Interquest Share Discussion Threads

[sailing john] 29/6/2017 15:30

"I do hope this isn't all being paid for out of company funds."

Chisbridge aka Ashworth et al will be paying for this and advisors etc. (the annual audit will confirm this important issue!)
An expensive exercise both in time and money. What a waste!

You have to laugh - the doc sent by post says in large print p6 header
"The Management Team strongly urges shareholders to support them and accept the offer"

Hang on as Shareholders in ITQ we are supporting the Company and Directors
If shareholders accept the offer then they are no longer able to support the new management!
Have they really thought about what they are saying!!!!

[spot1034] 29/6/2017 15:16

Just had a second call from them. They must be getting desperate! Also, in the post today I have received three copies of a circular in three separate envelopes - this is presumably as I have three holdings in a SIPP, ISA and ordinary dealing account.

I do hope this isn't all being paid for out of company funds.

[deanowls] 29/6/2017 14:53

Hvn statement today contradicts the message from the business here, also mentions aquasitions. Come rescue us please!

[vatnabrekk] 29/6/2017 12:27

I'll accept double the current offer. Anything less they can stick up their jumpers, or stick anywhere else as they wish!

[spot1034] 28/6/2017 18:30

Chisbridge's representative finally got round to calling me just now to ask if I would be accepting the offer. I got the impression he already knew what my answer would be before he even asked if I intend to accept the offer. No attempt to persuade me to change my mind, just thanked me and hung up!

[ir35] 28/6/2017 14:04

It looks a bit like the management at ITQ are now suffering from memory problems. They seem to have forgotten about a couple of holding notifications that IPConcept sent them on 19th and 21st June. Maybe that isn't so surprising as IPConcept have been buying shares at more than 42p. IPConcept do put out RNSs though and they have bought another 376,000 so have now bought over 1M in just over a week.

Funny that management didn't forget to tell us they have now reached 45% acceptances. I wonder why management don't sell to IPConcept at 43.5p if they think the shares are only worth 42p:). And who would accept their 42p offer if they can sell to IPConcept at 43.5p.

[vatnabrekk] 23/6/2017 10:01

I don't know what good it will do extending the offer period. In my opinion it would make much more sense to increase the offer price!

[ir35] 22/6/2017 21:52

Mine (as are all of my shares) are also in a nominee account. I have had calls in the past regarding other companies - had one from HVN about the EGM and move to AIM in the last week as well.

[spot1034] 22/6/2017 21:09

I haven't had a call but mine are held in a nominee account so I suppose they aren't able to access the details. They'd be wasting their time anyway.

This looks doomed to fail.

[ir35] 22/6/2017 18:10

I wondered what had gone wrong as there wasn't an RNS this morning saying how poor ITQ are.

I think I got a call but one of my kids took it and they told them:

- we haven't had PPI
- we haven't had a car accident that wasn't our fault and it didn't cause undetectable injuries
- our computer is just fine and doesn't need fixing by the Windows Department

They didn't call back though.

I guess the chances of then getting above 50% are pretty slim. I guess Bygrave knows how Theresa May feels right now and I feel the same end result for the 2 of them isn't far off.

[keit4h] 22/6/2017 17:25

The acceptance level just announced is not impressive. The Chairman hasn't even managed to get all the employees who were persuaded to sign letters of intent to actually accept.

Adding up the numbers it appears that holders of 2.73% of the shares not subject to undertakings/letters of intent have accepted (out of 56.28%) and, for all we know, some of these may be other employees or friends of the Chairman. And that's with the Chairman paying a proxy solicitation agency to phone up private shareholders and chase them (I know as I got a call myself).

[vatnabrekk] 21/6/2017 17:31

If they are to succeed in their takeover then in my view they must double the offer price, at least. And if they fail in this attempted takeover then they must surely be fired.

[cwa1] 21/6/2017 09:36

It's nice that those altruistic types at Chrisbridge-being fools to themselves-are going to take this off our hands AND pay us top dollar for the privilege of relieving us of our shares in this complete dog. Thank Heavens for good, salt of the earth, honest as the day is long, guys like them......

[sailing john] 21/6/2017 07:47

Yes IR35
And of course nothing changes in terms of management - just the shareholders!
How that affects business performance is beyond me!!!!!

[ir35] 21/6/2017 07:29

Judging by todays RNS I must have completely misjudged management. They aren't trying to buy the company on the cheap they are buying it so that they can continue to provide employment for the 200 or so employees and they aren't at all interested in making a whacking profit for themselves.

Apparently the offer price is above the historic price but also the historic price is no guide to the future performance - seems they like to use th ehistoric price when it suits but not when it doesn't.

I love the way they talk about how the business will prosper after they have bought it off us - perhaps they don't understand we don't really care. I just hope HVN (that I also hold) will grab their customers once they have taken ITQ over

What a shower.

[sailing john] 20/6/2017 23:30

Rees Draper Wright recently included in Hunt Scanlon's top 60 UK search firms

And I know it is just an ad to attract new recruitment consultants but this is what Interquest say about themselves to prospective candidates - sounds exciting to me!

"As a rapidly expanding recruitment company, operating in the highest growth specialist areas of the new digital economy, we’re quite simply always on the look-out for top talent to move our business forward."

[sailing john] 20/6/2017 19:04

Re "Clarification of Consultant Numbers" from Chisbridge Ashworth

Anyone else notice that Ashworth chose to quote change in consultant numbers from 31 Jan 2016 to year end 31 Dec 2016
Why not from 31 Dec to 31 Dec - perhaps it would have looked a little different

Of course page 8 of the Annual Report provides audited details of average consultant numbers in 2016 which was 249!
Compare to Ashworth's 239 as at 31 January 2016 and 233 as at 31 December 2016
Presumably at some stage during the year there were a lot more.

And Ashworth also says "The Management Team agrees .......... that there is a direct correlation between consultant numbers and the financial performance."
Which is interesting because page 8 KPIs state

£m. 2015 2016
Rev 159 144
NFI 23.8 21.7
R S 224 249
RS = average recruitment staff

Which would suggest that number of recruitment staff is not directly correlated to Revenue as stated by the Management Team.
Unless perhaps as stated by the Independent Director "the increase in consultant headcount during 2016 which, typically has a delayed impact on revenues." and perhaps that delay falls into the following year as staff need training and experience.
Which would suggest that the increased headcount in 2016 compared to 2015 will affect 2017 results positively (and as stated headcount for 2017 has been flat)

Of course we all know that other factors can have a significant impact as recognised by the Ind Dir

In summary a poorly argued RNS by Chisbridge imo (and that is the polite version of what I think!)

[insomniac36] 20/6/2017 15:19

As we all know there was a failed 'sale' process at the back end of 2014, insiders reported that Ashworth had 125p in his head for a fair price to leave the business and must have been sorely disappointed not to find a willing buyer at that price ... apparently the common consensus at the time was a price around 110p was more realistic ...

This is the quote from them "the Board held constructive discussions with a number of interested parties however, the outcome of these is that the Board does not believe that a sale of the Company at this time would achieve maximum value for shareholders in the medium term, having regard to the opportunities, growth potential and inherent value of the Company" in Jan 2015

So, how now can the business be worth a third of that value unless it due to incompetent management or has been engineered by following a calculated programme of undermining investor sentiment to drive the share price value down to facilitate this appalling attempt to rob external investors through a dirt cheap MBO.

One should also view ITQ's performance compared to it's competitors to illustrate this ...there is no way that ITQ has been affected by market conditions/Brexit et al any worse than they have.

If the acquisition of RDW has dragged the company's value downwards, the fault lies purely at the door of the Chisbridge gang (the Exec Management at the time of the acquisition).Similarly the write offs relating to the acquisition of ECOM lie squarely with Mr Ashworth who led the acquisition process himself. Rather than having to defend a money grab, the majority shareholders should be pressing for the dismissal of this bunch of crooks !

[effortless cool] 20/6/2017 14:29

The behaviour of the executives here is diabolical. I have no involvement, but very much hope to see them fail and then, hopefully, get fired.

David Higgins, the sole independent non-executive, deserves great credit for his defence of shareholder interests, in what must be very difficult circumstances.

[bsharman3] 20/6/2017 14:23

Iv'e tweeted @LukeJohnsonRCP i suggest you all do the same.

We cannot let them get away with this!!