Eleco Public Share Discussion Threads

[gengulphus] 16/3/2007 10:26

I don't think trades lists are very good for that either, again because of inaccuracy (I've certainly had large purchases of mine come up as 'sells' from time to time) and also because apparent manipulation is often just the result of a not-yet-reported big trade... (Not saying market maker manipulation of the share price doesn't happen at all, but I'm certain it's much less common than the accusations of market maker manipulation on these boards!)

The main thing I do find trades lists useful for is getting an idea of the real spread in practice on a share with a big spread - it's sometimes quite a lot less than it appears. E.g. if you see a share price isn't moving and the official spread is say 100p/105p and trades are going through as 'sells' at 100p or a bit above and 'buys' at 105p or a bit below in roughly equal numbers, you know that the official spread is reasonably accurate. On the other hand, if you see just 'sells' going through, but say at price levels around 101p and 102.4p, it's a fair bet that the latter are really 'buys' and the real spread is 1.4%, not 5%.

Gengulphus

[ansc] 16/3/2007 09:54

Thanks G, I think I get the drift! Another X trade has been marked this morning - this time 110k @ 91p - which simply makes me wonder who are the buyer/seller.

As a general rule I don't track 'buys/sells' but simply use them as a guide to when the MMs apear to be trying to manipulate the share price - not that that ever happens of course! I find it quite a useful indicator.

[gengulphus] 15/3/2007 15:11

From the "Trades" page help:

'X' Cross at the Same Price
A transaction was effected as an agency cross or a riskless principal transaction at the same price and on the same terms (this requires one trade report).

I don't understand every word of that, but basically it's one investor selling directly to another, so that the market maker never owns the shares on the way. If you try to follow "buys" and "sells" on the trade reports, ignore any X trades - they're basically both types at the same time... (So is everything else technically, since every trade involves one investor buying and another selling. But the usual attempt is to ignore what the market maker is doing and classify them by what the non market maker is doing.)

By the way, none of that means that I think trying to track the "buys" and "sells" is a sensible idea. I don't - it's too inaccurate, especially on the big trades that really matter...

Gengulphus

[ansc] 15/3/2007 14:31

A 124.25k @ 94p 'X' trade has gone through this afternoon. I haven't any idea what a X trade represents, can anyone enlighten me?

[geoffg] 15/3/2007 11:47

FWIW I shall staying on board too, staying but monitoring.

[westcountryboy] 15/3/2007 09:17

Yes, the difficulty is always to know whether to trade in and out or to hold for long-term growth. Philip Fisher famously advocated the latter, even when stocks look expensive. I do too much of the former, so I quite understand NJP doing the same. But for me ELCO is staying put, not least because of the CGT implications of selling at this point of the year!

[ansc] 15/3/2007 08:54

Hi wcb, long time no comment, I was beginning to wonder whether you'd deserted!

Bearing in mind some of the dreadful weather we experienced during last winter - not ideal for the building trades - and that there's only been a couple of weeks contribution from Asta, I agree, the results look pretty reasonable to me as well.

I'll be trying to have a quick word with Mr K this morning but am fairly certain my holding will be staying put. With the present general market uncertainty, I can't see anything else I want to buy and am content to be looking years ahead - 2012 in fact....

[westcountryboy] 15/3/2007 08:36

Well, they are a growth company on only 10x 2008 earnings! Results seemed OK to me; too early to say how ASTA will pan out.

[njp] 15/3/2007 08:31

Showing resiliance. Someone's buying them.

[njp] 15/3/2007 08:14

Good company, but not convinced they'll hold on to a price in the 90s with those figures, so have sold this morning.

Will continue to monitor and will be interested in what the brokers have to say as well as comment on this board.

[ansc] 15/3/2007 07:57

At first glance, Interim results look OK but I'll need time to study the nitty-gritty:

"Continued strong growth by this specialist provider of offsite building systems
and software solutions"

Highlights

* Turnover increased 9.2% from £26.5m to £28.9m

* Profit before tax increased by 16.9% to £2.25m (2005: £1.93m)

* Increase of 15.6% in EPS to 3.3p from 2.9p

* Interim dividend increased by 16.7% to 0.7p (2005: 0.6p), 4.4 times
covered

* Software interests significantly strengthened by the acquisition of Asta
Development, a leader in the provision of project and resource management
software to the UK construction and engineering industries.

John Ketteley, Executive Chairman of Eleco plc, commented:

"The level of enquiries received by our offsite building systems businesses
remains strong and our UK order position remains healthy; we have strengthened
considerably our software interests with the acquisition of Asta Development, a
leader in project management software; and the Group maintains its sound
financial position. For these reasons, I remain confident in the prospects for
Eleco going forward".

Chairman's Statement

I am pleased to present my statement for the half year ended 31 December 2006.
The Group's performance in the period under review as measured by the key
performance indicators as set out below is again encouraging.

Performance Summary

Group turnover in the six months ended 31 December 2006 amounted to £28,926,000
(2005: £26,499,000), an increase of 9.2 per cent. Group operating profit was
11.1 per cent higher at £2,243,000 (2005: £2,019,000) after higher goodwill
amortisation costs of £221,000 (2005: £183,000).

Profit on ordinary activities before tax was £2,250,000 (2005: £1,925,000), an
increase of 16.9 per cent after accounting for net interest receivable of £7,000
(2005: payable of £94,000).

Group profit for the year after tax was up 19.5 per cent to £1,661,000 (2005:
£1,390,000) equivalent to earnings of 3.3p per share (2005: 2.9p per share), an
increase of 15.6 per cent.

Net funds in hand at 31 December 2006 decreased to £1,418,000 compared with
total net funds in hand at 30 June 2006 of £4,682,000. This is after taking into
account the cash impact, net of cash acquired, of £2,587,000 expended on the
acquisition of Asta Development in December 2006.

Dividends

The Board has declared an interim dividend of 0.70p per share (2005: 0.60p per
share), an increase of 16.7 per cent, which will be paid on 13 April 2007 to
shareholders on the Register on 23 March 2007.

The interim dividend is covered 4.4 times by earnings (2005: 4.8 times).

Review of Business Activities

ELECO BUILDING SYSTEMS

Turnover of our Building Systems operations increased by 6.6 per cent to
£24,951,000 (2005: £23,412,000). The operating profit increased by 17.7 per cent
to £2,685,000 (2005: £2,282,000).

Our Building Systems operations in the UK are involved principally in the
design, manufacture and supply of offsite manufactured building products and
systems in precast concrete, metal and timber. We also provide timber
engineering systems in the UK, Germany and South Africa, involving the supply of
engineering design and CADCAM software, related support services and components
used in the product manufacturing process. Eleco Precast and Eleco Timber
Engineering Systems delivered period on period improvements in performance with
Eleco Building Components' performance being disappointingly behind that of the
equivalent period last year.

Eleco Precast

Continuing demand for its FastBuild Room system for hotels and student
accommodation projects enabled Bell & Webster Concrete to achieve higher
turnover and operating profits in the period. Bell & Webster Concrete's
strengthened management team is working to enhance productivity on the Grantham
manufacturing site as well as exploring opportunities that may lead to
establishing additional production capacity on another site.

Eleco Timber Engineering Systems

Our timber engineering businesses in the UK, Germany and South Africa performed
well in the period under review, with sales activity ahead of the equivalent
period in all regions. Operating profit growth was however held back due to
increased input prices and continuing restrictions in steel availability.

Eleco Building Components

The performance of our roofing and cladding and ElecoFrame(R) businesses were
somewhat adversely affected by workflow continuity issues. These resulted from a
combination of planning delays on projects, for which capacity was reserved in
our works and adverse weather conditions, particularly rain and high winds in
the latter part of the period. Such conditions render installation difficult on
some occasions, impossible on others.

SOFTWARE

Turnover of our Software operations increased by 28.8 per cent to £3,975,000
(2005: £3,087,000) including a first time contribution of £324,000 from Asta
Development. Although the headline operating loss was higher at £442,000 (2005:
£263,000), the operating loss before goodwill amortisation charges was closer to
the previous year at £237,000 (2005: £96,000) including a first year profit
contribution from Asta Development of £66,000. In the equivalent period last
year, we enjoyed the start up benefit from revised arrangements established in
the French and German markets for the distribution of our ArCon(R) software.

As indicated in my last full-year report, we have undertaken a thorough strategic
review of our Visualisation Software businesses and actions have now been taken
with a view to obtaining the desired improvement in their performance. Dan
Naylor has been appointed Chief Executive of our Visualisation Software interests.

ACQUISITION

Asta Development

The major event in the period under review was the acquisition of Asta
Development in December 2006 for a consideration of £7.65 million.

Asta Development is a leading provider of project and resource management
software applications and support services principally to the UK Construction
and Engineering sectors and also to Information Technology and Professional
Services organisations. Its Powerproject software is used by 43 out of the top
50 main contractors in the UK by turnover and by 9 out of the top 10 UK house
builders by turnover. Asta Development is also active in Germany, Holland and
Sweden. It has an experienced management team, led by its Managing Director
Michael McCullen.

Further details of the acquisition are to be found on the Eleco website at
www.eleco.com and in the notes accompanying this statement. Additional
information on Asta Development can be found on its website at www.astadev.com.

Following the acquisition, Michael McCullen has been appointed to the Board of
Eleco as Chief Executive of our construction software interests which comprises
the Asta Development and Consultec construction software brands.

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome all employees of Asta
Development into the Eleco Group and to report that the integration of Asta
Development is progressing well.

OUTLOOK

The level of enquiries received by our offsite building systems businesses
remains strong and our UK order position remains healthy; we have strengthened
considerably our software interests with the acquisition of Asta Development, a
leader in project management software; and the Group maintains its sound
financial position. For these reasons, I remain confident in the prospects for
Eleco going forward.

[cockneyrebel] 09/3/2007 18:53

2 x 50K buys and a 100K sell to fill it at the close - that looks interesting.

CR

[ansc] 09/3/2007 17:30

I'll happily settle for that as well, gg, let's see what next week brings. A 100k 'T sale' marked after the official close didn't upset the price rise so, presumably, the MMs are expecting glad tidings too....

[geoffg] 09/3/2007 16:39

ansc........you've rumbled me !!
I'll just have to settle for a steady price rise then.

[ansc] 09/3/2007 14:22

Try another (very small) purchase and, if the price goes up again, I'll believe you!!

On the other hand, I'm wondering whether the 'Interims' are scheduled to be published early next week and someone has managed to get wind of them....

[geoffg] 09/3/2007 14:13

Don't want to brag BUT.....
you do realise that this rise is all down to my recent (very small) purchase don't you ?
All donations are gratefully received !

[ansc] 09/3/2007 12:12

I'll be needing that vertigo medication again shortly :-)

[cockneyrebel] 09/3/2007 12:10

On the verge of a breakout yet again.

CR

[ansc] 09/3/2007 09:49

Taken from the Eleco website, released this morning - a sign of the new software team working well perhaps:

'Eleco In Touch With Timber Frame Demands

Eleco Software is sponsoring the In Touch with Timber conference, arranged by TRADA on 1st May 2007. Visitors to the event will be able to see Eleco Software's new Consultec Whole House Engineering® module in action.

The Consultec Whole House Engineering module is used in conjunction with Consultec�s timber frame design software, allowing timber frame designers and manufacturers to produce structural and engineering calculations as part of their design process.

"The module has been developed to save the timber frame designer time. Calculations traditionally need to be redone several times after design alterations at different stages of the process in order to get a design passed and Consultec Whole House Engineering™ significantly reduces the inherent time and cost this takes," explains Jason Ruddle, Managing Director of Eleco Software.

By using Whole House Engineering™ the designer can pass on completed Structural Design Calculation Sheets to an engineer to rapidly check and sign off.

Consultec Whole House Engineering™ integrates with the Consultec Timber Frame & Floors software, for both solid section and I-beams, along with operating the industry standard AutoCAD® or Architectural Desktop (ADT) for drawing, designing, estimating, producing drawings and visualisation. The module also combines with Gang-Nail Systems� Roof & Truss software that is used by the leading truss fabricators in the UK and Eire.'

[ansc] 08/3/2007 12:15

You can't keep a good dog down - not even the MMs it would appear! I just wish the company would indicate the date they intend publishing their 'Interims', anxiety levels are rising daily.

[ansc] 06/3/2007 14:28

The price movements over the past few days, both up and down, have been created by the MMs simply playing with their 'offer' price - the 'bid' price has always remained on 89p.

Little things please little minds....

[scumdog] 02/3/2007 15:41

Quite a number of the shares I monitor opened up today - probably just a reversal of the mark downs by mms over the last few days.

[ansc] 02/3/2007 12:12

Execution of Eleco's intented action as stated in the Asta takeover announcement:

"Eleco Directorate Change

RNS Number:2035S
Eleco PLC - 02 March 2007

Eleco plc
("Eleco" or the "Company")

Appointment of Director

The Company is pleased to announce that following completion of the acquisition
of Asta Group Limited, Mr Michael Barry McCullen, aged 45, joined the Eleco
Board on 1 March 2007, as an executive director. Mr McCullen will have
responsibility for Eleco Construction Software, comprising Asta Development plc
and the construction software activities of Eleco Software Limited in the U.K.
and the Consultec Group in Sweden.

Mr McCullen holds 652,944 ordinary shares in the Company, representing 1.17 per
cent of the Company's total voting rights.

From March 1988 to April 2000 Mr McCullen was a director of Eurolink
International Limited.

The Company confirms that no other details are required to be disclosed under
paragraph (g) of Schedule 2 of the AIM Rules."

[ansc] 02/3/2007 08:32

Have I missed something? Why the 'open' at 2p higher? MM manipulation again presumably.

[cockneyrebel] 27/2/2007 10:45

Is this gagging to breakout or what? It keeps trying but has been hit by a seller at this level each time but once that seller has flown I reckon there's a tastey brealout here.

Ketley been buying hard, single digit fwd PE just looks ripe for 20-30% if they are positive at the results which looks very likely imo - and results in less than a month. Must see more and more buying as those results approach imo.

CR