Optare Share Discussion Threads

[anslow] 02/4/2014 14:24

Jsbach always negative you have been bumping your gums a lot on this optare board I see,thanks for the warning but I disagree, optare are now starting to turn the corner the whole bus and coach market was down at the start of the year but now it's picked back up and will continue to do so as electric buses are the way forward.Also why would optare expand to Australia and begin building the DD if they want out,why bother at all if that's there master plan ???

[jsbach123] 02/4/2014 14:11

M T Glass ref your post 4690 I strongly suspect as I think I said was a possibility when the AL Finance guy was announced as joining the Board that it is quite possible that AL are seeking an exit strategy.

All orders are good of course but given the probable historic low level of the order book before these three RNSs and given also that the company will be doing well to make 12% on them (I am speculating that they can and will charge 'top dollar' for all electrics) then 12% of £12 million - £1.45 million to the bottom line to the good. Some posters seem to be labouring under the misapprehension that the value of the order will be the profit banked.

Good news but not game changing. Once we have March SMMT numbers we can estimate total loss for year 2013-2014. My estimate for what the two significant factors are worth is that company debt has never been higher and the order book remains at historically low levels.

Unlike the exuberant posters here and elsewhere I see Optare with a millstone of debt and little likelihood of winning the volume orders it needs to break even, a necessary but not sufficient step to clawing its way back.

I am also waiting for the announcement that the launch of the DD will be delayed though I hope that I shall be proved wrong - but it seems distinctly odd not to launch at a major trade show and even more odd the complete silence among cognoscenti (aka bus nerds) only six weeks ahead of the supposed event.

Stud and others if you can trade on the spikes then good luck - I am too nervous to do so. I guess that if AL exit PIs will lose everything.

[steve517499] 02/4/2014 13:39

kim, maybe ... just seems strange that whilst most Green Bus 4 vehicles have been delivered, that an extension of such a great time would be granted ... having said that it also states that vehicles must be delivered by 31 March 2014 ... so maybe they have got extensions ... both the buyers are public bodies ... so might highlight the inefficiencies of public bodies that some seem to hold up as role models, against the big bad private sector.

skinny - yep, you could be right

[skinny] 02/4/2014 13:18

End of year budget perhaps - use it or lose it.

[kimoldfield] 02/4/2014 13:14

With regard to the stipulation in the Green Bus Fund 4 Guidance that orders were to be placed with manufacturers by 19th July 2013,it does say that "any extension to this must be sought and agreed with the Department in advance." Mystery solved. Maybe!

[anslow] 02/4/2014 11:15

Welcome to the ope saga rob

[robfitz] 02/4/2014 10:39

I finally decide to join the OPE crew and bought a few the other day.
Tried to buy more today at .31p on a Fill or Kill but to no avail :-(

I have been watching these for years..... still have a few shares sitting in TAN!!!!!!

[m.t.glass] 02/4/2014 10:14

"The EU has launched legal proceedings against the UK for failing to reduce "excessive" levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) air pollution - mostly from traffic - after 15 years of warnings."

Not new, but re-stated today by BBC in reports related to this week's Level 10/10 air pollution alert. Helps the case for the kind of lower-pollution vehicles Optare specialise in.

[stud-muffin] 02/4/2014 10:02

I doubt it. I curse this outfit yet cannot seem to totally ignore it. Maybe it was all the sleepless nights in 2009 and 2010.

[steve517499] 02/4/2014 09:59

Maybe you have brought your lucky charm here stud

[stud-muffin] 02/4/2014 09:59

Thorntons mostly and Thomas Cook.

[twitterman] 02/4/2014 09:51

Well dont stud on last year. What were your gains made on out of interest

[stud-muffin] 02/4/2014 09:51

We are a cynical old bunch eh?

Still expecting this to go higher though!

[someuwin] 02/4/2014 09:48

Looks very good.

[m.t.glass] 02/4/2014 09:47

"So my question is why announce them now on consecutive days after the Ulster Bus contract win announcement? Are they deliberatly trying to create a feel good atmosphere about this share."

I wondered the same. It's the kind of thing a company sometimes does in the build-up to announcing it's for sale! Or ahead of begging some input from banks.

I also wondered if the flurry of activity is because the new non-exec (former CFO of AL group) is there to give the nod to breaching previous pricing constraints, allowing Optare to go deeper into the red on a batch of contracts to win momentum. (Unlikely, considering these contracts will have been on bids submitted long ago)

[anslow] 02/4/2014 09:46

Steve it's made me feel good and I think big things are happening now behind the scenes,I'm expecting a big order very soon.

[stud-muffin] 02/4/2014 09:44

Probably - it went through my mind before I bought in yesterday.

Deathly silence then 3 in a row. I am not arguing with this though and look forward to a couple more perhaps then the DD then who knows what.

Having been bronzed here before I doubt anyone is more cynical than me - Sumner's departure along with the great white hope from Volvo has hardly transformed the outfit - but hey who knows. I have had a storming 2013 making nearly £300k so a punt here is exactly that.

GLA

[steve517499] 02/4/2014 09:36

stud/anslow,

Whilst I am happy for the good news the shareholders are receiving by the way of notification of these orders, and I admit excellent orders they are, I am a little puzzled as to the timing of the last 2 announcements.

Both announcements say they are connected with Green Bus 4 awards. If you check the published conditions of Green Bus 4 it says all order must be placed by 19 July 2013. So assuming the customers placed the order in accordance of the published conditions, this would mean OPE have sat on these orders for 8 and a half months before announcing them.

So my question is why announce them now on consecutive days after the Ulster Bus contract win announcement? Are they deliberatly trying to create a feel good atmosphere about this share.

[anslow] 02/4/2014 09:19

a bit of volume and it will take off today, seems to be ticking up on every buy.

[stud-muffin] 02/4/2014 08:50

Odd share price behaviour - normally pulls back but not today. If it can hold and get past .3p then I have seen this spike a few times over the years as buyers pile in.

I will be happy with .5p though.

Previous comment about the new guys at OPE maybe right - its being run finally to make money. Sumner was clueless maybe the new guys are not?

[m.t.glass] 02/4/2014 08:22

Travel de Courcey's Optare electric buses in Coventry.

[anslow] 02/4/2014 07:47

Expect a lot more to come