Prelude Trust Share Discussion Threads

[blott] 24/8/2007 09:48

Guys - can anyone confirm if PDT is ISAable?

[timtom2] 23/8/2007 22:26

I can't remember either.

No matter how interesting or helthy looking the portfolio constituents are PDT will only be judged by delivery of share price appreciation. The longer it takes to get this share price to move the more sick it looks relative to many other shares and assets since its inception.

The management will always say they don't udnerstand why the share price is so far below NAV, that the future is bright etc etc & everything will be OK tomorow - it's expected they will spout that stuff - but we need to see some results coming through.

Great portfolio news, great companies, interesting stuff - where's the reduction in discount to NAV?

[spin doctor] 23/8/2007 21:39

Thanks again riv.
TimTom, you have to be right that the recent turmoil is not good news. I think the few % share price fall over the last month is probably about right.
Key issue of course is the underlying portfolio companies health.

Can someone remind me when the last profitable sale was?! My long term memory ain't so good these days.....

[rivaldo] 23/8/2007 14:14

Phyworks is in the right place at the right time:



"GLEN ALLEN, Va., Aug. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- The move to higher data rates is transforming dispersion compensation technology from a niche market to a substantial business, according to a new report from CIR, an industry analyst firm based here. The report predicts worldwide sales of dispersion products will reach $755 million by 2012. For additional information please visit Members of the press may request an executive summary.
Findings of the report include:

-- Tunable dispersion compensation finding acceptance. Tunable "set and
forget" dynamic compensation technologies using fiber Bragg gratings,
etalons and other technologies are providing a more flexible
alternative to fixed dispersion compensation modules (DCMs.) They are
finding favor with carriers because they can address PMD variations
during transmission and are seen as essential to future long-haul and
metro deployments of OC-768 technology. The market for tunable
dispersion compensation products is expected to reach $245 million by
2012

-- DCF and DCMs will still dominate market. Despite the rise of tunable
compensators, no carriers will abandon DCMs, which are widely viewed as
complementary to tunable products. Indeed, traditional DCMs continue
to be a subject of intense research with new technologies such as
photonic crystal fibers being considered to improve their performance.
Revenues of $260 million are expected from DCMs in 2012.

-- LRM creating market for EDC. The IEEE's new LRM standard uses
electronic dispersion compensation (EDC) to carry 10 GigE over legacy
fiber. CIR believes that LRM will ultimately generate demand for
millions of EDC chips every year and notes that it is opening up the
dispersion compensation market to an entirely new group of players --
the chip makers. EDC chips for LRM are expected to generate
$240 million in revenues by 2012.

About the Report:

CIR's new report analyzes and quantifies all of the key market opportunities for dispersion compensation products. It covers fixed and tunable optical products as well as electronic dispersion products and analyzes the role that these technologies will play in SONET/SDH, WDM and Ethernet networks. The role of new technologies is discussed and detailed volume and value forecasts are provided by technology and data rate. The report also discusses the activities of the leading players in the worldwide dispersion compensation market. Companies mentioned in the report include Aeluros, AMCC, ANDevices, Avago, Avanex, Bookham, Broadcom, BTI, Civcom, Coreoptics, Discovery Semi, Dowslake Micro, Fiberxon, Finisar, Fujitsu, Gemfire, Infinera, Intel, JDSU, Mintera, Mitsubishi, OFS, Opnext, Optium, Phyworks, Prima Luci, Proximion, Redfern, Santur, Scintera, StockerYale, Sumitomo/Excelight, TeraXion and Vitesse."

And here's a new report published by M-Spatial - I was a bit dismissive of these quarterly reports, but actually the info they provide would I imagine be extremely useful for mobile phone companies etc:

[timtom2] 21/8/2007 12:44

Wonder if the current mess in the markets will create problems for PDT.

Floats a problem for a while?
Buy-outs reliant on raising capital a problem for a while?
Possible US slow-down, as most buy-outs would probably come from over there?

Ho-Hum.

[hvs] 13/8/2007 19:26

Its held very well in this turbulence.

All we need a bit of good news.

[rivaldo] 10/8/2007 08:44

Nice article here - encouraging that DFJ chose Esprit out of a dozen possible targets. DisplayLink is specifically mentioned here as one of three highlighted investments - let's hope it becomes another of DFJ's blockbusters:



"DFJ's Global Offensive

After Esprit deal in West Europe, plans for India, Russia, Israel, Japan, and more.
August 7, 2007

Draper Fisher Jurvetson has added London-based Esprit Capital Partners to its network, taking a major stride in its strategy of ringing the globe with affiliated funds.

Don Wood, the DFJ managing director who oversees the company's global network, said this week that plans are afoot to plant the DFJ flag in India, Turkey, Russia, Japan, Korea, and Israel.

DFJ's moves reflect an increasingly global perspective among top-tier VCs that see less competition for deals and better valuations in foreign markets. Other firms that have created co-branded funds include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Sequoia Capital, and Benchmark Capital.

Terms of DFJ's investment in Esprit, which will be rebranded as DFJ Esprit, were not disclosed Monday. DFJ interviewed about a dozen funds over five months before deciding on Esprit as a successor to London-based DFJ ePlanet.

DFJ ePlanet, formed in 1999 to be the international vehicle for DFJ, built offices throughout Europe and Asia and helped generate some spectacular exits, including the $109 million IPO of China's Baidu and eBay's $2.6 billion acquisition of Skype.

But gradually DFJ's strategy shifted away from a global hub based in London and toward a broad network of locally directed affiliates.

"We made a strategic decision that we had to invest beyond ePlanet," Mr. Wood said. As part of the split, ePlanet will shed the DFJ name, and its new fund, now being raised, will not be affiliated with the DFJ network.

DFJ Esprit, formed via a merger of funds from Cazenove Private Equity and Prelude Ventures, oversees $500 million in a 35 company portfolio that includes Lovefilm, Intense, and Displaylink.

Tracy Lefteroff, global managing partner, venture capital services at Pricewaterhouse Coopers, said only the largest VC firms could contemplate an international presence. Still, if DFJ is successful, he said, others will "gravitate" toward the model.

"Think of it as a mesh network of independently operated, but DFJ branded funds," Mr. Wood said. "We're going to be in every major market."

The DFJ network now encompasses about $5.5 billion spread over 22 funds. About a third of the funds are managed by the affiliate network.

The first affiliate fund was DFJ Polaris, founded in 1990 in Anchorage, Alaska. In 2000 came a flurry of activity, with DFJ affiliates formed in cities including New York City, Pittsburgh, and Washington, D.C. Shanghai and Boston were among the cities added in 2006.

In setting up the network, DFJ invests in the affiliate, which sends a portion of its carried interest-those profits to which a fund is entitled-back to the network.

Mr. Wood said DFJ is seeking to strike a balance between the traditionally local venture capital process and a global knowledge economy.

"Certainly ideas flash around the world with the speed of light," he said. "All an entrepreneur needs is a computer and an Internet connection and they have a factory. There are smart engineers and talent everywhere. But it's still an old-fashioned VC process. You need teams that are local.""

[hvs] 09/8/2007 20:47

Think its just change in nominee name from same owning party.

[timtom2] 09/8/2007 20:44

just when it gets busy on the volume the bb goes quiet.

[davebowler] 09/8/2007 16:33

Big volume.

[timtom2] 06/8/2007 10:00

Can any of you read any text relating to a benefit to shareholders?

Creating a vibrant Europe is not PDT's job to do - making us money is PDT's job.

Some of it read likes Blair speak and can easily end up getting into the same mess.

[hvs] 05/8/2007 21:08

TimTom2,

I agree with you and your comments. PDT is now my biggest holding.

Be patuent, 6 months and it will happn.

[timtom2] 05/8/2007 20:44

Granted, but a Director buy confirms that those running the place have a real stake in the company - not only a salary package - and they too, knowing the intimate workings of the company, think it a bargain. It is a good signal to the wider market and has been proven over time to indicate a likely share price increase.

I like to see Directors cough-up for stock with their own money.

Anything that might help close the ridiculous discount to NAV is welcome and a Director buy could help add a couple of pennies, take some stock off the market and cause a few others to look at the company when they see the buy arrive in the Director deals lists for the week/month.

[hvs] 04/8/2007 20:19

Directors are there to manage a Company, wether they buy or not in not relevant.

We know that PDT is a bargain at this price, so weher they buy or not is not our problem.

I am happy to keep buying to see the full potential value. Wether a Director
buys or not does not concern me here because I feel there is tremendous value
that will show itself given time.

[timtom2] 04/8/2007 20:14

It send the right signal shows some commitment.
If Directors don't think this is bargain why should anyone else?

[hvs] 04/8/2007 18:22

We donot need Director buying. In fact I would be quite he did not buy.

Do not like Directors bagging bargains. They get paid enough.

[timtom2] 03/8/2007 17:00

The new board member should cough-up for some shares as I read it that he has none !!

This needs to be rectified asap no matter what experience he may bring to the table.

There is no substitute for directors backing the company with their own cash instead of living on options.

[hvs] 03/8/2007 14:54

Nice one riv,

Looks like Displaylink are going to be a winner.

[rivaldo] 03/8/2007 09:28

Another Board member then - I hope/assume he won't cost any more as he's already on the team.

DisplayLink were covered in the Grauniad the other day - a few extracts:



"Inside IT
Just say yes to sharing computer power
The man behind 'coffeepot cam' has come up with a cheap, effective way to share one computer among several users
Andrew Brown The Guardian Thursday August 2 2007

Could one of the inventors of the webcam transform the economics of computing for the poor? In 1991, when he was a doctoral student at Cambridge, Quentin Stafford-Fraser hooked up a camera to monitor the department's coffeepot so his fellow workers could know when it was fresh....

....You couldn't say the webcam has transformed the world, but now Stafford- Fraser has another idea for pushing pictures over networks which very well might do. Instead of making PCs cheaper, he wants to make them easier to share so that one computer can work for half a dozen people....

...Stafford-Fraser set up a company, now called Displaylink, to design and develop the custom chips it uses. This raised more than £20m in venture capital, because there are all sorts of commercial applications for a system that will ship pixels fast down ordinary network cable.

Power savings

For an example, Stafford-Fraser points to the railway station in Cambridge which for months had three display screens high on a wall in the main hall: one said "arrivals"; one "departures"; and one "Press Control-Alt-Delete to log in". There must have been a complete PC behind the display, waiting for a technician to climb up on a ladder, plug in the keyboard and press the right keys. With a Ndiyo system, there would be nothing but a screen up there, and all of the display screens would be managed from one central server."

[hvs] 01/8/2007 15:36

TimTom2

One consolation is that all ine companies seem to be progressing, so not
too long to wait for the IPO's.

[timtom2] 01/8/2007 12:28

Notice management statement makes mention of objective of increassing NAV but no mention of a target (or any objective) to decrease discount to NAV.

They still give the impression this is a management vehicle to play and enjoy themselves.

[hvs] 31/7/2007 20:51

I agree with your sentiments TimTom2,

A little more patience and a few more activist shareholders should do the trick.