ISG Share Discussion Threads

[gh0stwriter] 01/8/2012 11:47

Brief Daily Mail write up today by Roger Baird highlighting 4p share price rise.

[lord gnome] 31/7/2012 09:04

Good to see that this stock still has a pulse.

[skinny] 31/7/2012 07:12

ISG Awarded First Phase of £36 Million Ipswich Regeneration Scheme


ISG has secured phase one of a major urban regeneration project with Genesis Housing Association to deliver a mixed-use development in Ipswich. The £15 million contract focuses on the delivery of 386 new homes in the town's historic docklands area and ISG is now working towards the detailed design and costing of the full mixed-use scheme valued at around £36 million.

ISG has already carried out a significant £multi-million enabling contract at the site, which commenced in spring 2011, with the construction phase of the development due to commence in October and scheduled for completion in summer 2014.

[philo124] 05/7/2012 18:52

Well, it hit 107p which is where i bought originally sometime ago but i was in the garden most of the day so missed it. rmillaree- you are correct re the Balance sheet cash. This maybe attractive at these levels now that mkt sentiment
has improved over the last 10 days. I am going to think about buying, this is
not the only stock that may look cheap; the move into quality income stocks
recently has proved a winner & high yielding small caps still out of favour.
With the Games coming up volumes will be low and imo a market sell off will
hit smaller companies thinly traded in an exaggerated way. GLA in any event.

[cnx] 05/7/2012 17:58

the cash is monies paid as deposits on contracts, to be used to finance materials and staff development work.

but this situation has not changed in 8 years.

[rmillaree] 05/7/2012 11:14

Hello Lord Gnome

ISG's cash in the bank isn't really theirs to do with as they want practically speaking - look at the liabilities owed out (far axceeding assets) and you will see that this business has negative NTAV.

If they didn't have a decent cash buffer i doubt they would get any large contract work as it wouldn't take much to go wrong to wipe out the company (without the cash buffer that is). For this reason the cash buffer that is there needs to be maintained - all IMHO and other may disagree.

[poikka] 05/7/2012 08:50

I agree that there's a good chance that the Interim will be cut; after all, the Finals cut is only worth some £1.9m to ISG, so halving the Interim will bring the saving up to £2.5m'ish.

Not impressed with last October's purchase of Alpha at a time of Eurozone disruption. Think I'll check the Interims again to see if there's any info on what would justify the extra payments there.

[skinny] 04/7/2012 12:49

Hmmmm - oh dear - a broker recommendation! :-)

[lord gnome] 04/7/2012 12:46

Panmure Gordon has just reiterated its Buy recommendation for ISG with a target price of 189p. Maybe they are seeing something that the rest of us are missing. :-))

[lord gnome] 04/7/2012 12:37

Fair point Aleman,but this is now a 'buy for recovery' stock. The market cap is just £40 millions at the current price, whereas they claim to have net cash of £25 millions. Is the business really valued at just £15 millions? Clearly not, but those stats must attract somebody's interest.

[aleman] 04/7/2012 10:53

I'm out. I don't like disappointment or holding a share I have worries about so I usually sell immediately on bad news. WHat's the point of bragging about robust cash balances if they are shrinking and can't stop a dividend cut? I think you'll be lucky if you get 9p next year, based on previous experience. You'll probably get a half size interim and 4.6p+ final so maybe 7p. Possibly reasonable value if earnings stop falling but I don't like waiting to find out. Good luck, whether you decide to stay or not.

[mrphil] 04/7/2012 08:08

Not surprisingly the share price is taking a bit of a battering on the divi news.

[skinny] 04/7/2012 07:32

Yes - its not a major surprise - but I doubt the shareprice will see it like that!

[skinny] 25/6/2012 12:27

Interesting article - thanks Jeff.

[jeff h] 25/6/2012 12:22

I'm currently out...saw 3-4 new contracts in the last couple of weeks but there must be so much competition for work the margins may well be slim.

It was interesting to here Luke Johnson say at the Master Investor Conference a few weeks back that he'd invested in contractors a couple of times and lost money so avoids then now.

I'm not as pessimistic as that but when I read stories as per the below (I've edited due to length) I'd rather see evidence of solid trading before I get back in:-




Contractors concede that frameworks have been slow to offer best value as supermarkets turn to open tendering.

ISG, Willmott Dixon and Morgan Sindall all said that all the big supermarkets are venturing outside their frameworks to find more competitive deals.

Framework contractors are also contending with an increasing use of developers, who are tendering at lower prices and helping to address a shortage of retail sites, they said.

Clive Pople, food retail director at Willmott Dixon, said there are "no issues" with freshening up frameworks and introducing new players, but he stressed to clients that now is "not the time to tear things up."

Mr Pople said the open market is likely to mean a more "adversarial" way of doing business, while the frameworks can offer a relationship-based approach, along with innovation, such as with Willmott Dixon's energy efficiency offering.

Andy Taylor, pre-construction director at ISG, said the supermarkets are moving more to tendering. He does not believe retailers will tear up their frameworks altogether, but suggested there will be more pressure to get better value from them.

ISG has restructured its account management processes because there is "simply not enough work" to have teams dedicated to a single client, he said.

Dave Smith, managing director of Morgan Sindall's north west division, said he is seeing a move away from frameworks, as well as more retailers shuffling contractors..........

He warned that the "best price is not the right price in this current market". And he said there is not enough work in the overall market to sustain the number of contractors.

"Up until now, we have not seen an awful lot of sub contractors and contractors going to the wall; the next two years is certainly going to be a very interesting time.

"If you're a table with a dozen legs you can afford for one or two to drop off; over the next two years I think we will see the real recession in contracting. Lowest price will no longer be best value and we will reap what we sow."

[skinny] 25/6/2012 11:47

I'm still in and currently up @9%. As Lord Gnome says, I'm quite happy to hold for the dividend - current yield @11% (if held). The only downside is that it is another fairly thinly traded share, which may work against you if you need to exit quickly. But you can't have it all!

[lord gnome] 25/6/2012 11:30

Still here. No reason to sell, but no compelling reason to buy in this market. Happy to collect the dividends so long as they hold.

[philo124] 25/6/2012 11:01

Anybody still holding? Have held off getting back in; check price now & again
to see whether it has fallen to sub 110p at which point i might buy.

[jeff h] 31/5/2012 11:18

Not had sight of many UK contract awards the last couple of months...I'd guess that trading is very tough.

[cbgb] 18/5/2012 20:54

Well never say never but this economic 'slow down' has been on going for a while and they didn't cut it yet...

[orchestralis] 16/5/2012 22:18

Considering investing in ISG, but would like to get a view from those who have followed the company for sometime, what the potential risks are to the dividend being reduced or cut completely in the next year or two.

[aleman] 18/4/2012 16:41

That will go with the numbers I posted in 1065.

[lord gnome] 18/4/2012 14:48

Panmure Gordon has put out a 'Buy' recommendation on ISG with a target price of 189p.

[edmundshaw] 18/4/2012 14:13

Yes, excellent news all round - MoJ and Tesco and Morrisons...