Prestbury Share Discussion Threads

[dell314] 07/3/2008 08:50

ls - I suppose it depends which part of the deal the non-execs didn't like.

Having non-execs that don't just take their paycheques and go with the flow can't be bad but miffed management clearly isn't such a positive.

Rgds
dell

[latestarter] 07/3/2008 08:41

how can it de list? the non execs pulled the deal, that should speak volumes ie it was not in the best interests of shareholders, it was not management that walked, that would suggest to me trouble ahead.

[roorontev] 07/3/2008 08:38

LOL...Well you know the saying "cut off the snakes head and the rest..."...;-))

ps...We could send Lee on a two week All inclusive to Fallujah as a thank you Bonus for all his hard work for shareholders here,anyone know what size boiler suit he'll need?.....

[dell314] 07/3/2008 08:34

I'd have thought delisting is a strong possibility, after they made a big fuss about listing costs in the last results statement.

Rgds
dell

[latestarter] 07/3/2008 08:25

reduce the head count?

[roorontev] 07/3/2008 08:16

Call Tom cruise?.... ;-)

[still waiting] 07/3/2008 08:04

Anyone hear the administrators approaching?

[latestarter] 07/3/2008 08:03

wonder whats next...

[roorontev] 07/3/2008 08:02

Shock horror....;-))

[roorontev] 06/3/2008 11:45

They were given a choice of either buying a few PBH shares or open a 101TH Screaming Eagles sovereign shop in Mosul....Me?,well they do say Mosul is nice this time of year......;-)))

[wormcatcher] 06/3/2008 11:14

Some brave soul bought a few today.

[mrsasal490] 06/3/2008 10:43

Yeah i think so ill send you a line......

[latestarter] 06/3/2008 07:09

do you still have my email?

[mrsasal490] 05/3/2008 13:23

LS

Do you still speak to Lee and if so what is his view, I guess maybe reluctant to talk !!

[latestarter] 04/3/2008 09:13

offer document seems to be taking a long time to appear, stormy waters??

[littlemadam] 31/1/2008 19:38

like cyberpost, i do not hold, but from first glance i would say to holders, watch you do not get fleeced. management looking to get it on the cheap.

[cyberpost] 31/1/2008 16:57

not holding this. However the market has to give some value to the business, which is profitable and has net cash of over £400k. Its currently capped at around £2m. Take away that cash and its only valued at £1.6m.

Also there is a chance that this may flush out other bidders.

[buffin] 31/1/2008 15:34

If you took the loan note at the putative price, I suppose you'd be locked into an unlisted company until they felt able to redeem the note.

[cyberpost] 31/1/2008 15:27

are they saying the offer could be worth 20p / share ?

[roorontev] 31/1/2008 15:24

RNS Number:0057N
Prestbury Holdings PLC
31 January 2008


31 January 2008


Prestbury Holdings PLC
("Prestbury", "the Company" or "the Group")

Second Interim Results for the six months ended 31 October 2007


Prestbury, the AIM-listed low risk financial intermediary company, announces its
unaudited results for the six months ended 31 October 2007.

The highlights were:


- Turnover improved to £4.7m (six months ended 30 April 2007: £4.5m*).

- Margin improved to 18.9 per cent (six months ended 30 April 2007: 18.7 per
cent*)

- Gross Profit improved to £0.9m (six months ended 30 April 2007: £0.8m*)

- Shareholders' funds unchanged at £2.3m

- Cash position improved to £412,000 (six months ended 30 April 2007: £354,000)

- Overheads reduced to £756,051 - (six months ended 30 April 2007: £871,104*)

- EBITDA improved to £0.1m - (six months ended 30 April 2007: £0.0m*)

- Advanced stage discussions for acquisition of entire share capital of the
Company by Management.

* The results for the six months ended 30 April 2007 have been restated
primarily to reflect the re-allocation of personnel costs between Prestbury
Financial Limited and Prestbury Investment Management Limited, which
historically have been reviewed annually in arrears in December of each year,
and an increase in broker commission payable for the period.

Chairman's Statement

Prestbury's trading has remained remarkably stable through an intensely
difficult period in the mortgage market. However the business will be subject to
intense pressure over the period ahead, with margins being squeezed. Other
networks will be increasingly stressed and there are real opportunities for
Prestbury to recruit new advisers.

Your Board believes that the costs associated with being quoted on the AIM
market are at a level that makes it much harder for Prestbury to deliver growth
in shareholder value. The independent directors are therefore currently in
discussions with the executive management team of Prestbury (the "Management")
regarding a proposal from the executive management to make an offer to acquire
the entire issued share capital of the Company ("Prestbury Shares").

Such discussions are at an advanced stage (but have not yet been concluded and
therefore this announcement does not constitute a firm intention to make an
offer for the Prestbury shares nor is there any certainty that an offer will be
made) and it is intended that the consideration for the offer would be new
shares in a company which is to be newly formed by the Management for the
purposes of the offer ("Newco" and "Offeror"), such new shares to be issued on a
one for one basis, with a loan note as an alternative form of offer
consideration. The loan notes would be non interest bearing, unsecured and
issued by Newco in the amount of 20p per Prestbury Share and would be redeemable
in the same amount. It is intended that there would be no fixed date for
redemption of the loan notes, but that they would be redeemed as soon as
possible following issue as the first payment priority of Newco out of the net
financial resources available to Newco (after payment of the operating costs of
Newco and its subsidiaries) from time to time. Investors should note that
although the principal amount and redemption terms of the loan notes are
expected to be as described in this paragraph, there is no certainty as to what
the actual value to investors of the loan notes will be. Further details in
this regard will be set out in any offer document, if or when an offer is made
by the Offeror. 20p is the price at which new shares in the Company were last
placed in December 2006. This statement is made with the agreement and approval
of the Offeror.


Francis Maude

Chairman



Chief Executive's Statement


The credit crunch in the second half of 2007 has hit the entire mortgage sector
hard. Prestbury has understandably not been immune to the impact and downturn in
property and mortgage transactions that followed, but I feel we have managed the
associated risks well.


The Northern Rock debacle has caused a great deal of concern and uncertainty in
our industry, but the low risk whole of market business model that Prestbury
champions has stood up well to the market downturn. Whilst Northern Rock
accounted for 15 per cent of lending in the first half of 2007, this lending has
now been taken up by Banco Santander - Abbey. Overall, however, mortgage
transactions were down in the second half, but this drop in mortgage income was
offset by an improvement in insurance margin delivering total revenues in the
second half of the 2007 financial year marginally ahead of the first half.


Less than one per cent of our lending partners have actually withdrawn from
providing new mortgages to the prime market, i.e. those free of any bad credit.
However, nearly all have increased the rates and reduced the loan-to-value ratio
on their mortgage products. The costs associated post credit crunch of the
mortgage market to the consumer and the lenders themselves have put such a
squeeze on the market that new net lending across the industry has dropped by
approximately 20 per cent, predominantly down to affordability of the higher
interest rates and the higher loan to value products being withdrawn from the
market.


On a more positive note however, 60 per cent of Prestbury mortgage income is
actually originated from existing client re-mortgages at below 75 per cent loan
to value, and we expect this percentage of mortgage revenue to continue. The net
drop in Prestbury advisers' income from mortgages has therefore only been around
10 per cent as a result of the credit crunch.


Since August 2007, the money markets have effectively closed the doors for
business to lenders who specialise in the higher margin sub-prime sector. These
lending businesses have been unable to access affordable capital elsewhere,
thereby removing their ability to lend competitively to the UK's poor credit
population to the same levels they had previously achieved.


The zero appetite to do business in the current market is as a direct result of
the American sub-prime crisis. The American lenders have been hit the worst
because of record levels of mortgage and loan defaults, and affecting the
worldwide banking giants Citibank and Merrill Lynch to name just two, are also
major lenders in the UK's bad credit market, so the UK lending arms have
naturally been hit as a result.


It also needs noting that Northern Rock, whilst not being a bad credit lender,
used the same method of funding as the bad credit lenders and, as a result, the
doors where closed to them also, resulting in the current Northern Rock crisis
and the emergency funding being provided by the Bank of England.


The result of the downturn in the sub-prime sector has only marginally hit the
underlying operational margin and performance of the Prestbury Holdings PLC
business, as the sub-prime activities were taken out of the Group as part of a
risk strategy implemented in 2005. The business directly involved in the
sub-prime crisis, Prestbury Investment Management Limited ("PIM"), a company
owned by Stephen Keenan and myself, has seen new enquiries and demand hold up
well, but due to the reduced ability of lenders to provide funding, completed
transactions have recently fallen by 50 per cent.


The reason that such a dramatic downturn has occurred so quickly is as a result
of the credit crunch and the lenders historical business plans no longer being
viable. These lenders sold the mortgages soon after they completed as part of a
pool of securitised loan and mortgage bonds sold into the markets around the
world. Two fundamental elements to these lenders business models, as a result of
the credit crunch, have failed, not only being able to get the money in the
front door to lend, but nobody to buy it at the back end either.


As a result of the dramatic downturn, and in a similar way to the mainstream
prime lenders, the sub-prime lenders who lend via PIM and operate a traditional
risk-based balance sheet lending model, i.e. buildings societies and savings
banks, have increased the interest rates to sub-prime borrowers by approx 40 per
cent and the loan-to-value of products have reduced equally aggressively. This
market is now operating at a level more akin to common sense lending, as the
majority of lenders now price to risk, as opposed to those that operated via the
money markets who priced to sell. Prestbury Investment Management Limited
maintains strong relationships with these lenders.

[mrsasal490] 09/1/2008 16:10

mmmmm

Hope there buys at 4.5p, otherwise this would have dropped further..........

[latestarter] 20/12/2007 09:26

other than a year off, no
im 90% odd cash now and day trading, culled the small caps over the last few weeks, couldnt get a bid here so had little choice but to hold on.
January will be the tell i feel for the market, but no doubt in my worthless opinion cash is king.
not buying any small/mid caps till this is washed out
Q&A lol nothing new