Ecsc Share Discussion Threads

[cerrito] 02/8/2022 16:57

Good to see the 10% increase today but only 11 trades, 2 of 15k shares one of 5k and the rest under 5k.

[cerrito] 02/8/2022 12:21

I doubt if the new CEO will buy a significant amount of shares as one could argue he is taking some risk joining Ecsc although we will need to wait until the next AR to see his compensation. He maybe in purdah until the interims come out.

[bdbd11] 28/7/2022 14:10

I can imagine that the new CEO will want to build some sort of holding. I did a small top up this morning on that basis, however I seem to be alone. I don't know his wealth, but if he were to buy out the Ravindra Bahra holding that could spark the start of a revival here.

[cerrito] 28/7/2022 12:25

I see the market has yawned at this morning’s news; perhaps like me they are trying to figure this out. What it seems to me to be saying is that Mann is stronger on big vision as well as the techie stuff and not so good on the nuts and bolts of business leadership and hence the new recruit. Will be interesting to see him albeit virtually at the next IMC meeting. He does seem to have moved around quite a bit. I went to check if his previous company Auto protect is quoted so we could see why he left them but it is not. It certainly has a much bigger management team than ECSC and he must have left quite recently as the ceo is interim. I would buy the argument that the current situation is not working well and such an appointment makes sense. One goes on the basis that there will be an expansion of business but there will be the two headwinds of a tight labour market and limited financial flexibility. We need an extra NED sooner rather than later. I went onto the Research Tree website to see if there was a note from Allenby with their comments on this but there was nothing. Incidentally I saw the RNS of yesterday with the reduction in the holding of Ravindra Bahra which may account for some of the recent weakness. Like I guess everyone on this Board I have a loss here. Not selling but will wait till the next IMC presentation before thinking of buying more.

[daz] 06/7/2022 12:41

This has also been a pretty dire investment for me as well. FWIW, I have the company turning a modest profit in 2023 assuming revenue growth in the 15 - 20% range based on the growing order book and a 5% increase in admin and sales and marketing costs(these could be too optimistic given labour pressures), and a more significant profit in 2024. I'd also be interested in knowing why they had to take out such an onerous loan, instead of an overdraft or loan from a bank, it will have to be a question for the next presentation. The only blessing is that if they had delayed, terms would be even worse now.

[maddox] 06/7/2022 10:32

....but hopefully more to come. With the mkt cap under £4m and valued at less than x1 historic sales ECSC are very lowly rated. The Managed Detection and Response (MDR) Division is high margin business and resource efficient - so these wins are in the sweet spot. As can be seen from the wide client mix cyber security is a need across all sectors of the market and the trend is towards outsourcing detection monitoring. For the vast majority of firms having internal expensive dedicated resource for this activity 7 x 24 doesn't make sense. Also, the cyber threats are far easier to spot if you're monitoring across a range of firms rather than just one. So, this is the right proposition in a very large potential market.

[harlowdavood] 06/7/2022 09:12

Extra revenue of only £5462 per contract per month. Might keep the price above 30p a share for a while.

[jane deer] 06/7/2022 09:03

Good to see the order book value of £2.9m published.

[maddox] 06/7/2022 08:01

Great to see these wins - should instill confidence that they are on the right track. I'd be interested to know which sales channel brought these in?

[ali47fish] 06/7/2022 07:27

3 contracts rns

[harlowdavood] 02/7/2022 06:37

Gooch leaving immediately suggestsrither I'll health or a fall out with senior management. She was on renumeration committee and had a three month notice period.

[maddox] 01/7/2022 12:03

Ian Mann has about 23% of the firm so has plenty of skin in the game.

[bdbd11] 01/7/2022 11:13

Ian Mann was topping up at 80p, so why not at 40p? Closed period perhaps? If not it is a worry.

[maddox] 01/7/2022 10:23

Hi Cerrito, Clearly the market sentiment is weighing heavily - there aren't too many bright spots. Cybersecurity isn't a discretionary purchase for businesses so we should see resilience and hopefully progress in the coming Trading Update. There was a lot of expectation over cyber attacks emanating from the Ukraine invasion that should have kept the risk at the top of Director's Risk Committee Agendas. Regards Maddox

[maddox] 01/7/2022 09:55

I never regarded Elizabeth 'Coz I'm worth it' Gooch - an asset to ECSC, having watched her in her previous career. No loss IMHO.

[cerrito] 30/6/2022 15:42

Silly me for not selling. Do not get good vibes from Gooch resigning seemingly out of the blue and without explanation. She may well feel that continued association with ECSC was sullying he reputation.

[cerrito] 06/6/2022 23:32

I do not see myself making the AGM, especially if there are rail strikes. I have gone through the AR. My first reaction was its length 112 pages which seems OTT for such a small company and must be a barrier for small companies to list. I could not find on their websites their previous AR’s so no idea if they were bigger or smaller. The following caught my eye Page 12 I thought Lucy Sharp’s report read well. Page 25 I saw the useful increase YOY in gross profit from the Assurance and decline in MDR but could find no good explanation of what drove these or indeed what business is in the assurance division and what in the ECR division. Page 27 Be interesting to see if their EBITDA performance was good enough in H1 so they can increase their loan facility and begs the question as to why they need the funds. Page 29 Note two risks have increased-economic conditions and hiring- the rest are no change and no risks have decreased. Page 39 I see that the Chairman spends at least two working days a month on ECSC which I thought should be sufficient, even though he doubles up as Company Secretary. I see on page 42 that both he and Gooch attended all board meetings. Page 43 A very stable shareholder base and indeed the last change of holdings RNS we had was way back in May 2020 after the latest equity issue. One concern I have had and continue to have is what would happen if either Unicorn or Ravinder Bahra wanted to exit. Fingers crossed that both remain if not happy at least satisfied and have no pressing need for cash. As an aside I have just been on the LSE website and seen since close of business on May 25 there have just been 4 transactions with a combined value of £12k in these 6 trading days…granted we did have the jubilee break but even so. Page 46 I see that directors ‘remuneration as a whole fell from £829k to £731k, as one very highly paid director left, in the context that group expenses on employee benefits went up from £4.7m to £5.3m. The increase in expenditure at a group basis understandable given industry trends and no doubt there will be a big increase in 2022. This means that in 2021 directors’ remuneration was 14% of total-a bit high perhaps and certainly better than the 2020 figure of 18%. Note that as per page 87 total average number of employees was 87. Given that in the IMC and other shareholder meetings Ian Mann gives the impression that ECSC is a one man band, I was pleasantly surprised that the differential between his and Lucy Sharp’s remuneration was as low as it was in 2021 and indeed in 2020 they had virtually identical remuneration. Page 47 Let’s hope for all our sakes that the share options of the directors are in the money. Page 80 Probably good that no single client accounts for more than 10% of the revenue. Page 82 I note the reduction in contract liabilities. Given that it was inferred that the amount of 3 year contract work was increasing, this seems counter intuitive. Any views anyone Page 86 Sobering but realistic that no deferred tax asset created quote because the Board envisages that a significant period of time will be required to generate sufficient profits to utilise the trading losses carried forward unquote…the trading losses being £5.4m Page 89 Concerned that so few additions to the computer equipment. Anyone understand how the net book value of computer equipment has gone up from £68k to £658 k during 2021??? Page 97 Not only are the terms of the loan facility very onerous but we learn that there was a 1% fee payable. Page 106 Interesting no share options were granted in 2021. Conclusion Not one of my better decisions to buy ECSC and well done to those who exited at the start of the year. I am suffering the consequences with the share price at current levels. Not sure what will provoke an uptick. Cannot see who would buy them. Any trading improvement will be a hard slog and the loan facility shows their lack of financial flexibility. I note that Allenby are currently forecasting a PBT loss this year 2022 of £308k up from last year’s loss of £277k. My last purchase was in July 2020.While not a Yorkshireman, I will show Yorkshire stubbornness and hang on with the marcap at £9m.

[bluepill] 29/4/2022 09:53

About to pop? RNS due? Anyone? Anyone?

[bluepill] 29/4/2022 09:35

MMs walking up the offer, they want your shares.

[bluepill] 28/4/2022 14:28

My buys not showing. Is volume really this low? Something going on. Leaky?

[daz] 28/4/2022 11:39

Anyone know the reason for the rise today, has it been tipped somewhere?

[bdbd11] 24/3/2022 17:25

Today's presentation is worthwhile watching if you missed it. While not setting the world alight, the business appears solid with an excellent reputation. Downside risk appears to be limited. Yes, they could and perhaps should be growing faster but they are at least steadily getting there. In terms of the an investment case, the current valuation of under 1 year's turnover seem's ridiculously cheap. Therefore imo a share price of circa £1.50 is entirely possible without them doing much more than they are doing already.

[jane deer] 23/3/2022 14:33

ECSC needs to start showing it can generate free cash flow. The current environment (despite the cost pressures) should be pretty conducive for the business. I don't think a significant equity raise is that feasible given the shareholder base. Around £700k of the negative cash flow in FY2021 is the unwind from the Covid support - so underlying cash outflow is not so bad. But still in FY22 ECSC will need to find another £290k to finance the new loan interest plus repayments.

[2lb] 23/3/2022 09:56

Weak results indicating a likely need for cash over the coming months

[harlowdavood] 23/3/2022 08:55

Expect spin!!!