Psg Solutions Share Discussion Threads

[masurenguy] 01/5/2009 07:57

So, an MBO at circa £4.7m for a company that could make around £1.5m profit after tax this year. Thats an historic PE ratio of just over 3 - nice price for the incumbents in my opinion. So glad I sold out at 74.8p in August 2007 and was not tempted to buy back recently at the all time lows. Condolences to any remaining longer term holders !
.............................................................................

RNS Number : 4885R
PSG Solutions PLC
30 April 2009

Offer for PSG

Statement regarding recent share trading and mandatory offer under Rule 9 of the City Code on Takeovers & Mergers (the "City Code").

The Company has been notified that Southwind Limited ("Southwind"), Retro Grand Limited, Seraffina Holdings Limited, Groundlinks Limited and Jonathan Mervis (together the "Buyers"), have increased their interests in the Company and now collectively hold 13,268,942 shares representing approximately 51.9% of the voting rights in the Company.

Under Rule 9 of the City Code, any person, who acquires an interest (as defined in the City Code) in shares, which taken together with shares in which he is already interested and in which persons acting in concert with him are
interested, carry 30% or more of the voting rights of a company which is subject to the City Code, is normally required to make a general offer to all the remaining shareholders to acquire their shares.

The Buyers have confirmed to the Company that their most recent purchase of
shares was at a price of 17.125 pence each and that this is the highest price
paid by the Buyers for the Company's shares in the last 12 months. Southwind has confirmed to the Company that as a result of the acquisition, and as required under Rule 9 of the City Code, it will be making a mandatory offer to all remaining PSG shareholders to acquire their shares at the same price of 17.125 pence per share in cash.

Southwind has advised the Company that it will only be making the offer to other shareholders because it is mandatory to do so under the City Code. The Board of PSG recommends that shareholders take no action and further
announcements will be made as appropriate. The Company confirms that it has 27,183,240 ordinary shares of 20 pence each in issue. The International Securities Identification Number (ISIN) for the Company's ordinary shares is GB00B0WHXB01.

Southwind has consented to the release of this announcement.

[empirestate] 29/4/2009 17:16

so that was kaupthing's 23% stake off loaded, which is nice, hopefully see a few decent days of rising now that's out the way, just need a tad of buyer attention

[empirestate] 29/4/2009 16:10

or is that 'to' rather

[empirestate] 29/4/2009 16:09

looks like a breakout on the cards and about time too

[empirestate] 28/4/2009 21:17

all will tell shortly. too much negativity priced in imo

[truffle] 28/4/2009 09:46

I would think that £2m is pretty optimistic in the current economic climate.
Also cash of £3m which was the figure at the half-year.

[empirestate] 24/4/2009 17:04

if PBT comes in at £2m we should c some upside. with gbp3m cash n mcap of £4m got to be reasonable value

[masurenguy] 10/4/2009 07:59

NDH have announced that they have not received any accetable offers for the business and that talks have been terminated. They will try and sell their mortgage broking network separately - wonder whether PSG could be interested in that on its own.

Meanwhile absolutely no news from PSG since last November so nobody has any handle on their current trading or cash position. No further comment from Fido either since early October. Very glad that I sold out at 75p over a year ago and have not been tempted to returm since. Their share buy back programme last summer really proved to have been poorly timed.

[midas] 11/2/2009 15:57

Masurenguy - Intersting thought in business terms I would think there's a good synergy but they will need to buy it cheap bearing in mind the fall in volume of both surveys and Mortgage apps. Also many lenders are now activley trying to cut out mortgage brokers from the picture. Interesting also that Network also set up HIPSAR (hip provider) that went into admin last August. What a mess.

[masurenguy] 28/1/2009 07:27

Hmmm.....I wonder whether the predator could be PSG ? At last nights closing price of 5.5p NDH had a market cap of just £1.55m.
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RNS Number : 3452M
Network Data Holdings PLC
28 January 2009

Statement re Possible Offer

The Board of Directors of Network Data confirms that the Company has received a preliminary approach which may or may not lead to an offer being made for the Company. Discussions are at a very early stage and there can be no assurance that any offer will be forthcoming. Further statements will be issued in due course.

In accordance with Rule 2.10 of the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers, the
Company confirms that it has 28,268,010 ordinary shares of 10 pence each in
issue. The ISIN reference for these securities is GB00B16NT791. In addition, the Company has 2,465,000 unquoted redeemable convertible preference shares of 100 pence each in issue which may be converted into ordinary shares or redeemed in full by Network Data at the option of the holder in five equal instalments on each of 31 December 2011, 30 June 2012, 31 December 2012, 30 June 2013, and 31 December 2013.
The redemption/conversion price of the convertible preference shares will be the average mid-market price of the quoted ordinary shares of the Company over the 30 days preceding the redemption/conversion instalment, subject to a maximum conversion price of £0.64 per share and a minimum of GBP0.40 per share.

[midas] 02/1/2009 12:57

I concur with all above only to also add that the Energy business is also suffereing from similar problems ie low profit margin and too much competition to make a meaningful contribution. As Masurenguy says a future staragy plan is required.

[masurenguy] 29/12/2008 12:49

Like midas, I can't really see the way forward here. Audiotel and M & B have no synergy with the property services business and will probably be sold in due course. Their traditional property search core business has now largely been displaced with HIP providers largely taking over this role from solicitors. The establishment of PSG Energy seems to be another niche business to keep their franchise network alive and whilst it is probably bread and butter it will probably never amount to anything significant in terms of scale.

HIPS looks doomed and if and when the Tories win the next election it will be abolished. Network Data, their main HIPS competitor, has already ditched this activity.

PSG recently acquired a mortgage broking agency from the Manchester Building Society mainly for paper and whilst this may have synergy with the Energy division I can't see this setting the world alight either especially in a depressed property market that may languish for a few years. They've also raised cash by selling their HQ building for circa £5m so that buys them some time. However they really need to articulate a meaningful strategy for the future in order to create any potential investment interest and at this stage I can't really envisage what this might be.

[truffle] 29/12/2008 11:53

Yes, I agree with that which mirrors my thinking too.

That leaves the other two businesses, Audiotel and the packaging company.
The former looks a bit better, but still a long way from being able to 'carry' the group forward, and the latter's profits were down.

[midas] 29/12/2008 11:02

I think the co is now too sick for any turnaround. This is a typical example of a niche business that prospered very well in the early years because they practially had a captive audience. There is now so much competition from the likes of one-search, Pali and a million other little local HIP/Search companies etc that their market share has been steadily dropping for years. The advent of Hips has been a disaster for them, with a real lack of direction leaving them in limbo and behind the curve.

I really don't know where they go from here as the reality is that the cake has not only got a lot smaller their cut of the cake has also shrunk and will continue to do so even when the market starts to improve again. All IMO of course.

M

[truffle] 28/12/2008 18:47

You have to ask yourself where the company goes from here?

They admit HIPS turnover is either falling, or getting too competitive (or just being ignored in the current climate). Probably the latter. Hence they say they are going into the energy side of things.
Frankly, can't see that being any better.

Either the company re-invents itself very quickly, or it will go under, together with all our money. Nobody is interested in small-caps unless the story, and the reality, is really compelling - sadly not the case here.

Perhaps Fido would like to comment?

[masurenguy] 28/12/2008 10:56

Conversely the Chairman Jonathan Mervis, who bought 400,000 shares for £280,000 from the Hesters @70p in July last year, is now sitting on an 80% loss of £226,000 on that transaction. Unfortunate timing but it provides him with further incentive to orchestrate a turnaround once market conditions improve.

At a closing price of 13.5p the market cap is now under £3.5m or circa 10% below the £3.85m price received by the Hestors for their 20% stake just 18 months ago !

[midas] 05/12/2008 09:13

Masurenguy - they are both astute people, built to co up when there was little or no competition and moved on before the sector became too cluttered.It is now a dog fight with profit margins falling, house sales dissapearing etc. As you say good timing on thier part.

[masurenguy] 04/12/2008 15:58

With hindsight the Hestors exited at just the right time, in July last year, when they disposed of their entire holding of 5.5m shares for £3.85m. Looking at what has since happened to both the property and equity markets they must be relieved that they timed their departure almost right at the top of the market !

[midas] 26/11/2008 15:49

For what it's worth I think this co is now in terminal decline, The main business was a major player in the Search Business but there is now so much more competition and now they are having to concentrate on HIPS - HIPs are not a viable business, Prices of HIPs have fallen so low that there is no decent profit margin. The HIP business has become a 'cottage industry' with numerous little local companies just providing them for a wage and add that to a literal 80% drop in house sales anyway, I hate to think what Q3/4 figures will look like. As for the other investments ........ All imo of course

[balloo] 25/11/2008 08:29

You can bet Fido will still be bigging it up though.

[masurenguy] 08/10/2008 20:38

Todays 6% drop was a mark down by the MMs as there were no trades at all !

[truffle] 08/10/2008 19:45

Er, well, yes something is going on actually - the price has come down by about 20%.

[fido] 03/10/2008 16:42

Yet another huge single trade today. Something going on here methinks.