Ffastfill Share Discussion Threads

[bugs bunny] 15/3/2011 14:35

Date 14/03/2011

FFastFill announces that its SAM Stockbroking Settlement System has been awarded Goodacre GoodAccredited System status. The GoodAccredited System ranking is awarded to firms who supply systems and services for Investment Banks, Stockbrokers, Wealth Managers and other regulated trading companies who have met the stringent criteria defined by Goodacre.

SAM is FFastFill's comprehensive back office settlement and administrative system that process assets such as equities, gilts, bonds, FX and unit trusts. SAM is built on robust Oracle and Linux technology and fully utilises rigorous double entry accounting practices. The system is used by market practitioners including retail brokers, execution only brokers, institutional brokers, market makers and custodians. SAM has one a comprehensive Euroclear interface as well as connections to other settlement agents, industry standard front end systems and middle office applications. The product was launched with the introduction of CREST, but has been developed further to provide a comprehensive back office settlement solution for all varieties of brokers and market participants.

Louise Davies, Managing Director Business Development at FFastFill, said "We are pleased that SAM has been recognised under the GoodAccredited System as one of the market leading stockbroking settlement products. This underlines FFastFill's continued commitment to the application and the marketplace".

[bugs bunny] 10/3/2011 09:06

Thanks Furtive.......At last the penny has dropped......ION you could have bought FFA at 12p a share but its going to cost you alot more now 17p+ now LOL....

[site manager] 10/3/2011 08:47

Furtive,

Thank you.

[bluehair2] 10/3/2011 08:10

Thanks for the info Furtive

Looks like we have another positive start this morning.

[furtive_flatulator] 09/3/2011 17:54

Troops, not sure if you are interested, but a buy note has been issued
for this Company. I am not invested here, tied up in oil & ore right now,
but the Company looks interesting and certainly apppears that it has great
potential. (i'll have to add this to my watch list.) Anyhow, the note is below, hope it helps & good luck:

F_F


NOTE:

There was a time, not that long ago, when financial markets really did bear some resemblance to street markets.

Traders congregated in a large room, or exchange, and made deals with each other. Communication was fast, loud and face-to-face.

Today's financial markets are very different. Communication is almost always electronic and, even when traders do talk to each other before doing a deal, the trades themselves are consummated electronically.

In this environment, having the right technology is paramount. Large banks and broking firms will handle millions of trades a day, many of them generated by sophisticated computer systems that buy and sell shares or derivatives automatically.

Over the past few years, financial firms have responded to this environment by spending enormous sums of money on their own kit, as well as special data rooms filled with dedicated servers to try and make sure all their trading activity is efficient, effective and as good as everyone else's.

But times are changing – again. As anyone who owns a computer knows, they can be hugely expensive, they go wrong rather a lot and it costs a fortune to repair them.

The latest way round this issue is something called software as a service or SAAS, which allows large companies to use only as much software as they need from a specialist provider.

In the same way as most people who use electricity do not own their own generator, SAAS offers users access to incredibly sophisticated systems without having to own servers and data rooms themselves.

The service is catching on, slowly, and one of the pioneers in the field is Ffastfill.


Ticker: FFA (aim market)

Contact: 0203 002 1900 or ffastfill.com

Ffastfill offers SAAS to traders around the world, particularly those involved in complex derivatives products where timing and precision are even more essential than in ordinary trades.

Its customers include HSBC the London Metal Exchange and US banking giant JP Morgan.

Ffastfill is chaired by Keith Todd, who ran the computer group ICL in the late 1990s, transforming the business before it was sold to Fujitsu.

Chief executive is Hamish Purdey, who has spent the past 11 years at Ffastfill, doing a variety of jobs in London, Asia and America.

Trader
Electronic trading: Ffastfill is a pioneer in the SAAS field

The company spent several years perfecting its service and, just as it was really making progress, the financial crisis erupted.

Now, however, the group is back on track, gaining new customers and offering more services to existing ones.

In the year to March 2009, Ffastfill made a £400,000 loss. Last year, it turned in a profit of £1.2 million and this year, it is expected to make more than £2.2 million, rising to nearly £3 million in 2012.

It can take time for the company to persuade potential customers that SAAS works as well, if not better, than owning all the technology in-house.

But momentum is building as SAAS is invariably cheaper and more effective than alternatives. Maintenance and after-care are speedy and efficient too, which can be hugely appealing for businesses whose very livelihood depends on their IT being fully functional day in, day out.

Midas verdict: Ffastfill's name is, admittedly, irritating but the company is offering banks a clever new way of managing the technology associated with electronic trading.

The group should grow considerably over the next few years and the shares, currently 10p, should go higher. Buy.

[bluehair2] 09/3/2011 17:14

Both SP's show a solid gain today, but on little volume. Not sure what this means Bugs? but can't complain....

Looks like the LSE are closing them both unchanged on the day, so a short lived positive

[bugs bunny] 09/3/2011 12:57

Both PTS and FFA up 1.22% today.......Perhaps ION are now making there move LOL.

[wh1spa] 09/3/2011 09:24

It is an amazing turn around for FFA. For so long in the shadow of PTS. Acorns and Oak trees spring to mind and given how long they've been going there should be a well formed root structure by now.

[wh1spa] 07/3/2011 21:23

I wonder if FFA have picked up a few of PTS's clients. At this stage that would put PTS in a difficult position and FFA in a very strong one. Purely speculation!
AIMHO

[bugs bunny] 07/3/2011 11:57

Not a bad days work on those options £24k profit.

[bluehair2] 02/3/2011 16:27

Thanks for the reply and as i'm not a holder of Pats, I note your plausible reason behind PTS's current downslide (off again as I write).

If the buyout/merger scenario is true, ION should be looking to leg into that trade starting with Pats in the very near future. If not, then something else might be afoot

Just my humble opinion..fwiw

[bugs bunny] 02/3/2011 15:35

Old news:

In a brief statement, FfastFill says that, as of this week, Cinnober holds 12,000,000 ordinary shares of one pence each.

FfastFill claims over 80 customers for its technology covering derivatives trading and risk management. Cinnober counts Deutsche Börse, Nyse Liffe and MTF Burgundy among its customers although the vendor recently lost out when the LSE migrated its Turquoise platform to the in-house MillenniumIT system.

The move to acquire a small stake in FfastFill could presage a tie-up, claims the Financial Times, although any deal would depend on Ion Trading, which holds a 25% stake in the UK firm.

[bugs bunny] 02/3/2011 14:55

Bluehair,

I've found FFA don't operate by the same rules as other PLC's...They maybe a PLC but they operated like a private company...maybe this is because Its so tightly held in a few hands.
A big IF or when we see any takeover bid I can imagine it will a done and dusted deal with a rocket of a share price
I have noted the fall in PTS and put it down to the bad note they had about applying themselves too thinly and not that ION have changed tact after all ION have 17 million tied up in PTS and bought on a average of 32p approx.
ION are approx 6 million down on there holding in PTS but do receive a Divi and break even now on FFA. However doing nothing is costing ION a awful lot of money.
I would like to know where the Blackrock 5 million share went, Where they bought 5.5% and then a few days later in went down to 4.74%.
Who sold and who have bought yesterdays 1% of share that went through the market. Did Cinnober Financial Technology buy them.
So many questions.

[site manager] 02/3/2011 12:04

Market cap of FFA now above that of PTS.

PTS - Similar to FFA but with profits and dividends etc.

[bluehair2] 02/3/2011 10:53

Bugs,

PTS still going down and FFA stable (for now).

If the senario you mentioned previously is right and ION are looking to buyout and hold both. The current activity in PTS looks "text book" for a sudden aggressive move by a 3rd party.
If they don't take advantage of the price action in PTS then maybe this is not their outright intention, would you agree?

Bluehair.

[bugs bunny] 01/3/2011 23:08

Just over 1% of stock going through the market....The trade I found interesting was th 15k buy at 10.30 when the spread was 10.25/ 10.00 That trade was bought over the odds and it was a small trade.

[bluehair2] 01/3/2011 17:45

Interesting....3.5 M trades printed after hours.

[bugs bunny] 01/3/2011 12:03

MM's in FFA hate to carry stock of any size....It does seem we have a buyer as we havn't seen a tick down.....Maybe Cinnober are still buying.

[the spanker] 01/3/2011 11:42

The market makers wouldn't take the stock without a buyer, well not in FFA that's for sure.
More stake building by Cinnober?

[bugs bunny] 01/3/2011 11:39

Here we go again.............Well Maybe LOL

[bugs bunny] 28/2/2011 12:02

Herald hold 6.97% in PTS and 10.73% in FFA....ION hold 29.52% in PTS and 24.93% in FFA.
Lions only appear on the FFA reg at 5.13%


Pts reg:

ION Trading Ireland, Limited 55,051,191 29.52%
Brewin Dolphin Limited 15,363,627 8.24%
Herald Investment Management Ltd 13,000,000 6.97%
First Clearing L.L.C. 12,687,500 6.80%
Cazenove Capital Management Limited 10,967,015 5.88%
Kabouter Management L.L.C. 8,149,000 4.37%
Sedaf Holdings SA 6,389,600 3.43%


FFA reg:

Shareholder
Number of ordinary shares
% of issued share capital

ION Trading Ireland Limited 99 700 530 24.93%
Herald Investment Management 42 898 653 10.73%
ISIS EP LLP 25 984 615 6.50%
Mr Underwood 24 000 000 6.00%
Blackrock Merrill Lynch Investment Managers 17 860 738 4.47%
Artemis AIM VCT 20 691 429 5.17%
Liontrust Investment Partners LLP 20 528 891 5.13%
T K Todd 12 865 332 3.22%
Cinnober Financial Technology AB (Publ.) 12 000 000 3.00%

[bluehair2] 28/2/2011 11:28

Bugs,

I agree, with so many players now at the table, ION are playing a risky game of poker, which may cost them in the future. (I'd actually forgotton about Herald's holding which was bought around the same time as ION's and Lion's, I think?)
I don't believe all these large holders are here just for themselves, but it's just speculation on my part as to which parties maybe acting together.