Oxford Nanopore Technolo... Share Discussion Threads

[cubabuckley] 04/3/2004 08:46

I first should declare that I hold both LMC and ONT which are diametrically different. LMC is a software idea that has bought its way into travel and ONT is a travel company that has gotten itself into the internet. Both companies have doubtful leadership at the top...LMC has Alan Leighton who is accused of doing too many things..he strikes me as a real chancer.maybe bright but untrustworthy..look what he has done at Leeds United!!! ONT's Chairman is Tomas Zanzotti who lives most of the time in Italy and has very limited business experience in the UK.

On the other hand you have to applaud what the respective MD'S ( Brent Hoberman and Mark Jones ) particularly the latter who has built up a company that only raised a fraction of what LMC did at placing.

There is synergy in the businesses and if the takeover occurs it would put Ebookers down the league!

I will be very very surprised if the bid will succeed...Fidelity, possibly the largest shareholder, have constantly valued LMC at 80p in two years time and I doubt therefore if they will go for 29p( as it is today!).

The only takers will be the institutions who joined the "Altium Club" and came in quitely at 15p less than 60 days ago!!!

ONT is far closer to real profits than LMC (not this EBITDA rubbish!)Unfortunately this bid will prevent ONT giving a trading statement at this months AGM but the vibes are that they will be profitable this financial year.

There clearly needs to be a better bid on the table for ONT and IMHO it needs to be at least 40p before we should accept.

[tulk] 04/3/2004 08:27

As I post yesterday regarding pos opinion in 2004 for air travel industry and related company in general,... BAY jump 3% today

Hope someone else has followed the idea and buy BAY yesterday

[spud] 04/3/2004 08:06

LONDON (AFX) - lastminute.com PLC said it bought Gemstone Travel Limited, a
small call centre based travel agent and virtual tour operator for an initial
1.5 mln stg in cash and shares.
rn

Spend spend spend.........

Offer now worth 29.5p.

I really don't believe this bid will succeed.

spud

[cir] 04/3/2004 07:17

a lousy deal.

hold on to your shares and wait for the counterbids

[a0148009] 03/3/2004 22:26

I regard this as reluctant acceptance by a number of shareholders hence the get-out clause encouraging bids above 5% of LMC's.There are companies that would make a far better fist and fit than LMC which continues to be grossly overvalued and poorly managed, lousy admin, poor quality staff where Lastminute
really does mean what it says when organising travel arrangements so that you arrive at the airport still not sure if you have a ticket until you go to their panic desk which leaves you a total wreck starting your holiday.Wait for an all cash bid.I dont understand how the City can back Brent Hoberman he leaves me singularly unimpressed.

[oldtown] 03/3/2004 20:40

Barenetpeter yes they can but they will have to pay the same price to everyone.
Say they buy in the open market at lets say 30p, then they can not offer shareholders less than 30p for 12 months.

[bob725] 03/3/2004 20:33

Well I'll be seeing all you guys tomorrow. Fingers crossed for some agressive counter-bidding and I'm sure posting many questions at the same time.

[old boy returns] 03/3/2004 18:21

Thanks barnetpeter. No boubt we will soon see who has been buying as the 1% disclosure rules will now apply.

[barnetpeter] 03/3/2004 18:08

Old Boy - yes they can. They cannot pay MORE than the offer price.

[barnetpeter] 03/3/2004 18:07

Lastminute in £54.9m bid for OTC
By Chris Nuttall in London

Lastminute.com, Europe's largest independent online travel company, has announced its biggest acquisition with a £54.9m recommended offer for Online Travel Corporation (OTC). The move means the number one listed player in the UK would take over the number three, a milestone in a frenetic period of consolidation of the sector.

"It's not over yet," said Brent Hoberman, lastminute's chief executive, on Wednesday, referring to the £30m in cash the company still has reserved to spend on acquisitions by the end of June. It will also inherit £10m in cash balances from OTC.

The latest deal is an all-share offer that values each OTC share at 31p, representing a 31.9 per cent premium to its closing price on Tuesday, but only around half the 60p offer price when OTC listed on Aim in 2000. OTC's board has recommended the offer to shareholders.

Lastminute said the deal would give it access to a potential customer base of more than 15m online users through OTC's owned and operated sites and its "white label" website partnerships with leading travel and consumer companies.

It would also enhance lastminute's corporate and business-to-business operations with the addition of OTC's business travel unit, travelstore.com.

The takeover would leave just two major sector participants in the UK - lastminute and ebookers. OTC itself has taken part in the consolidation of the sector, acquiring the deckchair.com and leisurehunt.com brands last year. Lastminute has absorbed TravelSelect.com, Travel4less and Holiday Autos.

Lastminute expects the latest acquisition to be earnings-enhancing, before exceptional items and goodwill amortisation, in the current financial year. Analysts at Bridgewell Securities said this seemed largely predicated on £4m of operating-cost synergies rather than benefits from any increase in revenues.

David Howell, lastminute's chief financial officer, said that OTC, combined with the acquisition of the First Option hotel bookings and Med Hotels group over the past three months, was pushing lastminute towards total transaction values of more than £1bn for the current financial year.

He said further acquisitions could be made in the lifestyle sector and in countries including the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

Lastminute currently has irrevocable undertakings representing 26.6 per cent of OTC's share capital. It is offering 0.1319 new lastminute shares for each OTC share. Merrill Lynch and Cazenove are acting for lastminute and Altium Capital for OTC.

OTC's share price leapt nearly 25 per cent on the news to close at 29¼p, while lastminute's fell 2.8 per cent to 228p. Ebookers rose 3 per cent to 471p.

[old boy returns] 03/3/2004 18:06

barnetpeter - are LMC or a supporter allowed to buy in the market at less than their offer price? I thought Takeover Panel rules did not allow it but I could be misremembering.

[old boy returns] 03/3/2004 18:01

Reading between the lines this is far from a done deal. You can bet that LMC's advisers have been bashing the ears of ONT large shareholders to get pre-acceptances. The fact that they have only got 24.1% (excluding directors) and that all of those have insisted on being able to revoke if a higher bid comes along gives the impression that they were less than impressed by LMC's offering.

28.8% of ONT is held by holders >3% so it is clear that not even all of these have given conditional pre-acceptances. It would be interesting to know the position of FMR Corp & Fidelity on this as they are the common large shareholder and largest shareholder in LMC (11.1% of LMC and 4.2% of ONT).

Does anyone know how the offer is valued from the point of view of Takeover Panel rules and 'Irrevocable Undertakings'. In market terms it was worth 31p a share when announced but more like 29p at close. So in order to blow out 18.3% of the 'Irrevocable' acceptances would another bidder have to go 5% more than the 31p or 5% more than the current value of the bid. From memory a bidder (or connected party) is not allowed to buy in the market for less than their offer price.

Incidentally there will have been a lot of arbitraging going on today as the LMC share price initially reacted favourably (up to 240p valuing the offer at 31.7p) so no doubt arbitragers were buying as many ONT as they could get at 29-30p and simultaneously shorting 0.1319 LMC shares for every 1 ONT share they had managed to buy. This is probably why LMC ended down on the day.

Will be interesting to see what tomorrow's papers make of it. If they go for the 'counter bid likely' story I would expect ONT price to move up above 31p.

[spud] 03/3/2004 17:54

Hanging on to 250k.

Expect counter.

spud

[barnetpeter] 03/3/2004 17:50

Almost certain its LMC or a suporter buying in the market.

[tuco 1] 03/3/2004 17:32

I agree with BHAFC ,
there is at least a 50/50 chance that someone will bid higher and maybe all in cash .
Absolutely no point in selling here.
Tuco.

[haribo1] 03/3/2004 17:04

I'm hanging on.

[peedlep] 03/3/2004 16:58

Someone still thinks there's some mileage in them - 2.35m buy after the bell. It's not all over till it's over.

[barnetpeter] 03/3/2004 16:52

Bob - I finally decided to sell some at 28.5p earlier; the LMC price is weak to say the least and I think old boy is correct that they are way overvalued. If there had been some cash here then fair enough ... but its an all share deal. At this tight price its not going to take much to push ONT back towards the 25p level. I dont want LMC paper.

[bhafc] 03/3/2004 16:36

Interesting trades going through late in the day . . . . . .

[bob725] 03/3/2004 16:31

Have most people here sold their ont shares?

It is a pity this happened. I feel that ONT could have done very well by itself.

[ferty] 03/3/2004 16:30

12:11 Wed 3 March 2004 Citywire.
Online Travel: Lastminute bid makes wait worthwhile
Lastminute's unexpected £55 million bid for Online Travel could give anyone who followed our tip in December a spectacular 75% return.


We first tipped Online Travel (ONT) last January at 23p, and in December, after the company shored up its balance sheet through a placing at 15p, reiterated our buy advice at 17.75p.


We have also highlighted several shrewd investors getting in at various stages.


Lastminute (LMC), which we have also tipped, has offered 0.1319 of new lastminute.com shares for each OTC Share, which values OTC at £54.9 million, or 31p per share. While the value of Lastminute's shares is fluctuating, down 5p at 230p at the moment, the offer as valued last night was at a 32% premium to OTC's share price yesterday and a 40% premium to its average price over the past year or so.


Online Travel Corp (OTC) is in part a competitor to lastminute.com but also offers the larger company a number of things it does not have. OTC is first and foremost a software provider. Its software, provided on a 'white label' basis, powers the travel section of many well-known websites including Freeserve.


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


Secondly, OTC has a significant, if struggling, business travel division and it also provides concessionary travel for the travel industry itself.


The company has more recently focused on its own online travel website, onlinetravel.com, and its more specialist sites such as ifyouski, bargainholidays.com, deckchair.com, leisurehunt.com.


OTC 's board has recommended the deal. As of today Lastminute had received approval from shareholders representing 26.6% of the company.


OTC chief executive Mark Jones told Citywire that there were a lot of synergies in putting the companies together. Lastminute has already identified cost savings of some £4 million a year. There are also further economies of scale to be had through volume deals with suppliers and even down to savings on credit card transactions.


Things have clearly happened pretty quickly for OTC. Jones is hoping to stay with the business, but this level of detail has not yet been thrashed out.


The deal is expected to be earnings enhancing for Lastminute before goodwill and exceptional items, this year.


OTC's shares are currently up 5.75p at 29.25p.


Citywire Verdict:


The biggest danger here is that this is an all share deal. We saw so many of these in the heady dotcom days, and as has already happened today, the value of the offer to OTC is currently diminishing along with Lastminute's share price.


That said, this seems like a fair pitch from Lastminute, showing at least some respect for the business it wishes to acquire. We have highlighted the fact that OTC had a major struggle on its hands to get re-rated by the market, given its size and the fact that its brand is far less well known than either Lastminute or Ebookers.


Both the stock market and the customers are beginning to favour bigger players again, and I do think that OTC would continue to have an uphill struggle to go it alone.


So all in all, being part of lastminute.com makes a lot of sense. The question is whether this is the final offer on the table. I'd hang on and keep an eye on events.

[old boy returns] 03/3/2004 16:00

rival bid would have to be announced pretty soon (next 2 days) otherwise the LMC one would have too many acceptances to make it a goer. Would be much happier about the situation and chances of a rival bid if the ONT directors weren't recommending this LMC bid. They well know that LMC shares are an over-valued pile of poo so they miust have been made a tasty offer concerning future employment and compensation for share options to bring them onside.

[mtw] 03/3/2004 15:57

I thought the directors were supposed to act in the interests of ALL the share holders......