Keywords Studios Share Discussion Threads

[bamboo2] 27/7/2016 14:22

Nice bit of volume going through.

[saucepan] 27/7/2016 10:39

A lot of large "OK" trades; the significance of, I know not what.

[cfro] 25/7/2016 18:18

Should be a trading update soon?

[nurdin] 25/7/2016 13:49

Perhaps some acquisition news in the pipeline?

[cat] 25/7/2016 12:04

joined you saucepan :-)

[saucepan] 25/7/2016 09:38

Cheers. I have to confess to adding to my position today. Sells seem to have dried up, while buying interest seems to be reappearing.

I also suspect there will soon be some acquisition news to fuel further interest. KWS tends not to stay idle on that front. Moreover, Andrew Day hinted at some of the possibilities in his presentation. My interest was piqued by his mention of the engineering side of things, as another potential strand to services offered.

[tomps2] 25/7/2016 09:29

Pleasure. If there are other companies anyone is interested in seeing - we'll try to arrange a presentation. Or any feedback on anything we have filmed is welcomed. All companies filmed so far are here:

[saucepan] 25/7/2016 09:17

Tomps2: I have only just got round to watching the terrific Andrew Day presentation at ShareSoc. Thanks for sharing the link.

[nurdin] 21/7/2016 19:30

Mindwalks web site worth a look..specially their customer base.

[bamboo2] 21/7/2016 16:49

Added this mornng. :-)

[bigbigdave] 20/7/2016 13:25

Nor sure this is a trading share more ltbh, one of the few potential zulu stocks around.

[rivaldo] 20/7/2016 13:18

New highs now, and looking especially strong given the positive bounce today.

[bamboo2] 19/7/2016 20:41

LM, Bulkowski suggests that when these patterns exceed around 15-20 days, they should no longer be defined as Flags or Pennants, but as longer term Triangles, Rectangles or Wedges, even where there is a distinctive flag pole preceeding.

I'm not entirely sure why this is so. Maybe it is convention? It makes a significant difference to the likely target share price [which is the main reason for using chart patterns in the first place!] and perhaps illustrates the importance of correct patttern id.

The 311 target is therefore based on the size [70% of the total difference between the highest peak and lowest valley] of the Falling Wedge rather than the height of of the flagpole, as would be the case if this was a pennant, under his definition.

I held this share a while ago, but cashed it in on a quick 20% turn. Hope to hold for a bit longer this time.

[modform] 19/7/2016 19:00

Added this afternoon, the 3rd addition this year

[luckymouse] 19/7/2016 18:30

small holding since jan - height of pennant I guess

[bamboo2] 19/7/2016 17:43

LM, I've got a Bulkowski inspired target of min 311

did you buy recently?

[luckymouse] 19/7/2016 16:53

Looks promising

[bamboo2] 19/7/2016 16:39

cheers LM. Looks quite conclusive this afternoon. :-)

[bamboo2] 19/7/2016 09:20

which way will this break?

[whymps2] 18/7/2016 09:06

Tomps2 thanks for the link

[cormask] 18/7/2016 07:33

Wondered what all the buying was a few days ago

[rivaldo] 18/7/2016 07:28

RNS this morning : good to see BlackRock increasing above 5% with 2.95m shares:

[tomps2] 15/7/2016 12:44

VIDEO: presentation by Andrew Day, CEO at ShareSoc Richmond July 16



An overview of what he covers:

Their services are: art creation, audio services, localisation services, localisation testing, functional testing and customer support services to the top games companies, and mobile games developers.

It’s a highly fragmented market, and KWS provide a one-stop shop for the games providers. Their business is sticky, the larger companies publish games regularly and will go back to the same suppliers, including KWS, to reduce risk; this provides a barrier to entry. Out of KWS’s 400 clients, 50 buy 3+ services.

KWS have offices throughout the world, to supply a global market. Their largest revenue is in US$: 43%, EU 38%, Canadian $ 8%, Japanese Yen 6% RoW 5%.

There have been 7 acquisitions over the last 18 months. A key criteria for selection is the cultural fit with the whole organisation. Often acquisitions have been made to expand services. With the highly fragmented market, acquisition consolidates. KWS never over pay.

Revenue growth of 55% was achieved in the last FY, with organic growth making up 20%. KWS have a long-term objective of 13-15% return on sales, it’s currently 13-14%. The gross margin has increased to 37.6% due to the increase in Art, which is the highest margin service. CAPEX is relatively low, just test consoles, mobile devices and PCs.

Recently a Eu15m debt facility was put in place with Barclays Bank.
Debtor days 45. Clients are good at paying, most pay in 30 days. KWS invoice everything in the month they work.

KWS pay a dividend.

Major shareholders include: PEQ Holdings, Schroders, Hargreave Hale, Invesco. Day owns 7.2%. KWS have been back to the market twice to raise new funds, both times there was good demand. Recently Day and the founder sold down some of their holdings, with good demand.

With Q&A from the ShareSoc audience.

[rivaldo] 08/7/2016 11:29

New interview with the CEO:



Extracts:

"Develop Awards 2016 Partner Spotlight: Keywords Studios
July 4th 2016 at 11:05AM"

"Keywords Studios is dedicated to providing essential services to the video games industry from concept to live operations support. We do this on a global basis through our 22 studios in 16 countries."

"What differentiates you from similar outfits?

We are a publicly quoted company, providing transparency to our clients while enabling us to access a pool of funding from outside of the game industry. This allows Keywords Studios to build its geographic footprint and expand its range of services organically and through acquisition, thereby increasing choice for our clients.

Today we have the largest range of services and most comprehensive studio network in the industry."