Manganese Bronze Share Discussion Threads

[jim digriz] 24/11/2003 22:57

Its strange that the Manganese Bronze bulletin boards are so quiet... whilst the share price is managing its best run in years. 170p at the moment – a far cry from the sub-60p we had a year ago. What with the sale of the Coventry site and components division and the launch of Zingo, it seems Manganese Bronze is entering a new phase of its long history.

I've been bullish about this share for a while for two main reasons.

Firstly, there is the taxi business. MNGS are well-known as makers of the leading/true "Black Cab". They have a strong brand (lti) and entrenched position in the marketplace. Of course, sales in the last few year have been down. I see this as a bull point - the taxi market is fairly cyclic – low sales in recent years may lead to increased sales once taxi driver's business picks up. This is the sort of business where sales don't go away when their customers aren't doing well, they just get delayed. There must be a lot of taxi drivers out there thinking of replacing their cabs. Now that there are some first signs of a recovery in the City – which is an important factor in demand for taxis – perhaps we will see sales go up again.

Although last year's loss was rather large, the results stated that the core vehicle division made a 4.5m operation profit (including 1.1m of China profit) against 3.7m last year, on sales of 86m. . I can't decide whether or not to be worried that they have stopped giving out monthly cab sales figures (See but there seems to be a perfectly good cab business, with international inspirations.

Secondly, there is the new Zingo project. ( This is perhaps where the fun starts. One of my recent worries was that the service only worked with O2 and Vodafone. However, the last results stated it now works with one other, and the other big network is being tested. Zingo got off to a slow start, but as far as I can see, they are now marketing Zingo properly – leaflets in the FT, discounts (there are vouchers available through the website) etc. I recently asked a cab driver where I could find a cab in a particular area later – he said try Zingo (and he didn't even have a Zingo terminal – he was signed up for one thought) – so its getting other forms of advertising. The best sign that the advertising is working may be the rising share price – City workers are targets for the advertising and some of the ones who are quicker off the mark at noticing and buying the shares may well have helped the recent price rise.

The powerpoint presentation on the company website calculates there is a potential market of 80m journeys a year. This would seem overoptimistic but if even just a few percent of those become Zingo – this could be bingo. Its very hard to guess what this part of the business will be worth – but its been accounted for well, with lots of costs written off straight away, and so should be substantially operationally geared – if it becomes a hit, it could be truly huge – if it's a flop, well, never mind, at least they still sell cabs.

It is interesting just how much volume in the share has increased after months/years of very low volume. Interest in the company could hardly have got much lower than it was 6 months ago – and now the share is just waking up again...

Anyway, let's sit back and see if Zingo is Bingo!... or Dingo.

Jim diGriz

IMHO DYOR BYOB

[charlie] 17/11/2003 13:20

Placing of 5% at 147.5p with institutional investors. They must have a good story to tell at the moment. Probably did some presentations as part of the placing.

Now that it's done I wonder if they'll put the presentations on the company website?

[toffeeman] 11/11/2003 17:42

I assume that was Richer checking out?

[jamieborwick] 05/9/2003 09:39

Toffeeman:

Would you give me a ring? If you have forgotten my phone number, please email me.

regards

Jamie

[toffeeman] 14/8/2003 17:50

Anyone care to interpret the B trade at 145 today? - the only thing I can think is that it was a trade with the right to the special div so the 'real' price would be 120 - any thoughts?...

[toffeeman] 13/8/2003 14:57

Well it's instructive that the price has not dropped buy the full 25p special div - its actually down only 15 odd p - which I see as somewhat bullish.

Not sure what it does to chart picture though - 125 looked like a nice support/resistance level but the spacial div throws that - or not?

[abcd1234] 13/8/2003 09:52

Nope, seems like I didn't miss something

[abcd1234] 12/8/2003 15:58

Low vol last few days, and coming off peak.

Seems few want to buy in just before it goes ex-div tomorrow as they expect up to 25p drop in share price. So only useful to those in before 100p 'ish

Pity, or have I missed something ??

[jamieborwick] 01/8/2003 00:28

Guru said: "I just thought the same technology which tracks the location of the mobile from a voicecall should be able to track the location of the sender of the sms. The "call center" would send an instant alert to the taxi driver and a confirmation to the customer that the taxi is on its way with an ETA."

Yes, but the location technology is only accurate to the identity of the cell, which could be 400 yards in the City and 10 miles in the countyside. You still need a way of transmitting the exact location, which means speech or a pre-arranged code. Locations may get more accurate in the future than they are now, of course.

Jamie

[toffeeman] 31/7/2003 12:55

would you ask him for me Jamie!!!!

[guru] 30/7/2003 11:41

Hi Jamie,

Thank you for you considered response. I just thought the same technology which tracks the location of the mobile from a voicecall should be able to track the loaction of the sender of the sms. The "call center" would send an instant alert to the taxi driver and a confirmation to the customer that the taxi is on its way with an ETA.

Just a thought anyway.

ps - I did send a note to the company and as usual I recieved a one sentence reply saying they are not interested in SMS. Maybe they are not aware of the advances in SMS applications etc.

Kind regards

Guru

[jamieborwick] 30/7/2003 11:33

Guru:

This is really a question that you should ask the Company, rather than me, as I am only a shareholder.

But in general, I think that either you are enthusiastic about SMS or about speech. There is a service that uses SMS to hail a taxi, I think called UGO or something similar, but it suffers from the problem of how do you identify where you are exactly when you get in touch with the cab. The phrase 'on the corner of Love Lane and Aldermanbury wearing a blue suit and tie' is probably still better transmitted in speech than in SMS, in my opinion. UGO requires you to preregister a lit of code numbers for places you are likely to be when you need a taxi, such as 1 for your home, 2 for your work etc, Zingo doesn't require any preregistration. And how would the taxidriver reply, using SMS, that he is in a black taxi with registration number ... Better just to use his hands free mobile phone.


Jamie

[guru] 30/7/2003 10:28

Jamie,

I wonder why Zingo have not used SMS as well. Send a sms to hail a cab and get informed automatically with an update of when it will arrive. Use the same facility to retrieve other information such as travel, flight and traib schedules. SMS will also allow an automatic language translation service - Japanese traveller types in Japanese and gets the reply back in Japanese....all at the cost of a text message.

Regards

Guru

[jamieborwick] 30/7/2003 10:10

Toffeeman wrote: Do you think JR will sell the rest of his holding at this level and if so will there be a willing buyer?

No idea at all!

Jamie

[abcd1234] 30/7/2003 09:42

Thanks for the info JB.

So, ....anyone..... might one expect to see various holders, small or otherwise, selling after the 8th knowing they have secured the dividend??

[toffeeman] 30/7/2003 08:51

Nice to have you back JB

Do you think JR will sell the rest of his holding at this level and if so will there be a willing buyer?

[jamieborwick] 29/7/2003 09:53

In airrage - 12 Jul'03 - 11:35 - 149 of 154 airrage said:

Jamie, you said,
"I am a great enthusiast for Zingo, as I picked up the original comment that inspired it, and wouldn't let it die."

What was the original comment ?



The original comment was that someone had hailed a taxi but it didn't see him, which annoyed him, and so we applied for a patent for a remote hiling device for a taxi. The original concept was for a flashing light on the dashboard, triggered by a potential passenger.

Jamie

[jamieborwick] 29/7/2003 09:47

At the EGM yesterday it was said that the dividend would be paid on the 28th August with a record date of 8th August.

Jamie

[abcd1234] 28/7/2003 13:36

Well I guess that RNS partly answers my Q, ......but at what date do you need to have been a holder of this stock to qualify for the dividend??

t.i.a.

[abcd1234] 28/7/2003 09:50

interesting movement.....any ideas??

also, any news on that divi??

[toffeeman] 14/7/2003 08:43

I think you can safely assume that you won't get a response from JB just now - I would say that he would say it would be innapropriate for him to comment in the current circumstances.

[airrage] 12/7/2003 11:35

Jamie, you said,
"I am a great enthusiast for Zingo, as I picked up the original comment that inspired it, and wouldn't let it die."

What was the original comment ?

[toffeeman] 12/7/2003 00:55

No conspiracy - the MM concerned had bout the 50k at 117 at 9.47 and sold it at 118.5 at 9.48 - just didn't release the sell until around 11.45!!!

£750 for the price of two phone calls!!

So start again.

Basically no significant movement today so far - or at least not one you could have traded!

[abcd1234] 11/7/2003 16:38

Big spenders, those directors !!

[guru] 11/7/2003 13:52

A couple of small Directors buys - should be encouraging but I think people are taking profits, price falling. L2 weakening, you can buy as many shares as you want online now - mm's offered me 15k online no problems.