Top Ten Share Discussion Threads

[dogdays] 14/8/2009 16:50

This thread will be pulled soon, so good luck to all investers.

ds

[tyranosaurus] 15/6/2009 22:29

AC1983

One born every minute.
They are most likely delisting, if they don`t go bust first.

[ac1983] 15/6/2009 21:49

Just got in today; hoping to 10 bag from here.

[dogdays] 03/6/2009 20:28

From a shareholders point of view it may as well be the end.
Perhaps I am being unfair, but Bingo has an "end of the pier" feel about it, and you know what the average British pier is like these days.

[tyranosaurus] 22/4/2009 08:36

A delisting is not the end BUT I can`t see shareholders getting anything out of it.

[goliard] 22/4/2009 07:32

A sad end for TTH, but a predictable one. Shareholders will end up with nothing and the banks take whatever assets are left. It does amaze me that the Chairman and Board have not had to resign, but I guess that was up to the banks. Looks like whoever bought 250k yesterday may have been tipped off about an rns, but called it the wrong way!

[tyranosaurus] 09/4/2009 19:34

According to ADVFN this company is only valued at £300k.

Suggests that nobody expects them to survive and nobody expects a payout if they go under.

They are a long shot for somebody prepared to gamble on buying some shares.

[adr05] 07/4/2009 11:16

Top Ten have closed a few clubs over the past few weeks with a few more to go soon.

A company called castlemore has gone in to administration and this company hold the leases to quite a few Top Ten clubs. Apparently Top Ten have now figured a way out of the long term leases (is this something to do with castlemore going into admisnistration??) and are starting to close clubs. Leeds and Fleetwood are gone and many more will go.

Only about 14 clubs are making a profit. If Top Ten can get rid of the dead wood (Some clubs are losing £1-£2k a week) then the company will get a bit more stable. Get the group back to a strong business of 14 profit making clubs and concentrate on them.

Anybody got any info, anybody still looking at this share??

[goliard] 22/12/2008 16:39

1.25p on the bid now. I doubt this will continue on long enough to benefit from any VAT ruling. Really quite sad for the company, but shows the very poor way in which management made investment and banking decisions. Even in boom times, their deals did not stack up.

[goliard] 05/8/2008 09:32

The picture seems to be getting worse. The stated NAV of 41p includes goodwill (albeit after impairment) and this is highly subjective. The mezzanine finance is totally crippling and the company has stated that it would have breached covenants had these covenants bot been waived. I believe they will continue to trade for a while - probably in the hope of winning their VAT cases, but ultimately there appears to be little or no value in the business. Down another 20% to 3p on the bid.

[adr05] 30/7/2008 18:34

The industry figures state that average spend per head is:

National: -7%
London: -11%
Wales: -4%

I think Top Ten is a decent investment considering the Market Capitalisation compare to the Fixed Assets. I believe a private investor will come along and sell a lot of the dead wood as there are many of the Top Ten clubs making a decent weekly profit. There are a lot of halls that could be sold on to be used for other business.

[goliard] 30/7/2008 08:46

My understanding from talking to those in this sector is that some clubs are seeing earnings down as much as 50% this year. I don't know how TTH is faring but it looks like it is in for an even tougher time. Still not buying.

[dogdays] 11/7/2008 11:50

What with the smoking ban and the way the world has changed socialy,bingo clubs are a dead duck. Add that to the overpayment for the premises, high interest rates, reducing spare cash amongst bingo playing devotees,plus sad locations and you have a business going nowhere.

How its all changed since 2004!!

[deanroberthunt] 11/7/2008 10:10

MCAP of £1.5m and £28m of debt......Ernst and Young bound me thinks.

fwd earnings are dire, how will they ever pay it off...and they'll get rubbish terms if they finally manage to re-finance....all in all they'll have to go full tilt just to manage the debt.

[tyranosaurus] 11/7/2008 10:04

I can`t believe there has been no news since 15/4/08.
Surely the directors ought to put out an RNS about the collapsing share price.
It`s a disgrace that they can sit by and do nothing.

[goliard] 05/6/2008 09:32

I guess we will see trades before the end of the day and possibly news to go with it shortly after. Not looking good.

EDIT - No trades and no news even at day end. Very strange.

[tyranosaurus] 05/6/2008 08:26

Why has this been marked down 29% on NO trades and No news ???

[goliard] 03/5/2008 17:42

I am very tempted to buy into TTH now (11p) as I expect some positive news from the government shortly which should help their cashflow. My concern is that, having read the latest rns re RBS, TTH has agreed to pay interest of 9% over LIBOR on almost £13m of debt. This is possibly the most punitive interest rate I have ever heard of in corporate financing and equates to circa 15% at current rates, or £2m per annum (plus interest at 2% over LIBOR on the rest of the debt).

RBS must feel like they have a good deal, but they may well succeed in bankrupting the company with this 'deal' and being left with nothing. It is certainly difficult to buy the shares when you know that all profits will be eaten up by interest payments.

[goliard] 03/4/2008 09:29

8trader - it's pretty obvious why that deal didn't happen. The rot set in here a long time ago when TTH massively overpaid for other clubs during their expansion phase. They had vendors queueing up to sell to them. At present there is little value here and when you read the post above from Safman it is also clear that there is unlikely to be any other bingo group seeking to buy them out - at any price.

[safman] 03/4/2008 08:55

Gala given a £125m helping hand

By Ben Harrington and Helen Power
Last Updated: 12:41am BST 03/04/2008

The private equity owners of Gala Coral, Britain's largest privately-owned company, have agreed with its creditors to inject £125m into the troubled business. It is the biggest UK leverage buyout so far to suffer financial stress as a result of the current downturn.

Gala, which operates 1,566 Coral betting shops, 165 bingo halls and 31 casinos, has seen its business decline following the introduction of the smoking ban. The downturn in the bingo business, which has also hit a number of other smaller bingo club operators, has forced Cinven, Permira and Candover, the private equity funds that own it, to restructure the business's debt.
# Comment: The balls have fallen unkindly for Gala

As trading has deteriorated, the company has realised it may be in danger of breaching certain banking covenants this year.

[8trader] 02/4/2008 23:41

Yeah but back then there was no problem smoking in the places and
not a massive advertising attack from online bingo !

Times have changed !

[8 ball] 02/4/2008 23:34

Debt was also 28 million when the group was subject of takeover offer of 110p a share


I smell a profit from here

[goliard] 02/4/2008 17:14

Given the H1 trading update, the full year picture could well show a pre-tax profit of around £250k. If the challenging market continues then this could reduce further and the company may struggle to break even (especially with higher borrowing costs). Resorting to mezzanine finance is a particular worry as it shows that they have been unable to secure conventional borrowing and are now perceived as high risk. Their interest payment alone now is likely to be in the region of £3m per year, although technically they will probably pay this as a bullet at the end of the mezzanine period, so it won't affect the short term cash flow.

The only value I can now see is to a rival, but unless they are cash rich they are unlikely to be interested.

This one is now only for the brave as volatility is now almost a certainty.