Shanks Share Discussion Threads

[betman] 05/8/2010 16:45

I like it, nearly a million shares traded, roll on the 11th Sept :-)

[betman] 05/8/2010 15:30

Carlyle can come back from 11th september

In response to the announcement by Shanks on 9 March 2010, Carlyle announces
that it has terminated all discussions with Shanks regarding a possible offer
for the entire issued and to be issued share capital of Shanks and has no
current intention of making an offer for Shanks.
For the purposes of Rule 2.8 of The City Code on Takeovers and Mergers, Carlyle
(on behalf of itself and anyone acting in concert with it) reserves the right to
announce, make or participate in an offer or possible offer for Shanks (and/or
take any other action which would otherwise be restricted under Rule 2.8 of the
Takeover Code) within 6 months following the date of this announcement: (i)
following the announcement by or on behalf of a third party of a merger with or
an offer for Shanks; (ii) with the agreement or recommendation of the board of
directors of Shanks; (iii) following the announcement by or on behalf of Shanks
of a "whitewash" proposal (for the purposes of Note 1 on the dispensation from
Rule 9 of the Takeover Code) or a reverse takeover; or (iv) if there is a
material change in circumstances.

[betman] 05/8/2010 09:40

Shareprice struggling to break out of 105p resistence, a few bits of good news needed to make this happen. Then could we get back to the 120p price on previous bid ?? Divi coming tomorrow

edit 15:27pm at last it IS breaking out, a bit more volume would be nice to see

[salpara111] 07/7/2010 09:10

Gone ex today so will be interesting to see where it ends up.

[betman] 06/7/2010 14:58

good to see the recent sell off from high of 106 bottomed out well above the 92p level, so we have got a series of rising lows

[betman] 28/6/2010 10:28

where has 439 gone ?

[betman] 18/6/2010 12:41

Great to see 105p broken and also last Sept peak. Bit more volume yesterday as well which I like to see. Wonder if someone quietly accumulating ?

[betman] 15/6/2010 14:07

slowly slowly catchy monkey ??
where does this level off, 120p was the bid offer wasnt it
management value it much higher than that but would need at least another set of results to denmonstrate that value
The only disappointment is these increases are on static volume so not obviously accumulation by a bidder unless they are using CFDs

[deeppockets] 15/6/2010 10:58

1-2p a day will do me

[deeppockets] 14/6/2010 11:06

keep going!!!

[betman] 11/6/2010 16:31

same again please :-)

[mr.oz] 11/6/2010 16:13

only the 10% rise in last month to indicate anything betman
(a tad better than the rest of the market has done)

[betman] 11/6/2010 16:10

mr oz i can understand you wishing for something brewing but are you seeing any signals that there might be some action ?
If someone was going to get stuck in you would have thought they would do so before european recovery really in place and euro still weak.

[mr.oz] 08/6/2010 16:17

going well on a tough day
some MA activity today with CHLD again , am still thinking something is brewing here

[betman] 08/6/2010 08:49

Its good to see GS confirm our belief in the SKS story but it would be good if there was more detail behind the target such as - timescale, source of price growth eg from a takeover or organic.
Looks more and more like 92p was the low and steady rise from there is very nice. Next price hurdle would be about 105p and then we could be really motoring
Has anyone checked if there is much shorting here ? Closing of shorts as these rise could give a further leg up
Looking at share volumes, these hit a peak of 3m + on 20th May and have been streadily declining since then. Is this less people willing to sell at a "cheap" price or less people willing to buy at an "expensive" price ??

[mr.oz] 28/5/2010 16:07

Goldman £1.50 target

[betman] 27/5/2010 12:02

hopefully we have seen the bottom at 92p and now we can look forward to a slow recovery as the fundamentals here come back into play. European economy obviously a worry but I dont believe Holland and Belgium are impacted as the PIIGS
Takeover maybe off the agenda due to difficulty in acessing cash from banks although private equity do seem to have plenty of funds
Interesting volume peaked at the bottom ( 3 million + ), would be very nice to see a little more volume on the up days
The 2p dividend shows alot of confidence by the board, which I hope is well placed
If the next set of results and Janu 11 divi shows increase then these can really get moving up. I hope we shareholders can reap the benefit rather than an outside bidder

edit Fri 28th looking better and better, low volume today so there must be some pent up demand / orders in the system driving this

[salpara111] 20/5/2010 13:54

Well, that didnt last long!
I guess the market is off but even so...to ramp up through the morning in a measured way and now to fall right off...hmm what to do...what to do?
Bottom line is that it does not matter whether I think that things will improve the market will drive the share price
still inclined to stay in as Shanks is a defensive stock

[ansc] 20/5/2010 11:02

Allowing for the prevailing economic situation and the difficult winter weather conditions, all-in-all a creditable outcome. The final dividend of 2p is more than welcome as well!

Provided the share price doesn't shoot up too quickly, I'll be looking to add a few more to my ISA holding in the not too distant future when personal monetary aspects permit.

[onehanded] 20/5/2010 08:45

Can see another bid approach this summer some time, should get to that £1.20 mark again.

[broadwood] 20/5/2010 07:50

Can't see any bump up in the price from these figures.

I'm coming to the conclusion this is dead money for quite awhile unless we have another bid approach.

[mr.oz] 20/5/2010 07:40

Financial Performance



Underlying profit before tax fell by £10.7m (24%) to £33.2m on revenues down 0.2%. The profit impact of the recession is estimated at £20-£25 million and includes lower volumes, lower recyclate prices and pricing pressure not offsetting underlying cost increases. In addition to the recession the business has been impacted by the harsh weather conditions and the decline in Belgian Landfill following the increase in taxes on 1 January 2010. To mitigate the above we have delivered on the previously announced £10m cost programme, made additional savings through lower waste disposal costs of £10 million and improved the margins within PFI.



Furthermore we have maintained a tight control of the cash resources through strong working capital management and lower maintenance capital expenditure.



While adapting to this recessionary environment, the Group has remained focused on its long term strategic goals, and during the year the Group invested £30m in growth projects. These investments, together with the higher operational gearing resulting from the reductions in the cost base, will enhance our ability to grow as markets recover.



Progress during the year



At the Rights Issue a number of near term priorities were identified and I am pleased to report good progress against them:



Reduce debt and hold below 2.5x EBITDA

The net debt to EBITDA ratio was 1.8x at the end of March 2010



Achieve cost savings of £10m per annum

Savings of £10m achieved with a further £10m of savings in waste disposal costs



Reduce maintenance capex as a percentage of depreciation to around 50%

Target achieved with an actual outcome of 53% (96% in 2008/9)



Make targeted divestments of non core assets and improve operating cash flow

Avondale landfill joint venture sold for £27m of which £21m has been received. The sale of PFI equity was interrupted by the Carlyle approach and the Board is now evaluating the most appropriate time to sell.



Maintain investment in our focused growth strategy

£30m of growth capex was invested this year and it has remained a very high priority for the Group that we continue to invest in our strategy. Progress in implementing the key projects is highlighted below.



These near term priorities have run in parallel with progress towards the five strategic objectives I set when I joined as CEO:



1. Invest to drive organic growth where returns are greatest

Organic revenue declined by 5% as a consequence of the economic downturn. Returns from new projects began to contribute to trading profits and we continue to see a number of new projects within our strategic focus able to generate returns in excess of our target of 15%.



2. Develop our infrastructure further to support sustainable waste management

In organics we commissioned a new 100,000 tonne composting facility in Ottawa and this is producing good quality compost from municipal household waste. We also started construction work on our first UK organics plant - an anaerobic digestion plant in Cumbernauld, Scotland - which is expected to commission this Autumn. Finally we made very good progress with the flagship Greenmills project in the port of Amsterdam which will be operational in June and will process 100,000 tonnes per annum of organic waste through anaerobic digestion and 300,000 tonnes per annum of waste water. Further phases of the project could see the production of high quality fertiliser pellets and the production of bio ethanol from organic waste.



In recycling, we have made further upgrades to our recycling/solid recovered fuel plant in Ghent to increase its recycling rate and have completed most of the work on our new 150,000 tonnes per annum recycling centre which will open in Glasgow in the Autumn.



We remain active bidders for UK PFI projects which will help the UK government meet its landfill diversion targets. Work has started on the mechanical biological treatment (MBT) plants in our recently signed Cumbria contract. We have moved successfully through the short listing stages of a number of MBT opportunities and after a couple of early disappointments in our energy-from-waste partnership with Wheelabrator, we have secured some strong positions in that market as well. With Shanks in the final four bidders or better in six opportunities we remain confident of meeting our goal of securing 1.5m tonnes under management.



3. Share our core capabilities and technologies within the Group

Orgaworld has supported the launch of our organics business in the UK and has designed the new plant we will commission in Cumbernauld. They have also assisted the UK team in making operational improvements to our MBT plants.



In the Benelux we have seen improving cooperation in the management of wood waste across the region. As there has been a shortage of waste in the Netherlands we were the first company to secure a license to export pre treated waste from the UK to the Netherlands where it is being processed into fuel pellets at our Icova facility.



4. Maximise asset utilisation and minimise unit costs

I am pleased with the progress made in both our Netherlands and Belgian operations to move from a plant based view of asset utilisation to a country level view. This has allowed us to move waste across various facilities and either mothball existing plants or avoid new capital expenditure. As an example we are now feeding our Ghent recycling facility with waste from Brussels, avoiding capital investment in Brussels and improving substantially the utilisation at Ghent which now runs on a 24 hour basis. I expect further progress in this area this year as we become more sophisticated in measuring and managing capacity utilisation.



5. Continue to use acquisitions to improve asset utilisation and re-orient the portfolio to high growth markets

Given the economic conditions we have not made any significant acquisitions this year.

[salpara111] 19/5/2010 10:00

Well, I am underwater on this one and it is falling off quite a bit today.
Results due in the next couple of days, wonder if the city grapevine has news of something nasty?
Ultimately this is a defensive business so it should not show large swings in any direction.
I guess that I will just hold for the results as there cant be much further downside from here....or can there?