Forth Ports Share Discussion Threads

[mf10] 07/1/2010 09:37

Looks like a pickup in interest this morning.
Hope to see a return above £12 shortly.
Somewhat slow in terms of daily volume and very choppy.
Where is everyone? I seem to be the only one looking at this share!

[mf10] 06/1/2010 12:09

Someone got suckered out of their shares this morning.
I suspect a deal announcement is close so they're poaching shares from sellers.
I'm waiting for a £14 a share offer personally.

[mf10] 05/1/2010 15:30

FTSE in-depth: Full steam ahead for Forth Ports
Geoff Foster, Daily Mail
30 December 2009, 8:19am
Reader comments (1)

It's a jackanory that continues to float the City's boat. Forth Ports is set to become one of the first big takeover stories of 2010.

Shares of the ports and property group steamed further ahead and touched £12 before closing 46p higher at 1146p on growing speculation that 23.5%
shareholder Arcus Infrastructure Partners will launch a bid in the New Year.

Forth Ports' shares have risen strongly in recent months despite disappointing first-half results in August and a warning earlier in December from management that it expects full-year results to be at the lower end of analysts' forecasts after a challenging year.

Corporate activity does look on the horizon for a group that over the years has attracted the attention of venture capitalist Duke Street and Aussie investment bank Macquarie.

Forth Ports owns and operates seven commercial ports in the UK - Tilbury on the Thames, Dundee in the Firth of Tay and five in the Firth of Forth. Perhaps of greater interest to any bidder is the 400 acres of land it owns that are available for development and which form the major part of Edinburgh's waterfront

[mf10] 30/12/2009 14:55

I was wondering that myself.
Seems to be a lot of money being poured into this one in the last two days.

[philo124] 30/12/2009 09:41

Why the bounce on volume yesterday?

[finess] 20/10/2009 18:35

Starting to look a little more interesting, trying to go someplace but keeps getting knocked back. Could be a move up is about to happen, maybe mmmmm.. :-)

[finess] 21/9/2009 10:25

Think I will reduce anyway, the MACD aint bullish.

[alan russell] 18/9/2009 10:29

Mmmmmmm similar double top in July - I hope it didn't tell you anything then!

[finess] 18/9/2009 10:11

Is that a double top telling mwe something

[alan russell] 20/8/2009 17:05

Today's graph looks a tad strange. The word ceiling comes to mind - as if one holder was keen to off-load shares at 1300 and the market happy to take them.

[fidra] 20/8/2009 16:45

Up on 10 times the nornal volume.

[tenapen] 14/8/2009 16:29

Yes, but only £1k @ c £10 ps

Don, I live in Ed and we had not been cushioned. The fall of RBS and BoS banks, both based in Ed as smashed confidence. I agree that the rise will be on the re-rating of Land rich companys.


Regards.

[dontrader] 14/8/2009 16:27

Yup you are not alone.
I've held fpt for a long time and made plenty money from them over the years.
I'm not sure what has caused this. Possibly a rerating based on other property stocks today.
Edinburgh is definately cushioned against UK property prices.
Don

[fidra] 14/8/2009 15:55

Definately a breakout.Anybody else watching these?

[fidra] 10/8/2009 21:55

looks like a breakout here.

[fidra] 07/8/2009 12:06

Anyone any views on bidco being named in rns for shareholding

[newstarter] 16/3/2009 07:50

Knew the write off's were going to be big - guess it is right to get all bad news out in this market

[newstarter] 23/1/2009 08:12

Agree, this year will be tough. Volumes down, and no doubt some bad debt to come. Am waiting for the figure on proprty write off.................it will be a big one!!

[wes1] 20/1/2009 09:25

not looking bright

[finess] 04/11/2008 20:38

IMHO, people wanting value without hype or happy days ahead, this is a value stock.

[gateside] 04/11/2008 18:35

Nice bounce today. I presume helped by possible large interest rate cut helping the property side of the business.

[alan russell] 31/10/2008 11:09

Much as expected with the usual encouraging words. Reality is probably a little less encouraging but now is the time for FPT's defensive qualities to come to the fore. Hard to believe that trading won't weaken over the next 12 to 18 months.

I am cheered to see no deterioration in net debt. At the half year this was £213m with interest 3.1X covered. Presumably the interest charge should reduce in the near future. Anyone know when the decision will be announced as to whether Tilbury will be used as the Olympics construction hub?

[gateside] 31/10/2008 07:38

INTERIM MANAGEMENT STATEMENT

Forth Ports PLC ('the Group') issues its Interim Management Statement covering the period from 1st July 2008 to 30th October 2008 and includes trading commentary for the nine months to 30th September 2008.


Ports

Trading within our Ports Division is in line with expectations and continues to show good levels of growth over last year.

In Scotland, piped cargo volumes at Hound Point and Braefoot and container volumes at Grangemouth remain well ahead of last year. Although there have been some down turns in trade, particularly in construction materials, these have been more than offset by increased activity in the agricultural, food and drink and oil and gas sectors. Having worked closely with the Scottish Government to find a replacement for the Rosyth-Zeebrugge Superfast service, we have now signed a Letter of Intent with Norfolkline to start a new combined passenger and freight service from April next year.

Tilbury continued to trade ahead of last year's levels despite a fall in container volumes which have been affected by the weaker economic conditions. The grain harvest yield and exportable surplus are up significantly in the south east of England. As a result, and as anticipated, we expect to handle a higher than normal volume of exports. P&O Ferries has deployed a larger Ro-Ro vessel on the Tilbury-Zeebrugge route to increase capacity. Construction of the blending and milling plant is progressing well at the new Cemex facility. Commissioning of this facility, which is expected by the end of the year, should lead to significantly increased tonnages.

The Nordic business continued to trade well with a high level of activity at the Tilbury Materials Recycling Facility.


Property

In our Property business, work is progressing on the Hub. The planning application for that development, accompanied by the masterplan, is expected to be lodged with the City of Edinburgh Council by the end of this year. We have appointed Jones Lang Lasalle to review the scheme and to advise the Group on the marketing of the scheme to potential partners. Given that continued deterioration in market conditions will affect the value of our property assets, we are looking at further reductions and deferrals in property related spend. Further spend will be focussed on building value through achieving planning consents, creating income generating opportunities and fulfilling pre-existing commitments.


Finance

There are a number of one-off items that will be recognised in the results for the full year. We have received insurance proceeds in respect of a collapsed crane and a lump sum to release one of our tenants from a lease. Against this, we are likely to make a provision against the outstanding property debtors as a result of the continuing fall in land values which has affected the value of our security over these debts. The net effect of these items should not be material in the context of this year's results.

Our financial position remains strong. Net debt since the half year has remained steady. We are making progress with a number of banks on the refinancing of our £100m revolving credit facility which matures in June 2009.


Summary

Our ports business has good visibility, is underpinned by a significant level of contractual backing, broad range of cargoes and has a strong cashflow. We believe that it will continue to make good underlying progress in the remainder of the year.