Hellenic Carr. Share Discussion Threads

[jeff h] 12/11/2005 11:52

...easy to be right in hindsight JTK....with The Times withdrawing
the story I wasn't sure if I was doing the right thing buying more.

[james t kirk] 12/11/2005 08:04

Wish I'd bought yesterday but wasn't at my screen after 8.05am, should have dipped my to first thing..

[Abuse team] 11/11/2005 19:18

Post removed by ADVFN

[jeff h] 11/11/2005 19:16

...from UK-Analyst:-

Honeycombe Leisure saw its shares rally 7.5p to 27p after the company confirmed it had received a preliminary approach from a third party, which may or may not lead to an offer for the group. The company was keen to emphasise that talks were still at an early stage and that there was no certainty of an offer being made, however further news is likely in the shorter term.

[jeff h] 11/11/2005 19:15

'controlled £45m of assets' that should have read above.

Managed to top up with the first 3x5k Buys this morning @ 20.85p.

I'm sure Sandy Anderson here will be looking for about NAV for his
shares.

This co. must be worth at least 40p a share to a large operator...they'd
get cost savings plus synergies in lower purchasing power etc....on top
of that they get the management contracts for Nectar etc thrown in.

The RNS states it's a 3rd party so I'll take a stab at Punch or Alchemy.

I notice also that Electra are a 4% holder...I wonder if these are the same Electra who recently bought Urbium?

[jeff h] 11/11/2005 08:20

Yes, JTK as stated above it's been my reason for buying.

Although it states this on Citywire it's no longer on the on-line
version of The Times...it was under 'Rumour of the Day' saying that
it was rumoured that they'd received a 'very preliminary approach'
with the piece going on to say although the co. had a small market
cap it controlled 345m of assets.

Anything to report 0800??!

[james t kirk] 11/11/2005 07:57

A piece in The Times this morning suggests this is a takeover target..

[jeff h] 10/10/2005 18:54

lol...fair do's 0800...I was just curious

[0800] 10/10/2005 18:25

That would be telling..............just say that I have many contacts in this sector

[jeff h] 08/10/2005 12:50

Out of interest 0800...where do you get your info from?

[0800] 07/10/2005 19:23

Rumours that they may well be selling some of their freeholds, and leasing back as they did with Punch some time ago, would not be surprised if there are some changes soon........major shareholders must be fed up with this lot

[jeff h] 04/10/2005 21:56

I look upon this as an asset play 0800...hoping that they chip away at
the debt from operating cash flows and the occasional disposal whilst
awaiting trading conditions to improve or a sale of the estate.

I ignore the Exceptional and Goodwill charges, although as you say trading
from the core business on the disappointing side.

[0800] 04/10/2005 17:48

Jeff H, no change really and yes still raking in the 15k...........what my concern is even with management fees coming in HCL still makes a loss.
Chairmans last statement on trading was very disappointing,
Tempted to sit on these hoping for some consolidation, or a change of management and strategy

[jeff h] 03/10/2005 23:45

What's your view on today's news 0800?....having reflected on it, has there
been much change?:-

- £1m capital receipt - but to be used to buy fixture and fittings of Nectar
- management contract for Nectar retained....

.......so what's really changed?.....though I'm pleased they still raking in circa £15,000 a week in fees from Nectar

[0800] 12/9/2005 20:42

Nectar is for sale,it seems that as soon as the 3 years for the VCT was up it was put on the market! not too certain what this tells us about the state of the business.HCL did sell some outlets some time ago to Punch and retained the contract to run the outlets on a lease basis, so I think that it is possible that they may well sell again

[jeff h] 10/9/2005 10:59

It was in the 'Market Report' section of The Times....remember reading
somewhere as well that Nectar was up for sale.

It wouldn't surprise me if they sold their owned estate to say Punch
who they have a relationship with, and include a management contract
within the sale to retain an interest.

[0800] 09/9/2005 18:33

Still have a small holding here, but missed the bit in the Times!
The sector is consolidating, Urbium, Inventive, maybe Ultimate soon, but not sure about HCL.Seem to have lost their way somehow, which has been demonstated in the last 2 results. So hope that Nectar 1 will be sold , so some relief.

[jeff h] 09/9/2005 08:27

I been buying this as as another bar industry consolidation candidate.

The Times carried had a mention several weeks ago of a rumoured sale
of the owned bars to concentrate on the management contracts, allowing
a return to shareholders of 40p.

Seems plausible as that's roughly the NAV...though Nectar probably worth
additional £1m...say 3p a share.

A divi whilst waiting for developments as well...Xd next week though the debt levels mean this one not without risk.

[0800] 18/3/2005 07:44

just come back to have a look at this one again, not sure, another 10% fall.Only have a small amount here, so no great loss. Not encouraged by the last announcement.

[modernlovers] 14/1/2005 15:03

The switch to management income is not appreciated by the markets.

The income from Nectar is likely to be £600k+ this year, and HCL have an equity upside which is worth £750k+.

Nectar 2 is in the planning stage, and if this generates a similar performance, the P&L will start to look really healthy.

Balance sheet is still an issue (gearing in particular) but an improvement in P&L will make it much easier to get away a significant fundraising.

For me, one of the bets of 2005 (and it gives a very good yield).

[0800] 11/1/2005 11:00

Where now for Honeycombe, change of stategy to management contracts seems a disaster............anyone any views on the long term for this stock

[singsing] 28/5/2004 11:29

anybody any thoughts on the 400k X trade at the offer

[modernlovers] 15/3/2004 16:49

The policy of switching from high risk property ownership to a lowly geared management services company continues apace.

Considering the income HCL now receives from Nectar/Ma Hubbards/Punch etc, plus the carry in the capital increase in Nectar, it will take only one more significant management deal for the company to break out of the current level of market expectations.

When this happens, we could really see this stock fly.

Any comments?

[rivaldo] 03/3/2004 09:01

Since I started this thread I thought it only fair to say that I've sold my stake recently.

Had a pretty good year, but simply decided there were faster growth options elsewhere (PDT and VCP to name but two).

HCL remains a good company and I may well be back. Now watch them announce a Punch tie-up and the shares rocket!

[rivaldo] 19/1/2004 19:41

From the Publican - interesting that they're after a "raft" of pubs and that they can take on around 200 more pubs. With a small increase in overheads, these could represent high margin profit straight to the bottom line IMO:



"Honeycombe in talks for more Punch pubs
Published 12th-January-2004

Honeycombe Leisure is in talks to take on a raft of pubs in the North West from Punch Taverns through management contracts.

The pub operator is rapidly building its management division and already runs more than 20 pubs on behalf of other groups.

It has a number of agreements with Punch and recently signed a deal with the Great English Pub Company to operate its Ma Hubbard food chain.

Honeycombe's joint chief executive James Baer said: "Under our current structure, we can take on around 200 additional pubs into our management services division."

Honeycombe has set up an Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) company called Nectar Taverns, a government-backed scheme which offers tax-breaks to investors.

The EIS has raised £10m to build a managed pub estate, which Honeycombe will manage."