French Connection Share Discussion Threads

[cockneyrebel] 03/7/2013 12:48

Administrators have been appointed following the collapse of fashion chain, Nicole Farhi.

[cockneyrebel] 03/7/2013 12:29

steve hawkes ‏@steve_hawkes 3m
Nicole Farhi, five stores, 10 concessions, 120 staff.. and has run out of cash.. rumour that Nicole herself is in the running to buy it.

FCCN sold this - I think in the terms of the sale they are still owed £4m or so:

[cyberbub] 23/6/2013 18:47

I tend to agree Paul, it does seem a bit crazy that a major retail brand with high turnover, a good web sales channel, and substantial penetration into both the Far East and the USA has a current market cap (=EV as no debt) of less than GBP30M... and less than net cash!... if the company ends up being sold I would not expect less than 50M or so in a breakup situation... if it looks like turning around then buyout price more towards 100p IMO...

...who can tell what will happen though, especially with the wider markets very shaky... Mr Market is certainly pricing at this time that the company has no future...

NAI

[ianjan] 22/6/2013 17:40

27p is right on the 200 dma looking back it bounced off it twice in march, so should find some support here.Fingers crossed only trouble is its a long time to September interims

[drewz] 18/6/2013 12:20

Their menswear clothing is utter rubbish, both in style and quality, which doesn't help matters.

[bagpuss67] 16/6/2013 17:53

perhaps....I just struggle with the sheer scale of the UK retail losses which are monumental....I know there's lots of money to be made here if they can get that part of the business under control...

[cyberbub] 15/6/2013 18:13

Bagpuss, not too late to get back in? :-)

[bagpuss67] 13/6/2013 21:17

I was getting marginally annoyed about my exit point now feel ok again..no doubt short lived.

[cyberbub] 13/6/2013 14:25

Or 27p....

[cyberbub] 11/6/2013 20:15

Sigh... let's hope 28p holds...

[cyberbub] 07/6/2013 17:33

I don't think it's wise to follow takeover rumours from strangers.... having said that, it is a credible scenario which has been previously mentioned on this board.NAI

[ivyhuang] 07/6/2013 16:01

buy, buy, buy, ....................................................., the whole
See LSE for more.

[cyberbub] 07/6/2013 15:15

Holy cr@p what was that flurry?

[patrick9092] 07/6/2013 10:28

Waited for pullback and now in at 28.9p + dealing costs...

[shrout] 07/6/2013 09:38

Perhaps we should be looking a bit longer term... at the channel or uptrend which began in mid 2012. No particular volume on today's drop either so just have to see it in context.

[cyberbub] 07/6/2013 09:19

So much for my theory... sigh...

[cyberbub] 06/6/2013 21:51

The bottom of the up-channel which has been forming since March has its lower level at about 30p. Let's hope we find a bit of support here?

[amorruso] 03/6/2013 09:00

Good update Paul, many thanks.

[cyberbub] 03/6/2013 08:49

Another large late trade, this time it is surely a buy?

[el chupacabra] 02/6/2013 20:23

Not keen on the superman stuff

[bamboo2] 02/6/2013 19:13

Thanks Paul for highlighting the bestsellers and the new winter pricing.

I quite like the men's long sleeved summer shirts.

http://www.frenchconnection.com/category/Man+New+In/New+Arrivals.htm?pgsz=10000

[el chupacabra] 02/6/2013 17:51

Yes truly stunning, i particularly like teh Feather Ruth Classic :)

[paulypilot] 02/6/2013 13:35

Hi,

Check out their website for the current season's bestsellers.
The womenswear range (which makes up the bulk of sales) is really excellent - lovely designs, still too expensive though.
http://www.frenchconnection.com/category/Woman+Collections+Bestsellers/Bestsellers.htm

The menswear & homewares look very ordinary to me, but are less important as a fairly small percentage of overall sales.


Also, if you look at the Autumn/Winter preview section, the most striking thing is that the price points look significantly lower, which is excellent news, as a recurring criticism that you often hear about FCCN is that their prices are too high.

By building in lower prices from the design & buying stage (as opposed to being forced into lowering prices to clear stock at the end of season Sale) this should drive an improvement in both gross margin and sales, since demand is elastic & when you lower the price by (say) 30% it generates a much larger than 30% increase in volumes sold.

So definite signs of life here, and I suspect these shares could now be in an up-trend. I shall probably buy some more.

Regards, Paul.