French Connection Share Chat (FCCN)

Share Name	Share Symbol	Market	Type	Share ISIN	Share Description
French Connection Group	LSE:FCCN	London	Ordinary Share	GB0033764746	ORD 1P

	Price Change	% Change	Share Price	Bid Price	Offer Price	High Price	Low Price	Open Price	Shares Traded	Last Trade
	+5.25p	+9.95%	58.00p	56.50p	59.50p	57.00p	53.50p	53.50p	89,694	16:35:15

Industry Sector	Turnover (m)	Profit (m)	EPS - Basic	PE Ratio	Market Cap (m)
General Retailers	154.0	-2.3	-2.7	-	55.90

French Connection Share Discussion Threads

Showing 5351 to 5375 of 5375 messages

Chat Pages: 215 214 213 212 211 210 209 208 207 206 205 204 Older

Date	Subject	Author	Discuss
19/10/2018 16:57	4+ interested parties in formal sale process / strategic review. Sounds encouraging: https://www.investegate.co.uk/french-connection--fccn-/rns/strategic-review-update---formal-sale-process/201810191645036647E/	paulypilot	Read Full Thread Reply
19/10/2018 16:51	Rns just out explains the rise.	irishlass2	Read Full Thread Reply
19/10/2018 16:27	No but as its up for sale we just leave it to our trustworthy CEO to get us the best price, as he has always looked after PIs...	frenchfry	Read Full Thread Reply
19/10/2018 09:47	I hope this BB is not a reflection of the interest from prospective buyers!	tiswas	Read Full Thread Reply
08/10/2018 18:32	Although Mike Ashley may refuse to sell in a bid situation as he did with House of Fraser, it would be easy to deliver 50.1% and control to a bidder. My guess is that provided the price is a full one MA will be happy with his profit. Of course he may fancy FC himself to run alongside Flannels and he knows a thing or two about brand licensing having previously owned Dunlop and Slazenger.	danny baker	Read Full Thread Reply
08/10/2018 13:28	I just figured that MA could crash any party for the firm so unless he's offered enough to sell or wants to buy it himself it could be a difficult deal to do. And I only bought last Friday so a quick gain suits me.	arthur_lame_stocks	Read Full Thread Reply
08/10/2018 12:55	Thanks for leaving some for the next man :-) Fingers crossed	zoolook	Read Full Thread Reply
08/10/2018 12:20	Well i'm out at about that price. A nice 30% over the weekend.	arthur_lame_stocks	Read Full Thread Reply
08/10/2018 12:11	Surprised they haven’t gone higher now they are officially in play and were trading at over 60p in only May so bought in again at 55.2p	zoolook	Read Full Thread Reply
08/10/2018 09:42	This article is worth a look and not just for the picture of the attractive young lady. hxxps://uk.fashionnetwork.com/news/French-Connection-for-sale-will-Ashley-step-in-,1021923.html#	danny baker	Read Full Thread Reply
08/10/2018 07:58	French Connection as a brand is much bigger in Asia than it is in Europe (ex-UK). I think advertising to the world that it is for sale is the best strategy for maximising how much it goes for. Apart from Bestseller who bought Toast earlier this year and Mike Ashley, I don't think too many other European retailers would be interested. Hopefully enough potential buyers come forward to get an auction going. I'd expect a take-out price in the range 80-100p but we'll have to see.	danny baker	Read Full Thread Reply
08/10/2018 07:30	Now confirmed	18bt	Read Full Thread Reply
07/10/2018 14:13	Have had these for a while, hoping the Chinese would buy in. Fingers crossed.	irishlass2	Read Full Thread Reply
07/10/2018 13:13	Well that's good news, I only bought in to these on Friday, now they're up for sale we may see a rise in the price next week.	arthur_lame_stocks	Read Full Thread Reply
06/10/2018 14:44	hxxps://news.sky.com/story/french-connection-chief-marks-to-call-time-on-high-street-career-11518926	smicker	Read Full Thread Reply
21/9/2018 21:03	Results out and no comment at all? MA holding is the only thing keeping this up.	loafofbread	Read Full Thread Reply
27/8/2018 03:00	Thanks Lom, must have missed that one. Debs: eh? You mean apart from being an unsecured creditor, as Paul mentions? Got a link?	runthejoules	Read Full Thread Reply
22/8/2018 16:06	Brief point, did you know FC is one of the creditors of House of Fraser?	debsdowner	Read Full Thread Reply
22/8/2018 15:33	Joules, Paul covered the HoF situation in his daily small cap report of the 14th August. hxxps://www.stockopedia.com/content/small-cap-value-report-tue-14-august-2018-cgs-mubl-hat-mmh-fccn-d4t4-390524/ I know he occasionally reads these boards so I do hope that he won't mind my copy and pasting the relevant section here for the interest of members who may not subscribe to the Stockopedia article. It's free and a wonderful resource for investors:- French Connection (LON:FCCN) Share price: 48.1p (+0.4%) No. of shares: 96 million Market cap: £46 million A brief comment from me on the situation re French Connection (LON:FCCN) and its exposure to House of Fraser. This has been a known issue for some time, for people who understand the business. FCCN has concessions (a store within a store) in department stores, including House of Fraser. These are typically small operations, with minimal staff and little stock. The way concessions work is that all sales are "banked" through House of Fraser's EPoS system. HoF then sits on the money for, I am told, about 2.5 months. As HoF has been on the brink of going bust for some time, it was worth working out the potential liability to FCCN. Thankfully, a retail FD friend of mine worked out the figures some time ago. He reckoned there was a potential bad debt to FCCN of about £2m (probably less), if/when HoF went bust. Since HoF went into Administration, then that crystallises the loss for FCCN and other concessions. Mike Ashley would not be paying those debts as part of his acquisition, as pre-Administration trade payables are unsecured creditors, hence usually are paid nothing in this type of insolvency. How is the £2m estimated bad debt for FCCN worked out? Estimated 40 concession sites within HoF stores. Estimated annual turnover per concession of £200k Giving £8m estimated annual revenues for FCCN from its HoF concessions. Assume the bad debt is perhaps 3 months takings, arriving at an estimate of £2m bad debt for FCCN. That's not material, since FCCN has a market cap about £46m, and has substantial net cash - so it can afford to write off a £2m bad debt without any consequences. FCCN will also have to write-off fixtures & fittings related to its HoF concessions, or at least the ones that are to be closed. This again will not be material, and is non-cash, so not a problem. The inventories within HoF stores remain FCCN's property, and if necessary can be moved to other FCCN sites, so there should not be any write-offs relating to inventories. Going forwards, this might prove a nice opportunity for FCCN to accelerate the reduction of its heavily loss-making retail division. So I feel that, once the dust has settled, the market might actually see this as a positive. To reiterate, the sooner the FCCN retail stores are closed, the better, as they lose money hand over fist! The value in the business is the profitable wholesale & brand licensing divisions. It amazes me that this is so obvious, yet "the market" seems oblivious to it. There was a takeover approach last year, which must have been serious, since the board apparently spent several months assessing it & allowed the potential acquirer to do due diligence. It's only a matter of time before the business is sold, because the founder/chairman is into his 70's now, and must be looking for an eventual exit (otherwise he wouldn't have engaged with the potential acquirer last year). I've worked out that FCCN has several stores which are literally black holes for cash, in terms of losses. The leases on these should soon expire. That means that profitability should make a step change upwards. That's what's interesting about this cash-rich company. The brand is still very valuable, and I'm hoping for an eventual payout here of 100-200p, on a trade sale. This special situation is certainly one for patient investors only! I'll be insufferable when the payday does finally come, lol! The recent share price softness, presumably on worries over HoF, looks overdone to me, so if it goes much lower, I'll be topping up. But it's already one of my biggest long positions, so maybe it's not wise to tie up too much cash in this one? I imagine there is likely to be an RNS from FCCN very soon, detailing the cash losses due to HoF insolvency. It should also give us some detail on the non-cash write-offs (e.g. F&F), plus an update on what's happening going forwards. I imagine this is likely to say that some HoF concessions will continue, but some will be closed. They'll obviously only keep the profitable ones, and this is a nice opportunity for FCCN to re-negotiate terms with Mike Ashley, on a take it or leave it basis (giving him a taste of his own medicine!). Therefore FCCN should emerge with a more profitable concessions operation after this process has been completed. Hence I'm rather looking at this as glass half full, rather than glass half empty.	lomcovaks	Read Full Thread Reply
21/8/2018 21:32	Paulypilot we need your opinions please (not tips, we promise to door! :0)) Ta!	runthejoules	Read Full Thread Reply
20/8/2018 19:47	Hi has anyone heard what the House of Fraser unpaid bill hit will be ? Theres a report from Ernest and Young but haven't been able to find it online, Mulberry reported 3 mil hit today , Paul Scott who knows this stock well estimates 2 mil hit hopefully it might be a bit less than that but I suppose equally could be worse given I think FCCN had 40 inhouse stores in House of Fraser.	clarea	Read Full Thread Reply
11/8/2018 18:56	No the £9 million doesn't include the £13.9 million proceeds from the sale of Toast. So they will have a lot more money. The business is essentially valued very low and must be due a rerating once French Connection returns to profitability. Mike Ashley's Sport Direct sold shares a few moths back so the market hasn't been expecting a bid from Ashley. The drop on Friday was probably due to HoF going into administration so there will probably some small write offs. Market was probably overreacting.	she-ra	Read Full Thread Reply
11/8/2018 13:49	Could be a clumsy seller or an insider but it is still a coincidence that it happened on the day Ashley was in the news.	orange1	Read Full Thread Reply
11/8/2018 13:07	Maybe but I think he already has roughly a quarter of the stock plus there is just over 9 mil cash on the balance sheet I'm not sure if that includes the money fro the sale of Toast or not. Gven market cap is 45 mil roughly to Ashley that is pocket change even less when you net out the cash on the balance sheet. Volume was nearly five times the norm so it might be a clumsy seller wanting out or someone holding a fair bit of stock has got wind trading isn't as good as expected/	clarea	Read Full Thread Reply
11/8/2018 10:12	More likely the fact that JD Sports bought House of Fraser leading to the perception that they are not intent on increasing their stake in/buying out French Connection any time soon.	orange1	Read Full Thread Reply

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