?

[loganair] 17/10/2007 11:14

I think I'll go out side and watch the grass grow!!!

[stacks] 15/10/2007 15:53

Share price seems to be firming a little of late. 77K at 6.4p was a buy and subsequent buying has been at 7p

[loganair] 09/10/2007 09:34

Hopefully this is the low in the share price as there seems to be a bottom forming.

[byroneck] 27/9/2007 15:30

No idea... did seem odd on no trade.... perhaps looking for some cheap stock but did not seem spook anyone which could be taken as a positive..

[spaceparallax] 26/9/2007 13:14

Why the big dip on opening today?

[thomastrillion] 18/9/2007 12:01

sell or hold then? or sell it and buy back? the whole market is not good anyway.

[asmagliocco] 17/9/2007 15:26

Video interview with the CEO now available over on www.sharecrazy.com (see "Board Talk" list next to the TV screen on the home page).

[76tom] 13/9/2007 10:39

another drop.. how far will it go?

[napoleon 14th] 10/9/2007 18:29

Not all bad. The concept is unsurprisingly difficult to get a grip on, but the trend is up. They have to stick to their knitting & make expansion pay B4 buying any more.

[silverfern] 10/9/2007 08:25

Exaclty my point - they bought rubbish. Now, here in the UK, what visibility do we have as to how they came to assess the companies as something else. Good companies buy at the right price and deliver profit growth. These have failed on both counts, and PIs on a foreign exchange (AIM) have subsidised these 'errors'.

[james t kirk] 10/9/2007 08:07

silverfren, the price paid from recollection was always under 10 times profits, in fact in most cases around 5 times profit, but unfortunately they've either been sold pups or failed to maintain the profits and subsequently achieve the synergies that you would presume would naturally occur.

Keifer, I've no doubt they are an excellent company from a work perspective, their client list says it all. I'm still slightly doubtful whether they can translate that into shareholder value. I think they've overstretched themselves and I think that pulling back from aquisitions for a while is totally right so they can bed it all in.

Markets seem to like the news..

[silverfern] 10/9/2007 07:48

Turnover of existing businesses is down, and interest payable turns the profit into a loss. They buy businesses off their friends for too much money it seems.

[keifer derrin] 10/9/2007 07:32

I thought they were not to bad, considering the problems they have been having intergrating the acquistions.

I don't have a problem with acquitions making the money, that is the point of buying them, to help in there profit line. They have also brought down there overall lose.

They must be doing something right with there contracts, if some companies want them to deal with them in the UK.

I think the shares will bounce a bit, but until they come up with some more contracts it will slip back to the current price.

[james t kirk] 10/9/2007 07:23

Well results out and not very exciting. although they could be turning around. The profit is entirely attributed to the aquisitions this year, which they haven't had long enough to turn loss making. so Sandberg makes £600k and everything else loses a combined 400k.

It's amazing how the company stretched itself so much that all the profitable companies they bought, initially became loss making although it would appear this is now rectified.

I'm not considering buying in again yet, until they've proven they can manage the bigger company, but a small bounce today wouldn't surprise me.

[keifer derrin] 30/8/2007 13:51

looking at the notice above, it would appear that dlg will be releasing it figures tomorrow, as it the last day of the two notice......

[spanishomlette] 31/7/2007 12:50

what a disaster

[silverfern] 28/7/2007 10:03

I meant also that you have been round the block share price (no disrespect!) and surely know this is one of those companies that habitually announces 'great news' to bolster PI's views. Results show the reality and their track record will put off investors til they do deliver a profit. Also, we can't know the integrity of the businesses they buy because of their location; when I realised that I was so dependent on management's reports I sold. Good luck.

[james t kirk] 27/7/2007 10:34

I couldn't believe the price moved up after last update and the dreadfully biased report from GECR, the price can't really go much lower but management need to start delivering profits, as each individual company was making more money before being bought by Delling - not a great state of affairs..

[spaceparallax] 27/7/2007 10:11

Silver,

Not that many months ago we were led to expect a rosey future, but that view was officially corrected. That said, as stated above UK Analyst continue to hold a positive view of DLG. On the matter of current sp, the whole Market's been taking a hammering over the last couple of days and the DLG dip probably just reflects that.

[silverfern] 27/7/2007 08:58

The market is beginning to get the price right now, but why buy when they don't deliver. I am amazed Sp that you say the profit warnings came as a surprise - this thread is a testament to the consistency of DLG's management spin.

[deanforester] 17/7/2007 16:50

If you scroll right to the end of each of those E-mails, you will see the caveat:

This research note cannot be regarded as impartial as GE&CR has been commissioned to produce it by the companies covered.

Not that I disagree with anything that they say about DLG. This is, I believe the crucial part:

A strategy of growth via acquisition is now working alongside cross selling between the various operating units within the group. The Delling management continues to take out costs and believes that, having reached what it deems to be a critical mass, its potential for cross selling is greatly enhanced. The company believes that within the Scandinavian region, its role remains as a primary consolidator. It claims that there is a universe of around 200 possible target companies all of which are within financial reach and are all in various phases of development and gestation. A number of one-off issues have now been addressed and trading so far during the current year shows clearly that this is a company which is now growing both its sales and profits rapidly.

[spaceparallax] 17/7/2007 15:38

Napoleon,

GE & CR have supported DLG for a while and have been consistent. The problem that I perceive here is that the DLG profit warnings came as a surprise and flew in the face of expectations - the Market is likely to await further news on performance before the share price moves much.