Fisher (james) & Sons Share Discussion Threads

[superiorshares] 30/7/2022 15:02

Now then cast the Europhile aside ( Low tone people )
James Fisher . One of my relatives worked for this firm for decades.
Does it still ship the nuclear waste ??

[superiorshares] 30/7/2022 15:00

Medieval blacksmith.
You can make a fortune from the dirty Eurphiles opinion.
Dairy Crest is a classic example .
A great company talked to its knees by the pathetic Europhile.
If you leave the Fourth Reich , farming is finished you will all starve Sterling will turn to dust etc etc .
Of course down at £ 4.50 ish . I thought oh dear the Europhile s have made a mistake with Dairy Creat .
And of course so did the Canadian billionaire Dairy Family . They immediately paid me a couple of quid more per share to take them off my hands .
Well done Europhiles 😀 .
Now I note that in the fourth Reich , I note that some of the Republics have inflation over 20 per cent and some 6 😀.
Reap it you Europhile muppets reap it !!!
Oh and buy yourselves a good coat , because your gunner be cold this Winter!

[hamhamham1] 30/7/2022 08:09

To be fair, I did splurge on another 1k of them, since last post.
Tuck away and 3x or 4x in a couple of years.

[our haven] 29/7/2022 14:04

Going very well since then hamhamham1, happy days.

[hamhamham1] 25/7/2022 14:21

Bought another 800 today, thats me done at 5k of these.

[illiswilgig] 22/7/2022 18:10

'Does James Fisher still have the nuclear waste contract ?'

Which nuclear waste contract?

JFN is/has been involved in transporting nuclear waste from Dounreay and I expect Winfrith also where JFN is the main contractor for decommissioning.

But if you are thinking of the shipping of spent nuclear fuel from Japan for reprocessing at Sellafield - with a dedicated vessek - that fell apart when the expensive MOX plant that never really worked was decommissioned. I think that was a good few years ago? Sometime around 2014 or so, if not before?

sorry I can't be more help,

cheers

[superiorshares] 22/7/2022 17:38

A quick query.
Does James Fisher still have the nuclear waste contract ?

[superiorshares] 21/7/2022 20:41

Poison 1945
You Europhiles are the low tones ofthe World 😀.. If any currency is a basket case its the Euro , will be lower than parity to the dollar very soon.
You have that un elected fascist draggie, according to the Europhile is in Italy .. to save Italy . He's actually trying to save the European Commission
Italy is a basket case , as soon, as that collapses its curtains on the Europhiles.
It's irrelevant to the Europhiles that they bankrupt, Greece Portugal etc . They view them as no - mark countries.
Italy is too big a failure for the Europhiles in their fantasy land .
And lest we forget , it was the Russian's that had to provide them with emergency assistance during the initial Covid infection.
The EU only spouting their spew .
" The schengen area will remain open , it is a cornerstone of our EU numptiness ! "
The schengen agreement then infected the rest of the Western World .
Poison 1945 . I would disregard anything you ever say . If that's OK?

[linton5] 20/7/2022 08:37

BMS seems to be performing way better in this sector

[wigwammer] 15/7/2022 08:30

Pleased I ignored you last time the shares were below £3.. made a nice 50%+ on the bounce, and probably will again ;)

[porsche1945] 14/7/2022 19:28

worthless, will be taken private or sold off. Bet you guys wish you had listened when i said dump it at 9 quid. UK is utterly fxcked. Political self harming brexit basket case with a trashed mickey mouse currency.

[lshaugh] 12/7/2022 20:27

I can understand some of the reasons behind some casting a cynical eye over FSJ - Primarily the debt burden. However, trading at 275p with a market cap of just £138m has to be in real bargain territory now. A review of company assets, future contracts won, an experienced new CEO, and stock holdings by some very astute long-term investors such as Aberforth, all give me confidence that stock is braced for a change in fortune. If FSJ recovers to even 50% of it's 2019/early 2020 numbers it will make investors like myself at current levels some very tidy returns. I think this is very possible within the next 2-3 years, so the question is...is the stock now at its floor price or will it drop yet further? As a long term value investor I'm not overly concerned and will buy not at what I already see as a bargain price, and surely FSJ can't drop much lower than a m as tidy cap of £138m??

[bouleversee] 23/6/2022 18:50

Yes, that is somewhat encouraging.

[bottomfisher] 23/6/2022 18:37

The sight of Aberforth Partners appearing on Fisher's share register with a stake of just over 5% is a reassuring sign. Aberforth is a long-term value investor and obviously sees value in the current depressed share price, even if Fisher's own board of well paid non-execs do not.

[bottomfisher] 21/6/2022 10:53

My confidence in the recovery prospects of James Fisher would be greatly enhanced if there were any signs of its highly paid board demonstrating their belief in the company by buying a few shares at current depressed levels. The chairman, paid £210,00 a year, owns just 5,000 shares, and only one of the five non execs, who are paid between £50-60,000 pa, own any shares. The combined shareholding of James Fisher’s chairman and non-execs amounts to 8,150 shares, worth less than £25,000 which compares with around £500,000 pa they earn in fees.

[bouleversee] 18/6/2022 19:40

I wonder why Vernet was replaced as CEO of Crane. Any ideas?

[elsa7878] 18/6/2022 13:09

Wonder if Eoghan was pushed? I was never sure of him. Strange lack of comment from the long term holders on here…

[bottomfisher] 17/6/2022 12:25

Excellent news that James Fisher (FSJ) has found a new chief executive less than a week after the surprise announcement that Eoghan O’Lionaird was quitting. He had been hired in late 2019 to turn round the over-indebted company. But the slump in the company’s share price, from over £20 at the time of his appointment, to less than £4 now, is a reminder that Fisher’s long promised recovery is taking a lot longer than expected to materialise, and cannot all be blamed on the effects of Covid, war in Ukraine, and a sharp global slowdown.

The less good news is that the speed of the appointment was no doubt helped by the fact that Jean Vernet, Fisher’s new ceo, was looking for a new job after being subject to a management reshuffle at Smiths Group where he headed John Crane, Smith’s largest division.

He has an engineering degree, spent over a decade at Schlumberger (an excellent training ground for the offshore business),and prior to joining Crane was CFO of Expro, the offshore energy services provider, during its successful turnaround.

Clearly, he has considerable experience working in the offshore energy sector, and as ceo of Crane one of the world’s largest providers of engineered technology, ran a global business which in terms of revenue and staff is roughly twice as large as James Fisher, and much more profitable.

Fisher’s new ceo ticks all the right boxes in terms of his CV. Let’s hope that he has more luck than his predecessor.

[illiswilgig] 11/5/2022 09:56

bottomfisher - I always regard management as a key issue. A new management team is always an issue and under such extreme difficulties its hard not to be concerned. In that sense I agree with you.

On;y 6 months ago talk of a rescue rights issue was common. It didn't happen. The Chairman and FD joined just under a year ago. In my view it is to the credit of the new management and quite an achievement despite the downturns, delays and increased costs in their markets during 2021. The recent AGM trading statement confirmed that Q1 was stable if not slightly improving.

I suspect that I might have different expectations of a 'turnaround' 'reasonably short space of time' and 'successful' and how to judge it from yours? Thats fair enough.

One impact of not raising fresh capital is that management are hamstrung by high levels of debt, interest payments and constrained in the capital they can provide to growth opportunities. Although it is to the benefit of existing shareholders not to be diluted it will take longer to recover with less cash to spend.

The return of operational and capital expenditure to the North Sea and European Off shore renewable markets is taking longer than I - and probably many others - expected. The speed of the turnaround and recovery are as highly dependant upon the availability of the market opportunity - as they are the success of the management team in getting the work and their preparations for doing the work euccessfully.

I am also a long term shareholder in Fisher. I was recently reviewing and noticed that I first bought in August 2000 at 74p - only 5x on my original investment - which corresponds to an annual return of 23% on my original capital investment over 22 years - without considering dividends. In 2018 dividends were 31.6p alone. I've been buying more shares recently and I expect the return from my recent buys to generate a similar return over time - though I probably don't have another 22 years for this.

Fisher is a very different business from the one in which I original invested. A collection of moribund reefers(dry bulk cargo ships), specialist nuclear transports, fleet auviliary charters, port management, laid up cable ships, a few coastal tanks bought from BP and the reason I invested. A recently acquired small ROV and submarine rescue business.

Fisher today is mainly a technology business in my view - as I anticipated. It's abilities in remote operations, ROV's and manipulators span the marine, defence, nuclear, O&G and offshore renewable markets. Expertise in artificial lift pumps, subsea connectors, well-head penetration, high voltage installation. commissioning and maintenance are high margin niche businesses. Data management and analysis together with software will play an increasing role in supporting their markets as remote operations increase productivity and capabilities.

I question how relevant a career in shipping or even marine support is to these technologies. It certainly appears to have gone beyond the capabilities of the previous management team - who started well but unfottunately for them, and for shareholders ended up literally out of their depth with seriously mis-allocation of capital and mis-management of the acquisitions.

The structure of the group now needs to be transformed to bring the individual companies into a coherent structure and to allow their complementary resources to face the new industries, technologies and opportunities. It will not be instant and it will take time.

Reviewing the careers of the management I see that they all share one common feature - experience in the funding, management and growth of decentralised technology companies. The CEO has an engineering background and experience with Spectris/Phillips, the FD with BTG and the Chairman with Serco(which has run MOD technology facilities successfully for decades and operates defence divisions in the UK, US and Australia) and Robin Stopford with Corporate Transformation and B2B development. In view of Fishers leading technologies, need for corporate transformation and the growth in opportunities across Defence, Nuclear, Renewables, decomissioning and the energy transition - I am of the view that experience with leading technology companies is of more benefit than shipping and marine services given that the divisional heads have decades of experience in marine support and services. Looks like a good team to me. That's just my point of view, based upon working in similar growth and technology industries, we must all form our own views and invest accordingly. If I don't have sufficient trust in the management I won't invest.

I am current;y buying more Fisher at these prices - despite being surrounded by bargains its close to the top of my list when I am able to free up capital or reinvest dividends.

cheers and good luck all

[bottomfisher] 08/5/2022 11:37

The key issue here is the competence of Fisher's new management team. IMHO the jury remains out on whether the new chairman, ceo and FD are up the job of turning this company round in a reasonably short space of time. None of them appear to have worked in the shipping/marine support industries, and whilst this is not a necessary pre-requisite for a successful turnaround (indeed it can sometimes be a hindrance) there is no real evidence yet from the string of downbeat announcements that the new management team is making anything more than slow progress in restoring Fisher (FSJ) to its former blue chip status.

I am a long term holder of both FSJ and PZ Cousins (PZC), another former blue chip which had lost its way. I might be wrong, but so far I have a lot more faith in PZC's new CEO and FD, brought in from similar industry backgrounds, to turn that company round.

[r2oo] 05/5/2022 11:11

Yes that's steady as she goes in terms of an update with a quietly confident positive forward outlook.Hang in there....!

[illiswilgig] 05/5/2022 08:01

I agree. Fisher have always said that Q1 is their quietest period. Looks good to me, nothing unexpected, and quiet progress in Offshore Oil, Tankships and Marine Contracting. Good to see the Dive Support Vessel fully utilised in the Gulf - at full rates its better than a sale.

cheers

[our haven] 05/5/2022 07:39

The trading update looks to me unexciting, which is a good thing given the share price falls of late. See how we open but IMO market expectations were low.