Porta Communications Share Discussion Threads

[qut] 22/9/2016 21:47

Is this being reflected in the share price Guildedge??

[guildedge] 22/9/2016 17:11

Just found this on their website. Taken in 2 new hires and a few clients with them. See below. More high profile hires to follow.

Newgate further expands its public affairs and corporate communications offering

Newgate Communications has added significant additional weight to its public affairs offering through an innovative deal that brings senior talent and a number of additional clients to the team.

Three months after the arrival of Gavin Devine as Chief Operating Officer of Porta Communications plc, Newgate’s parent company, the deal sees Simon Gentry transfer from MWW to become a Partner in Newgate. Daniel Costen, who worked with Simon at MWW, has also moved across. Simon’s clients, including StubHub, The MBI Al Jaber Foundation and the ATM Industry Association, have made the transition with him.

Gentry said that Newgate’s fully integrated approach, with PA playing a role on many clients, plus the opportunity to work with PRCA Chairman Steffan Williams, as well as leading public affairs and corporate communications adviser Devine, were important factors in his decision to move to Newgate.

Gentry commented: “The fit between what clients are asking for in terms of fully integrated communications and Newgate’s approach is perfect, with public affairs staff working in integrated teams alongside specialists in corporate, financial and internal communications, and alongside the local engagement specialists in PPS Group (now part of Newgate). For that reason joining Gavin and Steffan at Newgate was an easy decision to make.”

Devine added: “ When I joined Porta one of my first tasks was to build up our existing public affairs offer in Newgate by bringing in the very best talent in the industry. Being able to work with someone of Simon’s quality, experience and reputation is exciting, and we are also delighted that so many excellent clients have joined our roster too. This development is a big step forward for Newgate, and is further proof that our company and our approach to communications is gaining ground in the marketplace.”

Further high profile hires will be announced as Newgate expands to meet growing client demand.

[markie7] 19/9/2016 15:45

more "drift"

collapse is a better word.

[pelliot] 19/9/2016 15:16

I think the ostrich approach with the share price appears a good idea. All time low today!

[qs99] 19/9/2016 12:43

IMO in this industry, turnover is vanity, gross profit sanity, real hard cash profits is reality mate...until PTCM start showing clean profits = cash numbers it is very very hard to put a value on this IMO....so DYOR and 29th September will be very interesting...

[guildedge] 16/9/2016 18:12

Not really been posting here Oldie. From what I can tell Porta are winning more clients but the trouble is you can never tell how many they might be losing. Last results they suggested client numbers were up. They have announced a fair few client wins this year. Then again they don't always announce them either. Bit of an unknown.

The currency exchange is great news for Porta. A huge chunk of Porta's revenue is in Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and middle east. All of these division were making a profit. 2.2m profit including Redleaf.

We know that some of the 1M cost saving are starting to come through. We were told this at the AGM. Porta has hired some big industry hitter lately and these are people who can bring in the big name clients. Have to see where this goes. They need a few months to bed in.

A lot of restructuring costs should dissappear. I don't expect a 1.3m D and A charge this time round in 2 weeks time. Plus way debt has been refinanced mean break even could be possible? Maybe a small loss? I honestly don't know as we have had no clean results for a while.

My gut is a big seller has maybe just cleared out here. Maybe had 5-6M shares? Fund or PI from 3 years ago. I thought the mystery trade at 9.22am yesterday was a delayed trade. Nothing has shown up to explain this. Also we had the usual seller selling technique on the 14th. They sell between 800-2600 shares. The higher the figure the more they intend to sell. Then they proceed to sell 200-500k of stock using odd number amount of shares.

This is the same tactic used by the corporate investor/fund buying up the sold stock. This buyer has bought 5-6+M shares at least so far and has used rounded numbers. Someone has been buying sold stock most of the year. I think there are more than 1 firms buying in. I think after September results they will show their true hands. Same for the directors. My guess is Steffan Williams and other directors will start buying in once the seller has cleared their stake here. They have all mostly held back lately. Steffan has only been here for a year.

@ Markie - yes dilution but we gain 15% of a firm that has been making 450k profit a year. If Redleaf move into Porta HQ this will only help increase Porta's bottom line. Of course I would rather we were issuing 13p share. Reassuring we have 424k cash to do half of this.

One postive from Redleaf owning 4.7% of Porta is it shows Emma and her partner have not been selling here. Pelliot has previosly suggested they were selling out. Far from it.

Still waiting for the debt restructuring. I see no reason why the banks won't lend to Porta. It may also be they use this to bed in new investors.

Lots could happen here but the waiting while the share drifts is painful.

At present I am ignoring the share price as I can tell once this seller stop share price will recover quickly. This is a credible business turning over 34-35M plus.

[markie7] 16/9/2016 08:32

Dilution spiral.

[guildedge] 16/9/2016 07:09

Results are 29th September.

RNS to show Emma Kane has 3.4% of Porta now. Actually with her Partner it's 4.72%. Website was updated on 14th before the RNS.

[oldie52] 15/9/2016 18:03

Will this ever stop falling? Even Guildedge has stopped his positive posts.

[pelliot] 14/9/2016 11:26

when are results?

[stav5001] 05/9/2016 17:49

Communications at their best!

[gottopickapocketortwo] 25/8/2016 22:45

Sounds a bit like ...." You know that great deal we told you about...... Well we need to actually pay for it now but as our Shareprice is in the toilet we need to make up someimaginary shares that don't really exist out of nowhere and try a pay for this stuff...... What do you think chaps ? Oh and of course it won't affect any current shareholders of course ..... Cough cough splutter splutter "

[stav5001] 03/8/2016 17:09

Kimboy

Very encouraging,how many wish they had never heard of AIM.

[guildedge] 19/7/2016 23:59

Not an RNS I want to reread. I guess they are obliged to release this information each year?

On a plus side Red Leaf has picked up 2 more contracts.

Lytespark - Cloud-based video conferencing platform, LyteSpark, has appointed Redleaf Communications to deliver its comms brief.

hxxp://www.gorkana.com/2016/07/redleaf-appointed-by-lytespark/

Hyperdrive - Engineering company Hyperdrive Innovation has appointed Redleaf Communications as its corporate PR agency.

hxxp://www.gorkana.com/2016/07/hyperdrive-innovation-gives-redleaf-corporate-brief/

I have not seen a contract win for Huntsworth in a while. Their share price keeps hitting new lows with some big sells going through. We seem to have steadied the ship here for now.

[kimboy2] 15/7/2016 14:07

That is about the most dismal RNS I have ever read;

[guildedge] 12/7/2016 20:21

hxxp://www.gorkana.com/2016/07/newgate-communications-appointed-by-sompo/

Contract win for Newgate Comms. Japanese insurance service provider, Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Holdings (Sompo), has appointed Newgate Communications to a combined corporate and financial communications and public affairs brief.

[kimboy2] 07/7/2016 19:51

They have paid over £13m for these companies they have acquired. The market clearly believes the highly paid management have added negative value.

[guildedge] 07/7/2016 18:47

@ karm - One of the questions asked at the AGM was about the firm only being worth 13.5m. The board stated that the share was under valued. Obvioulsy they could not state what they thought the firm was worth. They just agreed with the opinion made.

We know CAG valued the share around 9.4p or so last time they did a report. So I expect 7-9p could be fair value here short term assuming they beat off the brexit blues. 4p was just crazy valuation for a firm turning over nearly 35m.

The AGM was quite interesting as one person had made a detailed list of 8-9 questions which were all fired at the board. They dealt with them quite well and allowed him to ask them all.

The big plus here is even with all the uncertainty Porta revenue is just about still growing. The new hires here will really push new clients in the long term. These are big hitters in the industry who have many contacts.

Compare Porta to Huntsworth. Huntsworth share has fallen over 20-30% over last week or so. Looks like they are struggling or market perceives they are. (Lack of news and client news. Did they have a profit warning?)

Trades today have been funny. Net 60k trades on ISDX. Where on LSE there was a net sell of 300k shares. Even with the 313k buy trade last night i am not sure that would of pushed the share price to above 5.5p with so many sells today. My gut is a large trade has gone through that will show up in the morning or next few days. Unless the buyers now outweigh sellers on level2? I am not sure this is the case. (No access to level 2 here.)

[karm] 07/7/2016 13:54

agree, some large buys lately. Maybe this is moving back above 8p short term. imo i think we have seen the bottom for now.

[jefftwo] 07/7/2016 08:27

Seems to be on the move againOnly back to where we were before the results.A long way to go but I am still holding firm

[guildedge] 06/7/2016 18:29

Nice to see Fidelity have not sold any of their stock here. That RNS shows they still hold all 16M shares.

Late trade today for 313023 shares. Nice chunky buy by someone. Maybe seller is nearly done? The volumes have been going down in terms of size. All the big trades have been buys. That or the seller is using smaller volumes to get the best prices. See what happens.

[guildedge] 04/7/2016 16:57

RNS out senior hire. Seems a pretty big hitter with huge experience and clout in the industry. Also note the bit about Deborah Saw being made vice chair of Newgate UK. Seems to me they are making a big push on their UK operations. Steffan William, Simon Devine and now Charles Chichester hire. I expect some big clients to follow in next 5-6 months as these 3 really bed in. More hires to follow??

RNS below.


APPOINTMENT OF ANOTHER SENIOR PARTNER AT NEWGATE COMMUNICATIONS

Porta Communications Plc (AIM: PTC), the fast-growing international marketing and communications group, is pleased to announce the appointment of Charles Chichester as a new Senior Partner at Newgate Communications UK, leading its Financial PR practice. Reporting to Steffan Williams, Group Managing Director of Newgate and Porta Board member, Charlie will play a key role in the next stage of the company's development, increasing the size of its client base, strengthening the offering to the market, and growing awareness of Newgate particularly in the financial PR arena.

Charlie has spent 15 years working in the City, including nearly a decade operating in the field of strategic and financial communications. He started his career working for Cazenove (now JPMorgan Cazenove) as a sell-side equity analyst focusing on Pan-European Equities. He left investment banking to join Finsbury, where he was a Partner.

Charlie brings senior level expertise in his capacity as counsel to a variety of international clients, advising on a range of strategic communications issues. During his time he has worked on high profile M&A transactions such as Verizon/Vodafone, Carlsberg/Heineken/Scottish & Newcastle, CGI/Logica, Borse Dubai/OMX, London Metal Exchange/HKEx, Pace/Arris; stock exchange listings including African Barrick Gold, Coca-Cola Hellenic, TDC; and the demerger of Cable & Wireless, along with advising clients on debt restructurings, international arbitration and as a pension trustee adviser.

Commenting on the appointment Porta CEO David Wright said: "Charlie is another in our sequence of very senior hires, continuing our strategy to strengthen and expand our integrated consultancy offering. We are building a powerful team of strategic communications advisors during this exciting period in Porta's development."

Steffan Williams, Group Managing Director of Newgate said: "I am delighted Charlie has agreed to come and join us. We have worked together in the past and the business will benefit from his many years of experience advising at a senior level in the City. There is a great opportunity ahead for our business and I look forward to working closely with Charlie through this stage of our development and beyond."

Also, Deborah Saw, one of the original founders of Newgate Communications, ?has been appointed as the Vice Chair of Newgate UK. She becomes Vice Chair, and Senior Partner, Corporate Communications.

[guildedge] 30/6/2016 18:45

Not really Oldie. My wording wasn't great. Unclear if this will be news on their website or RNS news. It was a general discussion and no indication was made about what the news flow may be.

I have no idea what the directors plans are regarding share purchases. If I was buying I would wait for the share lows and pick up stock. They probably have more info on what floating stock is available to buy? If they do intend to buy I am guessing they would stagger any buys to soak up sold stock. It may be they have no funds to invest? Who knows?

What is encouraging is that given the lack of IPO they have still increased revenue. If the brexit vote had not taken place I am pretty sure the revenue would of been much higher. All other PR firms are being impacted by Brexit and the uncertainty it brings. Yet Porta is still growing.

[oldie52] 30/6/2016 15:43

you must be very well connected to have advance notice of their newsflow Guildy. Why don't the Directors pile in now, particularly Stefan Williams who still hasn't put his own money into Porta. Doesn't say much about his confidence in the business.