Ebtm Share Discussion Threads

[dixi] 17/10/2008 21:03

EBTM your FLY53 Windbreakers panel on the homepage still links to the Lucky Dip Offer!!

Also your email promotions are not getting through to AOL email accounts anymore.

C'mon chaps - do i get paid for finding these issues (all the time)!!

[lloydebtm] 17/10/2008 12:10

Ref Rocket & Adeline, in clothing you are always taking forward orders (approx. 3 months ahead) so they will not have new stock until SS 09, it just they way it works...

[lloydebtm] 17/10/2008 12:08

So concerned that I have just bought another 150000 shares today at 11am ???

[tel patel] 17/10/2008 10:52

It is pretty obvious Lloyd is now concerned about his investment, from banging on about how it will be worth millions in a year or two he is now facing (as things stand- on paper) a not inconsiderable five figure loss, dwindling almost daily.
If EBTM are going to be doing so well over xmas the website certainly needs major improvements pretty quick. All high street clothing stores now have xmas stock available. If they have wholesale stocks of Rocket and Adeline etc. might it not be a good idea to shove it up on the website? It cant be that difficult in this day and age.

[trigger45] 17/10/2008 08:37

Take a look at the share price LLOYD, that should explain why everyone is moaning.

After the events of the last few days, what happens to the site for Lowlife and the associated costs running it?

[lloydebtm] 17/10/2008 00:00

The three brands I quoted have had a load of new wholesale stock added, I didn't explain very well, so the range will increase quite dramatically for SS 2009.

Still not sure why you are all moaning about EBTM, they will hit the new revised target, this has been clearly said (I truly believe they will exceed it).

My site relaunched 3 days ago www.gothic.co.uk and I am seeing sizeable orders (no sign of recession).

11 weeks time you will see how well EBTM has done over Xmas...

[granny7] 16/10/2008 23:13

Price of gold seems to be following EBTM!

[t 34] 16/10/2008 17:21

what has happend after 15.30 pm today?

[tel patel] 15/10/2008 11:03

Seems strange how a company that recently posted profits of £800K and are forecast to make over £3M in next 2 years cant afford to pay their courier and publisher of adverts £25K, maybe the sale was a forced one?

[clueless] 15/10/2008 08:36

Ok so we have and RNS saying profits (or at least profitability) are not materially affected and something similar from Blue Oar too (thanks Baheid101) although as greengiant points out Blue Oar dont seem to have much of a clue themselves.

Ive never paid much attention to Lloyds posts nor some of the irrationally negative ones either, but on balance I feel the profitability and cash position of the business should see it survive at worst, and at the current price if it does get close to profit forecasts then its got good potentially when the market picks up.

[malkie] 14/10/2008 22:44

Genuine investor detractors have never annoyed me. Shareholders are not married to the company and can sell and buy as they see fit.

I bought - I sold - I lost money - c'est la vie.

Trade competitors who pretend to be shareholders and have a vested interest in seeing this company's failure annoy me (as they should annoy any investor) when they use this board to poison shareholder sentiment for their own purposes,

That is illegal and is quite a different matter which i take very seriously (having reported the Company concerned to the FSA and more recently the Dept for Business, & Enterprise). I always thought I made that very clear.

[westcoastrich] 14/10/2008 22:10

EBTM plc

Change of Adviser

The Board of EBTM plc is pleased to announce the appointment of Blue Oar Securities Plc as
Nominated Adviser in addition to its existing
role as broker to the Company.

For further information, please contact:



How quickly can Blue Oar be made to send the begging bowl round?



At least todays sale of the busines they bought £4.5m and sold for £0.2m today will keep wolf from the front portal. They can pay off the County Court Judgements now, :-)

[dixi] 14/10/2008 21:39

LLOYDEBTM - not sure why you think these brands are new - Adeline was announced ages ago and the others have some product on sale at sale prices and stock is patchy again. Your comment on this would be appreciated or you will attract more critiscisms as per GG etc.

If Blue Oar are being conservative why do EBTM need to maintain profit by 'saving' £600k rather than from the apparently booming sales figures?

Malkie - maybe the detractors that annoyed you so much had a vaild point or two?

[malkie] 14/10/2008 20:52

They have had their last chance with me.

Of course the economic climate is challenging, but I am not a charity. They have a heavyweight board, which should be cutting the mustard - and maybe they will one day.

But whilst they are clearly sailing close to the wind, I have no desire riding this out on a promise.

The veiled warning on the wholesale side now leaves them free to disappoint - deja vu all over again! look back at 22nd January 2008 when they missed targets last time.

Blue Ore are now their brokers and their NOMADS – very cosy.

[greengiant] 14/10/2008 19:49

Remember - this is what Blue Oar said on 18th June

Wholesale arm – lowlife
The wholesale division continues to perform well, with sales up 46% despite the
challenging trading conditions on the high street. Importantly, the forward order book looks
healthy, with mainland Europe showing good growth.

gg

[greengiant] 14/10/2008 19:35

Also, your logic is flawed.

Why not buy the product for £1 from China, and sell it for £15???

That was the rationale behind the original purchase!!

Oh, it's because they cant

gg

[greengiant] 14/10/2008 19:32

Lloydebtm - you are a fraud. EBTM had adeline years ago. I bought stuff from them 2 years ago.
Also, Rockett is a tiny brand (I was there when the original brand was launched). Now contrast EBTM's product offering with the main distributor in the UK



And Rock Steady

Not exactly a large range.

Please stop deceiving people, a few weeks ago you were saying what a good idea wholesale was by using similar calculations.

gg

[lloydebtm] 14/10/2008 19:13

Just to let you guys know, found out a lot more today and I believe Blue Oar are being very conservative (for understandable reasons).
I now strongly believe that EBTM will exceed profit forecasts, as they have added three more really strong brands, Rockett, Rock Steady and Adeline. Online sales have been incredible and wholesale of Atticus has been going through the roof.
Now it has been explained to me it makes a lot of sense to concentrate on the online side of things as it is much more profitable.
Think of it this way, buy a belt for £1 from China sell it for £5 wholesale = £3.50 profit (after costs, storage, duty, etc) or buy a belt for £3.50 (from Dale in the UK) sell it for £15 online and make £11.50 profit.
Finals released very soon I am told...
I cannot believe so many have jumped ship recently, some at 1p, crazy, crazy people but looking at the bigger picture, in the last week only £2k of shares have been sold (£5k was sold but £3k was bought), £2k is so little in the scheme of things.
I just don't get why someone would sell 10,000 shares for £150 that could be worth £10k in 3 years time, it has got to be a better bet then buying 1 lottery ticket for the next 3 years.

[baheid101] 14/10/2008 16:37

they have sold a brand, not the wholesale operation so they have only sold a small part of the Lowlife acquisition - they reckon Lowlife product sales are a small part of group sales.

Malkie - to be fair to them the economic environment has deteriorated rapidly and they bought Lowlife on a small multiple of profits. It makes sense to restructure the business to reflect this new reality. The £600k cost savings mean that the house broker Blue Oar has barely changed the forecasts.

From a note from Blue Oar this morning:

'EBTM has announced the sale of a non-core asset together with a restructuring of the wholesale division to help reduce the cost base. Management are highlighting a more cautious outlook for the wholesale division, which is right given the wider economic conditions on the high street. We are reducing our revenue forecast for the wholesale division by 25% this year and 40% next. While this reduces the revenue line for the group, the resulting cost savings mean there are no material changes to our forecasts. We now look for 2008/9 profits of £1.7m (from £1.84m) and for 2009/10 of £2.14m (from £2.24m). Formal note to follow shortly'.

I suspect that the management have been surprised at the sharpness of the slowdown on the wholesale side, and that this is why we saw them discounting so aggressively to clear stock through EBTM - hard to work out how much of that is their fault or the unpredictable trading conditions. All I do know is that if taking cost out allows them to continue growing profits while focussing more on the online side then that makes a lot of sense. Lots of small retailers/wholesalers will be going bust and really struggling. Against that background and in the context of a quoted retail sector that is seeing earnings fall (N Brown excepted) the growth forecast by the broker, and its a big IF that the company can deliver it, is very attractive.

[minger] 14/10/2008 15:50

Malkie MTL still has a long term upside even after todays rise - are you out of these now or just bottom drawering?

[25wbh] 14/10/2008 15:21

Maybe they want to keep it away from the banks!!

[tel patel] 14/10/2008 14:50

This deal does not make any sense. Why would you buy a business for an effective £4.5M, announce a few months later profits of £800,000+ mainly as a result of the purchased business, then a further few months later sell it back again for a fraction of the purchase price. Must be more to it than announced so far. Very confusing. Hard to justify holding now, time to cut the losses I reckon.

[dixi] 14/10/2008 14:25

Well Malkie - I will read through this and see if I can spot anything - see what you think.................


Acquisition of Lowlife

Today, the Company also announces that EBTM has entered into a contract to
acquire the entire issued share capital of the Lowlife group of companies ("
Lowlife"), comprising Core Brands Group Limited and its subsidiaries and
Twentyfour Seven Trading Limited ("the Acquisition").

Lowlife is a wholesaler and on-line retailer of clothing and accessories in the
area of music inspired fashion. Its product range and marketplace are highly
complementary with that of EBTM and represent approximately 10% of EBTM's
current retail sales.

For the year ended 31 December 2006, Lowlife's profits before tax were #646,000.
At that date it had net assets of #846,000.

EBTM is paying consideration of #4.75 million to acquire Lowlife, to be settled
as follows:

* #1.5 million by way of an issue of 26,785,714 new ordinary shares of 0.5p
each in the Company to the vendor of Lowlife ("Consideration Shares"); and

* #3.25 million in cash, to be financed out of the proceeds of the First
Placing and the Company's own resources.

It is anticipated that completion of the Acquisition will take place on 6 June
2007, following admission of the Consideration Shares and the First Placing
Shares to trading on AIM ("Admission").

Board

Following completion of the Acquisition, Dale Masters, the vendor and managing
director of Lowlife, will join the Board of EBTM. Dale founded Lowlife in 2001
and as Managing Director has developed, manufactured and marketed a number of
leading music orientated / youth culture brands, including Atticus and Lowlife
in the UK, Spain and internationally. Prior to this, he worked for French
Connection in the UK and the Far East. He has a degree in Marketing and
Accounting from Victoria University, Melbourne.

Dale has entered into a service agreement with the Company, terminable on 12
months' notice, under which he will be paid a salary of #100,000 per annum and
will be entitled to a bonus of up to 62.5 per cent. of salary and options to
subscribe new ordinary shares at an aggregate subscription cost of up to 62.5
per cent. of salary (depending on the performance of the company in the year to
30 April 2008).

Reasons for the Acquisition

The Board of EBTM believes that in view of the complementary nature of both
businesses there will be a number of opportunities of a trading and operational
nature where revenues and margins can be enhanced and costs saved.

Atticus

Lowlife's products are marketed under a variety of brand names, some of which
are the subject of third party ownership and for which it pays royalties for the
right to use the brand name. Atticus is one such brand and Lowlife has agreed to
acquire the intellectual property rights in the Atticus clothing brand from
Really Likeable People Inc ("RLP") ("the Atticus Agreement").

The consideration payable under the Atticus Agreement is US$ 4.2 million in cash
on completion which is to be no later than 9 July 2007. This acquisition will
not only save the royalties currently being paid by Lowlife to RLP but will also
provide a revenue stream from existing licensing arrangements with third party
distributors in North America and provide further opportunities to develop new
royalty revenues.

Accordingly, the Second Placing also includes sufficient new funds to permit the
Company to finance the completion of the Atticus Agreement, as well as an amount
to finance the working capital requirements of EBTM as enlarged by the
Acquisition. The Directors intend to raise up to #1 million of debt finance to
add further to the Company's financial resources.

[malkie] 14/10/2008 14:17

dixi - what part of the business did he not buy back apart from the UK distribution rights??

He never owned Atticus - that was a separate deal.

if he didn't buy it all back - then please enlighten me as to what bit they still retain??

i suspect the sale agreement will never come to light.