Pphe Hotel Share Discussion Threads

[getritch] 05/7/2001 12:43

The following is from Citywire on Tuesday evening, and was mentioned on the ART threads. One question... How long are Propan/Artisan allowed to delay before announceing through an RNS about the increased stake? Generally stock aquisitions/disposals are announced a day or 2 after they occur, so this recent purchase of Propan shares should be confirmed soon...

getritch


17:35, Tue 3 July 2001
Propan prepared for possible Artisan bid
House builder Propan Homes is bracing itself for the possibility of a takeover bid from Stephen Dean’s Artisan, which has secretly upped its stake on the open market whilst simultaneously freeing up cash via the sale of its stake in EnterpriseAsia, writes Laurence Fletcher.

Citywire has learned today that dealmaker Dean’s Artisan (ART), which took up a third of Propan’s placing when it came from Ofex to AIM in March, has upped its stake again, only telling Propan today. From a stake of 11.63%, or 7 million shares in March, Artisan has increased its holding to 9 million, or 14%.

‘We don’t know what Dean’s motives are, and we didn’t know he’s increased his stake until today,’ chief executive Chris Johnson told Citywire today. ‘We’ve held talks regularly with him, and at the start a takeover was vaguely hinted at’.

‘It’s hard to know what else he could be thinking,’ chairman James Dubois said.

Dean would need to make a bid in cash to secure Propan. ‘We don’t want it if it’s paper,’ Johnson told Citywire.

Corporate activist Dean may see Propan, which operates mainly in West Kent, as a complementary fit for house builder Artisan by giving it strength in the South East. However, 14% is still fairly low for a takeover bid, so it is still early days.

Nevertheless, Dean has just sold his entire stake of 52 million shares in IT venture capitalist EnterpriseAsia, the company over which Artisan lost a messy corporate brawl last year. The £1 million he raised from this would form a useful part of a war chest for any potential takeover bid.

Propan meanwhile has deals of its own to think about, namely a £3 million all-paper bid for a West London-based estate agency with 13 branches, which Citywire has also learned about today. Propan has a lock-out contract on the deal, and, although talks are at an early stage, it can make an offer up until 31 October.

Propan is a house builder with a staff of six, which contracts out all its work and uses management deal-making to secure good sites. Today it announced profits up 65% for the year to 31 March at £1.9 million, on turnover almost double at £9.98 million. The total dividend is 0.525p.

Profits are healthy so far, but investors should be wary of Propan’s ability to grow further. A much-enlarged company may need to switch from contracting to in-house services, which will obviously increase costs. The acquisition of the estate agency could potentially distract management, though Johnson denied this would be a problem. Investors should consider consolidation, rather than organic growth, as a possible reason for buying the shares.

[-golddog-] 04/7/2001 12:34

Most definitely worth a punt on this one.

[thewilki] 04/7/2001 12:07

The results were expected to be good and they are and the new property market in the south has alot of potential. PPH are well placed to take advantage of this. Watch on.

[thewilki] 04/7/2001 12:02

Artisan like Propan alot hence they own so much of them. Why buy them out when they are doing so well. The shares have the potential to realise far more than 25p. Watch on.

[proactive] 03/7/2001 12:20

aren't these the same people that were in Regent Corporation that went bust??

[jimmylaw9] 03/7/2001 12:09

I have held these shares for about four months since an alledged takeover rumour which did not materialise. It has held around the 15p to 20p mark until todays anouncement. It may now be a good punt up to the 25p mark. Results were good.

[derek wild] 03/7/2001 10:47

Housebuilder Propan Homes' preliminary results for the year ended March 31 show a profit up 65pc to £1,925,573 – compared with £1,167,081 in the previous year. Turnover also doubled to £9,983,050 from £4,279,990 over the same period last year. Earnings per share rose to 3.1p (2p in 2000) and the board recommended an annual dividend of 0.525p a share.

Chairman James Dubois said: "The group has made considerable progress towards establishing itself as a major housebuilding force in the south-east of England. This is illustrated by our admission to the Alternative Investment Market in March. We will continue to seek opportunities to acquire land, with or without planning permission, usually on conditional contracts, to ensure our forward land supply for residential development purposes – resulting in continued growth."

Profits this year came from the sale of 38 residential housing units across all sectors of the market, ranging from one-bedroom flats up to substantial executive detached houses, land sales and project management fees.

The group has continued to acquire sites for residential development for 2002 and beyond. Construction is currently under way - or is due to begin - on 12 sites that should produce more than 60 units for sale during the current year.

Propan’s admission to AIM was accompanied by a placing to raise some £2.7m, a move designed to give the group greater visibility and liquidity; enable it to issue shares as a consideration for acquisitions or expansion; and give easier access to raise further funds for expansion. It also enables the company to grant share incentives to key personnel to ensure its future development.

The funds raised will be used for the expansion of the group’s operations in the south-east and elsewhere, and to assist the pursuit of its strategy of expansion and acquisition into other building services and related sectors.

[bsg] 03/7/2001 08:58

where are the results ?

[thewilki] 02/7/2001 09:36

Artisan have a big part of Propan and they like em. PPH will grow with them and nows the time to buy.

[thewilki] 02/7/2001 09:25

The word is get on board with PPH, artisan like them thats why they own so much of them.

[ducatiman] 27/6/2001 19:27

better to get on board artisan, who own a substantial amount of pph stock!

[jckonje] 27/6/2001 16:35

The results are due on 3rd July. I expect them to be good. On dubt, on AIM went up to 29p. May be time to get on board now.

[getritch] 21/6/2001 18:39

Paul,
I just received their AIM placing documentation in the post today (it's all their registrars had on offer, due to the new AIM float), but this quote comes from it :

'Propan shows a growing level of profitablity: the group is forecasting profits before tax of £1.9mn for the year ended 31 March 2001, representing a 62% increase on the previous years profits.'

It also has the following breakdown of the 3 previous years figures, summerised below :

1998 1999 2000
Turnover £1,088 £1,612 £4,280
Gross Profit £ 225 £ 323 £1,568
Operating Profit £ 130 £ 87 £1,165
EPS 0.26p 0.16p 2.0p

Their mkt cap after the 14p placing was £8.6mn, so at the current price that ought to be about £13mn.

Looking at the accounts, they seem to have paid a dividend last year of I calculated 0.5p, hence if the profits do come in at £1.9mn+ as they forecast, then I guess you can look to a full year dividend of about 0.75p perhaps.
Hang on, forget that! There used to be 40mn shares in issue, but there are now 61,428,572 shares in issue after the new placing, so the odds are for the dividend to be held, as they'll still have to pay out an extra 50% due to the extra shares.
With a profit of £1.9mn, and the extra shares in issue, you can expect to see the EPS for the year ended to be 2.16p minimum, putting them on a current P/E ratio of 10.

Any further questions?

getritch

[pauljar] 19/6/2001 15:04

Nicely and consistantly increasing. Results due out first week in July.
Anyone know what these may read. Market seems to be suggesting they will
be good.

[tigerman] 08/3/2001 09:31

i might get out now after hes tipped em only joking
ive just been reading sharecast paper reports it says look for a bid for the company within months

[gurlywurly] 08/3/2001 08:43

Tipped by Dr Death on UK-Invest on Tues

[tigerman] 08/3/2001 08:35

propan homes has just come to the aim market on tuesday since then its climbing up steadily with artisan chairman buying a 1million pound stake on the first days trading.artisan has just sold of commercial propertey for 3.1 million cash.look for a possible takeover because artisan wants to expand in to southern england.