Netstore Share Discussion Threads

[jpmorgan] 07/8/2002 08:45

One more negative out of the way. One to watch. IMHO. DYOR.

[jpmorgan] 17/7/2002 11:11

I have been doing research on Netstore and the company looks a long way into the process of being turned into a profitabe organisation which to me does not appear in the price.

Positive Points
Growing Sales (Bought QSP business with blue chip client list at a bargain price!)
Reduction in losses
Significant Cash in Bank
Management which are large owners in business
Good Products: ASP services over dedicated links (as opposed to internet)

Negative
CISCO contract still awiting renewal
ASP model had negative view currently
Microsoft have muscled in on Exchange Hosting Business which is now limited growth sector.

Anybody into these and have thoughts?

JPM:)

[mcooke01] 03/5/2002 00:10

The IC article seems to be just a lot of unsubstantiated opinion. Why do they say the QSP business is not a growth proposition? They provide no reasoning. How long ago was it that IC tipped NES? IC (like all financial journalism) is only worth reading for the company results data IMHO.

I prefer my own unsubstantiated opinion, so I'm holding on to my NES shares :-)

[gzr] 02/5/2002 15:07

I'm with you, mcooke and jewelsy. An ASP with good news flow is impressive in these markets. The IC is not exactly a good authority on Tech stocks.

[jewelsy] 02/5/2002 14:12

I too am holding onto my shares purchased at 17.1. It won't be long before Netstore have broken even. They have proved that they can be ruthless when cutting costs. There were many redundancies. A shift around in the management departments saw a tightening of belts. Shrewd acquisitions proved positive. What Netstore are offerring has an eager market to sell to. They have my confidence and my money is where my mouth is. A dream come true not only for shareholders but a company other ASP's can look up to. Hold on tight for the upward lift.

[harrykewill] 01/5/2002 17:19

more interesting (or is that opinionated) comment:

[gzr] 01/5/2002 15:59

At least a doubler if positive newsflow continues and they make some decent acquisitions. They are only valued at cash but still loss making of course.
Revenues are building nicely though.

[metz82] 01/5/2002 15:01

what does any1 think it will go up to?

[addict] 01/5/2002 13:14

Rich pickings for bottom fishers.One of the best kept secrets in recovery plays IMHO.

[gzr] 01/5/2002 11:26

Netstore posts record sales
By Matthew Browne
Wed 1 May 2002


LONDON (SHARECAST) - IT services group Netstore today reported record sales and smaller losses in third-quarter results for the period ended March 31, boosted by recent acquisitions and new focus on larger customers.

Turnover rose to £2.52m from £1.82m in the previous quarter and £940,000 in the period a year ago. Operating losses were £1.51m, down from £2m in the previous quarter and £4.3m a year ago.

Chairman Paul Barry-Walsh said: "Our record performance on sales confirms that we are getting the formula right and our control over costs and cash expenditure remains tight.

"We aim to reach the point of cash generation with ample funding, allowing us to take the company forward rapidly and profitably."

Netstore made two key acquisitions in December, shifting its focus from small and medium-sized firms to larger blue-chip organisations and public authorities.

It bought QSP's online financial software business from administrators for around £2.8m and Ofex-listed messaging services firm RedRock for £2.3m.

Turnover at the QSP business, renamed Netstore Enterprise Services, was £1.55m during the period and operating profit was £250,000. Annualised group sales rose 4% to £5.2m since the acquisition.

RedRock was less robust, with sales of £160,000 and losses of £100,000. Netstore said business was disrupted in February and March by relocation to Bracknell. It said trading since the end of March had improved.

Performance was also worse than expected at Netstore's messaging services business based on sales of Microsoft Windows Exchange 2000 email server.

In contrast, professional services and other prospects have performed better than expected, and contributed 28% to turnover.

Turnover from Cisco, its largest customer, has stabilised at £220,000, representing 9% of group turnover. Netstore said user renewals have decreased in line with staff cuts at the US group over the past year. Before the recent acquisitions, Cisco accounted for 34% of total group sales.

Netstore had cash balances of £16.58m at March 31, down from £18.1m at December 31. Excluding restructuring charges of £280,000, sales and distribution costs were roughly flat at £1.41m and administrative costs were £840,000 compared with from £910,000 in the previous quarter. Gross margins increased to 42% from 35% at the end of the previous quarter.

Barry-Walsh said further acquisitions were possible given current low valuations.

The shares were up 2p at 17.5p in late-morning trade, valuing Netstore at £15.4m.

[nicd] 01/5/2002 11:22

I have met the founder, he is very bullish on prospects, I bought in at 18 a couple of months ago on this basis. They have been buying up some of the opposition at low valuations.

Nic

[gzr] 01/5/2002 10:53

I agree ASP is out of fashion, as are tech stocks, hence the low valuation. Hopefully NES will be one of the winners when sentiment turns.

[mcooke01] 01/5/2002 09:55

I'm in :-D Bought a while back at 22p, so no profit yet, but its looking good so far, as it still looks that they will reach break-even with plenty of cash still in reserve. For the long term, NES is the leading European player in ASP, which is a bit out of fashion in the stockmarkets right now, but the ASP market will continue to grow. NES seems to have both the technical expertise, and the management to continue to grow with the market.

[gzr] 01/5/2002 08:05

Mkt cap 15m against cash of 16.58m and contracted revenue of 19.8m, these look interesting. Anyone still in?

[gzr] 01/5/2002 07:54

Results out, here's a brief summary:

Highlights:

• Turnover for the quarter increased by 138% to £2.52m compared with the
previous quarter ended 31 December 2001 (31 March 2001: £0.94m) in
line with expectations

• Record new sales in the quarter of over £1m

• Operating losses for the quarter as expected at £1.51m and
reduced by 24% compared with the previous quarter and by 65%
compared with the three months ended 31 March 2001

• Cash balance of £16.58m at 31 March 2002

• Total contracted revenue at £19.8m

Paul Barry-Walsh, Chairman, commented:

"Our record performance on sales confirms that we are getting the formula right
and our control over costs and cash expenditure remains tight. We aim to reach
the point of cash generation with ample funding, allowing us to take the Company
forward rapidly and profitably."

[gzr] 28/4/2002 13:34

Netstore plc, Europe's leading Application Service Provider ("ASP"), announces
that its results for the 3rd Quarter ending 31 March 2002 will be published on
Wednesday, 1 May 2002.

[aprilfool] 06/4/2002 00:10

THEY TRADE ON THE OFEX MARKET

[mooch] 20/3/2002 16:56

What's the EPIC for Newlands Scientific PLC?

[aprilfool] 20/3/2002 16:26

Featured on Tomorrows World tonight

Soundbug is a revolutionary device employing a patented technology "Terfenol" (magnetostrictive smart material) it generates sound from any smooth, hard surface.





It reproduces sound without headphones or loudspeakers anywhere, anytime from CD, MP3 and cassette players, games consoles, video cameras and laptop PCs.

Soundbug was launched last week (14/03/02) it has been developed initially as a highly-portable alternative to headphones or loudspeakers for use with products such as portable CD, MP3, Minidisc and cassette players, hand-held games consoles, camcorders and laptop computers.

Smaller than a computer mouse, Soundbug plugs into the standard 3.5mm headphone socket of any device. A sucker push ring attaches Soundbug firmly to any hard, glossy surface such as glass, metal or MDF. An MDF desk top, MDF cupboard door, a window or even a glass-framed picture will do perfectly.

Soundbug takes the signal from the audio device, and using world-first technology, effectively creates a sounding-board out of the surface to which it is attached.

A single Soundbug can generate sound levels of up to 75 dBm peak, easily loud enough for a group of people to enjoy music together, or listen to the sound output from a laptop presentation or a camcorder video. Two Soundbugs can be linked in parallel to generate full stereo sound (from a stereo source) with a significantly increased sound output level.

The Company was established in 1999 & has a Market Cap of $13M, share price is 88p, last year it turned over 0.5M

Think how many youngsters will want a soundbug so their friends can listen
in on conversations or listen to music being pumped out of their MP3.

[gzr] 21/2/2002 08:07

Shrewdies squeeze into cash stuffed Netstore
Directors, quality fund managers and technology entrepreneurs with links to Netstore have all been frantically buying the company's shares, and Algernon Craig Hall tries to fathom why.

Netstore is an applications service provider (ASP), which means it provides its clients with software which they can use over the Internet. This software and IT management outsourcing can make a lot of sense for many smaller companies. However, ASP in its present form is still a very young market.

Elderstreet Capital, the venture capital firm chaired by ubiquitous tech company director and entrepreneur Michael Jackson, has lifted its stake in Netstore (NES) to 4.4 million shares or 4.6% with a 3.6 million purchase. Jackson is a non-executive at Netstore.

Jackson himself spent slightly over £100,000 on 720,000 shares at 14.7p last Friday.

Shrewd smaller companies fund manager Roger Whiteoak has also bought.

His Throgmorton investment trust (THRG) picked up 2.1 million shares, almost doubling its holding to 4.4 million. Whiteoak’s tech investments impressed Citywire's shrewd investor team last year when he went on a buying spree at the bottom of the market.

Another noteworthy shareholder to have bought a stake in Netstore recently is John Greenhalgh.

He picked up a 250,000 share stake through his Teddy Bear Shop London investment vehicle sometime around the start of the year and shortly before the company announced the acquisition of a major part of financial software company QSP’s business.

Ex-financial journalist Greenhalgh sits on the board of @rchive-it with Netstore co-founder John Maynard and – from @rchive-it’s perspective at least – the two companies do a lot of business together. @rchive-it is one of three technology businesses that Greenhalgh’s listed PR company City of London PR Group (CIN) has a major stake in.

All this interest comes as no surprise to Netstore’s other co-founder and executive chairman Paul Barry-Walsh. He bought nearly £30,000 worth of shares himself on the same day as Jackson.

Barry-Walsh told Citywire: ‘We’re valued at cash and there is no enterprise value in there, even though we have contracted orders of £22.9 million … I think we’re pretty low risk in terms of downside and I think what we’re doing is pretty straight forward, really, to cut costs and increase revenues.’

The recent acquisition of RedRock, a messaging solutions business, and QSP have helped both to increase revenues and, through economies of scale, reduce costs. The acquisitions also provide cross-selling possibilities to clients who do not need to be persuaded about the benefits of outsourcing.

Netstore, which is currently valued at £16 million, reported it had £18.1 million in the bank at its half way stage at the end of December.

Thanks to cost cutting, which Barry-Walsh says is set to continue at an aggressive pace, the company now believes only £2 million of this cash will have gone by the group's June year end. The company expects to break even over its entire 2003 financial year.

Whiteoak told Citywire today: ‘QSP has given it critical mass … What we’ve been buying it for is its cash and you've still got its growth. ASP is a longer term model and relies on the roll out of broad band, etc, which is gradually happening … In three years time it could be valued at £50 million.’

Whiteoak would like to see more cost cutting and possibly some director pay cuts following the a massive reduction in the company’s market value. He also does not think the shares will move overnight and is preparing to wait for solid news or a recovery in sentiment toward the sector to lift the value of his investment.

That said, he is very happy moving some of his defensively positioned portfolio into a stock that he thinks is such a strong long-term value play.

At the current price, with visible contracted orders going, cost cutting underway and a very impressive tally of shrewd buying since the start of the year the shares look cheap and worth a punt. But they are only for those prepared to accept the distinct risk of investing a fledgling company in a fledgling market.
©2002 citywire.co.uk

[jewelsy] 19/2/2002 00:51

Nice to see the shares lifting this morning. Hopefully this will be the 'nice little earner' portrayed in papers in January 2001.

[gzr] 18/2/2002 08:16

I've picked up a few of these this morning. Friday's late announcement of 2 director buys, one of them over £100,000, seems to have gone largely unnoticed.
With contracted revenues of £22.9 million, £9 million of which are recurring and £18 million cash in the bank the market cap of £13 million looks low.

Directors' Dealings

The Company was notified today that Paul Barry-Walsh and Michael Jackson, both
directors of the Company, yesterday purchased 200,000 and 716,240 ordinary
shares of 20p each in the Company ("Ordinary Shares") at a price of 14.75p and
14.7p per Ordinary Share respectively.

Following these acquisitions, Mr Barry-Walsh's and Mr Jackson's beneficial
interests in the Company's issued ordinary share capital have risen to
15,023,100 and 1,009,806 Ordinary Shares representing 15.7 and 1.1 per cent. of
the Company's total issued ordinary share capital respectively.