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| Share Name | Share Symbol | Market | Stock Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Internet Bus. | IBG | London | Ordinary Share |
| Price Change | Price Change % | Share Price | Last Trade
|
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.00 | 0.00% | 9.50 | 01:00:00 |
| Open Price | Low Price | High Price | Close Price | Previous Close |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9.50 |
| Top Posts |
|---|
Posted at 22/1/2008 13:40 by the analyst Coffeelito, I've been looking at this in a bit more detail and I think there may well have been plenty of info out there to justify selling prior to the share collapse. It was obvious at the AGM that Maz was confused and did not know what direction to take the company. That was probably a good enough reason to sell on its own. I saw this, but stupidly, kept holding my shares (buried my head in the sand). At least in seeing how he was presenting the case at the AGM I was able to kill any thoughts to accumulate in a big way, which has saved me money. On top of the AGM, investors could have followed the affiliate bulletin boards and noticed that the numbers of merchants was not rising spectacularly, especially in the US. In addition, although the quality of merchants was improving, it was not improving in the way that investors had been hoping for - a real lack of super-merchants signing-up. Again, thorough research could have highlighted this in advance allowing investors to sell out before the profit warning. Unfortunately, I didn't do that research at the time, concentrating on other stocks - my loss. Maz also pointed out that margins were under pressure at the AGM too. Another bad sign. So, in my opinion, there was plenty of information there, but I suspect, many investors were like me and refused to believe it. Don't get me wrong, I think progress is going well at IBG, just not as well as investors had hoped for. They are still growing at a remarkable rate, but under-performance in comparison to expectations of brokers and PIs does not go down too well with any company, especially a microcap. Live and learn... |
Posted at 08/1/2008 16:35 by old boy returns "One major problem remaining at IBG is the lack of know-how. Barring a few senior bods, the business model seems to be to employ 25 year olds on £18k salaries who know very little."darren00 - what you say is the exact opposite of my experience. I have been dealing with IBG for about 7 years and, during that time, I have been struck by the loyalty and dedication of their staff (ie they stay with the company) and the degree to which they care about customer service. I think the indians do a good job and the chiefs do a good job of running the operational side but have fallen down onj the investor / market relations side. Not ideal but better than being very good at investor / market relations while the real busines is an uncontrolled disaster - a trap I and many other investors have been caught in before. |
Posted at 14/12/2007 22:03 by the analyst Being interested in history, I find it fascinating to look back at the old IGB vs ASC debate that seemed to go on and on (and on) a couple of years ago. It was thought here, at the time, that IBG were in a far superior position because they would benefit from a 'compound' growth - not only would they get the growth from the overall increase in spend on online advertising, but also the growth from increasing merchant numbers and on top of that the growth from improving the quality of the merchants on offer. Then there was the international expansion to add to that... How, then, did ASC manage such a phenominal revenue increase compared to IBG? ASC are growing revenue at over 100% pa, whilst the latest results have show IBG's AffiliateFuture to have grown revenue at only 30% during the period. This is well below the UK's overall increase in online ad spend for the year, nevermind the (compound) increase that should have been seen due to the new merchants added and the much talked about increase in the 'quality' of the merchants. Stemis, I don't see why Maz is 'disillusioned' with investors and the market. Surely he should be asking himself why IBG failed to meet those 'conservative' market expectations for revenue growth? ASC seems to be trading on a decent forward PE and, of course, the market loves them... The company missed ALL forecasts. When you spoke to Maz, did you get any clues as to why he thinks investors and the markets are key to the low share price and not the performance of the company? Don't get me wrong, I like the chap, but sometimes you have to put your hand up and say that you did not perform, rather than pretend it is the fault of 'the market'. |
Posted at 11/12/2007 11:43 by old boy returns the analyst - the evolution of the online retail industry has been very interesting. If you think back to the dotcom boom days investors were valuing every online retail start-up at crazy prices. I still have a newspaper clipping from 1999 saying one of my then online retail competitors had been valued at £30 million and were about to IPO. They never did but the business has survived as a private company earning a living for its founders but never enough to have rewarded external investors as well. To me that is pretty indicative of the whole sector in that there are lots of privately owned online retail businesses making a living, or in many cases second income, for their founders but very few (ASOS is the only UK example I can think of - and obviously Amazon in the US) which have prospered as public companies and delivered value to external shareholders. It is the large traditional retailers, who were generally slow to move into online retail, have generally now built decent sized online retail divisions. |
Posted at 10/12/2007 23:35 by the analyst Hi Old BoyI'm not sure which of my expectations you are referring to as being unrealistic - my hope and expectation of 40p per share at some stage in the next two years? Or that more cash should be generated from operating profit? The later is probably a direct result of the payment terms that merchants dictate to the networks now - it has become a very competive business. I think there are ways to resolve that, though, and I may contact Maz about quite a simple way to address the issue that I don;t think any of the networks have considered. From the conversation with Maz at the investors meeting, I know that he thinks the affiliate market is maturing very quickly and that the opportunities for organic growth are slowing. I agree with him. He told us that certain areas are now so competitive that he can not even consider some merchants because margins are too small (finance affiliates). So, there is some truth to what you have been told. He told us in no uncertain terms that he could no longer expect the sort of organic growth that both he and investors were hoping for previously. Hence, he has decided to move more agressively into the media side of things. I definitely support him in this move as it seems like a very good business plan - the synergies are huge and he has a talented staff that can make the media side a real success in my opinion. I am hoping that a lot of what they are working on right now will be released in the next few months and the company will begin to reap benefits soon after. |
Posted at 06/12/2007 08:32 by stemis Cash has increased steadily, albeit not spectacularly:-31 October 2004: £277,000 31 Octobrt 2005: £1,077,000 31 October 2006: £1,375,000 31 October 2007: £1,500,000 + Within this of course are a multitude of influences. In 2005 there was a placing for working capital of £360k and in 2006 £510k of cash was spent on a variety of acquisitions. Clearly we don't know what the detailed cashflow movements were in 2007, although £120k was spent on Net Free Stuff. I expect there was additional capitalised investment on software developments and some increase in working capital. I wasn't at the investors meeting earlier in the year, but why do you want the cash in bank to start increasing? IBG is a growing/developing business not a mature plodder. Strip out cash and IBG's ROCE last year was 50%+. I'd rather they invested their cash at these sorts of levels than it sit on the balance sheet earning 4%. Investors get excited about 'acquisitions' but why is that better than internal investment which is probably low risk and has a higher ROCE? I'd be concerned if they were running the company just to maximize cashflow. Despite everything IBG have increased profit this year by around 20% and are forecasting 50% next year, so its not like the re-investment of cash is having no impact or that they are in debt or seeing net cash outflows. |
Posted at 07/11/2007 18:21 by the analyst The trading update was pretty much as expected for me too. That said, I was hoping for more revenue. Just hoping the weather would have helped them out a bit. Maybe without the monsoon things would have been a lot worse?I'm not sure how the year has been one of transition. Last year they were a group with most of the revenue coming from AF and this year it has been the same. OK, they have developed the media side a bit, but I'm not sure that consitutes a year of transition, does it? The fact that they keep stating that management focus is essential for revenue and profit and that doing basic plc work has negatively affected revenue and profit is not good. It says to me the board is not strong enough and they need experienced plc directors on board. It may be that Maz's ego will not allow that - any thoughts? I think the main thing suppressing the share price is the cash generation, or lack of it I should say. Last year they made £1.1m profit, but only generated £300k cash and this year they have made £1.4m profit, but only added £120k to the bank account. That's with no major acquisitions, so where is the cash going? During the investors meeting someone asked why they don't generate cash and Maz denied it, saying they generated lots of cash. The investor then read the accounts out to back it up, which made Maz look bad. Later I asked whether it has somehting to do with the extended payment terms being given to larger merchants, which again Maz denied was having an effect. Looking at the broker note, though, there is a specific paragraph saying that larger merchants are being given better terms and that this is affecting cash and is likely to do so in the future as revenue grows. I wonder whether Maz understood my question or whether he was fobbing me off? Again, it didn't fill me with confidence that Maz can get the company generating the cash necessary. Without cash, how will they make the extra 'bolt on' acquisitions he talked about? Had IBG banked £1m cash on that £1.4m profit then I think we would be trading on a PE of 20 or so, but without making cash from operations I think many investors will stay away. |
Posted at 11/10/2007 19:58 by muffinhead Fears of sell-off on growth market as AIM investors face 80% tax rise By James Moore Published: 11 October 2007 Accountants voiced fears yesterday of a flood of money leaving the London Stock Exchange's junior Alternative Investment Market in the wake of the Government's decision to axe "taper" relief on capital gains tax. The move could have a significant impact on the AIM, which has been phenomenally successful as a venue for young and fast-growing companies that often found it hard to raise funds before the junior market came into being. AIM shares qualify for taper relief, meaning capital gains on AIM-listed stocks are currently eligible for tax of just 10 per cent if they were held for two years. From next year, when the single CGT rate of 18 per cent is introduced, holders of AIM shares will effectively face an 80 per cent tax hike when they come to dispose of them. Chris Sanger, the head of tax policy development at Ernst & Young, said: "People with portfolio shareholdings on the main stock market have to pay tax on their gains at 40 per cent if they turn over their shares within three years and this reduces gradually to 24 per cent after 10 years' holding. In future people will be paying 18 per cent on their gains. Therefore, it will be real encouragement for individuals to trade shares and invest on the main market." Whereas with most, but not all, AIM companies, the gain has been taxable at 10 per cent if individuals held them for more than 2 years. But in future they will be taxable at 18 per cent. So logically there will be a flow of investment from AIM to the main market. AIM's success was not, of course, just built on the favourable CGT rules. AIM listed shares are still, for example, exempt from inheritance tax. Companies will still look closely at the market not least because of its "light touch" regulation and the fact that it is significantly cheaper to list there than on the main market. The LSE has also pointed out that 60 per cent of the money invested in AIM hails from city institutions. A spokesman for the exchange said: "We are broadly very supportive of the Government's proposal to simplify the CGT regime and to cut the rate by such a large amount; this should help to make equities a more attractive asset class in which to invest. Nevertheless, we are mindful that the removal of business asset taper relief will affect one aspect of the favourable tax framework that AIM has enjoyed." But Graham Shore, the managing director of Shore Capital, a nominated advisor to several AIM companies and market maker in AIM stocks, said it was bad news. "The first effect it will have is to encourage people to realise assets before the tax change comes in." So will the CGT change cut the money available to new companies now that wealthy individuals derive no extra benefit from investing in AIM? That remains to be seen. The LSE is hopeful that because there is so much institutional money in AIM, it will not matter. Higher-rate taxpayers likely to move investments The Chancellor's radical overhaul of the CGT rules could boost stock market investment amongst private savers, analysts said yesterday. Fidelity Investments said higher-rate taxpayers making gains would now pay just 18 per cent tax on profits made on the main London Stock Exchange, compared to the 40 per cent income tax charge on savings interest. Richard Wastcoat, Fidelity's managing director, said: "Stock market investment will overnight become far more attractive than squirreling money away in cash deposits." Chris Sanger, the head of tax at Ernst & Young, said the reforms could presage a shift out of cash. However, Mr Sanger warned long-standing equity investors would be hit by the abolition of indexation allowance on CGT. The allowance enables investors to increase the acquisition cost of assets held since 1982 or later by up to 104 per cent when calculating CGT bills |
Posted at 29/3/2007 09:30 by yump There'll be quite a few selling just because its broken down through the 27p level. Fundamentals don't come into it.If there isn't 'something going on' then its understandable why the next raft of investors might not be ready to buy yet. I'm an affilate of quite a few years and while I understand the 'normal' model, its not been easy to figure out exactly how Henoo will earn for IBG. If its not that clear to me, then its really going to confuse investors who are looking for visibility. Perhaps one of the costs of trying new areas - for some investors the strategy won't be very clear. As someone said however, earnings will bring visibility. What's slightly unnerving is that there are other companies around with equally 'complex' strategies, which haven't suffered the same relative weakness in share price On the other hand, there's also plenty of companies that have suffered inexplicable drops outside their trading range, only to recover well above previous highs. All I can think is that a mix of early investors leaving in drabs and consistently topslicing has coincided with a gap before later investors appear in any volume. Trouble is, the more the share price drops, the more early stagers will conserve profits, although that should have been done near the highs, not on falls. |
Posted at 01/3/2007 21:58 by spacecowboy3 Lord Buffett - 1 Mar'07 - 16:22 - 950 of 961If you are an AF affiliate, once you are logged on you get a list of merchant categories, one of which is travel merchants (where that list was taken from at some point in the past). So "no" it's not more informative than AF's own site, in fact it's misleading! Thanks for that correction LB. Maybe all IBG investors should sign up as AF affiliates so they have this information. ;-) Joking apart, my underlying point was that if potential investors have to do this much work to understand what Henoo is about then I don't think we can be surprised if there's a lack of new investor interest in IBG. In a previous life I was involved in giving presentations to potential (institutional) investors and the advice was always "you've got a maximum of 15 minutes - make it easy for them to say yes, otherwise they'll just move on to the next of the myriad opportunities available to them". Much as I appreciate and enjoy the industry knowledge possessed by many of the major contributors to this board (and I'm sure it also gives the rest of us who read it an 'inside edge'), I think it's easy to forget that most investors just don't have that knowledge, or the time to work it out for themselves. IMO the IBG website does a good job of explaining affiliate advertising, as does the AF site itself. When it comes to the 'media' division, however, there's very little explanation of what it's all about or why it's a good thing FROM AN INVESTOR'S POINT OF VIEW. In fact the 'Investor Relations' section of the website contains very little that helps INVESTORS (as opposed to potential affiliates or merchants) to get a quick view of why IBG is such a great company. How about a presentation or two setting out (in terms that even non-technical investors can understand!) why IBG's market is such a good place to be and why/how IBG are so well positioned in that space to make a shed load of money? I'm very aware that it's traditional for 'punters' on BBs to blame poor IR when the share price isn't going in the right direction - usually the critics merely seem to be saying "for heaven's sake just release some good news and get the price up". I don't think that's the case here. IBG release plenty of good news - every set of results in fact! What I'm saying is that they don't make it easy (even for a 'believer' like me with 10% of their portfolio invested here) to understand how the business is likely to continue to deliver great news in the future. Sorry about the rant! sc |
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