Lookers Share Discussion Threads

[blueball] 01/11/2019 08:44

Worth no more than 20p imo.

[stdyeddy] 09/10/2019 13:55

A big piece in the Telegraph at the weekend on car debt financing as the next big mis-selling scandal. (Why anyone would imagine car salesman might be more guilty of mis-selling than bank staff is beyond me.)



Also, it turns out Crispin Odey has regrets about his Pendragon investment and the retail vehicle sector in general (hence his substantial short on Lookers last month).

And now it looks as though we might be heading towards recession. Perfect storm?

[ed 123] 04/10/2019 13:07

Yes, at 1.6% UK sales growth this year is far below that of the major European countries, which seem to have averaged around 17%. UK buyers fearing Brexit induced damage to their finances?

Tony Bramhall thought Lookers were good value at around 50p. Chance of someone bidding for the company? Who knows? Viewed over the last 5 years, the share price currently is 'low'.

Strange trading at times here. Eg. Yesterday there were 50 trades in the last two minutes before the closing auction. Today, however, there was no follow through, only 26 trades in 5 hours of the market being open.

Confess, I sold some I'd bought lower in the dip but I may yet regret this. Time will tell.

[f15jcm] 04/10/2019 12:40

Yet the shares have enjoyed a great run despite the awful flow of news and near certainty of a dividend cut. I've opened a short position as there seems very little to look forward to.

[mortimer7] 04/10/2019 09:15

SMMT have issued the new car registration unit numbers for September 2019 this morning, which shows a 1.6% increase compared to September 2018.
Total 343,255 versus 338,834.

September 2018 total was unusually low due to the implementation of WLTP regulations, so whilst up this year, in context the result is not all that good.

[mortimer7] 05/9/2019 09:11

SMMT have issued the new car registration unit numbers for August 2019 this morning, which show a 1.6% drop compared to August 2018. Total units 92,573 versus 94,094 LY.
After February, August is the UK's quietest month for registrations so the numbers in isolation aren't too significant.

[sphere25] 30/8/2019 16:55

I don't have the balls to hold here - beyond my risk tolerance. I mostly just trade what I see and nip in and out if there's some momentum.

So further to the previous posts, Bramall has pulled his bid (and thus the fall back in the stock) with the last buy (for now) being notified today:

"Lookers plc announces that Guernsey Investments Limited, a company controlled by Tony Bramall, Non-Executive Director, has purchased 1,325,000 ordinary shares of 5p each in the Group on the 27(th) to 29(th) August 2019 at an average price of 51.0135p per share."

It was about 52.4 the last of his trades, I could see it. Been downhill ever since. Still, interesting to see if he continues to add or what the angle is here. Might have just been a top up then. Tend to get quite intrigued when a director keeps topping up in size.

Leave it there for now so as to not clog the board up. Let's see if he is right about the valuation. Clearly happy to put his money where his mouth his and you have to respect that.

[essentialinvestor] 30/8/2019 14:24

Tony could be buying on a 5 year plus view.

Without an outcome to the FCA investigation it's difficult to
to value the business.

If you can tolerate higher risk/reward, it might be worth considering.

Above my risk tolerance, luck to those holding.

[sphere25] 29/8/2019 07:31

Bramall buys only another 50k. If that's the last of his lot, probably explains why the bid has been pulled from the stock and the stock started tanking.I'm probably wrong if that's the case and there isn't anything going on here. I was expecting millions more to be bought, not 50k ha

[tim 3] 27/8/2019 16:58

Certainly seems strong recently chart still does not look great but it's hard to read after a fall like that and external events like we have here can often make it irrelevant anyway.

[sphere25] 27/8/2019 16:43

Broken out on big volume.

As per previous posts, sellers are getting mopped up. Can't just be Brammall buying here - a single buyer can't take on the market. There has got to be more going on behind the scenes imo.

[mortimer7] 27/8/2019 11:34

Lookers non-executive director Tony Bramall is building up his stake in the dealer group buying £2.1m of stock.
Guernsey Investments , a company controlled by Bramall, purchased 2,746,414 ordinary shares of 5p each in the group between 14 – 16 August 2019 at an average price of 45.4657p per share.
He subsequently bought 1,745,226 ordinary shares between 20- 21 August 2019 at an average price of 49.4248p per share. He now controls 18.5% of the total voting rights of the group.
Bramall has a history of building dealer groups and is a long time investor in Lookers.
(courtesy of motortrader.com)

[azalea] 24/8/2019 10:34

FCA investigation and consequences of a 'No Deal' Brext, two significant unknowns.

[sphere25] 23/8/2019 15:05

Buying dips now. It's getting interesting with this further announcement just out:

"Lookers plc announces that Guernsey Investments Limited, a company controlled by Tony Bramall, Non-Executive Director, has purchased 1,745,226 ordinary shares of 5p each in the Group between 20(th) - 21(st) August 2019 at an average price of 49.4248p per share.

Following the purchase, the total interest of Tony Bramall and his connected persons in Lookers plc is 72,158,051 ordinary shares, representing 18.54 per cent of the total voting rights of the Company."

[elliotset] 22/8/2019 15:24

Mayby takeover coming

[sphere25] 20/8/2019 16:55

I'm looking in here and wondering why a director is buying in decent size and someone keeps coming on the book to mop up stock in size?

"Lookers plc announces that Guernsey Investments Limited, a company controlled by Tony Bramall, Non-Executive Director, has purchased 2,746,414 ordinary shares of 5p each in the Group between 14th - 16(th) August 2019 at an average price of 45.4657p per share"


Clearly the FCA investigation is an unknown (bear point), SMMT figures are hardly inspiring (bear point), Brexit (bear point), contracting growth (bear point), £ tanking and so on...

You might be noticing a theme here and yet the stock is starting to rally with the chart trending higher.

So with the stock absolutely Hulked, if we were to discount earnings further, is the market saying alot of it is already baked in?

EDIT 22/08/2019

Testing 50p this afternoon. Little washouts of sellers and then a large buyer coming in is the repeated theme, but can it crack the very key 50p level or it does crash back down from here. Fascinating watch.

[essentialinvestor] 16/8/2019 00:22

FCA investigation has not even commenced yet, 0 clarity imv
without knowing their conclusions.

[pratt2] 12/8/2019 07:51

Hey AllNew to Lookers but been researching this quite a bit this weekend and interested in opinions please.With freehold over £300m representing almost twice share price value, I think the BS is pretty strong here with good underlying asset backing.I know plenty of headwinds but it's a cyclical industry and whilst 2019 is likely to be pretty dire, 2020 should begin to pick up as and when affected parties find the new 'norm' ? FCA I have a feeling will be relatively fine, perhaps a fine but I don't see a wider issue personally but we ll know on Wed.What does everyone think here about this now? Pure speculative or a decent punt at current levels with better reward to risk ratio?ThanksP.

[pdoc] 10/8/2019 18:37

I fear not. Probably still better than Pendragon, but we are trying to sell an income and confidence sensitive good in the throes of a few Eton boys trying national suicide because they can afford to risk it. When the results here are dire in the week think nothing of it as so much worse is to come. The impending recession, inflation, and severe loss of confidcence will put Lookers into intensive care. And that is all without the FCA investigation, the fines, the customer paybacks and the bad publicity. Yes - oh dear.

[essentialinvestor] 10/8/2019 17:51

Until results from the FCA investigation are know, it's difficult
to say what fair value is.

[gutterhead] 10/8/2019 13:22

Not. Tough market, margins under pressure and results from a FCA investigation into poor controls when selling finance/insurance products with a resulting fine.
It doesn’t look rosy to me and can see this in the 30’s quite soon. Aimho

[red5] 10/8/2019 12:51

so are we expecting good results or not from this one?