Oxford Nanopore Technolo... Share Discussion Threads

[peedlep] 02/3/2004 16:26

Had these on my monitor list for the last 5 months. Finally jumped in today - seems to be a lot of potential for ONT, a company in a strong growth industry and with good institutional support.

[oldtown] 02/3/2004 15:35

when will the 15p shares dry up?
edit looks like they may have started to already

[le turk] 29/2/2004 16:18

if we could only pass mrkt cap of 50mil. we should see more funds moving in, and a gradual rise beginning.

[zapa] 26/2/2004 19:42

Could you tell Vic about his spelling.

[hirschnathan] 26/2/2004 18:47

Dear Nathan,

Thanks for your email. We always appreciate open and honest feedback form
valued sources. We have looked into auctions previously and trialled with
both QXL and Freeserve auctions with little luck. The problem seems to be
that Travel is rarely an impulse buy and is normally preceded by a great
deal of research and planning prior to purchase.

We will keep our ears to the ground but at this point our focus is still
firmly concentrated on the potential of narrowband and broadband.

Thanks for your feedback.

regards,

Vic

Vic Darvey
Group Sales Director
OTC

[bhafc] 25/2/2004 11:56

Bob725

Fund managers would have had a plan of what they wanted to do when they partcipated in the placing.

A takeover, I believe, is hampered by the weakness in the US$, which in effect, increases the amount tat a comhpany would have to pay for ONT.

The trading update will encourage the market as it will be the first time ONT have produced evidence of being able to hit figures

[bob725] 25/2/2004 11:49

Am I right in saying the price is being held back by those who bought at 15p now selling. If it is then why would they sell now for a 50% profit when they could make more than twice that if takeover occurs. Does this go against the idea of a takeover in short term?

[bhafc] 25/2/2004 09:13

Carpediem2

If I were ONT, I would want to be the European are of a big US travel business.

This will ride up as we approcah the trading update, and if the dollar weakens, we could see ONT being taken out very quickly IMO

[oldtown] 25/2/2004 08:59

Once that 15p drip-tap is turned off this should start moving north.

[carpediem2] 25/2/2004 08:48

Spud,
I would be surprised if the Online Board would recommend a bid at 35-40p. Don't forget they knocked back an offer in July 02 which was rumoured later in the press to have been from Lastminute at 38pence. Considering the progress the company has made since then (and notwithstanding the increased shares in Issue), I cannot see Mr Jones and co willingly cashing in their own shares at a price they could have got two years ago.

(Having said that 40p would do wonders for my credit card balance at the moment! :-))

[deeppockets] 25/2/2004 08:31

Is this AIM or main market?

[bhafc] 25/2/2004 07:18

Bought more yesterday.

Supply drying up

Trading update due 15 March

Traders get ready to open positions


I feel momentum on its way . .

[spud] 24/2/2004 19:45

I don't think that there is any doubt now that this will be snapped up - My guess is 35-40p

spud

[ferty] 24/2/2004 17:22

24/02/04 Shrewd fund management team Artemis has emerged with a 15 million share stake in internet travel firm and Citywire tip Online Travel.
Artemis's stake is equivalent to 8.5% of the £41.2 million company.
Other shareholders include legendary former fund manager Leonard Licht, and his wife, and AAA-rated fund manager Henry Maxey, who holds shares in his Ruffer Equity & General fund.Shareholders are hoping an £8 million fundraising at 15p, which tidied up the group's balance sheet, can be followed up with solid commercial progress.The company is also thought to be a likely takeover target.The shares closed down 0.5p at 23.75p on Monday.
©2004 Citywire

[eithin] 23/2/2004 20:33

Strange any sort of sell @ 23p price instantly back to 22.5p. Mostly buying around 24p. Seems to be discouraging sellers and encouraging buyers. Find out soon I guess.

[a0148009] 23/2/2004 20:23

The Placing represented 45% of the enlarged capital mostly to institutions and a few private clients like Mrs Licht(God Bless her - time to have a new kitchen fitted) add to this existing institutional holdings prior to the placing and take away a few percentage points for some of the placees cashing in their 15p shares and I would guess control is in the the hands of about 20 shareholders or so. Thing to do is to write to Companies House for a copy of the shareholders register that is what an interested acquirer would do.Consequently small shareholders have virtually no clout,when did they ever!
An offer could be made with irrevocable acceptances from the institutional shareholders and an application made to the Court for an EGM and Scheme of Arrangement on the following conditions:-

*over 50% in number of shareholders who vote at the Court Meeting representing not less than 75% of the value of the shares voted approve the scheme either in person or by proxy.

*the necessary Special Resolution is passed at the EGM

*the Court subsequently makes an order approving the Scheme

*and the conditions to the offer as set out in the acquirers announcement of the offer are either satisfied or waived by the acquirer.

This Scheme does not require 90% of shareholders approval for the offer to become unconditional.

In the event of a bid I would hope the Company would not be sold cheaply as sometimes happens with a Scheme of Arrangement which I have noticed recently has become more popular as it exploits shareholder inertia.

I thought a Dutch auction is when the price is reduced until a buyer is found
- unlikely in this instance.

[le turk] 23/2/2004 19:52

cuba, dont know exact institutional holdings, but if there as many as you think holding some 50% of shares then that may be the route a potential bidder may take. something similar happend to one of my holdings last year-the co. had been loss making, made a move to china, restructured; was to bring savings of some 4-5mil as a result, and expected to show huge profit in 2004. before we knew it a bidder approached a few institutional holders and wham bang we were left with a lowly offer we could not refuse. That was a share i expected great things from, alas i made a loss cause the deal had been struck when the share price was low, and when bid talks where announced share price went up, and when offer came the price was below market value. mental.
talk about being robbed.

hope it does not happen here, but who knows. people tend to forget scruples etc when money is waved in their faces.

[cubabuckley] 23/2/2004 17:00

IMHO ONT is now very vulnerable to a takeover for a number of reasons. Perhaps one of the main reasons why there has not been a bid is that every potential bidder is afraid that their could be a dutch auction. In recent months there seems to have been a switch of the shareholder base into institutions.

I sense that there are about 12/15 institutions involved who perhaps collectively have as much as 50% of the shares...this would make it much easier for a predator to do a deal for control????

Does anyone agree????

[milanilic] 23/2/2004 16:54

From citiwire.co.uk...

...Shrewd investors who took up the placing include Mrs Judith Licht, wife of former Mercury Asset Management and Jupiter fund manager Leonard, who Citywire spotted buying into the company last September.

Mrs Licht bought 606,667 in the placing to take her holding to 0.38% of the company. Leonard holds 1.52% or 2.7 million shares.

AAA-rated Giles Hargreave also came in at the placing, buying 1.2 million shares or 0.68% for the Marlborough Special Situations fund. A-rated Roger Whiteoak added 3.2 million shares to his Throgmorton Trust's holding, taking it to 4.64% or 8.2 million shares and he added 1.28 million shares to the Framlington UK Smaller Companies fund's holding, taking it to 0.95%.

Finally AAA-rated Henry Maxey, who runs the Ruffer Equity and General fund bought 4 million shares at 15p in the placing but has been taking profits since then and has so far sold 950,000 shares, leaving the fund with a little more than 3 million shares.

Maxey told Citywire: 'The online travel market itself is a massive growth area. You can see it in Ebookers, you can see it in lastminute.com and the US players are desperately looking for a foothold in Europe.'

Nevertheless he plans to hold on to a stake. 'I'm quite happy to hold it. I think it will be taken over,' he said. If it is not taken over, he believes the company's organic growth should be enough to support the share price.
OTC's house broker Altium Capital has a buy rating on the stock. Analyst Jonathan Imlah told Citywire that now that the balance sheet issues have been addressed, investors will want to see the first positive trading results before the shares are re-rated. OTC is due to hold its annual general meeting in the middle of next month and may update investors at that time. It should also put out a trading statement around the close of the year in April.

The scale of the business compared to its larger rivals and its lack of direct retail brand awareness are other factors for the low valuation.

However OTC has always had a different business model to the straight providers of travel websites. The company not only has its own websites but it also provides the technology that powers many well-known third party web sites.

Last October it announced a major deal with Thomas Cook and earlier this month it announced a deal to provide its do it yourself package holiday booking engine to TUI for its Lunnpoly.com web site.

OTC owns brands such as ifyouski, bargainholidays.com, deckchair.com, leisurehunt.com as well as its umbrella site onlinetravel.com.

The company spends most of its marketing dollars in getting its brands optimised in the major Internet search engines rather than marketing directly to the public.

The shares are currently valued at 12.5 times this year's earnings forecasts to April. This compares with Ebookers at 19.1 times and lastminute at 20 times.


Citywire Verdict:

The average private investor did not have the luxury of buying in at 15p. At 22p the shares still ought to be cheap, but you have to believe that OTC has the potential to grow substantially and to be re-rated as a serious contender to Ebookers, Lastminute and the US players like Expedia and Travelocity.

So far the company has failed to quite deliver on its promise, but it may be worth hanging on for the next trading news.

[polythene] 23/2/2004 14:19

I don't believe the grassy knoll theory

[pictureframe] 23/2/2004 12:09

CIR,

sorry for delay in reply, I ended up using Opodo.

[jak1] 23/2/2004 11:46

As I keep saying, the price has been mucked about with for some weeks now...

[le turk] 23/2/2004 09:13

buys coming through and price gets marked down. there is definitely something up, it looks as though someone is trying to keep the price down for some reason. this type of situation tends to precede a t/o move. hope its not cause i see this at well over £1.00 in about 12-16 months. a t/o bid would not be anywhere near that at mo.