Ig Design Share Discussion Threads

[nickcduk] 19/2/2007 16:02

I can smell a profits warning on the cards here. Share price action is following a pattern set by ACE and InterLink foods in the preceeding days before they warned. If it is going to happen then I would imagine we get it this week.

[davius] 02/2/2007 10:33

International Greetings PLC ("International Greetings" or "the Group") (AIM:
IGR), the leading designer and manufacturer of private label greetings products
and film and television character based licensed stationery, today announces
that its Alligator Books Limited subsidiary has signed the licences for 'Dr Who' and the recently relaunched children's classic, 'Rupert Bear'.

Alligator Books, a publisher and distributor of children's books and stationery
which was acquired by International Greetings in April 2006, has signed the
'Creative Play' licences for 'Rupert the Bear' from Entertainment Rights and
'Doctor Who' from BBC Worldwide. The Creative Play formats include products such as stickers and colouring sets.

The new licences fit well with the Group's other licensed products which range
from much-loved children's classics such as 'Noddy', 'Thomas the Tank Engine'
and 'Postman Pat', to more modern successes such as 'Bratz' and 'Dora the
Explorer', as well as family movie blockbusters such as the 'Harry Potter'
series, 'Spiderman' and 'Shrek '.

Joint Chief Executive, Nick Fisher, commented: "Alligator books has been a great acquisition for International Greetings and these new deals show our continued belief in the value of acquiring the licences for strong and well known brands.

"Both 'Rupert the Bear' and 'Dr Who' are experiencing a resurgence of popularity following recent relaunches. We are convinced their appeal will continue and that the demand for our products will be strong."

[ntv] 24/11/2005 16:21

little britain taking the country by storm
looks interesting

[beckaroo] 05/12/2003 19:14

Good to know you are still in this and are enjoying the rise Glen. Hope Monday brings us good news. cash should be worse than finals due to christmas run-up but hopefully they will say about good christmas expected, maybe announce another film promotion and say how they expect their little acquisition to get them a good footing in Europe. Hopefully the US will also have improved from their last statement.

PE of 12.67 expected for current year seems price is still reasonable and could still rise further with good news/acquisitions.

[glen fiddich] 28/11/2003 12:48

Anyone come across Liberty Wanger Asset Management who now own 3%? Presumably they are the ones behind the recent rise in price. According to website they are an American outfit specialising in "unusual" small and mid-cap stock picks.

[glen fiddich] 08/9/2003 08:44

Good spot Beckaroo. Know what you mean about no news - but in their case no news is good news. I'm quite happy to sit back and watch the price jump every six weeks or so.

[beckaroo] 07/9/2003 10:11

Still looking good. Chart bullish, continued rise after sell out after results..Only problem is that there is never any news in this share.

However, heres a broker report I found on their website. July 2003.

[pork belly] 04/7/2003 08:04

International Greetings - Wednesday 2nd July 2003

International Greetings showed today that it's better to travel than to arrive on the stockmarket. Full year figures showing that the cards and gift wrap group is back on track after last year's blip were greeted by a 6p fall in the share price to 240.5p as profit takers cashed in on the near 60% rise since the low point at the back end of 2002. On a prospective price-earnings ratio of 12, the shares are now fairly priced, argues Tom Stevenson.

International Greetings had an impeccable track record until last year. Having floated in the mid-1990s at an effective 50p, the shares had been one of the AIM market's best performers when they peaked in 2000 at 380p.

But the market has no room for sentiment and when it became clear that management systems at the core Scan gift wrap business had fallen short - bad control of workflow meant keeping customers happy was only achieved with a lot of expensive extra shifts and re-ordering of materials - the price quickly went into reverse. By the time interim figures last November suggested the group was back on track the price had fallen to a low of 157p.

Today's full year numbers confirmed the recovery, with pre-tax profits up a useful 22% to £11.1m (£9.1m). That was better than the previous record of £10.7m in 2001 and fed through to earnings per share of 18.8p, up 21% from the previous year's 15.6p.

One of the most encouraging features of the results was a big swing in cash from net debt of £14.9m a year ago to net cash of £3.4m. And Nick Fisher, chief executive, hinted that, having got the house back in order, he would start to look at bolt-on acquisitions again to drive further growth.

It was not all good news, however. Profits fell in the US, where trading has been difficult. A new approach, closer to the UK model, is being tried there which means less of a focus on independent retailers and a closer relationship with mass market chains like WalMart. If successful that could be good news for sales, although it is hard to imagine the giant retailer offering particularly generous terms.

International Greetings is a well-run business, operating in a relatively resilient part of the economy. Even in bad times people continue to spend on low ticket items like cards and wrapping paper and the company has its fingers in all the important pies - cards, paper, bows, crackers and stationery. It also has some good licence deals on valuable properties like Harry Potter and the Incredible Hulk.

The only question is whether the re-rating has any further to go. On the basis of house broker Arbuthnot's forecast for this year - £12m of pre-tax and 20.3p of earnings - the shares trade on a prospective price-earnings ratio of 12. With little yield support, even after today's 28% hike in the payout to 5.75p (a 2.3% yield), that's not obviously cheap. Hold.

[beckaroo] 02/7/2003 08:49

I also was surprised by the turnover figure as I expected this to be higher. Although looking back at the interims the turnover there was only 1.5 million higher so I suppose it was expected.

However, great news in the profits, dividend and all the extra licence agreements signed. They really do seem to be the preffered company for licencing. I don't think we will see this rocket up but it could be a nice little performer, and might attract more interest now the Mkt. cap is back over 100 million.

[glen fiddich] 02/7/2003 08:45

Pretty solid results. Everything is pretty much in line with expectations - except for the dividend which has been given a good bump up to 5.75p for the year.

Couple of aspects that worry me slightly:

1, Turnover has only increased by 3% on last year which makes me think they have reached saturation point with their current operations.

2, Operating profits are down in the US.

However, they are addressing 1 by looking for acquisitions. I hope they take their time and make the right choices. As for 2, the chief exec says that the American operation will be adopting the British business plan so hopefully that will bear fruit.

If both these aspects take a turn for the better, I think we can look to seriously improved results in the next couple of years. If not, then I'm afraid the share price will tread water at current levels.

With the company's track record, I would favour the first option and will continue to hold. The increased dividend makes the yield on my purchase price 3.5% which is better than the bank - thus any increase in share price is a bonus. Over the long-term this should give great value.

[beckaroo] 01/7/2003 18:14

Thanks for the Info Glen,

The MM and 30,000 buys today seem to suggest they will be okay. I can't wait for the results. It will be nice to here some news from the company at last..

[glen fiddich] 01/7/2003 10:25

Beckaroo,

Just confirmed with CEO's PA - they are out tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

[beckaroo] 01/7/2003 08:25

The results must be soon as the interest in this seems to be picking up. They were on 9 July last year so less than two weeks to wait.

[glen fiddich] 26/6/2003 13:36

Wake up Beckaroo - we just ticked up a couple of pence!

[glen fiddich] 14/5/2003 17:03

By the way, Beckaroo, I have a feeling the Harry Potter licence is a rolling thing rather than a film-by-film or book-by-book contract. I'd need to check back the annual reports to confirm that.

[glen fiddich] 14/5/2003 09:37

Thanks for that, Beckaroo. I agree with all you see and - for once - all the broker says too!

[beckaroo] 13/5/2003 19:49

New broker report on the website. See link:-



Suggests a fair price of 249p but given the momentum this share is building up in the run up to results I can see it overshotting this a fair bit. Things to watch out for in results leading to a higher price:-

Margins above 30.8%
New licencees - next Harry Potter book/film??
Scan completely back on track.

[glen fiddich] 13/5/2003 09:43

And again...I love this share!

[glen fiddich] 09/5/2003 16:16

Up we go again...