Proactis Share Discussion Threads

[douglas fir] 14/3/2018 16:59

SEH United Hoteliers Group Selects Perfect Commerce, a PROACTIS Company, for Major Online Marketplace Project
14/03/2018 3:59pm
Business Wire

Proactis (LSE:PHD)
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Today : Wednesday 14 March 2018
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SEH to improve purchasing strategy with new cloud-based services

Perfect Commerce, a PROACTIS company and global Spend Control and eProcurement provider, today announced that it has been selected by SEH United Hoteliers (SEH) to deploy its cloud-based eProcurement platform in Europe.

The project will enable SEH Group’s purchasing organisation to offer new online services to its hoteliers, while increasing the efficiency of its purchasing strategy. The group decided to create a marketplace to allow all hotel owners, both within and outside the group, to make more intelligent purchases with increased transparency. This emphasises the group’s loyalty to independent hoteliers.

Perfect Commerce was chosen due to its experience with similar projects, international scope and ease of use. The SEH team was particularly drawn to the user-friendly and intuitive eProcurement and Catalogue Management solutions: “With Perfect Commerce, SEH will be able to guide its members towards a new stage of digital transformation by offering an online service for all purchases on a digital platform,” says David Esseryk, Chief Digital and Marketing Officer, SEH United Hoteliers.

“Implementing the purchasing marketplace will better serve our hoteliers and provide a 100% online service with a single-order basket,” added Elisabeth Meulle, Head of the Group Purchasing Organisation.

The new service will be available to all hotel owners from Spring 2018 and will be rapidly deployed. The Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model and supplier recruitment services, exclusively offered by Perfect Commerce, are key factors in fast and efficient implementation.

“We are proud of the trust SEH has placed in us,” stated Martial Gerardin, Managing Director, Europe for Perfect Commerce. “It is a recognition of our experience and the excellence of our solutions.”

[p1nkfish] 13/3/2018 18:29

I might have it wrong.

What if remaining listed in Paris, with minority holding (possibly French), makes it more Brexit anti-UK action resilient or helps in winning business in the EU?

[p1nkfish] 13/3/2018 15:31

Yes, pragmatic batelur.

I just like the idea of control and optimising cost of listing and running.
Annoying situation.

I might be tempted to hold if I was in Hubwoo as the value should rise. Last 20c offer was via a 3rd party valuation.

Chance of picking up 9.55M shares on normal open market is remote. Trading volumes have been very low until the most recent activity.

[p1nkfish] 13/3/2018 13:49

I tried buying Hubwoo before Christmas but couldn't get them at a price that made sense. Turned out that was right given the €0.20c PHD later offered.

Interesting to see what happens to the Hubwoo price as volume will probably go back to sleep and there's probably 11% that won't sell for love nor money.

Much cleaner if PHD achieved > 95%.

I guess they've done the maths on savings from delisting vs cost of acquiring another 7% or so at > €0.20. About another 9.55M shares.

Anyone know what French listing and reporting costs are?

[p1nkfish] 13/3/2018 13:37

Board is under control.
Must be some other blockers.

[p1nkfish] 13/3/2018 13:34

It's never that simple in France.
Tim Sykes comments are upbeat but I don't think it is so positive.
They need to take more Hubwoo stock off the market to force change.

The way the board is mentioned I wonder if the last 11% are held by the Hubwoo board and they are blocking?

France does not appear as transparent as UK.

Please, Proactis, as a majority holder of Hubwoo can you publish the profile of the holders of the last 11% of Hubwoo in next set of results? Especially if they are on the Hubwoo board.

It would be handy to know what's next as the current status quo might limit change that would help efficient and ultimately holders of PHD.

[bateleur] 13/3/2018 13:27

@eagle-eye Looks like a 95% threshold applies in France. Google "France Takeover Guide". Its a useful document and its in English. I can't seem to copy the link. In South Africa, we use 90%. I think there is also a mandatory cooling off period until a second attempt at the minorities can be made. Maintaining the listing is certainly suboptimal in terms of avoidable listing fees and boards costs etc.

[eagle eye] 13/3/2018 12:52

bateleur,
I'm not familiar with the 90% squeeze-out threshold, but am led to believe that Proactis will continue to explore all possible options.
I would have thought financial savings would be considerable by cutting out listing costs and duplicated management.
Unfortunately in France it isn't quite that simple.

[bateleur] 13/3/2018 12:18

@eagle-eye Does a 90% squeeze-out threshold not apply? I seem to recall reference being made to a squeeze-out. That said, 90% has not been achieved, so there is no basis to enforce a delisting on minorities. In due course, Proactis will probably have another go.

[rivaldo] 13/3/2018 11:11

New press release:



"Spend Compliance: Act Now to Mitigate Excess Cost, Risk & Fraud, Advises PROACTIS

Uncontrolled spending is leaving organisations exposed to excess cost, risk and fraud.

March 08, 2018 05:41 AM Eastern Standard Time

WETHERBY, England--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Organisations are losing billions in annual profits due to the inability to organise and analyse spend data and implement best practices to capture these lost savings. Complex spend management rules and standards are difficult to enforce, and often there is limited involvement of the necessary stakeholders to make it happen.

PROACTIS advises organisations to take action. To establish a clear strategy for spend compliance that ensures all organisation-wide purchases are in line with corporate policies, established budgets and negotiated supplier agreements to avoid costly and uncontrolled off-contract purchases.

Simon Dadswell, EVP Group Marketing at PROACTIS, said: “Organisations should be taking note of where cost savings are not fully being realised and putting in place compliance management programs to force adherence to spend guidelines. After all, improved spend compliance translates directly to the bottom line by reducing operating cost and increasing profitability.”

Spend management requires a comprehensive compliance process that helps organisations to obtain better visibility and control of spend; to determine the appropriate structure and time to enforce compliance; to strengthen processes and establish best practices to support controls; and to involve all ‘proper’ stakeholders at all key stages.

This approach is critical to an organisation’s financial health and performance. It requires the ability to:
• Monitor enterprise spending at a consolidated level, and down to line item, across departments, divisions, geographies and categories to ensure conformity with preferred suppliers, negotiated supplier terms and volume discounts.
• Communicate negotiated sourcing parameters to all stakeholders, reducing process time lags and the tendency to resort to maverick buying when purchasing goods and services.
• Reduce manual processing of orders that account for a large amount of cost, and that can leave the company exposed to unexpected liability.
• Have visibility of available substitute goods and services and take advantage of opportunities that may exist to consolidate supply.

"With the proper support tools, effective compliance management is in fact very practical,” continued Simon. “And the good news is that the tools needed are the same tools that help you to manage your procure-to-pay process – purchase-to-pay, AP automation, electronic sourcing, supplier communications and centralised contract management.”

[eagle eye] 13/3/2018 10:41

Following today's RNS, I've contacted the company to enquire why as 88% shareholder, Hubwoo isn't now being de-listed.
Apparently French authorities do not allow de-listing 'by simple company choice'.
It's all a bit complicated, so I guess for now it's watch this space.

[p1nkfish] 13/3/2018 07:16

About €2.61M used to buy-in more Hubwoo stock.
Another 9.56% under PHD control.

11.49% remains with other holders, 88.51% with PHD.
Would like to know the profile of the holders of the minority share.

Would like to have seen them mop-up more.

Perhaps that can be done gradually on the open market over time but no doubt at > €0.20 per share.

[rivaldo] 12/3/2018 14:41

I thought the reference was blatantly unsubtle! Oh well.

Good article from SCSW. They spoke at length to the new CEO. Lots to look forward to.

[eagle eye] 12/3/2018 12:08

Trumpet fanfare.... it looks like a breakout and an all-time high at 195p-203p.
Interesting days ahead.
Best wishes to all shareholders.

[gargleblaster] 12/3/2018 10:50

That's a bit crytic for me riv! Fully admit that I am a Johnny-come-lately here, but since I was in (and out) of phd previously, I kept an eye on the thread. It was posts by you and pinkfish that swayed me to enter again - so my hat tip is firmly in both of your direction! All best.

[nurdin] 12/3/2018 10:22

Riv..every time I think I have found a gem,I find you are already in.Next time stand in the queue will ya ! :o)

[rivaldo] 12/3/2018 09:10

It is indeed great news gargleblaster - although with this rise I think we should TIP our hats to the new holders here this morning. If you get my drift :o))

[gargleblaster] 12/3/2018 08:49

Great news and the share price is reacting accordingly. Good to see that these are international wins including the US - so scaling up could produce dramatic results.

[rivaldo] 07/3/2018 14:51

I've bought a few more on this dip.

Thanks re the above p1nkfish. It's well worth posting in full:

"PROACTIS Reports Impressive Multi-National Customer Growth

PROACTIS strengthens global presence with 35 customer wins in new and core markets
March 06, 2018

WETHERBY, England--(BUSINESS WIRE)--PROACTIS, a global Spend Control and eProcurement solution provider, today released details of a series of new multi-national projects that highlight the company is gaining traction in its new and core markets around the world, due to its widening solution portfolio and dedicated commercial teams following the merger with Perfect Commerce.

Building on a successful financial year ending July 2017 and a business transformative acquisition during August 2017 which doubled the size of the Group, PROACTIS continues to see significant strength for business transformation initiatives across a wide variety of vertical sectors. Organisations are adopting the latest digital technologies to support improved savings, productivity and responsiveness, while reducing risk.

Some of these new customers include:
• Over 15 Councils and Government agencies are using PROACTIS to transform their spend management and eCommerce processes.
• An East Coast American University has selected PROACTIS to help consolidate purchasing processes across multi-site locations and to leverage its buying power.
• A large hospitality group in France, running 600 independent hotels throughout continental Europe, is implementing PROACTIS to bring operational efficiencies to hotel members and transform procurement.
• A US State Government organisation – supporting 50-plus state agencies and schools and a population of more than one million people – has selected the PROACTIS end-to-end eProcurement platform.
• A UK Not-for-Profit organisation is using PROACTIS to streamline its purchasing, invoicing and expense processes to support straight-through processing efficiencies.
• A Netherlands-based global financial institution is using PROACTIS to extend its strategic sourcing to Germany and Turkey.
• A leading healthcare management company based in the UK is implementing PROACTIS to support growth by ensuring operational efficiency and rigorous spend management practices.
• A global legal firm selected PROACTIS to gain better visibility and control of spend across the entire organisation, especially for its significant IT spend.
• A large US restaurant chain is using PROACTIS Sourcing Services to expand its procurement capacity and achieve greater savings across a wide range of direct and indirect categories.
• A bank based in Belgium, that also operates in the Netherlands and Luxembourg, has selected PROACTIS Source-to-Contract solutions to maximise efficiency, control and cost savings across its procurement processes.

These new customer successes show great progress for the group, and prove PROACTIS is truly building a platform for growth. PROACTIS already helps over 1,000 organisations around the world to transform the way they do business, in ways that add the greatest bottom-line value for them, while improving the way buyers and suppliers engage and interact.

Hamp Wall, Chief Executive Officer at PROACTIS, said: “2017 was a transitional and very successful year for PROACTIS and we have already hit the ground running this year. Our success is built on significant investment in the business and our people to ensure that we continue to provide the highest levels of service for our customers so that they gain and sustain value. Recent growth has been fuelled by the increasing awareness among companies that significant savings and greater efficiencies are possible through better spend management practices.”

[p1nkfish] 06/3/2018 23:16

Business Wire news release today.

[rivaldo] 01/3/2018 10:46

PHD presented at Sharesoc last month, and there's an encouraging summary in this month's Sharesoc newsletter which is just out today:

"Proactis

This is an interesting situation in that Proactis is the result of a recent merger between itself and an equivalent company called Perfect Commerce. According to new
CEO Hamp Wall these businesses were extremely complementary, despite appearing to be competitors, and so the combination is the best of both their operations. So
after a period of consolidation where employee numbers were rationalised, and some office locations/data centres closed, a recent trading update shows adjusted EBITDA
to be up by >100% with 35 new “labels” won in the half year (I take “labels” to be the equivalent of customers).

However a lot of this growth is down to the acquisition itself and that’s a pattern which Hamp Wall intends to continue as Proactis seeks to consolidate the industry and grow by 25-30% pa (inc. organic growth of 10%). This is a reasonable ambition as Proactis is now the 5th biggest player by revenue (2nd largest by profit) behind SAP Ariba and there are lots of small players in the market.

As for what Proactis does it’s an intermediary between suppliers and customers. They have a SaaS cloud platform that hosts a large number of suppliers (~2 million)
and connects them to around 1000 customers (half private and half public). The customers benefit from organised supplier negotiation (eSourcing), with full auditing, along with eProcurement when they actually buy from a selected supplier using the network/transaction layer which Proactis supply. In addition to directly benefiting their customers Proactis also monetise their supplier pool by helping them to work effectively with customers.

So you can see why this is a business that benefits from scale as larger numbers of customers/suppliers feed back in a loop that benefits everyone.

In Hamp Wall’s words (and he seems very positive about the future) they are now a global player with a full solution suite in a growth market. They can also self-fund tuck-in acquisitions, rather than raising money in the market every time, and are one of the few PCI-compliant firms which means that they can hold credit card data.

With a “prettier̶1; system in place I can see why recurring revenue visibility of >80%, with EBITDA margins at >30%, should allow them to hit their target of £100m in sales (from £55m now) and so achieve the level of profit growth pencilled in by analysts. The only problem is that organic growth is hard to discern in a bolt-on business and it seems that the underlying Proactis arm only managed ~8% in this half-year with the underlying Perfect Commerce being largely flat - so it’ll take a bit of work to meet the overall 10% organic growth target. Still given Hamp Wall’s track record I’m sure that he’ll get there in the end."

[rivaldo] 27/2/2018 10:30

Nice 15k buy at 193p this morning. PHD seems to be consolidating nicely ready for another push upwards.

[eclair] 23/2/2018 13:09

Thanks for the explanation, much appreciated.