Thomson Intermedia Share Discussion Threads

[markie7] 23/1/2008 09:30

kitchen sink.

[wjccghcc] 23/1/2008 09:25

Not terminal (still cashflow positive) but going to be an 18 month slog. Looks like new management are doing a kitchen sink clearout.

Sold the ones I bought at 51p at 35p - not my finest hour.

Time to revisit after the finals IMHO.

[pugugly] 23/1/2008 09:13

mradford> re your 125. You called it right. Almost looks terminal.

[wjccghcc] 07/1/2008 18:35

The transition from startup to larger company is never painless and most often the entrepreneur(s) who star the company and drive it's growth aren't that interested in the more mundane side of management.

I'd guess the institutional holders put pressure on after the profit warning and the lack of controls found by the new FD. Add to that the fact that the Thomsons had recently taken some cash out and had been slogging away for 10 years means they may have been happy(ish) to take up non-exec positions.

[charlie] 07/1/2008 18:02

Does anyone have any insight into the reasons for the joint CEO's suddenly going non-exec on 27/9/07? And Michael Greenlees age 60 moving from non-exec to CEO, having only joined as non-exec in 4/07?

It doesn't feel very "planned" (no mention of it as a strategy when Greenlees joined). Smells like there may have been some problem. But what?

[pugugly] 07/1/2008 16:34

WJCCGHCC:> Thanks for those kind words - At least called one right.

Now they are at a more reasonable level will have to refresh my data from their accounts and checkout the new management.

Have a prosperous New Year.

[wjccghcc] 07/1/2008 15:57

Well called PUG - 50p it is. I've bed and spoused my remaining few (large CGT bill to pay elsewehere) and added a few more at 51-52p. Annualised cashflow of 2.3mm vs an enterprise value of 19mm looks a bit mean if they're growing the core business at anything near last year's 30%.

Of course there could be further skeletons in the closet but the FD has now been there for 9 months so it's unlikely unless the new CEO is having a kitchen sink clearout.

[jeff c] 07/1/2008 15:06

I must confess I've been finding the dates for reporting somewhat confusing. When they announced the transition to IFRS way back in October 2006, I assumed the new dates would have been sorted out by April 2007 and that everything that occurred thereafter would be repeated in 2008. Obviously not! So I'm grateful someone understands what's going on. Thanks WJCCGHCC.

[wjccghcc] 07/1/2008 14:07

They've changed the year-end to April (makes sense given the high volume of renewals in January) so we should be getting the interims (6 months to Oct 31) some time this month.

[jeff c] 07/1/2008 13:44

Previous Trading Updates were 9 Feb 2006 & 25 Jan 2007. So hopefully in a few weeks, we'll hear how things are going at the company.

[mradford] 07/1/2008 12:08

WJCCGHCC thanks- sounds reasonable. The media market will be a tough one if the recession comes to fruition.

[wjccghcc] 07/1/2008 11:25

Very illiquid share, new management who (may) do a kitchen sink clearout, poorly understood, unloved by the market after previously not splitting out development revenues.

At some point they'll be a screaming buy since they're cash generative and the UK market leader with significant potential for international expansion but I suspect it might be six months down the road.

I still hold a few and will probably add after the interims / if they hit the 50's as Pug thinks.

[mradford] 07/1/2008 10:50

Pug- Any idea on the reason for the drop? I notice it's not the most active board (understatement of the YTD!) but there's not much news from what I can see.

[pugugly] 04/1/2008 15:56

Looks as though we are on the way to 50p - Now 70p offer.

[jeff c] 07/11/2007 13:06

Looks like someone's just sold a load!
2,047,757 shares @ 82p

No drop in price, so presumably the market makers have known about it for a while.

[pugugly] 06/8/2007 10:58

Practically on 1 year low 106p - if this breaks then very little support chartwise before 50p - While a must have for media analysis currentfundamentals price/margins/profits) do not support the current price.

A forward p/e of 12 - 14 would (imo & dyor) be more realistic.

[wjccghcc] 24/7/2007 15:28

Agree the bottom line is poor and I don't think they'll look back with pride on last year but I think the underlying actually shows promise. It appears the new FD has taken the opportunity to clean house thoroughly with the accounting and bad debts plus implementing of decent financial systems so that particular growing pain should be out of the way. Renewal rates > 100%, the GroupM launch in September and US growth of 57% all show the potential. Their international jv structure of contributing their technology for a % op profits but not taking any of the losses is also good.

On the other hand, they will be paying a normal tax rate going forward and the jury is out on whether they have everything under control yet.

I started buying back a few at 110p and my bias now is moving from watching to buying although I'd like to see revised forecasts and may wait until the next interim management statement.

[pugugly] 24/7/2007 14:41

Initial reaction to the accounts- A lot of verbage to try and justify a very poor bottom line result. Will have to crawl ofver in detail but (imo & dyor) not very encouraging.

[pugugly] 23/7/2007 12:24

Tomorrow will tell;>

[wjccghcc] 16/7/2007 15:07

I suspect lots of companies reporting on the monday so they shifted it to Tuesday in order to get analyst availability. Another of my companies has done the same thing.

[pugugly] 16/7/2007 15:02

Results put back 1 day - No reason given - Why??

[jeff c] 03/5/2007 15:28

Looking at today's RNS:



I'm having trouble making sense of the form to determine the number of shares sold – but if we say Eaglet Fund sold 2,573,412 shares on 1 May 2007, at a share price of 120p (ish). That equates to about £3.1m.

According to Eaglet Fund latest commentary (last updated 30 March 2007):




The fund size = £108.9m

THN was 2.9% of the fund, which equates to £3.1m

So it looks to me like Eaglet have sold out completely.

But there's been no trades that size going through the market. So who bought them I wonder?

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Interesting commentary for May from Eaglet fund manager, Peter Webb:

" ..... Strong share price performances from Mears Group, Thomson Intermedia, Wren Homes and Imprint where share price gains were 10 per cent plus helped us make progress ....."



Thomson Intermedia - strong share price performance??? Uhhh ??

[pugugly] 30/4/2007 08:39

QS9:. Agreed - Very much my reading - a support services company servicing some very big players - I believe a good product but competitors in the market I am told such as Nielsen.