Tribal Share Discussion Threads

[southfly] 06/8/2010 11:42

Interim results on 18/08/2010.
Less than two weeks time.
On a prospective p/e of under 6 and a dividend yield of over 7%.
TRB is looking quite cheap at the moment.

[wcjan26] 20/7/2010 18:37

"I think there are some opportunities ahead with the restructuring of the NHS"

no kidding. tribal got a direct namecheck on question time last week when george galloway accused the coalition of privatisation of the NHS and pushing work to their friends in the city

fwiw!

[chrisfoster] 20/7/2010 11:58

I bought in here today. I think there are some opportunities ahead with the restructuring of the NHS, i.e. with the moving of commissioning from PCTs to GP-led consortiums. The GPs will want to get it right, and will have little experience of anything on this kind of scale, after all they are only small businesses really. Plus all the support that goes with it, for instance IT systems and infrastructure, building and accommodation, etc. Reasons to be optimistic if you're in.

[geoffrey] 20/7/2010 11:45

Long time since any comment on this board! Signs of uptick today?
Restricted market because of Caledonia holding but now looks solid to me and would welcome opinions.

[wcjan26] 06/5/2010 08:26

made my 'election day' trade today !

"buy the bullets" strategy.

same on IRV

[wcjan26] 30/3/2010 14:56

the above said, i might tuck away a few in case of a takeover approach

[wcjan26] 30/3/2010 14:55

MCHL results today had some sorry words to say about the 'hiatus' of the general election and what it is doing to their management consulting business

much as i like TRB and think it is fundamentally undervalued, i suspect it has some distance to fall yet

they say 'buy the bullets' re. the market and wars.

perhaps 'buy the election' for TRB ?

[ards] 29/3/2010 21:55

agree cwa

I think what has changed is the threat of bigger cuts in public spending. just too much uncertainty for many players. however given the relatively small market cap and the huge cash generation trb looks attractive.

[cwa1] 29/3/2010 13:19

Afternoon All

Just stuck a small toe in to join the Tribal band at 78.5p. Fall since results looks a little overdone to me. The metrics all look in place and there is a respectable divident to be had whilst you wait. Can't see any catalyst for major upwards revision in the near future but hopefully a steady improvement should be attainable. Good luck to all holders.

[ards] 23/3/2010 13:04

Capital reduction
A reduction of capital is a capital re-organisation that has the effect of allowing the return to shareholders of capital would otherwise not be distributable. A reduction of capital is used to increase distributable reserves to make dividend payments possible, or to make a large return of capital more efficient.

There are a number of possible mechanisms, including:

•a share buy back,
•the conversion of share capital and non-distributable reserves into debt capital
•the conversion of non-distributable reserves into distributable reserves.
One common scenario where a reduction of capital is useful is a company that has large accumulated losses but has returned to profitability and wishes to pay dividends. If large losses have been made in the past, it may take many years before balance sheet retained earnings turns positive again. However, if a business has genuinely returned to profitability and is likely to remain solvent, there is no real reason why it should not be able to pay some of those profits to shareholders.

The solution is to convert non-distributable reserves into distributable reserves.

Another common scenario is a company that simply no longer needs as much capital as it did - for example, because it has arranged a sale and leaseback that has taken a lot of assets off its balance sheet, or because it has sold a business.

One easy solution would be the conversion of non-distributable reserves to distributable, followed by the payment of a special dividend, This, however, would mean that many shareholders would be unable to avoid paying income tax on the special dividend. One alternative (that has been used by large UK listed companies), is to convert share capital into debt. Existing shares are cancelled and replaced with new shares (fewer, or with a lower par value) and bonds, the latter typically redeemable at the option of the holder. This allows shareholders to take the return of capital as a capital gain, and time it to their advantage.

Mechanisms such as this vary with the shareholder base (i.e. what sort of tax effects the majority of shareholders want). They will also evolve over time as tax rules change.

Share buy-backs are often not a real reduction in capital at all. Most companies that buy-back shares tend to buy small quantities every year, so their economic effect is to return current profits to shareholders in a way that appears (again) )as a capital gain.

[ards] 23/3/2010 13:00

Tribal puts Nightingale Associates up for sale
23 March, 2010

By Joey Gardiner

Architect practice put on the market following review of consultant's business

Public sector consultant Tribal Group has put its architecture business, which includes Nightingale Associates, on the market following a review of the business, it said today.

Reporting full year results showing £17.7m pre-tax profit on turnover of £282.8m, the consultant said that, following a review, it would only be focusing on three core areas of business: education, health and government.

The report said the firm's architecture business, focused on the health and education markets, had been hit by the culling of the government's programme of renewing Further Education Colleges, despite a strong year in its healthcare business. The consultant is to look to sell all three of its "support services" business: architecture, resourcing, and communications, it said.

The decision to sell has forced Tribal to write down £10.1m in the value of the architecture business.

In addition it said it had wound down its regeneration business, taking a hit of £4m.

It did not give any indications as to when a sale might be achieved, but said that "informal discussions with interested parties" had occurred. Nightingale became part of Tribal following a £9m sale in 2002.

Tribal said its social housing business, though hit by declining spending in the second half of the year, would continue as part of its "government" division.



Read more:

[craigy] 23/3/2010 08:04

dont understand, not clear, sold....happy with the last 2 months recovery

[ards] 23/3/2010 08:02

pretty much in line with lots of cash being thrown off but noticed impairment charge and mention of capital reduction being considered with shareholders. not clear what this means. anyone any thoughts

[gary1966] 22/3/2010 21:44

Results day tomorrow. Previous guidance suggests about £15m. Still too cheap by my reckoning.

[costanz] 24/2/2010 20:46

Good trade wcjan26 - as you said it has moved up a lot over past few weeks. Interesting to see volumes also increasing over past few days leading up to results announcement.

Unlikely VT will go for TRB now as appears they have enough on their plate trying to fend off BAB while also pursuing MCHL. Looks as though likely outcome is BAB and VT merging with MCHL dropping out of the picture.

I will continue to hold but have now placed stops in place to ensure capital protected.

[wcjan26] 24/2/2010 15:29

sold. come some distance quite quickly

still looks underpriced and a takeover candidate but i will hedge my bets and bank on buying back cheaper first

[wcjan26] 05/2/2010 08:55

still blue in a sea of red

[costanz] 05/2/2010 07:32

Just had a look at TNO - interesting prospects provided integration with RSM goes according to plan. May look at buying opportunities over next few days if FTSE continues to track down.

TRB still looking strong. Back up to levels seen several months ago. Will be interesting to see impact of Government spending reviews but TRB seems to think they should get further work regardless of Government decisions.

[wcjan26] 04/2/2010 08:56

costa, i quite like the look of TNO following their merger with RSM. more accounting than advisory, but looks very undervalued.

[costanz] 04/2/2010 08:42

Seems to be tracking up nicely although still very low volumes. Will be interesting to see if VT is still chasing MCHL. The value of MCHL is right at the upper end of the 'war chest' VT has said they are looking to spend so VT does not have a lot of room to move if MCHL continue to reject approach.

wcjan26 - I too have steadily been adding to holding over past couple of months. Of the listed consulting companies, for me TRB is the standout - good yield, lowest PE ratio and good exposure. Maintaining or increasing dividend when FY results are released should provide further support to share price

[wcjan26] 02/2/2010 08:14

i just put my money where my mouth is and added a few

bid/ask spread is a bit of an issue!

[wcjan26] 02/2/2010 08:10

costa

the 'big four' are all now on record that they are going to significantly increase their consulting presence. there are loads of US consultancies trying to build here too. plus VT and their peers (Serco).

i can see any of those going after TRB. at these prices, unless there is a fundamental issue with the business (which there might be), it has to be a top candidate as a target

[costanz] 02/2/2010 04:38

Good question - has been a while since VT provided an update on MCHL bid. TRB appears to be better value by far - VT could get TRB for around 100 million versus 300 million for MCHL whereas the earnings between the two companies are not significantly different. If it isn't VT that goes after TRB I wouldn't be surprised if someone else does.