Porta Communications Share Discussion Threads

[stelfox1] 07/10/2015 11:13

The catalysts for getting the shareprice moving north are three-fold:
1- Appointment of Steffan Williams - IMO a real added asset as increasing the number of large clients is a natural progression for Porta/Newgate.
2- Porta, despite the negative sentiment, is now cash-generative. That single point allows the company to renegotiate its onerous 12% loan rates to better levels; something it was unable to do previously as banks do not talk to equity-growth operations. This is pivotal.
3- Concentration on the winners. Rationalisation has dropped forecast overheads by £1m. Legacy and start-up costs have all but vanished which should rapidly clean up the accounts. With thanks to Adastra on LSE I also add:
Regarding the d&a which was £1.4m in the first half, this consists mostly of amortisation on acquired intangibles (client lists and brands) which would increase after doing the three acquisitions last year. The conservative policy Porta has taken regarding acquired intangibles should be welcomed by shareholders because the quicker acquired intangibles are written off, the more the impact is reduced of a potential impairment event.
The d&a is obviously a non-cash item, like share based payments for example, and really should be added back to PBT to determine the true underlying financial performance. Adding back £1.4m of d&a to the £1.1m loss and flowing through the £0.5m ebitda exceptionals results in an adjusted pbt of around £0.8m.
Also worth noting that most of the cost increase came from consolidated acquisitions and businesses that are growing top line as well as bottom line. The reaction looks really overdone given the solid underlying growth and very conservative policy taken. The future looks good and EBITDA should grow strongly in H2 and beyond IMO. A seasoned BoD and strong hands on the tiller.
All-in-all looking towards £2.5-£3.0 m EBITDA and chasing Sanlams 10p valuation IMO.

[guildedge] 06/10/2015 16:57

Wow you are all worrying too much. The broker still rates this share at 10p. All the big trades now are buys. 2 late buys added to 350k. People are buying in. The sells today were from a small investor.

The results albeit for the non cash hit showed strong underlying trading figures. They are still on track for 2.7M Ebidta. This share will quickly rise when they show a profit. I expect the new hire to quickly bring in 2-3 large clients. Some may already be in pipeline.

Why should the FD reply emails to randoms?? He has the accounts to do and is not an offical spokes person. This is a PR company. There will be a trading update in a few weeks anyway? They have no need to reply emails.

[oldie52] 06/10/2015 15:17

Glad I got out a couple of weeks ago albeit at a loss. Institutional investors don't seem interested even at this price. The London financial PR bods appear to still be losing some decent sized clients e.g. N Brown and Redcentric. I know that other parts of the business seem to be doing well but how long will Australia carry on propping up the rest of the business.
Let's hope this Steffan Williams guy can turn it round and quick.

[go_baby_go] 06/10/2015 14:49

4.5-4.75p that's the bottom imo

[dbnout76] 06/10/2015 11:03

How low will this go?

[tiswas] 06/10/2015 09:21

Cheers Tas

[salpara111] 06/10/2015 08:42

Sadly it would appear that their analyst presentation has failed.
My big concern was the substantial drop in their margins and was compounded by the fact that they did not seek to explain why they had dropped so far.
Like most holders I am well under water and not clear what to do.
They are cash flow positive so the business is self sustaining but the big question is, where is the catalyst going to come from to get the share price rising again?

[tas11osc] 05/10/2015 17:50

David Wright: [e-mail]

[tiswas] 05/10/2015 14:25

Does anyone have an email address for a main board director?

I emailed the FD via their info@portacomms address but no reply as yet despite a follow up.

I do not like being ignored even if I am only a small shareholder!

Cheers

Tis

[karm] 03/10/2015 12:35

Before and after.

[jefftwo] 02/10/2015 18:17

A colleague of mine was quoted 6.30 later in the day!!!

[guildedge] 02/10/2015 16:58

Yes but was this after the 225k trade or before?? As Jefftwo bought below 6.2p.

[karm] 02/10/2015 16:54

yes i take it the 600k are buys, i could get confirm sale price online of 50k at 6.18-6.19p and buy at 6.30p

[guildedge] 02/10/2015 16:42

@ karm. No this is just the MM setting the price. I really doubt the buy and sell price of 6.18 and 6.25 would be so close. Jefftwo confirms my thoughts. Did you actually try asking for a sell price today?

If they were sells why would the price rise after each trade? I really doubt they are short of shares.

What i think may be happening is they are filling a sell order so the price keeps drifting. There have certainly been 2 large buys in last 3 days. 375+225=600k.

[jefftwo] 02/10/2015 16:23

I bought at just over 6.18

[karm] 02/10/2015 16:17

They are all sells below 6.20p

[guildedge] 02/10/2015 16:09

Sellers??? They were all buys today!! The 225k trade was certainly a buy. All the sells also looked like buys as the price kept creeping up. Most of the trades yesterday were also buys from what I can tell. What is more likely is there is still an overhang and this is why price is not responding. There was a buy on ISDX for 6.3p shortly after 9am. Just noticed another small buy on ISDX at 6.3p. I count nearly a million buys over last few days. No idea why you think this share will drift to 5p or less.

I think the share should gradually recover to 7p+. The selling was an over reaction.

[karm] 02/10/2015 07:50

Still sellers at this price. imo this is going to drift back down to the lows of 4.5-4.75p.

[guildedge] 01/10/2015 15:53

Trade showed up as expected. Larger than I expected. Doubt it will be the new MD. Probably too small to really show any real intent. Just a private investor is my guess.

[karm] 01/10/2015 07:15

375k trade from yesterday. I'd expect a RNS to be issue.

[go_baby_go] 30/9/2015 18:19

If a trade shows up tomorrow then I guess its will be Steffan's as Karm said.

[guildedge] 30/9/2015 17:23

The MD wasn't hired for acquisitions.

' Steffan will have the responsibility to lead the next stage of the Group's development including recruiting the best available talent and improving the ratio of larger client mandate wins. '

Overall I see a push to grab more larger clients that will offer bigger margins and profits. I saw no mention of acquisitions today. I think Newsgate will move away from smaller clients to grab global contracts.

The share price is what it is. if it is undervalued someone will soon swoop in to buy £££; of stock. I would like to think any MD of a firm would be have faith in the firm and his ability to move the firm forward. So why would he not buy stock??

I am expecting a trade to show up tomorrow. The share was down 4% at one point today. For no reason the share moved back up today near close of play.

[karm] 30/9/2015 12:54

There will be no more acquisitions at this price unless they pay over the top by issuing shares at 10p. This is what they have previously done. IMO, the only reason I see BM and DW buying is to get the share price up above 10p, so they can make further acquisitions and dilute shareholder value.

I wouldn't be surprised if the appointed of Steffan Williams As Managing Director buy's stock in the next day or so to help in this task.

[salpara111] 30/9/2015 12:33

Well with only selling and no buying the share price is only going in one direction and I suspect that the management have spent their wads earlier in the year.
I don't feel that the current share price is a fair reflection of the progress the business has made in the last year but without some decent buying interest I guess the share price will continue to decline.
Not happy as a holder but equally not panicking so willing to wait it out for the time being.

[oldie52] 30/9/2015 11:54

Cant see how they can make acquisitions with the share price at this level and even Bob Morton doesn't have bottomless pockets.
Why would anyone acquire them when they can just pick off the best people/teams.
Also what is the difference in job specs between a CEO and Group MD? Of course he could be being groomed for the top job when David Wright is put out to pasture. In the meantime he wont be a small addition to the wage bill.