Praesepe Share Discussion Threads

[sscrabble] 29/7/2010 10:44

whats going on with this steady drop-drop-drop - about a 20% drop in 3 months !

[jpjp100] 26/7/2010 07:49

maybe PRA doesn't need to raise more funds short term (as part of the beacon deal it has a £40m 'overdraft' that it should, hopefully, be paying down sufficiently to build up some firpower

how low will the share price go.... anyone who knew that wouldn't need to bother with share trading

[meict] 25/7/2010 22:07

I've been looking at this share for quite some time, the concept interests me but the share price appears to be on an ever-downward spiral.

I have two questions:

Firstly, when is Praesepe going to raise more funds?

And how low will the share price go before it bottoms out?

Hopefully with Beacon on board both the revenue and the profit will grow considerably.

[jpjp100] 22/7/2010 09:28

its getting silly now

either something is very wrong that we don't yet know about (but that someone does), or the price is drifting down on no news over the summer (it happens)....

I don't like it

[sscrabble] 21/7/2010 12:27

every move is down - not good !

and again !

and again. :(

[jpjp100] 18/7/2010 21:12

SAurely what Harding and his increasingly large cadre of expensive boardroom colleagues need to do now is to fund some acquisitions with shares

imagine this hypothetical scenario

So Mr AGC Chain owner, your business is worth, we both agree, £10m. Now, how about we give you £3m of PRA shares (at 7p) for it. As you know, the shares are likely to go up some time and, let's say they get to 49p, that's £21m for you already.... Deferred tax bills, control over realising the capital gain, a stake in the business to keep you interested blah blah blah

So, how about it?

[brownie69] 16/7/2010 16:51

I dont understand the share price movement here. Is there any industry news which is negative or read across from any other companies results?
On the face of it looking cheap. Tempted to top up even though i'm fairly fully invested here.

[sscrabble] 16/7/2010 16:42

every move is down - not good !

and again !

[sscrabble] 14/7/2010 11:03

every move is down - not good !

[jpjp100] 12/7/2010 09:37

has anyone that posts on here played the micro bingo yet?

I am especially interested in the B2 lounge concept that I know is in situ at the Northampton ex Beacon bingo club.

Any comments?

[plunge] 29/6/2010 17:44

It is good to see confirmation of a new NED appointment.

[jpjp100] 28/6/2010 16:03

the demise of England in the world cup at this early stage is, from getting people into PRA's venues, only a good thing imo

other than that, I hope PRA is steering clear of the acquisition target it talked about in Spain - the economy there is, imo, in a tangle for at least a year (it could be the next Greece). The Dutch / German acquisitions make more sense just now and, as the EURGBP is moving in the right direction, they are conitnuing to look cheaper....

[jpjp100] 25/6/2010 08:45

yes, its starting to get frustrating now, watching the price drift down on the back of no real news

I am also a bit nervous about the impact of the world cup on revenues - in the current climate, a bit of bad news could be very detrimental to the share price.

[ukinvestor220] 24/6/2010 12:53

holders getting bored and mm's taking advantage. you need to be in this for the longer term. it will move on news of the strategy playing out.

[sscrabble] 23/6/2010 14:26

I guess the shareprice has given the answer :-(

[sscrabble] 16/6/2010 09:18

It keeps dribbling down - not much support or confidence is there ?

[jpjp100] 15/6/2010 09:42

there are lots of potential acquisition / merger / other corporate activity opportunities in the industry (including the online stuff).

I am not sure how big a player PRA can be in that in its current form - the balance sheet just doesn't have the capacity to do a big deal without further fundraising. As we saw earlier this year, the appetite for that was not massive (£5m raised from £30m touted for).

United Leisure might be a nice addition to the mix but, what I really want to see (and its being helped as the EURGBP moves in the right direction) is a European acquisition - ideally NL or D (I think Spain's economy is in too bad a state to go their first).

[plunge] 14/6/2010 17:56

trigger45 and jpjp100

Thanks for your recent postings on the thread.

What I finding intriguing is whether Simon Thomas will in fact become a director of the company and whether part of PRA's strategy is to absorb his United Leisure Gaming vehicle into the business.

Further, it is interesting to see that PRA and 888 Holdings PLC share a common director in Brian Mattingley. Given 888's recent share price weakness I wonder if there is any opportunity here for PRA.

Interesting times ahead, me thinks.

[jpjp100] 14/6/2010 10:35

There is an update on the praesepeplc.com site

Now that we know that John Penrose has been appointed as Minister for Gambling most larger companies are springing into action and trying to arrange meetings with the Minister. I have an advantage here in that Mr Penrose is also MP for Weston Super Mare where we now operate a large FEC business called the Golden Gate. On this basis I wrote to Mr Penrose about two weeks ago but as yet haven't received a reply! Our political agenda at present hinges entirely around the increase in stake on B3 gaming machines. Just this small adjustment would not only improve revenues overall but would cause us to start to take on new products (new B3 games) on a revenue share basis would also make the lower priced Category C gaming machines more attractive to players. We had strong support from both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats prior to the election and clearly now we are expecting them to deliver. Having commissioned some brand research into the Cashino and Showboat trading names for AGCs we found an overwhelming case for retaining Cashino and rebranding Showboat. Showboat will be mothballed and used at seaside locations where the research indicated that it was strongest. So our two brands will be Beacon (bingo) and Cashino (AGCs). In addition we also have 'BeaconBingo on-line' which although only being a fledgling business is a strong site, ably managed by Chris Drake. Chris's experience is all off-line and this therefore tends to shape the way that he presents the on-line offer. He has some interesting innovations, including a video of himself walking around the home page, which is interesting! Last Thursday and Friday I was finally given a pass out of the office and was up the M6 to meet some of our AGC managers in the northwest. We now have strong representation up there and I was able to visit venues at Farnworth, Lancaster, Birkenhead, Liverpool, Runcorn, Chester and Stockport. To a man (or woman actually) they were very positive and enthusiastic about the changes to the business and I am certain that this enthusiasm will permeate across to our player base and from there on to revenues. All the venues were busy promoting World Cup fun games for the players and were also preparing for a fund raising day in aid of the CHIPS charity. I am confident that we will do well for CHIPS on the day and will be able to provide more funds for wheelchairs for disabled youngsters. Progress continues to be made in the integration of the Beacon and Praesepe business and we are well on track to achieve all the targets that we set for ourselves in this process. The offices in Milton Keynes have been extended to provide accommodation for the new operations team and the IT systems will be merged in the next few weeks. Integration is always a painful process for the staff who are being 'rationalised' but we are mindful of this and try to make things as simple as we can, always bearing in mind that the purpose of any merger is to create synergies. Nick Harding June 2010

[trigger45] 11/6/2010 14:34

The popularity of the low stake high volume gaming experience with middle-aged and older women has been put into focus by a programme of customer research.

The research, which was commissioned by Praesepe, showed that 25 per cent of Cashino's female players are aged over 60 years, a figure that rises to 33 per cent at the brand's Scottish venues. In total, 72 per cent of Cashino's female players are aged over 40 years, with the most populated age segment being 40-60 years.

According to the research, the popularity of adult gaming centres with active females of retirement age necessitates special care and attention to machine ergonomics with manufacturers encouraged to consider the provision of hearing loops, the height of the sitting position, the screen size and resolution, the size of buttons, as well as the legibility of instructions, features and promotional materials.

Nick Harding, CEO of Praesepe, said: "The findings have allowed us to provide machine manufacturers with a portrait of our customers with the ultimate objective of creating more player-centred products."

[trigger45] 03/6/2010 07:40

The integration of the Beacon business with Praesepe continues at a fast pace and there is a great atmosphere of cooperation and enthusiasm to get this done.

[trigger45] 25/5/2010 09:32

Topped up this morning. Director buys has to be a vote of confidence in the company.

GL all.

[jpjp100] 17/5/2010 08:46

and now Blair Stinton, non exec, has tipped up a few bob too