Fisher (james) & Sons Share Discussion Threads

[rivaldo] 27/6/2014 08:54

Tipped today :o))

Questor in the Telegraph say Buy:



"Questor share tip: James Fisher boosted by acquisitions

Marine services business a buy as it continues to buy small, niche businesses
By Rebecca Clancy
6:00AM BST 27 Jun 2014

Questor says BUY

Marine services business James Fisher and Sons snapped up a monitoring, instrumentation and testing services company last week, as it continues to buy small, niche businesses.

The Barrow-in-Furness-based business acquired Testsconsult for £8m. The group said the deal would allow it to extend services provided by its Strainstall Monitoring business.

Strainstall uses strain gauges and sensors to provide structural monitoring and dynamic load testing of structures such as bridges and offshore installations.

The acquisition is part of the Fisher's strategy to continually look at and buy niche businesses which operate in demanding environments.

In March the company bought Defence Consulting Europe, which provides a range of specialist swimmer delivery vehicles, for £3.7m.

Prior to that in January Fisher bought Dorset-based Subsea Vision, which owns and operates remotely operated vehicles which provide underwater surveys, inspections and construction to support to the oil and gas industry, for £2.5m.

In between those two acquisitions, the company announced its full-year results, which showed underlying pre-tax profit was up 18pc to £41.4m, on revenues of £413.7m, up 14pc from the previous year.

In the group's first-quarter trading update last month it said the current financial year had started will, with trading in line with expectations.

Offshore oil revenues are strongly ahead of last year in the first three months for Fisher, driven by good demand, both globally and in the North Sea, and there has been a similarly good start in its Specialist Technical division, helped by a strong order pipeline.

While the Marine Support business has had a slow first three months of the year, many of the projects are expected to take effect in the second half of the year.

John Lawson, analyst at Investec, said the current events in Eastern Europe, particularly the tensions in Ukraine, "should increase the need for the group's services". He upgraded the company from an "add" to a "buy" and has a target price of £14.50.

The company has seen a bit of profit taking since March but the shares are still up 11.7pc for the year.

Following the announcement of the most recent acquisition the company jumped almost 6pc. With a strong balance sheet, more acquisitions are likely in the future and Questor maintains its "buy" rating. "

[scottishfield] 26/6/2014 16:27

wow, great little run today

[emeraldzebra] 26/6/2014 16:21

Fab company in an unchallenged orbit - all of their own ! Lucky them. Guessing these will run and run.

[rivaldo] 26/6/2014 09:47

Good news for FSJ here given that FSJ are a key service provider to Sellafield:

Here's James Fisher's nuclear web site:





"Sellafield clean-up to cost billions more
Published at 08:16, Tuesday, 24 June 2014

The cost of decommissioning Sellafield and Britain's other nuclear sites will be £6.6bn more than previous estimates, it has been revealed.

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority says it is now likely to cost at least £110bn over the next 100 years with Sellafield alone responsible for a massive £79.1bn chunk of that.

John Clarke, the NDA's chief executive, said the seven per cent increase reflected the rising cost of extra work at Sellafield

"In Sellafield we've got large concrete boxes that had radioactive waste tipped into them from the 1950s," he said. "Now we have to figure out what's in these facilities, and how to get it out and treat it."

The figures were revealed in the NDA's annual report which was presented to parliament on Monday"

[rivaldo] 24/6/2014 07:40

Interesting article explaining FSJ's move into sub-sea etc:



"Navies to Address Maritime Skill Decline
By Michelle Howard
Wednesday, June 11, 2014

However reintegration of capabilities is presenting new challenges in the design, manufacture and integration of sub-sea and surface systems for maritime Special Forces.

James Fisher Defencehas stated that navies around the world are now seriously addressing the need to re-develop their skills in the use of maritime warfare, specifically in relation to maritime Special Forces and strategies for operations and intelligence gathering. This is leading to new challenges in how sub-sea and surface systems are designed, manufactured and integrated.

JFD, which is exhibiting its new range of Swimmer Delivery Vehicles (SDVs) at the Undersea Defence Technology conference in Liverpool, UK, believe there are a number of reasons for this changing dynamic. This includes the increasing reliance on good and accurate intelligence to enable successful missions despite reduced defence budgets; the fast-paced nature of today's threats and the need to launch intelligence operations at very short notice. As well as this, there is still a continued need for human intelligence gathering to complement the progression in satellite and overhead surveillance innovation.

etc"

[scottishfield] 20/6/2014 11:47

V good, tks rivaldo.

[rivaldo] 20/6/2014 11:46

The acquisition has prompted Sanlam to reiterate their Buy and 1600p target:



"James Fisher & Sons plc Rating Reiterated by Sanlam Securities (FSJ)

Posted by Scott Davis on Jun 20th, 2014 // No Comments

James Fisher & Sons (LON:FSJ)'s stock had its "buy" rating restated by equities researchers at Sanlam Securities in a research report issued on Friday. They currently have a GBX 1,600 ($27.16) price target on the stock. Sanlam Securities' price target points to a potential upside of 22.14% from the stock's previous close."

[rivaldo] 20/6/2014 07:06

Yet another excellent, complementary - and cheap - acquisition just announced.

Paying £8m cash for historic £1.4m EBITDA plus £2.9m net assets strikes me as a bargain:



"ACQUISITION OF TESTCONSULT LIMITED

James Fisher ("FSJ.L) ("James Fisher") announces the acquisition of the entire share capital of Testconsult Limited and its subsidiaries for a total cash consideration of £8.0m.

Testconsult is a market leading provider of monitoring, instrumentation and testing services and also designs and produces specialist testing equipment used in over 70 countries worldwide. Testconsult will extend and complement the range of services provided by James Fisher's Strainstall Monitoring business. Strainstall uses strain gauges and sensors to provide structural monitoring and dynamic load testing of bridges, other structures and offshore installations.

Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) was £1.4m for the year ended 31 March 2014. Net assets at 31 March 2014 were £2.9m.

Nick Henry, Chief Executive Officer of James Fisher, said: "We are delighted to welcome Testconsult into the James Fisher group and we look forward to benefitting from the enlarged opportunity which the combination of Strainstall Monitoring and Testconsult will present, expanding our activities in testing and monitoring with complementary skills, products and services. We intend to build on our combined strengths, particularly in international markets"."

[scottishfield] 18/6/2014 10:09

tks riv, been accumulating some at these levels over the last while.

[rivaldo] 18/6/2014 09:46

More offshore wind new tech for FSJ:



"2014 June 18 12:09

James Fisher Marine Services Ltd (JFMS) signs exclusive market entry agreement for pioneering wind farm support vessel concept

Market entry agreement sees JFMS marketing TranSPAR to the global offshore renewables industry.

TranSPAR, an innovative support vessel concept, was a finalist in the Carbon Trust's Offshore Wind Accelerator (OWA) access competition. This exclusive agreement further strengthens JFMS' service offering to the offshore renewable industry and underpins its commitment to innovation and marine expertise.

James Fisher Marine Services Ltd, part of James Fisher and Sons plc – the UK's leading marine services provider, today announces the signing of an exclusive market entry agreement with Canadian company ExtremeOcean Innovation Inc. (EOI), the designers of the TranSPAR craft. The arrangement will last for twelve months, with the option of a further twelve-month extension.

ExtremeOcean Innovation Inc. is a marine technology company focused on developing innovative marine solutions for the offshore market. Its TranSPAR Craft is an all-new and hugely innovative solution to the problem of transferring operations and maintenance technicians to offshore wind turbines in harsh environments. Through participation in the Carbon Trust's OWA competition, EOI has continued to refine the technology over the last 3 years.

TranSPAR uses scalable and highly efficient technology to reduce motion, increase safety and enable simplified connections. It can carry up to eight personnel (two operators, six technicians) and has a nine-knot in-field transit speed.

Martin Dronfield, business development director at James Fisher explains: "TranSPAR is an exciting and innovative development that is attracting attention across the industry. The concept fits very well with the ambition of JFMS to position itself at the very heart of the offshore renewables operations and maintenance market. It is also aligned well with our existing and emerging skill set, and is hugely complementary to our comprehensive support package, the Offshore Wind Management System (OWMS)™."

TranSPAR will provide significant accessibility for Round 2 and 3 offshore wind farm sites when compared to traditional vessel solutions; it will connect in wave heights of up to three metres, and offers integration with existing boat landings. Performance has been proved by comprehensive model scale testing, and delivery of a full-scale prototype is due in mid 2015.

"We are very pleased to have this agreement in place with James Fisher", added Peter Gifford, founder at ExtremeOcean Innovation Inc. We are proud of and excited about the TranSPAR craft and feel highly confident that it will be a success in its offering of an all-new vessel solution within the offshore renewables industry."

"This pioneering concept fits in with JFMS' strategy to develop and support innovations that increases safety and operational efficiencies for customers in the marine environment," concluded Martin."

[scottishfield] 11/6/2014 15:46

Cheers riv, tks

[rivaldo] 11/6/2014 10:22

Westhouse reiterate their 1700p target:



"James Fisher & Sons plc Receives Buy Rating from Westhouse Securities (FSJ)
Posted by Karim Khaledi on Jun 10th, 2014 // No Comments

James Fisher & Sons plc logoJames Fisher & Sons plc (LON:FSJ)'s stock had its "buy" rating restated by investment analysts at Westhouse Securities in a note issued to investors on Friday. They currently have a GBX 1,700 ($28.58) price target on the stock. Westhouse Securities' target price points to a potential upside of 28.59% from the stock's previous close."

[rivaldo] 06/6/2014 08:23

An offshore wind win for FSJ's Strainstall:



"Strainstall tech backs OWA trials
21/05/2014

Cowes-based Strainstall has installed its Vessel Motion Monitoring System on a ship running trials for the Carbon Trust Offshore Wind Accelerator programme.

The trial focuses on proving and de-risking design concepts for turbine access systems and the VMMS is "supporting prototype testing phases to quantify vessel conditions during personnel transfers".

Strainstall, which is part of James Fisher and Sons, said it was "delighted" to be backing the OWA scheme.

Business development manager Scott Cruttenden said: "VMMS is being widely used across the offshore wind and oil and gas industries and there seems to be a more pragmatic approach towards implementing solutions that can facilitate cost-effective operations while enhancing safety levels."

Carbon Trust manager Marc Costa Ros added: "Sea Trials are very important to verify the R&D activities being developed within the OWA, providing raw data that feeds into the current developments, one of the most relevant ones being the definition of performance metrics for wind farm support vessels".

The OWA is a joint industry scheme aiming to reduce the cost of offshore wind by 10% for UK Round 3 sites."

[scottishfield] 30/5/2014 11:19

Added a few here this am

[rivaldo] 30/5/2014 11:03

Nice - Sanlam Securities have today initiated coverage with a 1600p target....



"FLASH: Sanlam Securities starts buy on James Fisher & Sons, target 1600p 30 May 2014 | 10:23am

[rivaldo] 29/5/2014 23:01

OT : correct, VLE doesn't and won't pay any ongoing dividends. I could certainly see special dividends/distributions if either JMP Consultants or Shire Foods were to be sold for large amounts, since VLE already have £12m net cash to expand their operations with.

VLE is about as safe as any AIM share! Given that the cash covers the m/cap anyway, so everything else is in for free. I've spoken to the main directors, who are Scottish, careful and not about to waste funds on poor acquisitions. Their record to date has been impeccable, with every acquisition to date turned around and sold for decent to excellent returns.

VLE is rather illiquid, so will not be to everyone's taste, but the obvious value and common-sense strategy appeals to me as someone not averse to holding for the long-term.

[bouleversee] 29/5/2014 19:16

Rivaldo - Just had a look at VLE. Must confess I had never heard of them. AIM share with no yield so far as I can see but quite interesting (am beginning to worry about IHT) so thanks. Up a lot today but seemingly still quite good vslue.
Safe to buy in an ISA?

[apad] 29/5/2014 19:13

Been watching a while. Isn't it just that the overall investment is dropping off and so the service industries are being downgraded?
apad

[bouleversee] 29/5/2014 18:55

Rivaldo - Who said I was fretting? However, I am surprised at the share price drop. Can't see any reason for it. Am thinking of buying more for husband's ISA; I already have a lot.

[rivaldo] 29/5/2014 16:17

Bouleversee, there's no point in fretting about short-term ups and downs.

Long-term FSJ has always ridden out the dips, and it will continue to do so imo.

If I didn't already have a decent part of my portfolio in FSJ then I'd be buying more on these dips!

OT : if you want good value take a look at VLE after their results today. My posts there sum up the value (including more cash than the £12m m/cap, let alone the value of the now-profitable subsidiaries which will be sold off at the right time).

[bouleversee] 29/5/2014 13:26

The market doesn't seem too impressed!

[rivaldo] 19/5/2014 07:37

A win for Fendercare:



"Fendercare supply Thorn-D fouling defence
16 May 2014

Fendercare is the world's largest operator of genuine Yokohama fenders

At Seawork 2013, Fendercare signed with Micanti to supply Thorn-D antifouling, a physical barrier against marine growth like barnacles and mussels. It has a minimum lifetime of five years and is 100% environmentally friendly. Fendercare will be back at Seawork 2014 on stand A139.

Currently being used in shipping, aquaculture and offshore sectors, Micanti's Thorn-D perfectly complements the Fendercare marine product portfolio. For Micanti, the cooperation is an excellent chance to enter the UK market, as well as expand the application of Thorn-D into other segments, like buoys and fenders.

The Fendercare presentation at Seawork 2014 (stand A139) will also feature fendering. The world's largest operator of genuine Yokohama brand pneumatic fenders, Fendercare also offers its own brand of Hippo floating foam fenders.

For quayside protection, Fendercare offers a full range from bollards to total jetty management systems. Fendercare can supply a solution for almost any surface or subsurface buoyancy requirement, including navigation buoys – the Spar buoy and Intelligent data buoy – together with the new subsurface Distributed Buoyancy Modules. A bespoke service is also available."

[emeraldzebra] 13/5/2014 12:49

not forgetting tree shaking market makers of course ? maybe they have big buy orders to fill.