Lo-Q Share Discussion Threads

[woodcutter] 12/9/2012 17:04

i have been watching this for a while now and despite the fact that i think it's a great product i have decided not to invest at present, this may be a bad decision but my concerns are based on my very brief review of six flags which is 2/3 of their business at present and probably more in value terms(i haven't looked in detail just based on 10 of the existing 15 sites.

Six flags was rescued from bankruptcy just over a year ago and although it has over $1b in revenue it also has $750m net debt. I have real reservations (no pun intended) about theme parks and their sustainabilty/business model. They seem expensive to operate and heavily dependant on feel good factor and naturally footfall.

Any diversification as in the asian development is clearly beneficial but at present if six flags goes under then the outlook for LOQ is somewhat uncertain.

i'd be interested to know if anyone has doen any real detailed analysis of their clients accounts. It's not the first time a theme park has got into financial difficulty.

i'll keep monitoring and see how things develop.

Woody

[canteatvalue] 12/9/2012 12:18

david,

what sort of growth levels are you expecting from LOQ now? Even after the recent price fall the forward P/E is still in the low 20s which is pretty demanding. The growth is forecast at ~20% for this year but to me it seems as though, with so many different parks coming on this year and with so many other opportunities available, that's a fairly pessimistic outlook. I think Tom B said he wanted profits to double in three years time?

[davidosh] 12/9/2012 12:04

The Qbots and waterbands can only be used within the park perimeter.
Smartphones are used for the London events that was trialled earlier this year though and can be booked with timeslots from anywhere AFAIU

[m.t.glass] 12/9/2012 11:31

Can someone familiar with the technologies that LO-Q use tell me - is it possible to schedule bookings for rides before arriving at a park? Ie, while en route there using mobiles? Or are LO-Q facilities only available after park entry?

[davidosh] 12/9/2012 10:17

That is excellent news. Most of the SF parks are regional rather than destination parks ie. They serve a local market rather than tourist dominated so they need new attractions to keep interest high and to recycle the ride space that has lower queues and becomes less desirable. New rides will attract much higher attendances and longer queues and we know what that will translate to for LOQ.

[rivaldo] 12/9/2012 07:46

Massive investment in new rides at Six Flags for next year should lead to bumper attendances - and revenues for LOQ:



"Six Flags parks across North America to launch huge number of new rides in 2013 (Video)

Posted by on Thursday, August 30, 2012 Under: Headline News N. America

(News) Six Flags Entertainment Corporation (NYSE: SIX) said that it will introduce a new array of thrill and family rides, stage shows, and extreme water slides in 2013 across its 19 North American parks, including the transformation of Six Flags Great Adventure and Wild Safari in New Jersey into one property, creating the largest regional theme park in the world (story).

etc"

[spud] 11/9/2012 16:46

Good value compared to 10 days ago.

spud

[rolo7] 11/9/2012 16:43

someone wanted 47K of shares at 307p? 150K£ someone is confident.

[davidosh] 11/9/2012 16:28

I only added 5k but I suspect the buying has started now and I am happy to accumulate on any weakness having just seen the QBot in action at Universal Islands of Adventure although to be honest we did not need one as it was the Tuesday after Labour day in the US and although they had a very busy three day weekend the kids all returned to school on the Tuesday so it was relatively calm at Universal.

At Wet and Wild in Orlando two weeks before we complained about the queues and need to keep returning to our lockers !! I said surely someone could invent a waterproof cash holder for me to buy the kids drinks and ice creams?? There must have been 3000 plus in that water park as it is pretty big and some rides had queues for 40 minutes. They desperately need LOQ

[spud] 11/9/2012 16:05

Just taken another 3k - Bargain!

spud

[felix99] 11/9/2012 14:05

Suspect the staff whoe xercised options over 100k are queueing up in a disorderly manner to seel today. They get listed tomorrow from the RNS

[rivaldo] 11/9/2012 12:06

:o)) Absolutely right spud. Volumes are very low, so one can only guess this drop is pretty artificial.

Given that Six Flags have reported storming numbers, and that everything we know about LOQ is positive, it'll be interesting to see how quickly a bounce back begins.

Especially with a year end trading update not so far away now in mid-November.

[spud] 07/9/2012 15:36

LO-Q doing it's yearly dip. Hope everyone has set their watch by it ;-)

Good news for those of us with a few K's spare earning nowt in the bank..

spud

[spud] 06/9/2012 15:59

Shares in virtual queuing specialist Lo-Q (LON:LOQ) were given a leg-up yesterday after its partnership deal with Sanderson Group was given the thumbs up by broker Canaccord.

The alliance looks set to open the door into the lucrative Asian theme park market, which Sanderson has a healthy exposure to.

"We believe the agreement opens a large, high growth market for Lo-Q," said analyst Bob Liao, who has a 'buy' rating for Lo-Q.

He added however that Asia can be a tough nut to crack for new companies but the agreement with its new partner should help it market, sell and operate its solutions in the region.

"We believe the complementary partnership has high potential and we expect notable progress over the next year," Liao concluded.

spud

[shanklin] 06/9/2012 10:03

To add to my earlier post, what I would like to know following the recent RNS is:
- to which countries the agreement with Sanderson relates?
- just how successful is Sanderson in these countries?

I have read some of the blurb Sanderson put on their web-site and note that under-statement is not something we are likely to see from them. Indeed, reading the biographies of their senior staff I reckon that if they were a cricket team, Warne, McGrath and Bradman would struggle to make the grade... ...so I trust they will deliver both soon and big time.

[shanklin] 06/9/2012 09:22

Rivaldo, I was not having a go at you... ...just that there is absolutely nothing new in what the CG analyst has noted. And then he gives a target price which is basically the current share price

Still, I guess its a step up for whoever wrote it from making the teas.

[rivaldo] 06/9/2012 08:49

Shanklin, the analyst has noted that Asia "is the fastest growing theme park market, with the attendances rising by 9.4% in 2011", and that "a number of parks at which the firm operates have opened new attractions in 2012, which it believes will help drive numbers".

I found this useful additional info which was not in the RNS. Why be so cynical - the analyst has a job to do, and this was just a brief update note.

[shanklin] 06/9/2012 08:11

Blimey that's really insightful.

[rivaldo] 05/9/2012 19:04

From UK-Analyst's market report tonight FYI:

"Canaccord Genuity retained its "buy" stance onLo-Q (LOQ) with a 335p target price. The virtual queuing technology developer has formed a partnership with theme park builder The Sanderson Group, and the broker believes this is a key step for an expansion into the Asian market. Canaccord noted that Asia is the fastest growing theme park market, with the attendances rising by 9.4% in 2011. The broker added that a number of parks at which the firm operates have opened new attractions in 2012, which it believes will help drive numbers."

[m.t.glass] 05/9/2012 17:54

I too added this morning.

[spud] 05/9/2012 17:19

Bought another 3k this AM - My second 3k purchase in as many weeks. Aiming to take another 9k all in 3k blocks over the next 4 weeks. It does look however, like we have a bit of an overhang here.

Good if you're looking to buy I guess.

spud

[felix99] 04/9/2012 15:13

Agreed Charles it will speed up things.

Just would have thought that the products are that good that the Asian operators would come looking for LoQ rather than Loq having to go via a third party to find them ( and thus having to give away some of the profit to Sanderson)

On the otherhand perhaps the Asian markets work differently to the West and a few palms need greasing and established middlemen have to be used?

[charlesdar] 04/9/2012 11:37

Sanderson have the contacts across the Asian market and this will open doors for LoQ they have been unable to access so a huge positive step in my opinion.

[shanklin] 04/9/2012 10:47

Fair point although LOQ already have some operations in Australia.