Fd Technologies Public Share Discussion Threads

[moorsie2] 02/10/2014 17:09

On the face of it three good pieces of news - but it looks like themarket will want to see numbers to buy into the £15 broker target prices.

The in house IR person seems to have the right credentials and should really help the business manage its message and story to the market better. We should see his imprint all over the interim results in early November.

I for one will be looking for a clearer message as to what the company is seeking to achieve and then regular positive updates that progress is being made and promises delivered. This would propel this share price significantly higher

[johnroger] 02/10/2014 13:02

Trading update & Notice of Results

Trading during the first half of the financial year has been in line with management expectations with both Revenue and EBITDA ahead of the prior year. The Board confirms that it expects its full year performance to be in line with current market forecasts. The interim results will be published on 5 November 2014.

Good to see an "in line Statement" but what about the share price, over 40% down from the high and miles away from brokers targets?

[sharpish] 02/10/2014 08:39

IEX recently profiled in Michael Lewis' book Flash Boys - this is a big win!

[blackbox1] 29/9/2014 10:35

To beat IBM, Oracle, Sungard, etc, with their financial strength, human capital and politically powerful marketing capabilities is a fantastic result. Should settle prospective buyers, and contribute towards building momentum in what are typically long sales cycles.

Nice one!

[gucci] 26/9/2014 09:15

RNS Reach

26 September 2014

First Derivatives plc

First Derivatives wins Market Surveillance System of the Year Award

First Derivatives (FD) (AIM:FDP.L, ESM:FDP.I) a leading provider of software and consulting services to the capital markets industry, is pleased to announce that its Delta Surveillance product has won Market Surveillance System of the Year at the Futures and Options World (FOW) Asia awards.



Now in their third year, the FOW Awards recognise the leaders in the capital markets industry in Asia. Delta Surveillance responds to the need for regulators and exchanges to be as fast and sophisticated as their participants, allowing them to monitor the activity of even high-frequency trading participants in real-time.



Delta Surveillance, powered by kdb+, is built using First Derivatives' Delta Stream™ technology, leveraging its high performance algorithmic trading infrastructure to allow users to conduct multi-market supervision across multi-asset classes - equities, futures, options, fixed income and OTC - in real time, providing new capabilities in identifying fraud across and between different markets. The speed of the system provides unmatched flexibility of analysis, with the time taken to produce some reports reduced from several hours to less than one minute.



Over the past two years, Delta Surveillance has been implemented by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), as well as Yieldbroker, an electronic marketplace for Australian and New Zealand debt securities and derivatives.



The FOW Asia award judges, commented: "In an age where we are under more and more regulatory scrutiny, Delta Surveillance has allowed regulators and institutions to maintain a steady balance of knowledge on trading behaviour."



First Derivatives Managing Director Asia, Martin Haines, said: "This award is recognition of the capabilities of Delta Surveillance and the efforts of the Company's team in Asia. As markets continue to become faster and more complex, surveillance - for regulators, exchanges and participants too - is becoming increasingly important. We are engaging in an ever increasing number of conversations about surveillance as it becomes part of the day-to-day requirement of doing business in finance in Asia."



First Derivatives CEO Brian Conlon commented: "The technical advantages of Delta Surveillance leave us ideally placed to help Regulators and Exchanges to protect the integrity of their markets. This award is recognition of the strength of our offering and the efforts of our team in Asia."



Enquiries:

First Derivatives plc


[phone]

Brian Conlon, Chief Executive Officer


www.firstderivatives.com

Martin Haines, Managing Director, Asia













Charles Stanley Securities
(Nominated Adviser and Broker)


[phone]

Russell Cook




Carl Holmes









Goodbody Corporate Finance
(ESM Adviser and Broker)


[phone]



Finbarr Griffin (ESM advisor)




Linda Hickey (Broker)



Walbrook PR

Bob Huxford

Sam Allen






[phone]

[e-mail]

[e-mail]



About First Derivatives

First Derivatives is a global provider of software and consulting services to the financial services industry. With over 17 years' experience working with leading financial institutions, it continues to deliver technologically advanced, award winning products and services that anticipate and respond to the evolving needs of global capital markets. First Derivatives currently employs over 900 people worldwide and counts many of the world's top investment banks, brokers and hedge funds as its customers. It has operations in London, New York, Stockholm, Singapore, Hong Kong, Sydney, Toronto, Philadelphia, Dublin and its headquarters in Newry.

[gucci] 03/9/2014 09:38

very small spread again

[gucci] 26/8/2014 16:16

looks good, 1p spread too!!

[moorsie2] 21/8/2014 10:45

it is a good purchase point - usually sees a very strong share price movement from Sept to January each year..

[aishah] 21/8/2014 10:11

Panmure Reiterate Buy with 1458p target. Nice volume today. Added recently.

[gucci] 19/8/2014 16:06

waking up moorsie2

[moorsie2] 08/8/2014 15:57

This has not been a lot of fun since January!

Could do with a positive trading update from the company as this is month 6 of its financial year!

[moorsie2] 01/7/2014 08:24

It appeared to be the last day before stringent new rules were put in place for grant aid to companies in NI. So possibly rushed through a little bit.

The company needs to issue some sort of trading update to underpin this news. An update stating that the company is exceeding expectations in the current year would be enormously welcome considering the sell off in the share price over the last 2 months

[mach100] 30/6/2014 18:19

I think the muted reaction to today is a reflection of the general market rather than FDI. Hopefully the fall has bottomed out and we can head back over £10 again. Today's news should help underpin fundamentals.

[blackbox1] 30/6/2014 16:34

Moorsie

Good news... In effect a tax rebate covering corp tax paid over the last three or four years. I'd guess most of these people will get put into the consulting channel so I'm guessing - in very round numbers- that will grow fee-earning headcount by about 50%. Given the correlation between fees and bodies, this amounts to about £60m / £70m in prof service revenue, as the company did £40m last year. As the market firms up I would also expect daily rates to grow a bit also, so that figure could be increased. Grants of this order are not handed out like sweeties so I would expect some stress-tested business plans must have been prepared which passed due diligence.

[moorsie2] 30/6/2014 14:00

Financial technology firm First Derivatives is to create almost 500 new jobs.

The company, which is based in Newry, Co Down, is to take on 484 new employees over the next three years.

First Derivatives provides consultancy services and makes financial analysis software used by banks throughout the world.

It currently employs around 900 people, most of them in Newry.

Northern Ireland's First Minister Peter Robinson said the new jobs would generate over £22m for the local economy.

[mach100] 12/6/2014 22:20

Yes indeed motorise I think I am selling up if it goes sub 900. Better to take a hit although I liked the results than wait for a recovery that might never come. Maybe wexboy had something after all!

[moorsie2] 12/6/2014 13:27

This has really taken a pounding since the start of the year. Arguably it rose too far and too fast last year but the company needs to do some good PR to halt the slide in the share price and show true shareholder value being created.

[blackbox1] 11/6/2014 08:22

Moorsie

Always good to learn something new in life... I am surprised there is not a queue to migrate into N. Ireland :) In my part of the world fees are so high they have altitude sickness. In the meantime I wait for a good trade sale, high fives all round, "Conlon is a hero" news articles and the challenge of school/university fees going away.

[moorsie2] 10/6/2014 23:23

Black box - I appreciate your research and logic. All reads plausibly to me ... Except one point.... Directors in Northern Ireland don't have to worry about school fees - good grammar schools are free :-)

[blackbox1] 10/6/2014 23:08

I am sure he has taken advantage of recent profit taking and poor market sentiment that has affected the share price to position himself for future share price appreciation. Cunningham has held tight for the most part, so has Conlon. These are the key executive directors in my view and the only selling they have done over the last 12 months is to fund their own personal "capital expenditure" on FD equity. There had been no material Director selling at all, where their net equity position has been reduced by a significant amount. What selling has occured has been of limited scale - perhaps they have children and school fees are looming or a mortgage needs reduced a bit, etc etc.

If the company lands one or two contracts with regulators its only a matter of time before market participants follow... If that happens we are into telephone number territory for the share price I think something is up. Lets see.

[johnroger] 10/6/2014 19:12

blackbox1
Well reasoned and most interesting!

[blackbox1] 10/6/2014 18:40

Moorsie

Point taken, but there is another way to look at this: I actually think this is a positive development.

Ferguson held 350,000 options at various strike prices < £5. He also owned 117k shares outright (according to the last annual report). Anyone exercising options has to weigh up "value" when it comes to exercise time. Typically, you want to take advantage of a depressed price in order to minimise tax and NI payable at the time of exercise (as the paper gain between £10 and the exercise prices is taxed as income @ 45%). No one exercises any option, let alone all of them, if they think there is a material risk of the share price dropping to a lower point in the near future. Ferguson went all in.

Why exercise now? Well, I would do it if I thought - on the balance of probability - that the shares were likely to run upwards at some point in the near future. Better to hold straight equity before a run up than an option - the tax on subsequent capital gains on shares is 28% as opposed to income tax @ 45% + NI if the option is exercised at a future higher share price. Call the difference 20% of the future gain.

Finally, Ferguson also ponyed up over £1m to complete the option exercise. Feels to me like he was probably forced to sell 200k-odd shares to raise enough money (including payment of capital gains tax on his original holding) to fund the whole exercise. Perhaps he also took a few pounds out to pad the bank a bit, who could blame him? But he still has > 200,000 shares, so serious skin in the game. At the end of this exercise process he has actually doubled his holding in equity.

Rather than looking at it as a net disposal by a director, I see a person who needed to find serious money in order to acquire a significant direct equity interest in the company at this point, and perhaps didn't have the funds available. He may have been a forced seller of some of his shares in order to raise funds, if you follow my logic. Not many people have a spare £1m lying around looking for a home.

Next thing to chew over: why would a person who - presumably having intimate knowledge of the company's circumstances - move to take this position now? To me there is one simple answer: to position oneself to take advantage of a material uplift in future share price in a tax efficient manner. No CFO of a PLC is stupid. The timing of this exercise is not an accident or about year-end tax planning. I think something is coming up.

I also see that Slater has increased his fund holding in FD. That guy isn't stupid, either.

I think this whole FD rollercoaster is going to end with a trade sale at some point. It's the only way Conlon is realistically going to get his money out...

I think the management team is simply getting their affairs in order.

Just my thoughts.