Hargreaves Services Share Discussion Threads

[spooky] 24/9/2013 08:47

A little confused by the Panmure tweets, the results didn't really include anything messy that we didn't already know about. Maltby is gone,the Belgian issues are finished, one of the Biomass contracts is completed and the other will be in the first quarter. That is all out of the way and future figures will be cleaner and on that basis i can't see the shares as being anything other than unequivocally cheap, i think they are going up and if the next interims and finals are as expected i can see them going up a lot.

[aishah] 24/9/2013 08:34

Westhouse Reiterate Buy, 984p target

[simon gordon] 24/9/2013 07:27

Couple of tweets from Panmure this morning on the results:

PanmureJonesP ‏@PanmureJonesP 8m

Much to do here but think it will tread water for a while until we get clearer direction.

PanmureJonesP ‏@PanmureJonesP 8m

Figs from Hargreaves Services. Messy given what's gone on, essentially in line.

[simon gordon] 23/9/2013 20:30

FT - 239/13:

● Coal may be out of fashion but Hargreaves Services , which distributes and produces it, still believes that "where there's muck there's brass", writes Andrew Bounds. Hargreaves is one of only two large-scale UK miners left, albeit purely open cast after having to close its Maltby deep mine.

In April it raised £42.3m via a placing of 5.5m new shares to expand its portfolio of surface mines, completing the £10.4m acquisition of assets from ATH Resources and £8.4m acquisition from Scottish Coal, although they will have little impact on the May 2013 year-end figures.

Analysts expect pre-tax profits of around £50m, with revenue forecasts between £641m and £729m, and believe the share price, which has been drifting, will rally.

Hargreaves was hit by fraud in its Belgian operation, and the Maltby closure, expected to cost £76.3m, but both issues appear to have been contained. Investors will be eager to hear the progress of its biomass operation as the power stations it services offer a look at life beyond coal.

[trademap] 21/9/2013 15:27

Results Tuesday. Hopefully this may give us some movement in the right direction.

[sar10] 11/9/2013 12:07

Agree with that, this share is very cheap imo. Holding for a re-rate to 1000p plus.

[gargoyle2] 11/9/2013 10:40

Guess I was wrong (or just premature) on the 'about to head north' prediction. FY (end May 2013) results will be out this month. Consensus seems to be for EPS of 124p, i.e. a historical PE of 6.6. Prett flat (3%) EPS growth predicted for next year, but that still has to be pretty cheap imo.

[gargoyle2] 10/9/2013 08:55

Looks like this might be about to head north again imo. Spread has narrowed. Lots of buying at 829.

[simon gordon] 07/8/2013 07:51

FT - 6/8/13:

Coal producer rejected mines bid in favour of restructuring

UK Coal rejected a bid to buy its surface mines and run its deep mines under contract in favour of a restructuring that could cost British companies millions in pension payments, documents show.

The revelation is contained in the report to creditors compiled by PwC, which handled the administration and liquidation of Britain's largest coal producer, hiving most of its assets into linked businesses.

Hargreaves Services, the listed coal miner and importer, is believed to have made the bid on June 5, a month before UK Coal entered administration on July 9. It could not be reached for comment.

UK Coal, struggling with a £888m pension liability, was further hit by a fire at Daw Mill colliery in February that led to its closure and the loss of 280 jobs, costing more than £38m and destroying £160m worth of equipment.

Had the bid been accepted the Pension Protection Fund, which rescues insolvent schemes and is paid for by a private sector levy, would have received about £23m, the report implies. Instead the PPF has reduced its claim to £37.7m, and will receive about 7.15p in the pound along with other creditors, about £2.2m.

However, it has also been given a £60m loan note by the new company and will receive dividends beyond that until the shortfall is made up.

The PPF said it expected to get higher returns through the restructuring than insolvency or sale.

The bidder offered £20m for the six surface mines and to run the two remaining pits under a management agreement with the creditors. The administrators said that it would have given creditors a 2.61 per cent dividend, similar to that offered by insolvency "with any further return to creditors dependent on future earnings from the deep mines business", essentially sharing the risk with the PPF.

"The proposal .R01;. . was considered to represent a greater risk for creditors [other than the PPF]," it concludes.

The other big difference is that the 1,900 miners would have been made redundant, with a minority being rehired to reduce pension liabilities. The scheme has 1,200 current members and 6,800 beneficiaries in total, with up to 90 per cent of their pension protected by the PPF.

Within 48 hours of administration UK Coal was liquidated and its assets, except for Daw Mill, had been sold to subsidiaries, with creditors owed £189m expected to receive 7.15p in the pound. The taxpayer, through the Coal Authority, faces millions of pounds in clean-up costs for the Warwickshire pit.

Big unsecured creditors include Hargreaves, owed more than £2.6m, and Coalfield Resources, which owns UK Coal's former property assets after an earlier restructuring, owed £3.7m.

[sar10] 06/8/2013 10:28

Really don't understand why this share is not far higher than it is currently. Extremely undervalued, very profitable and well run....

I expect a good re-rating at some point...

GLA

[gargoyle2] 06/8/2013 08:27

I noticed Small Company Sharewatch reiterated its buy rating at the weekend, quoting Jefferies' EPS upgrade to 129p this year and 137p next year. Forward PE of under 6/

[trademap] 24/7/2013 20:44

I agree; update seems pretty solid, and at these levels does look undervalued.

[sar10] 23/7/2013 12:51

Good solid update IMO. Still think this company should be pushing 1000p plus. The set backs at Maltby and Belgium has undoubtedly made investors nervous but it seems everything is back on track. Definite hold and add for me.

[davebowler] 23/7/2013 10:27

hxxp://www.westhousesecuritiesresearch.com/Research/iid/73722650197/p

[simon gordon] 23/7/2013 09:31

Looks like it'll be a bit of a zombie until they prove up the profitability of the move into opencast coal mining in Scotland.

[meijiman] 11/7/2013 09:36

Questor column in yesterday's telegraph business section. Not sure of link.sorry.

[gargoyle2] 10/7/2013 10:58

Any link meijiman? I can't find it. Thanks.

[meijiman] 10/7/2013 09:57

Tipped in the Telegraph questor column yesterday. good write up.

[trademap] 02/7/2013 11:44

Any idea why? The drift downwards that is.

[aishah] 02/7/2013 11:10

Down drift continues - time to place a stop-loss I think

[simon gordon] 20/6/2013 12:29

Thought I read the other day a trading update was due today, must have been a mistake.

[aishah] 19/6/2013 15:29

Price has been weak of late. Hope there's nothing untoward in the update.

[simon gordon] 19/6/2013 14:56

Trading Update tomorrow.

[meijiman] 15/6/2013 18:30

bit surprised there has been no mention of the potential boost to HSP from the supply of coal/coking coal to SSI UK the Redcar Steel plant . reports suggest a Dollar 60m investment in pulverised coal injection will allow the plant to use UK sourced coal.Also coal from Tower colliery in Wales will be introduced in autumn.Im briefly preciing a good article from Wednesdays Ft on page 4.Suspect any downside would be less imported coal.