Low & Bonar Share Discussion Threads

[hvs] 30/5/2018 09:59

Low & Bonar’s share price has fallen by c 40% over the last 12 months with more to come.

[justiceforthemany] 30/5/2018 09:48

29-May-18
15:29:15
54.90
300,000Buy* 53.6054.80

164.70kO

Chunky buy

[justiceforthemany] 17/5/2018 08:33

Low & Bonar PLC LWB Peel Hunt Buy 0.00 54.00 80.00 - Reiterates

[justiceforthemany] 17/5/2018 08:33

Low & Bonar is pleased to announce that it has agreed and executed a new 5 year, €165m revolving credit facility with a syndicate of five relationship banks, to refinance its existing €165m facility which was due to mature in July 2019.

Under the terms of the new facility, the Group's maximum net debt:EBITDA covenant has been temporarily increased, from 3.0x to 3.5x, until 31 May 2019, to provide additional headroom as the Group executes its reorganisation and cost and structural debt reduction plans. The holders of the Group's €60m Senior Notes have also agreed to the same temporary increase in the net debt:EBITDA covenant.

There is no material change to the cost of the overall debt.

[justiceforthemany] 04/5/2018 22:40

Dividend payout of 3.05p is less than half projected EPS of 6.4p - one would hope the rest can be used to pay down the debt.

[justiceforthemany] 04/5/2018 22:15

Yes cc looks like a few thousand were sold in the last 10 minutes depressing the share price for the weekend. Quite a sudden drop. Spread of almost 10%?! Just checked short tracker also - no shorts declared at all. If debt was a serious issue I suspect shorters would be all over this like a rash and not sure again why the activists would be building up such large stakes here? Sterling + Luxembourg holding 25-30% between them I believe. £90M 'short term' liabilities which is <3x EBITDA. Granted <2x would be better but dividend payout is

[cc2014] 04/5/2018 19:37

Another million and a half went through at 56 yesterday.

Someone gave away a few shares at 53.6 in the last minutes. I took a few in the closing auction but only got a few. Regret not taking more when they were available.

[justiceforthemany] 04/5/2018 19:33

What made the activists pile in so much then? They have been buying like crazy here for the past 6 months. They should know the business better than any PI.

[bend1pa] 01/5/2018 19:51

LWB are very much unloved by the market, but they have a debt problem. All high yielders with large debt have been hammered over the past 18 months, with one or two going under, notably CLLN. Not saying that will happen here, but until that debt is substantially lowered I think LWB share price will continue to flounder.

[justiceforthemany] 30/4/2018 17:28

Low & Bonar’s share price has fallen by c 40% over the last 12 months and, after a rally during Q1, is now back to lows seen at the beginning of 2018. On our existing estimates, the company is trading on a current year P/E of just 8.3x and EV/EBITDA (adjusted for pensions cash) of 6.0x.

[justiceforthemany] 30/4/2018 17:25

EDISON RESEARCH
Recent AGM comments suggest that overall demand conditions appear to be stable against previous updates and Q1 revenues were ahead of the prior year. The largest two divisions (46% of FY17 revenue, 77% of EBIT before central costs) remain the better performers in this regard, although product mix and input costs are both flagged as headwinds. There were short progress reports on performance improvement initiatives in Civil Engineering (now under a special projects team) and Coated Technical Textiles, which were consistent with previous comments and reminded us they are not quick fixes. A new senior management team is in place with a clear agenda to improve operational and financial performance. FY18 is going to be a transition year with a stronger than usual H2 bias.

Last updated on 27/04/2018

[rathkum] 30/4/2018 16:40

2 mega-cheap dividend stocks that I'd buy with £2,000 today

The Motley Fool
Apr 30th 2018 10:45AM

While Low & Bonar's (LSE: LWB) share price may have steadied in recent months, investors are still not compelled enough to buy back into the business en masse just yet.

You cannot blame them, in some respects. After all, the firm shocked the market with not one but two scary updates at the back end of last year, the shares first dropping on it warning of "challenging" market conditions for its Civil Engineering division in October. It plunged again in December after warning that profits would be "weaker than expected" for the final quarter due to an adverse product mix and the impact of sales timings at its Coated Technical Textile unit.

News that chief executive Brett Simpson had defected to Fenner in the run-up to the Christmas period added to jitters as to how the company can reverse its troubles. Consequently it saw its market value shrink by almost half in the final three-and-a-half months of 2017.

I reckon it's about time share selectors took a close look at the business again, however, as there remains plenty to be optimistic about. Low & Bonar managed to keep growing revenues in the first quarter despite difficult market conditions persisting. And with the company undertaking a number of self-help measures, from solving production problems at Coated Technical Textile to introducing fresh cost saving initiatives, the news flow is likely to become more positive during the second half of the year.
Yield charges to 6%

City analysts certainly remain largely upbeat over Low & Bonar's profits outlook and they are estimating earnings growth of 4% in 2017 and 8% next year.

These readings may be reassuring if not exactly spectacular. The same cannot be said for the London firm's dividend prospects, however, due to the colossal dividend yields it currently packs.

This year a 3.1p per share reward is being predicted, up from the 3.05p dividend of 2017. This yields an eye-watering 5.8%. Moreover, the anticipated 3.3p payout estimated for next year moves the dial to 6.2%.

Investors concerned about Low & Bonar's ability to meet these projections should revenues worsen again can take heart from the fact that anticipated dividends are covered 2.2 times by predicted earnings, comfortably above the accepted safety terrain of 2 times.

With it also sporting a dirt-cheap forward P/E ratio of 8 times, I think it's well worth checking out today.

[ed 123] 20/4/2018 11:33

Ta, CC2014. I appreciate your views.

Myself, I don't feel confident predicting where this goes in the short term. Further out, half year results will be on 11th July. Those results should be poor and should include the outcome of the review into the Civil Engineering Division. More writedowns to come?

Fwiw, I'm likely to give them some time to get their planned improvements working. Therefore, LWB is a hold for me atm and I'll study the full year report on 30th January 2019.

Dividend is good and there's potential to double the share price over a couple of years IF they get a proper grip on the business. I like the presence of the Luxembourg duo on the register (akin to a put option?).

[cc2014] 20/4/2018 10:27

Thanks Ed. I should have read it closer.

Since you have posted someone has taken out the volume available at 56.2 and unlike last night Peel have not replaced it.

I sense this is now ready to move back up to 60 but I suspect it may take a little while. The pattern at the moment on most of the stocks I'm watching appears to be to try and collect stock cheap and then move the price up slowly to entice some more sellers, so I'm not expecting this to move by more than a penny or two per week.

[ed 123] 20/4/2018 09:56

CC2014

It was a sale.

Gareth is not a board director but is the head of Interiors and Transport.

I don't know why he sold. Sometimes it's simply that a director needs to raise a bit of cash. He has over 600,000 shares under option schemes. Set against that, his sale of 35,000 shares is small.

Looks like a few sales in the market following this notice. A check on Level 2 shows the buyer remains in place. There was a very recent trading update, so I don't see this as changing anything.

[cc2014] 20/4/2018 08:42

Looks to me like that Director buy is within an ISA wrapper as it's close to £20k.

He got a good price too.

[hvs] 18/4/2018 14:30

Martin Flower

Its still blooming summer is here.

[meijiman] 18/4/2018 14:06

Got to agree with you Ed. Have been harbouring those thoughts for years.

[ed 123] 18/4/2018 12:46

Although not a good time to go atm, due to the new CEO and FD, I wonder if it's time that Martin Flower prepared to retire? He has stewarded Low and Bonar for 17 years, seen managements come and go, but in all that time I don't remember the Group being without some issue or other. Time for a fresh, new chairman?

More positively, I was very pleased to see Sterling Strategic build up their large holding. Although they don't have a seat on the Board, I would value any dialogue they had with the Company. I was also encouraged to see the MD of their Investment Committee present at the agm.

[ed 123] 18/4/2018 10:32

We ..... take on big problems .... and spark debate.

They're as good as their word. ;-O

Trying to think if there were any especially glum faces at the agm. One perhaps glum enough to sell 4 million shares on the next trading day?

[justiceforthemany] 18/4/2018 09:26

We're pleased to report that Wellcome's investment portfolio recorded a total return of 18.8% for the year to 30 September 2016, equating to £3.5 billion on an investment portfolio value of £18.3 billion at the start of the year.

About us
Wellcome exists to improve health for everyone by helping great ideas to thrive.

We’re a global charitable foundation, both politically and financially independent. We support scientists and researchers, take on big problems, fuel imaginations, and spark debate.

[justiceforthemany] 18/4/2018 09:21

Welcome to the Wellcome Trust! So they were behind the £2.2M buy on Monday.
The Wellcome Trust has a £23.2 billion investment portfolio (at 30 September 2017) which funds all the work we do. The portfolio is managed by our investment team.

[cc2014] 18/4/2018 08:37

well we have a new 3% shareholder. The Wellcome Trust.

Good news I think, although it would be nice to know who sold them the 4m shares.