Mouchel Share Discussion Threads

[blueball] 28/10/2011 19:14

Be awae EK is shorting this one presently and believes they are in breach of bank covenants.

[goliard] 27/10/2011 21:29

Actually, no, it is pretty much irrelevant. I see what you are trying to say Dealy, but it just does not make sense as any rebound in broad prices doesn't change how (un)attractive this company is.

[dealy] 27/10/2011 20:46

the massive rebound in the stock market in recent weeks should raise the likelihood of a bid. can't hurt at least.

[lyntwyn] 27/10/2011 14:42

As a long suffering COST investor (though out by now at last) Wylie has done nothing at Costain to enhance shareholder value. Recently he came close to buying MCHL at 160 ! No I wouldn't trust anything in his hands

[pikey01] 27/10/2011 14:39

good piont[sic] goliard ;-)

[goliard] 27/10/2011 14:23

I doubt (s)he is his secretary. Too many typos. Far too many.

[sally 1] 27/10/2011 13:42

i just want to make this piont to address some confused investors mouchell is nothing like connought or rock this company is totaly different if you are a constuction investor and know your brief you will know what i am talking about make know mistake this company is a gem in the right hands

[sally 1] 27/10/2011 13:42

i just want to make this piont to address some confused investors mouchell is nothing like connought or rock this company is totaly different if you are a constuction investor and know your brief you will know what i am talking about make know mistake this company is a gem in the right hands

[sally 1] 27/10/2011 11:50

andrew wylie is a very arrogant chap and has not done costain shareholders any good at all. the only time i actualy got excited about the future of costain was during the mouchell bid. i as a very very long time holder of costain knew that if we took over mouchell it was a truly transformational deal for costain that still applies today the core of mouchell is extreamley valueble to costain in my humble oppinion .let me put it like this i amm that confident that wylie and co will take mouchel out for paper ie shares that i have accumilated 0.3 percent of mouchell and have not finished yet remember as a costain shareholder iwill be taking mouchell shares in to my costain holding anyway going back to andrew wylie i used to ring him on his mobile phone to have chat regarding how things were going ect the last time we spoke we had an unpleasnt conversation . to sum up i do not like andrew wylie much at all he is a very difficult chap to talk to and very arrogant if he lets this oppertunity slip thats it for me with costain i will sel out but i truly believe wylie wont let this oppertunity go

[valedo] 27/10/2011 11:01

sally 1, are you Wylie's secretary? your loyalty is impressive;-

[pikey01] 26/10/2011 11:01

Anandi.

Yes, you are correct - no dividends until the £30M "voluntary" payment made, notwithstanding dealy's protestations above - LOL

RNS below:

RNS Number : 1711A
Mouchel Group plc
27 January 2011

...

The key features of the agreement are:

o Total facilities of £170m extending to 31 March 2014;
o Interest margin on the facility of 3.1% - 4.0% dependent on ratios;
o Two repayments each of £7.5m on 31 July 2012 and 31 July 2013;
o In the event that an additional voluntary repayment of £30m has not been made before 31 May 2012, an increase in margin of 2% and the issue of warrants at that time over 5% of the issued share capital of the Company at an issue price of the lower of 75p per share and 80% of the share price at that time; and
o A restriction on resuming dividend payments until the voluntary repayment of £30m has been made.

...

----------------------------


So by July 31 2012 they have to have paid back £37.5M.

Good luck everybody

[anandi] 26/10/2011 10:10

Wasn't the agreement that if they paid back £30million they could start to paid dividends again?

[dogeared] 26/10/2011 09:59

Goodness knows how low the staff`s esteem must be, anyone staying is a trooper.

As an old boss of mine once said passing the Parkman office at dead of night, not a light showing " that company is worthless, look there is no staff at work- until tomorrow , so it remains".

The banks and turnover/profit are important, without staff the thing is a pile oif bricks and mortar, lets hope they rally.

[dealy] 26/10/2011 09:56

small adjustment in light of the £1.5 billion backlog. Voluntary means voluntary. Any extra charges as a result are small in the bigger scheme of things. Banks do what makes sense to get their money back. Forcing cash generating companies into bankruptcy is not one of them.

So I stand by my comments and refute yours.

[pikey01] 26/10/2011 07:52

dealy, sorry, but WTF are you talking about? Waiving covenants?! "meeting covenants with non-cash items", "accounting adjustments".

A) Banks don't waive covenants. There may be some renegotiation, but it *will* cost more money. Period.

B) One of the requirements was a "voluntary" payment of £30M in debt reduction by Spring 2012, and without some lottery win they aren't going to have that, so it *will* cost more money for their borrowings. Period.

C) The "accounting adjustment" you are again referring to was the wiping off of >66% of the company's [gross] profit for y/e 31/7/2011. Hell of an adjustment.

[sally 1] 25/10/2011 19:41

andrew wylie has one sole ambition and that is to make costain the no 1 construction company in the uk he knows there is only one company that fits the bill to achieve that ambition. mouchell is that company. there is absolutely no way he will let this company slip through his fingers. also costain has borrowing facilites of 400 million plus an average of 135 million on the balance sheet dont forget the most important point of all they already had the funding in place. they already have done due dilligence on mouchell. they obviosly missed the creative acounting ect or maybe not. wylie and his finance director are both ex taylor wimpey boys and have massive ambitions with egos to match they have4 to buy mouchell what an oppertunity to have probably the best company for costains future remember the one sacred rule it is not how you or i or analysts value this company but what it is worth to costain and one thing i do know is wylie and bickerstaff will get serious value out of mouchell and thats a it so any positive investors out there i truly wish you the best

[dealy] 25/10/2011 18:25

if the long term business plan is still in tact then the lenders will waive the covenance breach issue. After all, what is the value of meeting covenance requirements with non-cash items in the first place? The banks' best chance of getting their money and interest back is for the company to be in a position to operate and generate cash and/or to operate and be sold. Pulling the plug over an accounting adjustment is non-sensical.

[wallywoo] 25/10/2011 15:39

salpara- not sure that statement is still correct now that the treasury is pumping 70 odd Billion into the economy. I for one are hopeful of a successful and not to onerous conclusion to the bank negotiations which should put MCHL share price back into the 20's. From then on it depends on whether the bidders re-emerge.

[valedo] 25/10/2011 10:57

sally 1, i'd say Wylie's credibility went out of the window a long time ago , and confirmed by Costains recent bid for MCHL. It was more luck than jusdgement that saved both him and COST.

[salpara111] 25/10/2011 10:41

The big problem right now and I am not referring specifically to MCHL is that the credit markets are a lot tighter now than they were 6 months ago which will make it substantially more difficult for any company to leverage up for a takeover and any company sitting on net cash as present is generally loath to use it....just in case.
I agree that it is difficult to place a value on MCHL but knowing what I do about the commercial banking market right now I want to see that they have the right suppport in place before considering a stake.

[spot1034] 25/10/2011 08:00

Indeed, the perceived value of these companies can change rapidly. At the beginning of June last year, Scott Wilson shares were valued in the market at less than £60m, and after a bidding war between URS and CH2M Hill, by the end of the month URS had bought the company for £223m.

[dealy] 25/10/2011 07:15

the easiest way to get control of the company (contracts, JV arrangements, tax losses etc) is to buy the equity. The company is worth more than the debt so there is some value in the equity. Right now the market says that value is £17m but it could easily be £50m if there is interest in taking over the whole entity. That would be 45p and would do me very nicely.

I also believe we are at the trough in terms of public spending and capital expenditure in general. If we have an upturn the operating leverage in companies like this is very high and profits can rise exponentially. If they can survive another 12 months they could go back to making 6% Ebit margins on £550m of revenue.

[salpara111] 24/10/2011 23:48

As a holder of both Costain and Interserve, I was unhappy back when they were both bidding for Mouchel and glad that it did not come off.

I now see a much more attractive scenario playing out for the two bidders where they can negotiate to buy just the bits of the business that interest them and without having to pay a takeover premium or assume Mouchels debt pile.

[hairballradical] 24/10/2011 22:19

Sally1,

not convinced that you've taken the debt into account with your 'analysis'.
You seem to be proposing a price of £0.45 but on the basis that each share carries nett debt of £0.78, it seems hard to imagine.

HBR