Roebuck Food Group Public Share Discussion Threads

[cortez] 14/11/2005 20:48

HugePants

Thank you, much appreciated.

[guru11] 14/11/2005 16:26

HugePants - believe we have met before on another thread.
Will have a closer look at the accounts of VIG.
Probably like me the crowd has not taken too close a look.
I am in IDN and DMP at present as well, and dont want to keep changing around too much cause of cost. But at an appropriate time may well buy more of RFG, and even some of VIG.
I've had a bad period since April what with EVS, but am now going back to fundamentals and low pe ratios, to help pick up the losses but it will be slow.
RFG could be one of those shares that when the market warms to it, could be much higher.

I cant say that I am totally convinced about VIG though.
The only problem with RFG if the director is making shares available is that it could suspress the price a little. However this is only a short thing, and if profits if the performance keeps up, then I can see this stock going places. An acorn taking root.

[hugepants] 14/11/2005 13:52

Yes you can buy 15K online at 43p last time I checked. I wonder how many Mr Anoniades will unload onto the market. There could be an overhang here for some time. As an aside I think RFG would make a good acquisition for a company like BSG which has cash and looks to be a very similar business.

guru, As regards VIG Im ignoring goodwill write-off and the 90% tax charge at the interims. Id bet on a normal FY tax charge (there is also an unrecognised deferred tax asset of 0.5M)

[skyracer] 14/11/2005 13:20

guru, cant see it today, but there was a 100k @ 34p sell on Friday morning and again 100k @ 40p sell on Friday afternoon. Considering there is only 500k shares free float (£210k) which is tiny, I can only assume it was Anthony Antoniades making some shares available for liquidity. We will know if/when an RNS is released.

[guru11] 14/11/2005 08:51

HugePants - thanks for the recommendation - will look into it.
Good to get into something before the crowd that is what it is all about.

Only had a quick look but VIG only made £6k profit half way.

Also see 100k sell in RFG today at 34p ?
Why would someone want to sell with such a low prospective pe ratio?

[hugepants] 13/11/2005 22:07

If you like RFG then VIG may be of interest since its a similarly cheap IT company. Market cap is 3.7M but did 0.45M pre-tax profit (before goodwill write-off) in H1. Strong outlook so should do 0.9M pre-tax (before goodwill) for the full year. Valued barely above net liquid assets. Using cash to make acquisitions so not paying a dividend. I hold a lot of VIG shares (I also hold RFG shares)

[tomoslewis] 13/11/2005 19:43

Thanks for that Interesting...

[tomoslewis] 13/11/2005 19:32

Thanks for posting the link to the full set of march accounts HugePants will read them now :-))

[guru11] 13/11/2005 19:28

The bottom line is these are exceptional value that's why I bought a few on Friday. I also agree that it would appear that the second half profits could well exceed the first half, so on a pe of say 6, the jam tomorrow is here now, so the share price could easily go higher.

[hugepants] 13/11/2005 10:23

Heres the accounts:


There are 10.4M shares in issue. There are also about 0.85M stock options exerciseable at around 32p so there is small potential dilution in the future.

[tomoslewis] 12/11/2005 16:25

from a review of company anouncements, Antonides has been in this majority shareholder position for some years now. If there was an intention to but out mimority shareholders and take the company private, I would have thought that he would have done so some time ago.

[taffychaff] 12/11/2005 13:34

found it...11,220,000 shares in issue....see the catch though...antonides owns 94% of the shares so if he wanted to he could take the company private very easily with no premium and in fact could do what the hell he likes at the expense of shareholders.

[sharegod] 12/11/2005 13:33

This is a very similar situation to MRD imho which is a profitable company paying a divi and chairman stating strong growth in pipeline.The CEO there also held a massive %age and has been selling down recently mostly through placings to hoodies city equities et al.The shareprice has languished as a result. This is one to watch though.

[taffychaff] 12/11/2005 13:30

tomoslewis

Picked this up from the thus board....can you confirm the market cap for me as it seem looney low.Thanks

[tomoslewis] 12/11/2005 12:40

From his comments, the chairman clearly thinks so too, extract from the interims below:

Business Review

The first six months of this financial year have seen strong growth in both of
the Group's core businesses, namely 'Managed Service' bespoke software
development, support and maintenance and 'Recruitment Services', offering
high-value contract and permanent staff recruitment.

Your Directors are pleased to report that existing business gains have been
maintained and, in most cases, developed further to contribute to the increased
revenues. The Group's investment in an expanded sales force is now driving new
sales throughout the UK and progress is being made in selling higher value
services to our clients. The Group continues to receive strong levels of
business from all of its major clients.

The Group's premises in Brighton and Livingston are being fully utilised and
this, combined with continuing tight control of costs and optimal staffing
levels, has provided improved profit margins.

Current Trading

Your Board is confident that the second half of this financial year will see
continued growth in demand for its services, with confirmed commitment levels
on retained business being matched by an expected further growth in new
business. Your Directors will continue to seek to invest in sales and marketing
opportunities, to increase revenues and to improve margins

Your Directors are focussed on expanding the number of Managed Service clients
through new sales initiatives and cross-selling these higher value services to
other clients. In addition, your Board is looking at a number of initiatives to
increase the range of IT-related services we can offer to our clients.


That last bit ... "looking at a number of initiatives to increase the range of IT-related services" to me confirms that the company may be considering supplimenting its impressive organic growth with some form of corporate action. In my opinion that means the share price should respond to events.

[tradx666] 12/11/2005 12:28

TomosLewis,

all depends on the sales pipeline, and I'm led to believe it's looking strong..:-)

regards

T..

[tomoslewis] 12/11/2005 12:24

I am impressed by the quality new client list new clients including IBM UK Ltd, Legal & General Assurance Society Ltd, Aegon UK plc, American Express UK plc and Abbey National plc ..... new contracts expected to add in excess of £5,000,000 to annual turnover per the march anouncement, clearly most of this increase has already been booked in the first half and they are expecting continued growth in the second.

[tradx666] 12/11/2005 12:17

HugePants, Frank..

I'm pretty certain that the companies brokers will be addressing the issue of free float soon enough, they needed to get these numbers out into the public domain for them to go 'place' a few more...

I think you may well see news on this sooner rather than later, for what's worth I have a 12 month target of 80-90p.

regards

T..

[tomoslewis] 12/11/2005 12:14

But even under the constraints suggested by HugePants, the growth potential in the business is clearly demonstrated in these set of results. Potential here for corporate activity, either acquisition or consolidation into another group, significant upside in my opinion.

[frank spencer] 11/11/2005 14:06

I guess he will want out eventually, either by selling the company or doing what you suggest.

It is upto the house broker to suggest something, as in a couple of days, the stock volume and posts on this thread will die away until the next results.

[hugepants] 11/11/2005 13:57

Id expect H2 to beat H1 given last years performance and the upbeat narrative with the interims. So 0.8M after tax looks OK which puts co on a PE of 6. Perhaps a FY dividend of 1.75p so yield just under 4%?

The thing that stops me piling in is

(a) Its impossible
(b) The spread and illiquidity will make it very difficult to sell out even if you manage to overcome (a)

Why doesnt the guy holding 90% place the majority of his shares with institutional investors. This company is an attractive investment now. Its a profitable IT business with nearly 20M in revenues. Im sure if he did this the share price would be re-rated. As it is its really a private company just now.

[frank spencer] 11/11/2005 13:51

Seeing as the boss owns 90 or 95% of the shares, he can do what he likes with it, which is why it is cheap, and always will be imo.

[sharegod] 11/11/2005 13:49

It does look very cheap and could obviously become a takeover target.