Manganese Bronze Share Discussion Threads

[ashmok] 27/11/2002 13:16

This share certainly Moves In Mysterious Ways -- the AGM statement was less than exciting, and yet the chart is looking perkier, and we've even (finally) got a decent spread to encourage buyers. If the price can move significantly past 60p, then maybe this is more than just another blip?

[ashmok] 20/11/2002 00:20

Last month's rise turned out to be a false alarm, but it looks like we're having another go. Not sure why, though, unless Zingo news is due?

[hyper al] 18/10/2002 11:54

No more bad news on the Horizon, that along with Zingo could explain the rise.

[hyper al] 18/10/2002 10:56

Heading North.

Is the Zingo news out yet?

Will the Eagle (EIT) fly?

[hyper al] 17/10/2002 17:49

The price drops even though the bad news was already known about.

Watch the price bounce back with news about Zingo.

[ashmok] 16/9/2002 15:35

It seems I was wrong about it being the bottom... And we're probably going to see the price drift a little more yet. Still think there's going to be an almighty bounce here, but perhaps it won't be this (calendar) year.

[toffeeman] 16/9/2002 13:39

I bought some today on the results drop. The market cap is now less than the value of the Coventry site. I think Julian Richer sold a chunk of his stake at 120p so I guess my target should be just below that - well it would be nice!!

[ashmok] 02/9/2002 08:05

So 112p was not a good time to buy... But with results probably out later this month, and likely to show the beginnings of a recovery from last year, could this be the bottom?

[bob534] 12/6/2002 16:22

obviously not - now down 9.8% at 106

[bob534] 12/6/2002 15:01

SO RNS ON 30TH MAY CONFIRMS CHINA PLANS FOR PRODUCTION APPROVED:

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) - The government will "very soon" approve the planned
passenger car joint-venture between China Brilliance Automotive Ltd and
Bayerische Motoren Werke, China Daily reported, quoting Su Bo, an official from
the State Economic and Trade Comission.
The two companies have been waiting for approval from the State Development
Planning Commission for more than a year, but observers said the joint-venture
would not be given the green light until Brilliance first obtained approval to
manufacture its own Zhonghua sedan.
That approval came yesterday.
China Daily also cited China Brilliance Group spokesperson Suo Yan as saying
the company is seeking more co-operation deals with foreign partners and is
already in talks with Renault SA to set up a passenger car joint-venture in
central Hubei province.
It also expects to start production of black taxi cabs at its Shenyang plant
in co-operation with British automaker Manganese Bronze Holdings at the end of
this year. An agreement between the two companies was announced in January.
SETC's Su told the paper the government's go-ahead for privately-owned
Brilliance's joint-venture with BMW and its approval for privately-owned Geely
Group to produce and sell cars six months ago, signals the government's
intention to open the industry gradually to non-state investment.
Brilliance China sales division director Sheng Jun said the price of
Brilliance's new 2.0 litre Zhonghua sedan will range from 150,000 yuan to
250,000 yuan.

RNS ON 12TH JUNE SAYS SALES ARE UP ON LAST YEAR;

Manganese Bronze Holdings PLC announces that the number of taxis that they have sold or registered in the UK during the month of May 2002 was 227. The
corresponding figure for the same month last year was 222. The number of taxis
sold and registered in the UK in the financial year to date is 2,085, which
compares with 2,036 for the year to date for 2000/2001 ;

AND THE PRICE DROPS BY 4.7%

MNGS also recommended on the wrongprice.com as buy at 117p on Feb 7th :

Manganese Bronze Ticker MNGS.L 7 Feb 02 117p
Manganese Bronze makes precision car parts including doors for buses but is most famous for building the London Black Cab. Manganese is a world class taxi business.
Manganese had an awful 2001 due to the drop in tourists from foot and mouth lowering the need for taxis in London and with Taxi sales down drastically and auto parts struggling ( thought the door division outperformed) a loss was incurred. Manganese has cut costs and is slowly running down inventory.
Manganese is a very transparent company in that it publishes monthly taxi sales on the stock exchange and its website so we can track whether sales are on course. Currently sales are 7% up on last year. This is in part due to the large increase in the night tariff increasing the number of taxis on the road at night and increasing the demand for new taxis.

Manganese trades on an Enterprise value of 6X EBITDA which is not inspiring but has an asset value of 215p. Even if we discount assets at 30% and deduct pension contributions we get a book value of 136p or £24m market cap vs 20.8m currently.
So where is the upside?
1.A 20 year agreement with Brilliance China to manufacture taxis under licence. This brings in £2.7m upfront and royalties of 5% per taxi sold. Even if only 10,000 are sold per year ( taxi sales in China are 150,000 per annum) then that would give annual earnings of £10m with little risk
2. In the US an entrepreneur is paying all the approval costs (£5-10m) in return for a distribution licence. This could add £5m to profits
3. Component business has £22m of assets and should be worth £20m
4. Property in Coventry is worth £15m as a retail development and planning permission is being sought
5. Zingo project which will allow the public to hail taxis via their mobile phone with the nearest driver picking them up. Manganese will charge 100p per call and could easily generate £ 2-5m of incremental profits
6. Disability act may force all regional taxis to provide wheelchair access. This would increase regional sales which are very low. THe act was delayed in November but is still expected to become law.
7. The UK taxi business alone is worth £30m.

Add this all up and the company is worth £85m plus Zingo which could be worth another 15m and you end up with a world class business trading at below its book value and is worth up to £100m yet you can buy it today for only £21m.


Have I missed something, or is this a good time to buy? Any Views?

[toffeeman] 24/3/2002 23:40

So Richer still has another 943k shares which he will presumably sell when the MMs tell him they will take the stock at the price he wants - ergo we are unlikely to see furher progress until he has dumped.

[holdcroft] 24/3/2002 21:52

Jamie,

Thanks very much for this clarification.

[jamieborwick] 24/3/2002 08:23

Holdcroft:
I think you misunderstood the deal. Richer sold 500,000 shares into the market maker, who sold them on. So it was booked as two deals, each of 500,000 shares. The two sellers were first Richer, and then the market maker. Nobody else sold 500,000.

Jamie Borwick
Chairman
Manganese Bronze Holdings PLC

[holdcroft] 22/3/2002 13:01

The following RNS accounts for some of yesterday's trading. So who bought/sold the other half? And by the way, is there anybody still out there, or am I talking to myself?

The company was informed today, by HSBC Investment Bank plc, that on 21 March
2002 they sold 500,000 Manganese Bronze Holdings PLC ordinary shares on behalf
of their client The Richer Partnership.

[holdcroft] 21/3/2002 22:01

Investor's Chronicle said the shares are fairly priced a few days ago.

[holdcroft] 21/3/2002 21:52

So who bought a million shares (5.5%) today? I presume we'll get an RNS tomorrow.

[merlin37] 06/3/2002 18:16

The Net Asset Value per share is still quoted as 215.3 p. and methinks the long term potential has to be good ..... Mayor Livingstone's entry levy for London must be beneficial, not to mention other cities planning similar tolls. I presume The Duke of Edinburgh and Stephen Fry will not be able to sneak in without paying their fivers ?????

[toffeeman] 06/3/2002 00:34

My guess is that the newsflow is done for now and I expect these to drift slowly back down to below the £1 level - then they start to look attractive again.

The only potential short-term boost is the sale of the Cov site.

[holdcroft] 05/3/2002 00:41

The have now been published. See also the AFX article "". The FT published the :

Black cab hailing project losses moved to next year
Philip Stafford
Last Updated: March 4 2002 10:57
LONDON (FT Investor) - Manganese Bronze Holdings, the maker of the distinctive black London taxis, said on Monday delays in its planned cab hailing service would add more than 1m to next year's balance sheet.The Zingo taxi hailing project, announced in September, made an operating loss of 928,000 in the six months to Jan 31. Manganese Bronze Holdings said it still intends to spend 8m on the project, which would allow passengers to hail taxis using their mobile phones and move it towards becoming a service-based company. The delays mean MBH plans to move revenue expenditure of around 1m-1.5m from the current year to the next financial year. Shares rose 2.4 per cent to 127.5p in London.Losses at its components division, which makes bus doors and ramps, in the six months to January 31 were 1.2m, in line with the forecast it made in late January. The division was hit by a supply contract that proved unprofitable and which it ended in March last year.The losses helped push MBH pre-tax interim losses for the six months to 1.98m, compared with 1.81m for the same period a year earlier.A tough yearMBH has been badly hit over the past year, with the decline in tourism levels after Sept 11 hitting business, while the decline in investment banking activity hit business from the City. However, taxi sales for the year were up 4.5 per cent even though sales of taxi vehicles for February fell to 126 compared with 149 for Feb 2001.Its vehicles division turned a 52,000 profit into a loss of 1.2m. The company admitted the prospects of the vehicles division making a profit for the second half depended on demand for its new TXII car launched in January.

[holdcroft] 14/2/2002 13:06

This share was tipped by The Wrong Price.com last week.

"...the company is worth £85m plus Zingo which could be worth another 15m and you end up with a world class business trading at below its book value and is worth up to £100m yet you can buy it today for only £21m"

[m.t.glass] 11/2/2002 10:37

Qwento on the 'favourite indicators' thread pointed out a morning star candle formation before the weekend. Bought a tiddly few.

[m.t.glass] 11/2/2002 10:32

Bought 2000 this morning. Hoping that pre-weekend chart indications of an upturn might last long enough to capture a bit of a rise this week.

[toffeeman] 05/2/2002 10:19

Went through my stop today so I am out.

[toffeeman] 31/1/2002 13:06

I have set my stop at 124 - just above support/resistance from last MArch - I reckon it will either drop back below or bounce up to 170p - sorry, I don't know which!!