The Artisanal Spirits Share Discussion Threads

[gjabrj] 24/10/2006 15:56

Shawzie, do you think he knew the full picture when he bought Dean out?

[shawzie] 24/10/2006 15:54

Michael Stevens took control as chairman of ART in May 2002 and has since invested £2,860,000 in supporting ART.
He now controls 72,166,667 ART shares at an average buying price of 3.963p.
Without his financial support, I doubt if Artisan would have recovered to its present sound position.
Most of the past four years has been spent cleaning up ART, with disposals and litigation taking up not only management time but also playing on emotions.

[gjabrj] 23/10/2006 10:36

cc totally agree

It was him and Dean that shafted us.

[m.t.glass] 23/10/2006 00:07

It's that Sony Bravia tv advert.. Far more artistic than mere paintball I reckon

[swiftnick] 22/10/2006 00:13

What on earth would be the point of paying a special dividend if they were about to make an offer to take the company private???

[bylow] 21/10/2006 12:51

canford....you must be as fed up as I am!

[canford cliffs] 21/10/2006 07:31

I agree Bylow..................just hope that stephens and the molusc read this thread - they could sell Rippon and then take it private with maybe a special divi to sweeten the deal - even 5p would be a slight reduction in long termers losses and allow us to move on!

[bylow] 21/10/2006 02:14

The comments in the recent trading update regarding Rippon's trading problems are evidence supporting the view I have expressed here for some time that Artisan in its present condition is probably too small to survive as an independent player. There is intense competition from the large builders in the geographical area in which Rippon operates both for land and in the sales market and there is a danger that Rippon's margins will be squeezed to the point that it will not be able make any money for the shareholders.
I see either a sale of Rippon or an MBO as options that the Artisan Board should be seriously considering.

[sll] 20/10/2006 19:26

The Chairman invested this Spring to part-match the RBS funding. You make a good point shawzie. steve

[shawzie] 20/10/2006 11:27

RBS supports ART - to enable ART to purchase land. Any other use of funds
might lose RBS support.

[swiftnick] 20/10/2006 08:47

Rippon Homes developments are all in Notts, Derbyshire, West Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.



The website shows the plot availability, which is one way of tracking how sales are going without having to wait for the next trading update.

[torabora] 20/10/2006 08:38

Look at NTA, Todays report from rightmove for OCT. London prime houses up 65% in last 12 months. NTA only build here, on a daft pe of 3.6.!!!

[canford cliffs] 20/10/2006 08:15

not until they address this problem;


It was a tale of two halves at Artisan and its shares fell 0.2p to 3.25p after the group said its Rippon homes division was finding it challenging to close sales. It did, however, say that its business park operation had seen a buoyant period. The company said that Rippon's marketplace was difficult. Each sale was proving hard won and, as a consequence of relatively static sales prices and more recently-purchased land being utilised, margins were under pressure.

[gjabrj] 20/10/2006 08:12

With share price around half nav they would in effect see a 100% return.

ie buying a £1 for 50p

GJ

[swiftnick] 20/10/2006 07:54

gjabrj,

You said: "We need a share buyback at these levels but for some reason they won't even consider one."

In order to grow profits, Artisan needs to buy land. This is fundamental to the future success of Artisan. The following paragraph from yesterday's trading statement shows the company's commitment to this view:

Sourcing new land remains essential to the future development of the Group. We anticipate that sites currently in the process of negotiation will shortly be contracted and sites that are secured subject to contract will be granted the required planning permission. We are pleased to report that Rippon Homes now has a new land buying team fully in place and we are seeing more opportunities for management to evaluate and tender for land.

In order to buy land, Artisan needs capital. Share buybacks would run counter to this and would not be in the long-term interests of shareholders.

[gjabrj] 19/10/2006 14:35

5p is still at a discount to nav, but as things stand 5p would do nicely at the moment.

[canford cliffs] 19/10/2006 14:30

gj.............they'd probably get it for a small premium over the share price high of the last 12 months - probably around 5p.

[bylow] 19/10/2006 14:29

Canford.....Steven's investment in Artisan is clearly not paying the rewards he had hoped.This company is effectively under his complete control. He should start making some strategic decisions. If the best solution is his taking it private so be it. At least there would be closure to this sad situation.

[gjabrj] 19/10/2006 14:20

CC what would consider a fair price for a MBO ?

[canford cliffs] 19/10/2006 14:18

Bylow - thereafter even more reason for Stevens to take it private - at least it would put us out of our misery and crystalise our losses, which after 7 years is very hard to do volutarily!

[bylow] 19/10/2006 14:06

Yet another disappointment. It has always been a case of one step forward two steps back for Artisan. If Rippon cannot perform well, sell it to one of the large builders who are competing in Rippons geographical market. Rippons fixed costs would largely be absorbed into the larger builders cost base.

[gjabrj] 19/10/2006 11:42

We need a share buyback at these levels but for some reason they won't even consider one.

No dividend either the management are total muppets!

How do they expect the share price to increase>

[torabora] 19/10/2006 09:13

Why do you not get out of this dog?. Paid to much for the land and sales are hard to get.Look at London prime housebuilder NTA, land up 40% in last 12 months in central London. House prices up 25%, still roaring. This company has cheap land in the bag,to last 3-4 years. PE 3.7, with profits in my view , due to double this year. So, PE would fall to just under 2.

[toriel] 19/10/2006 08:44

It is interesting that the ADVFN User Sentiment rating on this stock is currently 8 BUY and 1 SELL (me being the single sell vote). The discussion on this BB has covered a variety of issues, and it seems that there is no consensus about whether this stock is headed up, or destined to continue to languish.

There may be good reasons for calling this a buy - though I'm not sure what they are - but it is slightly strange that the buy votes so outnumber the sells. (I'm not suggesting there's anything underhand here, I just find the contrast between the voting and the comments interesting.)