Financial Objects Share Discussion Threads

[cocker] 04/5/2008 08:24

Techinvest footnote " The shares remain undervalued. BUY"

[rivaldo] 02/5/2008 13:08

It's lucky that the AGM is next Thursday then :o))

Last year's AGM saw an in-line trading statement, and given director share buying etc I'm expecting the same again next week.

[highly geared] 02/5/2008 12:55

FIO need to issue a Q1 Trading Statement which hopefully says everything in line and business performing strongly etc.

This would finally dispell the notion that FIO's performance is inextricably linked to performance of the banks/financial sector.

In these markets good and regular pr/ir is essential. Still harbour the notion that this will get taken out in the next 1-2 years but they need to come up with a way of more regular newsflow so the market recognises the company.

All the best.

[skyship] 30/4/2008 14:54

Agreed - makes good reading - sounds as though FIO is ahead of the game in that field.

[rivaldo] 28/4/2008 21:42

I very much like the sound of this dated today - developed with Shell too -"the first fully integrated credit risk management system for the energy trading industry incorporating oil, gas, power, coal, carbon and derivatives. It is the most technically advanced web solution of its kind":



"28 Apr 2008

Financial Objects launches first fully integrated credit risk management solution with oil trading functionality

energycredit 2.1 further establishes its position as the most functionally rich and technically advanced solution of its kind

Financial Objects plc, an international supplier of software solutions to the financial services sector, today announced the launch of the latest version of its award-winning global credit risk management solution. energycredit 2.1, which was developed with Shell Trading, includes new capabilities for oil trading and contingent risk management. Using the latest Microsoft technology, it is the first fully integrated credit risk management system for the energy trading industry incorporating oil, gas, power, coal, carbon and derivatives. It is the most technically advanced web solution of its kind.

energycredit 2.1 now manages credit risk exposures for event-based oil trades. All physical commodities can be mapped using its unique exposure profile event mapping. The solution, which helps firms present a consolidated view of all exposures, captures deal data and uses specific rules to aggregate profiles where appropriate.

"With the price of oil continuing to rise and increasing numbers of banks entering this market, effective risk management for oil trading is ever more important," says Stephen Bruel, analyst from TowerGroup. "The ability to handle event-driven transactions and exposure profiles is increasingly crucial for credit risk management solutions to meet the demands of oil companies and multi-commodity trading houses."

energycredit 2.1, which is available through a web portal like its predecessor energycredit 2.0, provides a number of other significant enhancements, including:

· Simplified management of oil trading with a handling method for discrepancies including exception handling and alerts;

· Next generation advanced workflow, based on Microsoft's Workflow Foundation providing the capability to model complex business processes, linking external systems and events if required;

· Contingent risk allowing the calculation and reporting of secondary risk, separately from primary risk, vitally important in today's volatile credit market;

· The capturing of complex trade specific securities and the calculation of exposure mitigation effects;

· Pre-deal checker providing the ability to enter the notional or Potential Future Exposure (PFE) value of a potential trade and see it measured against a credit line;

· Event-based exposures allowing the modelling of exposure profiles based on specific dates on contracts to determine when risk is shifted to a given counterparty;

· The ability to define completely generic portfolios and assign specific limits to measure and monitor the exposure;

· Microsoft's latest Silverlight graphing capability, providing interactive web-based 3-D graphing and charting for visual representation of any reported data including exposure.

Eric Nelson, application architect at Microsoft UK commented: "Financial Objects is a prime example of how our partners can advance their solutions through our technology. Its use of Silverlight for animated graphing should prove both beneficial and easy to use for clients. Additionally, its use of our next-generation workflow module will provide users with the capability to model even the most complex business processes through their lifecycles."

More than 17 energy trading organisations, including Statoil, RWE, Calpine and TXU, are already benefiting from Financial Objects' energycredit solution. Existing customers which opt for the new release will be seamlessly upgraded to energycredit 2.1.

"Oil trading events and exposure levels are very different to those of gas and power, which is why this energycredit upgrade represents a milestone for Financial Objects," said Lee Campbell, director of product strategy at Financial Objects. "Working closely with Shell and Microsoft, we strived to add beneficial functionality to users through the most advanced technologies available, to deliver a global solution that genuinely empowers firms to manage and reduce their credit risk across their full commodity portfolio."

Financial Objects has been voted the best credit risk management software provider for the third year in a row in the Energy Risk software rankings. The company will showcase its latest energycredit 2.1 solution at the International Energy Credit Association (IECA) European Conference on 15 – 17 June 2008 in Athens."

[cocker] 24/4/2008 20:58

only a matter of time before the market wakes up to how cheap these remain @ the moment.

[rivaldo] 23/4/2008 10:12

FYI here's the summary of FIO from SCSW a couple of weeks ago - note that the conclusion is "dirt cheap":



"Financial Objects

(Sharewatch) Financial Objects has reported solid results for the year to 31 December, with no sign of weakness in its core financial services markets. This was the third year of growth with revenue up 7% to £21.2m and pretax profit up by 40% to £2.8m. Adjusted earnings were up 27% to 7p. All three software divisions performed strongly and were profitable: banking, wealth management and risk management.

The key driver to these strong results was a turnaround at the risk management division, which was established after the group acquired Raft in '06. The division supplies software products for managing operational risk (mostly sold to international banks) and credit risk (mostly sold to energy clients) and has been successfully restructured since '06 when it was losing £1m. Raft, a former quoted PLC, now relocated to Financial Objects' low cost facility in Bangalore, reported a profit of almost £1m before central costs on sales of £4.3m that were boosted by major new contracts from Shell, E.On and Calpine (a Texas power utility).

That turnaround was quite a nice surprise for us when we spoke to management last month. A further key misconception amongst investors and explaining the present low rating is that Financial Objects is heavily reliant on new software licences in the banking arm. Indeed, that division is a big swing factor to performance with sales and profits going backwards due to fewer licence wins. But the group's dependency on new wins is low, shown by the divisional sales of £9.5m, of which only £935,000 was from software licences whilst the bulk (£5m) is from contracted maintenance revenues from the installed base of IBIS wholesale and Activebank retail banking products.

Elsewhere, the final division, Wealth Management, remains healthy and well. Like Raft, the business has performed better since Financial Objects took it under its wing. Becoming part of a larger organisation added credibility in the eyes of customers. Last year, the division, which supplies portfolio management systems, reported a profit of £0.3m on sales of £3.4m.

It's probably fair to say that Financial Objects' modus operandi has shifted from selling software to instead acquiring other quoted rivals, eliminating duplicated overheads and thus seeking non economic drivers to profit growth. With net cash at the period end of £4.8m and a significant derating in the quoted software sector, the company looks well placed to conclude further deals.

Broker Evolution forecasts sales of £22.7m, pretax profit of £3.6m and eps of 7.5p this year. Recurring revenues represent 75% of total sales, making the shares a defensive prospect on a PE of 5.

Dirt cheap."

[rivaldo] 21/4/2008 11:29

Yep, the latest forecasts continue to read well. At 46p the current year P/E is only 6, with almost £5m net cash as well against a £20m m/cap:

2008 2009
Broker Date Rec Pre-tax (£) EPS (p) DPS (p) Pre-tax (£) EPS (p) DPS (p)
Edison Investment Research 17-04-08 None 3.47 7.70 2.00 3.89 8.60 2.50
Evolution Securities Ltd 08-04-08 BUY 3.40 7.50 1.70 4.00 8.20 1.80

OT : Skyship, me too re RHEP! Might wait for the Athena result before adding though. A difficult one...

[aquilla] 21/4/2008 10:56

Solid buying this morning. 60,000 shares traded and up nearly 6%. Provided the general market holds up, the fundamentals of this company should push the price north over the coming weeks and months. IMHO

[skyship] 21/4/2008 09:10

Morning RIV - Yes, an odd line of 5000 purchases, more like an "AT" accummulation than a series of "O" trades. Haven't seen any mention anywhere; and if there were then the trades would be more like those in our RHEP this morning - full of odd amounts where small PIs invest cash sums.

O/T: Yes, I got a few of those @ 13.16p last week (only a miniscule 1% weighting in my SIPP). Am wondering whether to add on the pullback to 13.4p offered.....

[bluesbreaker] 16/4/2008 11:13

Have sold the last of these after about six years holding. Undervalued, but I wonder if the name is putting people off? Invested proceeds in blinkx.

[skyship] 16/4/2008 08:10

Yes, ecouraging - 42/46 & we're XD today - 1.5p payable 16th May

[rivaldo] 15/4/2008 13:57

Good to see a 2p rise on relatively small volumes. Hopefully an indication that there aren't any sellers left and that the true value of the shares is being recognised.

Certainly not a bad recovery from the lows.

[techmark] 10/4/2008 09:34

These shares are the wrong price.

At 42p you have just over 10p of cash per share. EPS is forecast to be 7.6p for 2008. Strip out the cash 32p/7.6p and you have an underlying business trading on a PE of 4.

Even if you applied a 40% discount to the earnings forecast for a recession the underlying business still only trades on 7 times. At some point those sort of discounts will attract a bidder.

[papalpower] 07/4/2008 14:05

Financial Objects PLC
07 April 2008

CAF selects activebank Wealth Manager to support charitable trusts

CAF strengthens partnership with Financial Objects


London, 7 April 2008 - Financial Objects plc, an international supplier of
software solutions to the financial services sector, today announced that the
Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) will implement activebank Wealth Manager to
support its investment activities for charitable trusts.

CAF has signed an agreement to extend its relationship with Financial Objects,
positioning the company as its primary technology supplier across all areas of
its business. This is the third phase of an ongoing project with Financial
Objects, which will see the implementation of activebank Retail as the core
solution to support all of CAF's back office operations including the Give As
You Earn and Matched Giving schemes as well as its Charity Accounts and Trusts.

activebank Wealth Manager, a front and middle office portfolio management
system, will be implemented at CAF's Trust department which manages investment
portfolios for more than 2,000 charitable trusts. The Trust team is currently
seeing significant growth and needed a system that would allow it scale to this
volume of business.

As part of the project Financial Objects will develop a direct interface between the activebank Wealth Manager and activebank Retail systems to enable the Trust department to view both the investment positions of its customers as well as their current accounts and cash.

'The beauty of activebank Wealth Manager is that not only will it help us to
achieve our growth plans, but it will provide us with a single customer view,'
said Sheila Hooper, marketing and private client director at CAF. 'Having all of the data in one place will be invaluable, enabling us to provide a much improved service to our customers.'

activebank Wealth Manager will practically eliminate the need for manual data
entry, which is currently required with CAF's existing system. Furthermore, as
the business grows it will enable the team to manage an increasing number of
charitable trusts without having to increase headcount. With client information
at their fingertips and the ability to produce client reports at the touch of a
button, the solution will enable the team to respond more quickly and
efficiently to client requests.

'The scope of this project is an excellent example of how Financial Objects'
expanded solution offering can assist clients in different parts of their
business,' said Brent Randall, managing director of the Wealth Management
division at Financial Objects. 'CAF's ongoing commitment to our partnership
demonstrates our ability to deliver innovative yet flexible solutions on
advanced Microsoft technology.'


- ends -


About CAF

CAF (Charities Aid Foundation) is the not-for-profit organisation which is
committed to effective giving, both in the UK and internationally. Its work
spans the full breadth of the charitable sector, wherever it can make a positive difference to the level and impact of giving.

CAF promotes effective giving: for individuals, it makes donating to the causes
they care about simple and tax-efficient; for businesses, it can support every
aspect of their community involvement; and for charities, its services can help
them make the most of what is given. With over 80 years' experience and over £2
billion of funds invested in CAF's products, CAF offers thousands of charities
worldwide a total solution to their financial needs.

For more information visit: www.cafonline.org

[liquid assets] 06/4/2008 13:06

name change might not be such a bad thing - may help with the share price

[skyship] 06/4/2008 10:11

Quite right - shares are for trading - no longer buying & holding!

Even Buffett sells when sps move to excess levels. Mind you - I never viewed the 70p level excessive for FIO, which is why I only top-sliced at that level. I expected them to consolidate then march on to £1 - not retreat back to 38p.

[weatherman] 04/4/2008 12:53

But you could have traded it bought at 25p and sold at 70p

[techmark] 04/4/2008 09:23

When will the board deliver shareholder value? 5 years and no capital return.



Opportunity cost over those fives years is now 27%. So leaving you money in the bank for those fives years with compound interest rate of 5%, would have returned 27% on your money!

[techmark] 03/4/2008 12:33

No stock about, just need some buyers to turn up.

[rivaldo] 03/4/2008 10:50

Yep. And nice to see a 10k buy seemingly causing a 1.5p rise - suggests there's not much stock around?

[skyship] 03/4/2008 08:10

Great to see PF availing himself of a few more - certainly steadied the ship - now 41p bid.

[liquid assets] 02/4/2008 20:54

agreed riv - fundamentals speak for themselves of course: that's why we're all in it ! the snag (at a minimum from a sentiment point of view) is this potential liability out there - just creates a slight element of uncertainty. hopefully pf's buy goes a reasonable way in calming any concern.