Lsl Property Services Share Discussion Threads

[scburbs] 27/4/2009 14:12

Looks like Simon Embley has been filling his boots for a while now. I was running the rule over this as a potential short, but the large CEO acquisitions and the lack of free float has put me off for the moment.

"One reason was the news that Simon Embley, the group chief executive, bought 1.26 million shares at 31.6p after the group issued a trading statement on November 12. That brings his holding to 8.94 per cent.

Including Embley's stake, the management holds about 30 per cent, Harris Associates 20 per cent, Barclays Private Equity 15 per cent and Sheffield Asset Management LLC, another US fund, holds 15 per cent.

That leaves only 20 to 25 per cent of the shares for smaller outside shareholders, so any purchases or sales result in sharp movements in the share price."

[cockneyrebel] 27/4/2009 14:10

no, he was buying lower too I believe.

Let's face it, if they beat the 8.6p eps forecast this year which looks likely on that director buy then 12.5p forecast next year should get smashed. 15-16p eps? That would be a PE of 7 and 100% earnings growth, which would be cheap imo.

CR

[scburbs] 27/4/2009 14:04

That is a serious sign of confidence from the Directors. Particularly for someone with c.£10m tied up to add another £400k. How rich is he?

Is there any reason those buys shouldn't be taken at face value (e.g. previous sales at higher prices etc.)?

[cockneyrebel] 27/4/2009 13:51

Director buys 400K, another director has 20K

Chart about to breakout.

CR

[davidosh] 25/4/2009 17:34

Very strange the high volume and increase yesterday but Evil Knieval and Lucien Mears the well known short sellers and market commentators gave a 40 minute Q & A presentation at the Master Investor Show today. There were about 1500 investors and company directors in the audience and they gave four star picks to SELL for 2009. They were...

Punch Taverns
LSL Property
Carpetright
Proteome

There may be a knock on effect from that.

[kibes] 25/4/2009 13:56

5 million shares apparently bought at 105p yesterday. Quite astonishing why anyone would want to risk £5 million on this and how they can possibly think it is worth it at 105p?

[turbounit] 24/4/2009 12:43

Someone is hoovering up big time. Around 10% of market cap traded already so there is a big shift is going on. I wonder if Harris has found a block buyer for their big stake.

[davidosh] 22/4/2009 18:20

IMS and AGM Statement (LSL Property ServPLC)






22 April 2009



Interim Management Statement & AGM Statement


LSL, a leading provider of residential property services, incorporating estate
agency, financial services and surveying businesses is today holding its 2009
Annual General Meeting and issues this Interim Management Statement.


Roger Matthews, Chairman of LSL, will make the following statement:


"We are pleased to report that, against a market backdrop that continues to be
challenging, overall the Group has traded slightly better than our expectations.


The volume of house purchase transactions continue to be at an historic low, but
more recently the level of buyer enquires and activity in our estate agency
business has been encouraging. The Group will also benefit from a substantially
reduced cost base in 2009 and the continued growth of counter-cyclical income
stream businesses, such as lettings and repossessions asset management.


Turnover for the quarter ended 31 March 2009 compared with the same period in
2008 was as follows:
* Group turnover for the period was down by 28%
* Surveying turnover was down by 25%
* Estate Agency and Financial Services turnover was down by 32%





Outlook:
The Board remains appropriately cautious about the outlook for 2009 and the
Group will continue to demonstrate strong cost control and cashflow management.
The systemic lack of liquidity in the lending market and concern around
unemployment are expected to continue to suppress UK housing market activity in
the short to medium term. As a consequence, the timing of a return to more
"normalised" market conditions remains uncertain. Against this background, the
Group continues to demonstrate an encouraging level of resilience, is well
capitalised and well placed to deliver significant growth as and when market
activity improves."

[turbounit] 14/4/2009 16:28

Try ETX Capital

[madbadtrader] 14/4/2009 14:58

I have tried to short this again over the last few weeks, but cannot due to no stock available for 'borrowing'.

Maybe this is why it is going up as no-one can open short positions!

[davidosh] 14/4/2009 14:54

They do seem to be involved in the situations where the share price goes up when you would expect it to go down....then make a clever exit !!?

[strollingmolby] 14/4/2009 14:43

Is this the same Harris Associates (dipping under 19% holding) that has been seen in and out of Carpetright shares?

The US 312 area telephone code matches with the Chicago-based Harris Associates holding CPR shares.

[pictureframe] 06/4/2009 08:00

how the hell does this have a market cap of £121 million !

[stu31] 03/4/2009 20:32

looks like they are on course to make £10m profit this year..so says the market..yeah right

[kibes] 03/4/2009 18:54

Well I'm glad I didn't open a short on this at 40p as recommended in some quarters or I would have lost double my money. Just shows how hard shorters can be squeezed by even a no-hoper stock like this. Watching with interest but it looks like it could go higher yet.

[turbounit] 02/4/2009 16:46

Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze!

Anyone any idea where one can find % market cap on loan data?

There has been a big short squeeze on Punch Taverns recently apparently.

[strollingmolby] 31/3/2009 21:31

Am copying this across from Stockopedia as there's little interest or holders, long or short, over there (

I closed my short last week when the share price was ~92p, and LSL has continued to climb to 107p, valuing the business at £110m. For a company recording a loss in 2008 and £50m of debt puts the stock on an exceptionally high rating. The question though is whether to re-short at this level, stay on the sidelines for a while longer, or leave well alone? I'm wary of both further short-closing (seems to have dried up today) and also with the purchases arising from anyone purchasing the basket of stocks in the new Professional Services Index (see post above) which, given LSL's illiquidity, could drive the price higher. However you look at it though, it is on a mad valuation!

[turbounit] 31/3/2009 10:59

Just trying to work out what the free float would be. The 2008 annual report lists the following major shareholders (>3%) at 2 March 09. Where is Harris Associates who are supposed to have >19%?

Mortstan Nominees Limited 16.72%
State Street Nominees Limited 15.97%
BPE General Partner Limited 9.14%
Barclays Industrial Investment 5.06%
David Newnes 5.36%

The exec directors have, I think, a further 21%.

Sharecrazy's major shareholder transactions do not agree with the info in the annual report:

12/11/2008 Simon Embley 8.94%
17/07/2008 Harris Associates 19.29%
17/03/2008 David Newnes 5.36%
24/01/2008 Sheffield Asset Mgmt 16.36%
29/11/2007 Paul Latham 6.6%
28/11/2007 Dean Fielding 5.87%
17/10/2007 Barclays PLC 18%

[davidosh] 27/3/2009 18:30

I am still hanging on in there and this is now actually higher than where I started from memory. Is anyone going to the AGM ?

The Annual General Meeting of LSL Property
Services plc will be held on Wednesday 22nd April 2009 at 2.30pm at the Offices
of Buchanans Communications, 45 Moorfields, London EC2Y 9AE. Copies of the
following documents have been despatched to shareholders:

[domwilliams] 27/3/2009 18:19

Like many here on the short side, I have been stung here the last few weeks, and I finally conceded that I could pay no more margin calls on Tuesday morning so closed out. It has been one very expensive lesson that the market can stay irrational longer than I can stay solvent (fortunately it's not that bad!).

Looking at the daily trades this week has seen lots of round thousand-lot sized buys which I believe correlate with shorts closing out i.e. £30 per point equals 3,000 shares, £60 per point equals 6,000 shares, and so on. And I guess it has been easy for MMs to keep ticking the price up to trigger capitulation or stop-losses here.

I've also just noticed this story of the launch of a new index, The Professional Services Index, which includes 35 firms including LSL. One wonders if purchases of PSI this week have led to some of the purchases I thought were short-closing above?



Anyway, I have thought this loss-making business has been overvalued for some time, even down below 40p. That was proved woefully wrong in the short-term, but at 100p now I will have another crack at it in the not too distant future.

[turbounit] 24/3/2009 16:47

Interestingly, over the last 8 trading sessions the share price has risen over 35% from 70.5 to 95.5 on volume of less than 300,000 shares.

I wonder if someone is hunting for stops to clean out the bears.

[pictureframe] 24/3/2009 10:25

How the hell is this share valued so high? Keeps moving up.

[madbadtrader] 23/3/2009 08:43

Can't believe it, stop loss on my short activated, because of the crazy rise in share price! Price has almost trebled yet housing market still in dire straits and predicition is for it to get worse!

Where am I going wrong, my so called 'great value' shares go nowhere and this debt ridden company with no earnings visibility for the next two years goes and trebles in a matter of months!

Maybe back to short again.

[theoriginalface] 20/3/2009 15:45

hopelessly overvalued, look at the balance sheet, no wait look at the income statement!!

...question is : is the housing market recovering? current valuation suggests 'yes' is the answer.

[theoriginalface] 05/3/2009 16:46

I can only imagine so, I guess some people were expecting more. I was expecting greater write offs. I really don't like their Balance sheet.

I can't see the upside here for a while, the housing market is surely going nowhere. People I know that were thinking of looking for a house have canned the idea, and no-one is trading up right now.