Rtc Share Discussion Threads

[rivaldo] 24/5/2021 08:41

A rather confident move this morning - RTC intend commencing a buyback of up to almost 2.2m shares.

And it will additionally offer to buy back and cancel almost £1m share options at 46.5p each (mostly consisting of around 1.6m options held by the CEO and FD).

The former is certainly ambitious - perhaps there will be a larger holder or two who are sellers and can be taken out this way since day to day liquidity won't provide this level of buyback. The latter is much more questionable and is a mechanism for "providing remuneration" to management.

At the end of the day these moves will lead to much less dilution, and if the shares are currently cheap then the upside for holders has just been potentially materially increased:

[shanklin] 21/4/2021 09:10

Yes, could easily get back to 80p

[rivaldo] 21/4/2021 09:02

RTC were making 8p-9p EPS historically pre-pandemic, were paying 4p per share dividends, and haven't had to raise any money to get through the pandemic.

A sniff of that coming through again and....that's the gamble.

[shanklin] 21/4/2021 08:40

Potentially interested here but have been bitten in the past by almost all the upside, when it happens, being snaffled by the directors.

Is there any evidence that this time will be different?

[rivaldo] 21/4/2021 08:34

Today's AGM statement is somewhat optimistic and augurs well, though hardly enough to send the shares spiralling upwards :o))

The main business of provision of contract staff to the infrastructure and railway transportation sectors and internationally is doing pretty well, whilst recruitment and smart-meter installation has now picked up. The hotel and conference centre will also start to recover now lockdown is easing. There's no guidance for this year yet.

Last year RTC made 4.7p EPS, whilst pre-pandemic forecasts for 2021 were 11.9p EPS. If RTC can show decent progress from last year's 4.7p EPS - especially with decent net cash against the £4.2m m/cap - then there should be reasonable upside at some point. It's just a question of patience until then:

[3800] 14/4/2021 09:08

I wonder if we will get a trading update this April? We usually do

[davidosh] 14/4/2021 00:10

This delay means the support services needed and provided by RTC are going to be required for another six months at least...

[rivaldo] 16/3/2021 08:32

A 10k buy this morning and another move up. Bouncing nicely now.

[davidosh] 08/3/2021 16:23

As you say....Upward movement at last.

[rivaldo] 08/3/2021 15:18

Nice move up :o))

I wonder if it's anything to do with this good news for RTC's Ganymede today. The comments about the boom in provision of rail worker demand are perhaps even more important than the contract win itself:



Extract:

"Coleg y Cymoedd on track to deliver next generation of rail engineers
By Rhys Gregory 7 hours ago

One of the largest further education colleges in South Wales has teamed up with leading rail industry names to train the next generation of skilled railway workers and create hundreds of apprenticeships.

Coleg y Cymoedd has partnered up with Protech Rail Engineering – a Treforest-based firm which provides engineering and construction expertise to the UK industry – to create the ‘Protech Training Academy’. The programme is designed to equip the country’s future workforce with the skills and experience needed to meet future demand.

The collaboration will also see Protech Training Academy team up with industry partner Ganymede, a national supplier of rail industry personnel, who will be the first employer to engage with the partnership, providing apprenticeships to learners on the programme. The company has recruited an initial 11 apprentices and is expecting to take on up to 100 over the next two years with opportunities for full time employment following their apprenticeships.

Demand for skilled workers in the rail industry is set to soar following the announcement of multiple major rail infrastructure projects across the UK, as well as concerns over the loss of skills faced by the industry over the next few years due to its aging workforce. Estimates suggests that 28% of current rail industry employees are aged over 50 and City & Guilds predicts that an additional 120,000 people will be required in the sector over the next five to ten years to fulfil the requirements of upcoming schemes.

In Wales alone, Transport for Wales has revealed a ten-year programme of major investments to improve the country’s transport network including three quarters of a billion pounds to electrify the core valley lines as part of the South Wales metro project, £800m to develop new faster, greener trains as well as £194m to improve existing stations and create five brand new stations.

etc"

[edmundshaw] 22/2/2021 08:33

rivaldo, quoting, " It is unlikely that we will be recommending a return to payments in the near future."

Sensible to maintain maximum cash flexibility until conditions are clarified, I am not expecting an interim at this stage, as there are still unknowns with the government pandemic exit strategy and possible (IMO probably not serious) unknowns with the impact of COVID variants, and the company seems concerned about the effects of wider economic changes (it has specific exposures to the oil sector for example).

More importantly, the group now has no term debt and has enhanced total equity for investors in difficult trading conditions.

I am rather positive about the flexible strategy and operations that RTC has evidenced, which IMO augurs well for the future here.

[herbert0] 22/2/2021 07:51

Good results under the circumstances. Excellent and comprehensive report by CEO.

[rivaldo] 22/2/2021 07:49

Are these very good results or what at first look?!

Here we have a £4m m/cap company at 45p which has made 4.66p EPS and £1.1m operating profit when badly affected by the pandemic, and has £1.9m net cash!

Admittedly £1.5m of VAT has been deferred, and the divi has been suspended for the foreseeable future.

But overall this is surely a very creditable result, and certainly better than I expected.

It's also encouraging that RTC "believe we are well placed to capture opportunities that will emerge through the Government's social housing and electric vehicle initiatives which will drive long term demand across the sector."

There's a lot to read through, but still.....

[edmundshaw] 18/2/2021 14:46

Exactly so David.

This is my only real microcap currently... it is a different ball game to my other small caps, let alone my L&G and Phoenix holdings!

But profits come in all sized companies... not to mention a prospective re-established dividend yielding 9.9% at 42p (8.85% at 47p).

I get the feeling that many smaller companies are recovering well of late - those massive yields were available from safe FTSE 100 shares a few months ago before they recovered. Whoever is buying now has very nice timing I think!

[davidosh] 18/2/2021 14:00

Maybe a bit of buying ahead of results and the return to pre covid growth

The Group expects to announce its preliminary results on or around 22 February 2021.

In spite of the difficult economic environment, I remain cautiously confident of our ability to deliver continued positive results in 2021 in all areas of our business."

Lets face it RTC is still 40% lower than where it was this time last year

[cheshire man] 18/2/2021 13:34

Wanting 48p now for a mere £1000 worth

[rivaldo] 18/2/2021 12:21

Well, someone just bought 10k at the full 47p offer price and it moved the price up again....

[scepticalinvestor] 18/2/2021 10:50

impossible to buy this stock

[tiswas] 22/1/2021 16:28

Companies like this should not be listed when they treat the owners of the business with such disdain.

[tresham] 22/1/2021 15:03

I don't think the Trading Update is any more or less informative than last year. Except this year has been effected by Covid and the company profits have declined just as the share price is about half compared to last year.

[boadicea] 22/1/2021 12:20

That's uncanny!
I was expecting a possible update today and when it didn't come at 7am I decided to sell out - at 8.44am.
A while afterwards I posted my comment above at 10:15am.

To my surprise when I looked in again just now I find that they posted their 'Update' at 10.22.

Perhaps they noted the sells and decided to rush out an overdue statement which would account for Edmundshaw's impression (in 1573).

Will I now be investigated for a market leak?

[rivaldo] 22/1/2021 12:17

This is a chance to use one of my favourite words - obfuscating :o))

Considering RTC made £231k PBT in H1, to state they will "record a profit" for the year is meaningless. Does it suggest they made a small loss in H2, when things were supposed to get better after lockdown one? Did cash improve or worsen in H2?

The context here is that the m/cap is only £3.8m, so there's hopefully little downside except on a bad day (this is an illiquid stock), and substantial upside if Ganymede and GSS continue to thrive and ATA keeps its head above water.

I'll keep my relatively small stake on that basis, but really RTC need to vastly improve their communication and disclosure. And interaction with PIs is now even worse - at least Whitman Howard's research used to be available on Research Tree, but now they're with Panmure Gordon even that has gone.

[tole] 22/1/2021 10:51

Agree. One of the most vague trading updates I've read.

[edmundshaw] 22/1/2021 10:28

News? The trading statement is almost barren of any content.

RTC "will record a profit", "both the net debt and cash position is (sic) sound", zero quantification or breakdown of different parts of the business. Reads like it was scribbled off in 5 minutes.