Porta Communications Share Discussion Threads

[qs99] 27/3/2018 11:12

haha, does look like it. c.£8m market cap now plus the debt.

[qs99] 27/3/2018 08:46

Blimey, where is this heading?

[qs99] 16/3/2018 14:15

Well still valued at £10m + debt so let's assumed around £18m (+ or - a bit).....with c.£30-£40m of revenues which ideally should be doing 10%+ margins....but has never IMO reached those heady heights. So if not yet doing those margins, where should the market cap be? Not sure I know the answers.....

[markie7] 16/3/2018 13:28

its not that hard to know...

[guildedge] 14/3/2018 20:41

The UK Newgate staff page has been decreasing for last few months. A number of Senior hires have left lately. Including Jason Nisse, Andrew Baiden, Andy Martin, Stephen Byfield and Gavin Devine. Not forgetting David Wright CEo. Plus another one that left about same time as Gavin (Not worked out who yet). Almost all the original people from a number of the takeovers. Plus Gavin who was hired as a COO. Cept they never really continued the buying spree. Many of these have moved to new companies or set up their own. So some Newgate clients will have moved with them.

They have bought in an Austrlaian Director and people in from SEC to the board. The non senior posts for Newgate Uk are also down by about 6-7 staff. I wonder if they are doing a bit of cost cutting here? Especially with Redleaf moving in. Albeit they seem to have a Leeds office now? Of course their website only shows us want we want to see staff wise.

On flipside the Asian business seems to be booming. Hence revenue for 2018 being anywhere close to 40m. Plus new offices.

Really hard to know if business is in free fall or booming. See what happens.

[oldie52] 12/3/2018 20:48

Newgate CEO Gavin devine has left the company.
senior people don't often leave if things are going well

[guildedge] 08/3/2018 23:58

424k of stock was sold. 293k trade was 99% a sell.
180+10+10+25+76= 301k was bought back.
Pretty sure all trades in last 3 days are from same buyer and seller.

Newgate have opened an office in Shanghai.
hxxp://www.marketing-interactive.com/newgate-communications-opens-shanghai-office/

Might get RNS on this tomorrow. Also seem to have an office in Leeds too now.

Things can't be going too badly!

[kimboy2] 05/3/2018 18:22

The Chairman bought £160k of shares at 3.5p a month ago. You would imagine he knew what was going on.

[qs99] 05/3/2018 17:50

Market cap £10m and falling. Where will this end do you think? Revenues appear to be there, but costs just don't seem to be under control. IMO DYOR

[ttg100] 01/2/2018 11:10

mmmmmmmmm Chairman buys £165k @ 3.50 makes it interesting - will take a look

[kimboy2] 31/1/2018 13:12

A substantial director buy.

[qs99] 31/1/2018 11:56

Anyone care to take a view on why this is worth £13m market cap? Plus debt? on the back of that RNS? Just asking not a view. Thanks

[guildedge] 29/1/2018 17:08

So gross profit is up 3 million compared to last year. Most of that extra gross profit came from H1. Adjusted ebitda compared to H1 will be higher.

Considering they shut down Summit that is not bad. Not sure what write downs and costs will be added for this.

It means Australia/Asia region has repeated it's H1 performance which showed 1.5m profit for the region. This is backed up by the 2017 merger/deals report on the Holmes report website which shows huge deals in Asian area for Porta for 2017.

Things to note. H1 had 300k banking cost. H2 will have had slightly lower loan costs from August 12%-8%. Also higher ownership of Redleaf and Australian businesses since H2. So the amount of monies going to third parties should be lower in H2. This would not impact gross profits.

Based on these numbers even with Summit closing they should still hit circa 38-40m revenue for the year which would be higher than last year. (37.1m) So the business is heading in the right direction with revenues rising.

I still expect a loss due to write downs and one offs. I think there is a good business here it just needs cash to pay off debts and buy out Asian businesses. ( Australia/Singapore and HK.) Nice to see the results in April now.

Share price being affected by stakeholders in background selling it appears.

[geraldus] 29/1/2018 10:19

Yes I need oxygen.

[jaykaytee] 29/1/2018 10:15

Well underwater here...

[geraldus] 29/1/2018 08:00

Trading update,anybody still standing?

[guildedge] 11/1/2018 21:35

Can't see any value in a TU as stakeholder/funds are still exchanging shares in the background. Lots of test sells this week for 2-3k shares. A TU would not shift the share price unless they had truly amazing news. The stakeholders selling would merely use it to sell more stock. Plus pretty much no private investors trading shares here. 90-99% arranged trades in my view.

With Summit being closed down that will not have a good impact on the accounts. Albeit I think it's revenue and staff levels were not huge. It was likely losing money anyway. Newgate Australia sort of made the imapct small as it's profits are soaring based on H1 figures.

There are a lot of big investment projects in Australia government ongoing. These are worth 20bn plus in some cases. Porta will be advising on a lot of these. Hence why Newgate Aus revenue and profits have been soaring this year. Albeit only 60% of these profits comes back to Porta. H2 could be really strong in Newgate Australia if the government fees come in strongly. See also how their new office in Australia performs. The question is will the Aus performance offset the UK operations? The cost of the HQ and loan at 8% is still choking Porta's bottom line. That and the cost of the management team.

Come Summer they should fully own Redleaf and this is making over 500-650k profit. Albeit another £1m to be paid out for last 20%. They had the option at end of the year to buy 33% of CAG. Unclear if they have done this. Further share issues for Newgate Aus/HK and Singapore too will likely follow. Be crazy not to buy up more of Newgate Aus.

If Sec can takeover Porta, reduce costs, find big cost savings by sharing offices with Newington and cutting out management this could edge Porta closer to a profit.

See what happens in 2018.

[oldie52] 05/1/2018 18:49

No news for 2 months. Unlikely to be a trading update and full year results last year were rushed out in May!
communications at their best????

[guildedge] 11/12/2017 15:52

SEC have had a GM on 17/10/2017 to ask permission to raise 4m within next 5 years and permission to increase board directors from 9 to 11. This is for strategic and capital needs. hxxp://secglobalnetwork.com/investors/

They appointed a UK director at end of November. Pretty much same time Newgate appointed Australian director. SEC already have offices in UK and Edinbrugh like Newgate. So cost savings possible here.

SEC also have 6m cash equivalents so are not short of money. It would seem strange to me for them to take a 19% stake in Porta without following this through. The timing of director hires here seems very similar. 4m Euros won't pay off Porta's £8m debt but could aquire 25% of Porta's shares.

Maybe all these events are not related. The lack of news from Porta makes me suspicious. Maybe SEC are intending to buy another firm? That's not impossible but Porta make a good fit here.

Have you also noticed how Porta's share price has not moved in almost a month even with all these sells. My guess is someone is buying up stock in the background. Perhaps a large buy order? SEC now seem a possible buyer for these shares.

See what happens in next few months. Last December SEC paid for a Polish PR firm.

[guildedge] 17/11/2017 10:06

Not much news here. Australian director seems an interesting move given that is where they are making the most money. Looks like Newgate Aus is dealing with the Common Wealth Games. Lucrative government contracts seem to be helping them greatly. I was impressed by the huge Austrlian growth in H1. Not so much by the UK performance. Albeit gross profit had barely moved when revenue fell.

Not sure what news if any we will get from Porta till May 2018 now. Maybe a trading statement at some point? I think Sec were also going to appoint a further director to the board? Some news on how that partnership is going would be good. News on CAG too as that has terms for December 2017. Would they buy an additional third? We seem to be getting 1-2 RNS a month at present.

See what happens here I guess.

[qs99] 29/9/2017 09:02

so £17m market cap, £8m debt at end of august, £25m EV and still loss making? Fair enough headline EBTIDA and GP growth is decent, but surely they need to be doing £3m++ EBITDA to get near to justifying that valuation? IMO and DYOR! Patience required....

[oldie52] 28/9/2017 12:03

I assume they will be announcing their interims tomorrow. The silence has been deafening!