Eleco Public Share Discussion Threads

[ansc] 13/2/2013 16:26

Spread (for 25k) is now 7.55/8.7p or 15%. Do the Money Makers seriously expect any investor to be interested knowing that they've got to make 20% on the buying price before they've even got their money back. The illiquid stock excuse trotted out is laughable, of course it's illiquid with spreads of that ludicrous size. If they want investors to trade, give them a fighting chance!

[ansc] 07/2/2013 15:02

I sent an email to Eleco's chairman on the subject of flooding just over two months ago. His reply indicated that Milbury's were going to have a major push on promoting their retaining walls which are usable in such a situation.

Whether they had any success remains to be seen but I would imagine there is a lot of stiff competion from within the construction industry.

edit: I know Swansea Uni's new campus has been on Eleco's radar since September last year ..... which is when I first bought it to their attention.

[rathkum] 06/2/2013 08:32

Hopefully Eleco will be awarded a fair share of the construction work.



Swansea Uni signs deal for £150m new campus start

Aaron Morby | Tue 5th February | 7:49
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Swansea University has signed a deal with developer St Modwen to build the £150m first phase of a new science and innovation campus.

The project on an old BP refinery site in Neath already has detailed planning permission for 430,000 sq ft of academic buildings and 900 student apartments.

Work on the first building will get underway in April, with Bam Construction, Leadbitter, Vinci and Willmott Dixon in the tender race to build a £23m innovation hub centre at the site.

The campus will be located on St. Modwen's 65 acre Transit site to the east of Swansea Docks, one of the land holdings within a 2,500-acre portfolio acquired from BP three years ago.

The University has already secured European Investment Bank and Welsh Government funding while St Modwen has secured the investment sale of 50% of the student accommodation to a major institutional investor.

Outline planning permission is already in place for future development phases worth more than £300m.

Bill Oliver, chief Executive of St. Modwen, said: "This is an incredibly exciting project and one that complements our extensive experience in regenerating complex sites.

"We are very pleased to have agreed terms and look forward to engaging with Swansea University, Neath Port Talbot Council and other stakeholders to progress the delivery of this substantial and strategic development."

[ansc] 17/1/2013 17:19

47k sold today (7.5, 7.55p) so, with a few more smallish sales on top, I doubt whether the Money Makers will feel comfortable holding THAT many and will become anxious, dropping their offer price as the anxiety level increases.

Another 25k could be just around the corner!

[ansc] 16/1/2013 17:17

I see they marked your 25k at 16.14, rathkum, so you don't appear to have got the other 25k. I'm sure that one or two other opportunities will arise before the final figures are announced given that there appears to be investors still willing to sell-up even though I'm convinced that the worst is behind the company now. I'm happy to wait until sub 8.1p is offered again.

[rathkum] 16/1/2013 14:47

Nothing afoot yet, well not yet anyway. Went for 50,000, managed to buy 25,000 @8.25, see if they can get the rest.

[ansc] 16/1/2013 14:20

30k in sales so far today but the best being offered online is 15k @ 8.45p. Something afoot?

Edit: Spread has now increased to 12% so it looks as though the Merry Men are simply after some cheap stock. I can wait, patience has usually paid off in the past.

[ansc] 10/1/2013 10:57

With such an affable outlook, I think your broker should be very grateful for your custom rathkum $[:-) .

Getting back to the company, I'm not expecting much action until after the annual results announcement (early April?) - I'm hoping for breakeven, a small overall profit would be a welcome bonus - so I think both you and I have plenty of time before then to tuck a few more away (I'm restricting myself to just one more 25k, I already hold just over 1%). Next year is looking much better, however, with the Reading phase 3 contract already in the bag for their struggling Precast subsidiary. If software can continue its steady growth, 8p will surely be looking like a snip in 12 months time.

You mention 24 December in your last post, I've just looked in my ELCO file and I actually bought 25k @ 7.7p on the 6th - the lowest price I've ever been able to buy at.

[rathkum] 10/1/2013 10:07

Thanks for your post ansc

I wasn't too miffed at paying 8.25p but your post prompted me to give them a call anyway.Offer price would have been lower were it not for the size plus I opted for T10. My brokers have been excellent in my dealings with them over the years so I left it at that.

On 24th December seeing a buy go through at 7.8p, I was offered 8.0?? something for 40,000 which I should have taken.

The general market may be topping pit so I'll be on the lookout for further buying opportunities at sub 8.p.

[ansc] 10/1/2013 08:22

I don't know who your broker is, rathkum, but it certainly looks a tad suspicious and I think YOU have been made to pay the price for THEIR error.

At the end of trading each day, I usually check on trades marked. I noticed the odd entries for Wednesday: 10.53 - 50k buy @ 8.81p [when the offer price was shown as 8.0p]; 11.28 - 50k withdrawn; 11.28 - 50k buy @ 8.25p [offer price still shown as 8.0p]. To me, that indicates that, following your phone call, they realised their mistake, went back and corrected it and then had the audacity to charge you an increased price compared with the one originally quoted to you. If confirmation was needed, I had no problem picking up 25k yesterday morning @ 8.0p!

If I were in your shoes, I would go back and tell them you are not happy with what happened. Ask them to check through their phone recordings for your first conversation (most competent brokers record clients' phone instructions for exactly this kind of dispute) and ask them to play it back to you. If they're not prepared to do that, simply say in that case you'll be taking your business elsewhere.

I seldom phone instructions to my broker these days and rely on internet dealing instead. Firstly, it's much cheaper but secondly, you can do a 'dummy' trade in the first instance to see if the deal will go through automatically (illiquid stocks such as ELCO are notoriously difficult to trade in volume), if it doesn't, do a 'fill or kill' @ your chosen price and, if that gets turned down, try again another day.

I rarely manage to buy 50k blocks in ELCO these days but have still managed to accumulate 350k shares (using the above approach) over the last 14 months.

Edit: Since writing the above, I've checked the ADVFN trades marked for 8 January (used another source previously) and there is definitely one marked down as: 50k 'buy' @ 8.0806p. That tells you all you need to know!!

[rathkum] 09/1/2013 17:27

Well I have a few pennies in the tank from a Canadian biotech buyout so it was a toss up between Eleco and Interbulk to add to my existing holdings. I have been waiting for Eleco's price to soften to get in at under 8p which it did yesterday morning. Called my broker to buy 50,000 and he came back with the offer price of 8.0806p (that what I heard him say). Seconds later saw my trade go through at 8.806p and I thought what a rip off. Phoned my broker straight away to check if I actually paid 8.8. So it was a relief when I saw 8.25p on my contract note.

Here's hoping for Eleco's recovery this year as it appears the worst is behind them.

[ansc] 09/1/2013 14:21

In spite of what appears to be a persistent (25k) seller, the MMs have been forced to raise their bid/offer prices today - 7.65/8.175p for 25k - thanks to a few buys from PIs who seem to agree with my assessment that ELCO is now a reasonable recovery situation over the next 12 - 18 months.

That light at the end of what has been a long and very dark tunnel for the company seems to be getting brighter by the month. They should have received £400k last month of the £1.2m deferred consideration due from the sale of their connector plate operations [December 2011] with the outstanding £800k falling due next December. The recent report that Sweden appears to be coping with the recession better than most EU countries is hopefully good news for ELCO's Consultec division which, if so, will also be helping.

I'm still optimistic. In fact, I wouldn't mind a few more for my pot at 8p (ish).

[ansc] 21/12/2012 20:11

Another compliment for asta's Powerproject:

[ansc] 17/12/2012 09:44

rathkum - As far as I'm aware, in the past the only forecasts I've seen for ELCO have come from Hardman but, presumably because of the recent change of emphasis at ELCO, their forecasts for them are currently suspended. In their December notes, however, they commented that although trading in the last six months has been sideways, what with the net debt reduction and the recent major breakthrough on the pensions issues, they see scope for advances at Elecosoft despite their exposure to the depressed construction sector. Since then, of course, Elecoprecast have announced securement of the Reading Uni Phase 3 student accommodation building project which has to be seen as beneficial news.

Last Friday's official figures showing that the UK construction industry grew by 8.3% in October will hopefully have rubbed off on ELCO as well. As for me, I'm content tucking away the odd 25k as and when whilst the share price offer price sticks in the 8 - 8.5p range (thanks to persistent small-scale selling). Whether I'll be regretting doing so in four months time remains to be seen!

[rathkum] 14/12/2012 20:52

ansc

Are there any broker's forecast out for the current year?

[ansc] 14/12/2012 17:14

Another favourable mention for asta's Powerproject:

[ansc] 10/12/2012 09:41

I've really taken my eye off the ball just lately as this has been on asta's website for a while:



and this:



I understand that of the top 100 construction companies in this country, 90 are on the books at asta. I can see now the reasoning why Eleco's emphasis has been switched to software and away from their previous money-spinner precast. Looks a promising move to me.

[ansc] 10/12/2012 09:28

Have been away for a few days so missed this website announcement (which encouraged me to have a small top-up just now!):



Hopefully that should keep the administrators away from the door for a while longer!!

[ansc] 07/11/2012 14:59

I've never, ever advised anyone to buy a particular company's share - family members excluded - as I've made more than enough costly mistakes using my own money never mind with someone else's! They alone must make that decision after doing their own research, etc.

That said, I've made my feelings perfectly clear in this thread regarding ELCO as an investment and have put 'my money where my mouth is' but it's definitely not one for widows and orphans. Thus far, it's cost me dear but, as the saying goes, 'Rome wasn't built in a day' ..... on reflection, maybe it might have been if they'd had access to Eleco's expertise back then!

[paul119] 07/11/2012 14:13

Hi ansc - we definitely have not met at an AGM as i have, as yet, never been to one. That will change however as I will attend the next, perhaps we can meet then?

I have lost money here and on your advice maybe I should buy back in and see where it goes.

[ansc] 02/11/2012 12:00

Thanks for the advice but, unfortunately (or should that be fortunately?) no one appears to have heeded it so far. In fact, someone has rashly bought 50k (@ 8.5p) this morning!

To feel so bitter towards Eleco, they really must have cost you a packet at some time [post 575]; care to reveal how much?

I'm wondering whether I've actually met you at one of their AGMs..... does your surname start with the letter T perchance?

[paul119] 01/11/2012 22:08

ditch this why you still can

[rathkum] 05/10/2012 22:12

Good luck to those who managed to load up around the 7ish+ mark,we are now on an upwards trajectory.