Stylo Share Discussion Threads

[martinsim] 16/5/2002 10:42

Things have gone a bit quiet here !
Has everyone lost interest in this share.
I just had a look at the chart for the last 3 years and it would appear that with continued improvement in the business operations regardless of take-over speculation we should be up at 45p within a few months.
Anyone agree / disagree ?

[diogenesj] 26/4/2002 15:07

Niggle, I decided to sell mine. I didn't like the results. They were arranged to show the shoe shops breaking even, despite another drop in sales in the greatest retail boom for 15 years (even like for like sales were up by less than inflation). The chairman talked of strict stock control, but stocks were up by £1.3m even as the sales fell, and the finance director said that the shops had absorbed some £4m in extra working capital. Cash is evaporating, and will show up as losses in future years. This was paid for by selling yet another property. Net assets were certainly up (including stocks and the rest), but fixed assets, where the value is, were down in line with the property sale.

The Ziffs are financing their shoe retailing hobby (worse, they are now talking of expanding it) by selling the property portfolio built up by previous generations. Their position at Stylo seems virtually unassailable. Jack Petchey is attacking on two fronts (he also has 6% of Town Centre Properties, chairman M. Ziff, which in turn has 15% of Stylo) but I think that he and the two other activists GPG and AS Perloff will find this a tough nut to crack.

Good luck to them and other holders, but I'm getting my coat. :-)

[niggle] 24/4/2002 08:36

Up 10% to 39p, I think the bad old days are behind and this company should continue to rise. Where else can you buy £65m assetts for £23m in a company that spans two growing sectors. Congratulations to Mr Ziff

[niggle] 24/4/2002 08:34

up 10% on pretty good news. £65m for £23m @ 39.5p cheap company, should continue to improve from herein.

[niggle] 20/4/2002 00:00

tree shaking, disproportionate drop, no bad news

[diogenesj] 10/4/2002 16:45

Couple of 20,000 trades reported later on. Price up 6% - another day like this and I'll be breaking even.

[niggle] 10/4/2002 13:38

"A property company that owns some shops that are starting to trade a bit better"
Two areas of the economy that are doing well, mmm Moving up on low volume

[niggle] 10/4/2002 13:30

mm's pushing the price up on little volume mmm? sorry zzz?

[diogenesj] 09/4/2002 14:29

Sorry, Niggle: misinterpreted the sounds rising from your armchair.

[niggle] 09/4/2002 08:36

Diogenesj.
That would have been zzzzzzzzz ! I went mmmmmmmm.

As far as I know there is little news. I think the current upside is down to good nice weather/good trading/new format and positive retail sentiment. JRB's commet about M Ziff increasing his stanglehold on the business still holds true. Reasonable upside on these measures alone

[diogenesj] 08/4/2002 11:52

Nothing much at the moment, MS. Could be some news on results day, which I hear is 25 April. Even Niggle seems to have gone to sleep.

The story is still that Guinness Peat and Jack Petchey, two well-known corporate vultures, have stakes, and GP have recently added to theirs. So far, they have nothing like enough to frighten the management, who have most of the votes.

[martinsim] 08/4/2002 09:59

Anyone got a clue what is going on here ?
I have held this stock for some time now and am praying for take-off.

[diogenesj] 02/4/2002 14:06

GPG still buying: another 425k shares today (now have 8.253m or 14.7%). They succeeded with Quicks: perhaps they're going to put a bit of effort into this one now.

Diogenes (JRB)

[jrb] 13/12/2001 10:41

Here's something I posted yesterday on the 3i board (Shooting Shares is a 3i poster who welcomed - I thought wrongly - the purchase of shares by M.A.Ziff in May this year):

STYLO

It is announced today that Guinness Peat Group have bought another 725k shares, bringing their holding to 13.11%. As readers of this board probably know, another activist, veteran septuagenarian millionaire property investor Jack Petchey, also has a holding (1.34%).

Now, it is important to recognise what is at stake here. Stylo is a bad company in a bad business (shoe shops). It has lost money for years: £15m in 1999, £24m in 2000, just about broke even in 2001, lost another £2m in the first half of the current year. When you consider that the current market capitalisation is just over £16m, it is obvious that these are significant sums.

It has kept going by selling property assets to cover the losses, and it has been allowed to do this because the Ziff family (including the chairman) have control through their ownership of the so-called management shares, which have 16 votes each. There are 2.16m management shares (with 34.56m votes) and only 59.6m limited voting shares, with one vote each. Two Ziffs, I.A. and M.A, also own approximately 7.37m limited voting shares (12.37%), so that gives them 45.58% of the total votes. Assuming that they are in alliance with the other two large holders, A.S. Perloff (with about 2.8m LV shares, or 4.71%) and Vicuna Advisors LLC (with about 5m or 8.39%), one can easily see that Guinness Peat has an uphill struggle on its hands in its efforts to unlock the prize.

The prize is, of course, the company's remaining property assets, worth something in the region of £73m or more than 4 times the current market capitalisation. (Net assets, after deducting borrowings and other liabilities, are still about 101p per share, just under 4 times the share price.)

I hope this makes it clear why Shooting Shares (who posted below in May) was wrong to welcome the purchase of more shares by M.A. Ziff. Mr Ziff was not expressing confidence in the company: he was cementing a stranglehold on it.

This is a failed company which should be sold for the benefit of shareholders or closed down with a distribution of assets to shareholders. Will Guinness Peat succeed in bringing about this desirable conclusion? They must think they have at least a chance. One wonders why even the Ziffs wish to continue burning up their inheritance, when they could live so much more comfortably by realising the value of their investment now and reinvesting it elsewhere.

[peterbb] 22/10/2001 11:22

Large movement down this morning, on negligible apparent volume. Results were last wednesday. There was next to no volume that day, or thur/fr, although 500,000 shares were traded on the monday before results. Do people still rate this as an asset-play (or Petchey-play)?
xx p

[niggle] 07/8/2001 16:46

V nice if it were a Ziff!

[adonis] 07/8/2001 12:19

FOLLOWING PETCHEY DONT ALWAYS WORK. REMEMBER SAVE GROUP

[niggle] 06/8/2001 19:53

Thanks JRB.

[jrb] 06/8/2001 13:44

Sorry, Niggle, slip of the fingers: should have said Torygraph not Times. Here's the link:



It does seem to have given the shares a little lift this morning.

[morose] 06/8/2001 10:28

Guinness Peat are also well into Quicks, adding more recently.
Interesting

[morose] 06/8/2001 10:22

Is this the same guy who's stake building in Quicks, owns over 29% now?
Quicks could be another one where things are about to liven up.

[niggle] 06/8/2001 09:36

38% up now, still a a way off tripling tho'.