Flying Brand Share Discussion Threads

[clocktower] 12/8/2010 13:05

Hunter just getting all the cash out that he possibly can at this time, without dilution of his stake, it seems to me.

Internet tading has already started to come under pressure as far as small medium companies are concerned. It is only the likes of Styanley Gibbons that are likely to continue to grow market share without purchasing other companies.

Hunter has already lost a packet on this as have others, and I would not be surprised if it all goes sour in a matter of a couple of years.

Caution with this one CR!! Ramp it all you can as usual but too caution others.

[sleepy] 12/8/2010 12:56

CR - thanks for the Daily Maily link. Journalists are not always great with numbers but I wonder how the £1.23 million dividend for Tom Hunter was calculated. I make it closer to £70k.

[cockneyrebel] 12/8/2010 12:12

"Broker Singer Capital Markets reckons Flying Brands now offers investors an exciting turnaround story with better long-term growth prospects. If the full-year dividend payout equates to 2.4p, the current yield would be 4pc, rising to 7 per cent next year."

7% yield going forward then?

CR

[cockneyrebel] 11/8/2010 21:18

Yep, 75p, sorry Sleepy - I remembered it was at a decent premium at the time.

CR

[dnfa1975] 11/8/2010 21:05

only reason for paying divi is because cook needs some money to pay the interest on the loans he took out to buy his shares imho.

you can see some of the amateurish scribbling in the previous releaaese too like saying they have cash when they have net debt etc.

[sleepy] 11/8/2010 21:04

CR - I think you mean 75p not 80

[cockneyrebel] 11/8/2010 19:33

I see someone had to pay 63.5p for 20K this morning and doesn't appear to be any seller about either.

CR

[cockneyrebel] 11/8/2010 19:31

Well the CEO has a lot of sking in the game, he bought a sizeable chunk here.

And why was someone keen to pay 80p for 200K shares at the recent acquisition - way over market?

I you ask me, web is the way to go - get away from all the printing and mailing and get a lot of cross selling ability.

I can't see them paying 1.5p divi for fun and there's no way they'd do that if they couldn't maintain it imo.

CR

[clocktower] 11/8/2010 14:13

Paying 10 x asset value for Drake Algar might not be such a good buy imo. I would treat the divi with caution of future prospects.

Note also they increased the borrowing facility available.

They think they can buy themselves profit. I doubt they can, sales on the net are stalling in the case of many smaller companies like this one.

[cockneyrebel] 11/8/2010 13:16

LONDON (Dow Jones)--Jersey-based multi-channel retailer Flying Brands Ltd. (FBDU.LN) Wednesday said it is optimistic about prospects for the second half despite increasing fears that the U.K. is heading back in to recession, as it outlined plans to drive more sales through its website, where it can introduce more offers for value-conscious customers.
The company has shifted itself away from a home-shopping catalog business to one which is mainly focused online and in its first half, which ended July 2, online sales rose 15% to GBP4.9 million.
"I think customers are definitely becoming more value-conscious, but we're at the value end of the market," Chief Executive Stephen Cook told Dow Jones Newswires.
"One of the good things with having a larger online business is giving customers offers, such as 10% off pot plants if you respond to one of our e-mails within two days. It comes at a cost to margin, so we have to be careful, but if we are heading back to tough times we should be well placed," he said.
His comments follow the latest figures from the British Retail Consortium which revealed that growth of comparable non-food internet, mail-order and phone sales slowed to 11.3% in July, the weakest for almost a year.
Flying Brands operates three businesses, a gardening business selling bedding plants and gardening products, an entertainment division selling things like nostalgic CDs and DVDs and a gifts business which sells bouquets.
"As house prices go down people tend to stay put and so they often improve their homes and gardens. DIY tends to do quite well during a recession and gardening is linked to that," Cook said.
Flying Brands' first half pretax profit fell to GBP1.3 million from GBP2.6 million a year earlier, but included a GBP900,000 writedown in the value of its Benham collectibles business, which it is selling, and the winding down of its Greetings Direct business.
Stripping these out, pretax profit fell to GBP1.4 million from GBP1.9 million.
Flying Brands' gardening revenue fell to GBP11 million in the half from GBP11.3 million a year earlier, but the unit's performance was affected by rising fuel costs and severe weather conditions, with torrential rain in Jersey over Easter flooding a site where it was growing young plants.
Gift sales fell to GBP3.4 million from GBP4.4 million, as the firm chose not to chase unprofitable sales and also absorbed the impact of rising Value Added Tax when moving postal flower despatch to the U.K.
But it remains upbeat about its prospects and announced an interim dividend of 1.6 pence a share, its first dividend payment in two years.
It expects to continue the double-digit growth of online sales and said a benefit of shifting away from hard-copy catalogs would be fewer costs for things like printing.

[cockneyrebel] 11/8/2010 13:15

LONDON (Dow Jones)--Jersey-based multi-channel retailer Flying Brands Ltd. (FBDU.LN) Wednesday said it expects to receive a payout for weather-related plant damage during the second half of the current fiscal year which would help it top market earnings expectations for the year.
Torrential rain in Jersey over the Easter weekend flooded a drain near to where the company was growing young plants, wiping the entire crop out.
"The claim is for the value of that stock and the loss of potential profit," Chief Executive Stephen Cook told Dow Jones Newswires, although he wouldn't specify the value of the claim.
"We wouldn't have mentioned it in our statement if we didn't think there was a realistic prospect of success. The payout we're seeking would be the difference between meeting market expectations and beating them so it's additional upside," he said.
Cook said the company expects the claim to be settled during the second half of the current fiscal year, which ends Jan. 1.

CR

[aim11] 11/8/2010 12:39

yes i would have thought 2p full year divi minimum, eps 7.5-8p given that q1 had a lot of issues with weather and postal stuff and gardening momentum in june appears +ve

[cockneyrebel] 11/8/2010 09:30

ta

CR

[shanklin] 11/8/2010 09:16

CR, given the seasonality to which they refer, I think 2p for the full year is more likely. Still a good sign IMHO.

I understand they have meetings in London lined up for today and tomorrow so it will be interesting to see if anything comes out from those.

Cheers, Martin

[cockneyrebel] 11/8/2010 09:14

Chart has actually brokern through the downtrend resistance too.

CR

[cockneyrebel] 11/8/2010 09:13

Well - looks like they have fundamenally changed the business here imo and they sound upbeat. The adjusted eps looks rather decent and 1.5p divi suggests at least 3p for the year or 5% or more.

Will be interesting to see what broker forecasts are now.

CR

[aim11] 11/8/2010 08:17

nice outlook, run rate in the garden biz clearly getting a lot better. overall too cheap, by the time they report that everything is going great this will already be 100 as people "in the know" will get the news before us

[interceptor2] 11/8/2010 08:09

I still have these on my watchlist, and was hoping to buy back in on positive results. Even though there were some positives, commencing dividend payment, net debt falling and plenty of corporate activity which should strengthen business going forward.

With adjusted EPS of 5.3p which includes £849k of discontinuing operations, and going into weaker H2. I will now wait for conclusive proof in the future results and stronger figures before re-investing. I know I could miss out on any initial price recovery, but best to play safe here imo.

Regards ic2.........

[topvest] 11/8/2010 08:00

dnfa - I would be inclined to agree from a quick scan through. All their businesses appear to find it very difficult to tread water. The Benham write-down is truly alarming; I thought this was a nice little business. Surely selling this to Stanley Gibbons before the wheels fell off would have been better for shareholders. I think Flying Brands is a nice company and I am a loyal customer. Used to own some shares in the go go days (10-15 years ago). Trouble is customers are buying less and less!

[jackal3000] 11/8/2010 07:56

you're an idiot...

[edcrane] 11/8/2010 07:22

Accompanying results statement nice and positive though numbers (historic) are not .... re-establishment of dividend at this stage not anticipated in estimates I have seen. Assuming that the interim dividend of 1.6 pence is at least repeated with the final dividend that would mean a yield of at least 5.3% at last night's closing price

[aim11] 09/8/2010 14:56

that wld be nice. garden related stocks often move according to seasons, winter always dismal, then summer comes and weather improves and they report better numbers and go up...insane but seems to have been my observation over time. remember the stock placed at 75 with an institution not long ago, at a premium to price at the time...bodes well and i'm going to keep holding

[carver66] 09/8/2010 14:53

Well let's hope the same happens this year as it did last July - look at the chart.............