Petards Share Discussion Threads

[dealit] 02/2/2024 08:51

Does anyone feel that a takeover by a Company within this sector is possible, market cap of PEG must be temping?

[doug74] 01/2/2024 18:11

Rivaldo, Always admire you're positivity. Are you a Brazilian footballer or an Abdullah incognito? :)
Fevertree, I hope you're right with the two slight glimmers. Not sure that 1970's rail and defence management style will work with AI markets. Certainly a smash n grab seems a risk.
Dave, Totally agree. It seems MM's live from day to day. With such a short sighted time horizon in relation to spreads its difficult to see how PEG could grow as a tech stock. If the "value" is there, despite the Abdullahs, why not half the spread to encourage investors, and more than double the volume at a higher price? Maybe I'm just simple.

[dave4545] 01/2/2024 10:07

That's the problem with "value" stocks only about 1% seem to want them now.

Day traders market so everybody wants fast moving rubbish, not a stock cash rich making money on a low rating. I guess the logic is if they are so cheap they will get took over so you could wake up one morning and find a nice 100% premium bid on them.

But wide spread dead stocks traders will not even look twice...until they are up 50% which can happen.

I remember when Peg spiked 100% once buyers all over it...a very long time ago.

[fevertreeman] 01/2/2024 10:06

Post September's results I posted this below. The cumulative points being the degree of stagnation at the business has been palpable in recent years, thanks to the dreadful lack of dynamism and leadership from the Lifestyle Abdullahs. Two slight glimmers: (1)they are reducing overhead (but from where?) (2) QRO continues to deliver well...


Sept 26th Comment:

Not just terrible, utterly disgraceful esp given Raschid Abdullah's Chairman's outlook statement at the FY results in May:

"At 31 December 2022 the order book stood at just over £4 million (31 December 2021: £7 million), most of which is scheduled for delivery in 2023. We are now seeing encouraging signs for new projects, particularly in the new build and retrofit rail rolling stock market, for some of which we are currently in active negotiations.

Management is continuing to drive the Group’s development forward, and the Board’s objectives for 2023 are for improved results, strong cash generation and to further strengthen the Group’s portfolio of businesses.”


On every bloody metric, this business is being driven in reverse. It is crystal clear that there needs to be change at the top, and quickly! Management has no handle on their core markets: misleading FY comments about Rail outlook compounded by naive comments about the defence performance which seemed to surprise them.

So many questions here? Do they have the right team dealing with Rail and MOD? Do they have a proper understanding of timescales? Where is the evidence of reducing reliance on UK rail market which they have been moaning about for last 3-4 years?
Why have they have progressively & drastically reduced spending on R&D? Why are their Admin overheads so high and why haven't they done anything about it? Why are they not investing in sales & marketing?

Truly dreadful - the Abdullahs are solely responsible for this continued shambles and dont seem to care about s/holders or staff for that matter. Another utterly dreadful set of results

[fevertreeman] 01/2/2024 09:58

In August I posted this:

We are 9 months into the current year and absolutely nothing has happened of any consequence, no new contracts, no acquisitions...its shameful, especially when one considers the ridiculous situation that the Abdullah's didnt actually release FY results till May!, 4 months after the year-end, when s/holders were treated to this rubbish from Abdullah:

"Management is continuing to drive the Group’s development forward, and the Board’s objectives for 2023 are for improved results, strong cash generation and to further strengthen the Group’s portfolio of businesses.”

Clearly he had been reading a different script given FY results that showed (1) Revs had dropped 30% (2) Op Profit -60%( 3)Cash generation -20% (4) Order book down 40pc.

Increasingly this looks like a lifestyle company for the Abdullahs. Perhaps the plan is to hoard cash, tick the business over, & then launch a cheeky bid to take it private, whereupon suddenly things pick up. I dont know but hard to see any other explanation for the neglect I witness...:
A quick look at the AR shows
1. Average salary is a hefty £47,753 (wages & salaries of £3,868m divided by 81 staff)
2. Of that 81 staff, a staggering 23 are in admin (28%) with only 5 in sales!!! hardly the stats of a business intent on driving sales.....
3. Admin expenses at £5.3m are huge for a business generating £10m & they barely made any dent in that figure to reduce it
4. In 2022 the firm more than halved its spending on R&D to £247,000
( 2.3% of revenues) from £553k in 2021, which is fairly extraordinary for a business
that bangs on about innovation...

[fevertreeman] 01/2/2024 09:55

Doug74...quite right about the baleful Abdullahs. Their management track record is atrocious, as any quick glance at the results regression in recent years clearly illustrates.The website is abysmal and rarely updated, they treat the company as their own private plaything, and they treat their shareholder relations with at best indifference and at worst contempt. Wouldnt be surprised if they attempt a smash n grab to take the company back private at the current derisory level.....

[rivaldo] 01/2/2024 09:14

Interesting new article from PEG's Chief Technical Architect about their innovative Automatic Selective Door Operation:

[rivaldo] 31/1/2024 13:51

Hybridan have a new note out today after the contract win.

They forecast £0.3m PBT and a £0.5m PAT this year.

They see the cash pile growing to just over £2m by December against the £2.49m m/cap.

There's some useful info re QRO and the new contract win:

"The cameras will be installed at several strategic highway locations in the UK
allowing QRO to showcase the Harrier AI nationally to existing and potential police force customers.

The Harrier AI camera was designed and built by QRO in the UK and launched in December 2023. Empowered by Nvidia’s Jetson processors, it delivers real-time analytics ANPR software-enabled data processing and is powered by machine learning algorithms, making it adaptive and responsive to ever-changing road conditions and offering functions such as vehicle make, model and colour detection and traffic flow analysis."

"Hybridan’s view: QRO Solutions designs, manufactures, and installs cameras for roadside, overbridge and in-vehicle deployment and offers android handheld alerting software, database software and field services. QRO Solutions has an estimated 35% share in the UK police market for ANPR cameras. We believe that QRO Solutions will pursue growth opportunities in ULEZ (ultra-low emission zone) charges and car parks in the UK and perhaps expand its footprint to overseas markets.

Petards’ FY22 annual report indicates that QRO revenues increased 17% in 2022, despite the shortage of microprocessors in the early part of 2022 and QRO’s revenues had tripled since 2017, i.e., the first full year of Petards ownership. We believe that the success of QRO demonstrates Petards’ ability to acquire and integrate acquired businesses."

[doug74] 30/1/2024 20:55

So net assets about £7.9m, of which intangible assets (capitalised internal hours) £3.7m that it appears the market thinks are worthless, market cap £2.1m (so 70% discount), cash £1.5m, P/E ratio of less than 4. There’s a hint of AI and the market reaction is? Half a pence with a delayed widening to the spread – 20%. Really? Hardly Silicon Valley or Cyberdyne. While disgracefully greedy and clearly disincentivising investors, the MM’s can’t take all the blame. The market places a negative value on the Abdullahs.

[dolittle1] 30/1/2024 20:17

Clearly, the news about the contract was leaked on the 29th. Just look at the trading pattern. Leaky board or broker. Please report.

[rivaldo] 30/1/2024 07:24

Intriguing news - QRO has been awarded a £0.4 contract for Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled ANPR cameras.

It's the first such sale, so whilst the £0.4m is welcome it's the strategic value of the first such AI contract win which is most encouraging. Hopefully lots more to come:

[rivaldo] 26/1/2024 09:11

PEG's m/cap is now £2.1m after the trading update, against a cash pile of essentially £1.5m including the delayed receipt.

The below expectations update reflects the hiatus in train build industry expenditure, bur even so isn't a complete disaster as I assume QRO continues to trade well, resulting in a new WH Ireland forecast of a £0.6m LBT for 2023.

I just wonder what PEG would be worth if the 3 divisions were sold off separately. Surely a multiple of £2.1m?

WH Ireland - presumably after discussions with management - have retained their forecasts for this year of £10.9m revenues, £0.3m PBT and 1.1p EPS, with £2.3m net cash at the end of the year.

[baner] 25/1/2024 09:26

Dave - i totally agree with you - the so called market makers (which is the last thing they are) actually ”steal” money from investors, without adding any value what so ever. This is really very bad for the reputation of the UK stock market and it is indeed strange that the LSE allow this to continue. They should have some form of penalty, confiscating ”profits”; when the spreads exceed say 2%. The other day i bought a £12.000 stake in a tiny company and within minutes the market maker took £1.300 as a ”go between” ! I am surprised this is legally OK at all.

[dave4545] 25/1/2024 08:37

2.5-3.5p

They are offering a max of 25k at 3.35p so basically that is a message from the mm's of "we'd love to screw anybody who sells at a ridiculous low price but we'll not let anybody buy and at a much higher price"

Getting worse these market makers atm

[partner] 25/1/2024 08:32

Help with revenue / cash targets possibly consider dropping all board members packages by 50-75% , let them feel the shareholders pain also ?,

[fevertreeman] 23/1/2024 12:38

Just put in a limit order and see what happens

[effortless cool] 18/1/2024 20:05

Google "daylight robbery".

[doug74] 18/1/2024 18:43

Hi guys,
Just looking at PEG's share price. Bid / offer of 3.5p / 4.3p.
0.8 / 3.5 = 23%.
Can someone please explain that to me?

[rivaldo] 05/1/2024 10:49

For the record, Techinvest reviewed PEG's interims as follows:

"Petards Group
4.75p (PEG; AIM)

Results for the six months ended June 30 showed revenue down 20% to £4.4m and an adjusted EBITDA loss of £0.06m compared to a profit of £0.61m in the first-half last time. The post-tax loss was £0.3m (H1 2022: £0.1m). Cash generated from
operating activities was £0.25m and net funds at the period-end were unchanged at £1.7m (2.9p per share).

Against a difficult economic backdrop, we feel this was a reasonably resilient performance from Petards. Management reported that rail and defence markets remained challenging but rail tendering activities were significantly higher in
the period than in recent years. Full-year guidance was pared down as a result of the revenue drop in the first-half.

However, the outlook for the following year looks more promising, with first orders already received for a range of new product launches. Moreover, the order book remains stable at £4.0m, providing a reasonable underpinning for the confidence expressed by management in an improved second-half performance for the current
year. Hold"

[rivaldo] 03/1/2024 18:04

Yet another new major shareholder - Philip J Milton & Company Plc have notified they now have 4.29%, or almost 2.43m shares:



They're wealth managers from Devon:



The two Jons plus Milton have therefore bought and notified they're holding around 10.5% of PEG in the last month, i.e Charwell's stake and more (though of course the newbies may have held some stock beforehand).

It's indicative of something that the "disclosable interests" section of the Investors page on PEG's web site hasn't been updated since June 2017.....which reflects not only on PEG but also WH Ireland who "should" be on top of these things. You have to laugh.

[partner] 14/12/2023 14:37

Well my shares would be available to vote them out .

[smithie6] 14/12/2023 14:25

What is the situation here ?

...that basically Raschid and Osman Abdullah are poor execs for a company doing what Petards does & they have no prior experience or qualifications in Petard's product area ...

& the co. has performed badly with them in charge

Is that a fair summary ?

-----

Are there not enough votes to remove them & bring in execs with a good track record in technology/IT/security cameras/rail IT ?

Or do a share merger of PEG with another company with opportunities for cross selling, & remove £1-2million in HQ costs (with the Abdullahs departing) ?

[dave4545] 14/12/2023 13:09

Remember that name from AEO he seems to be a value investor.



Usually does well