Universe Share Discussion Threads

[bobby.ifa] 11/9/2009 15:21

I've been with these lot since Card Clear days. I can smell something very positive here and am putting in an order for 80,000. It smells of the start of a takeover.

[gubinz] 11/9/2009 15:05

So Brulines bought 7% of the shares. Who are they and why would they do that? Just done a quick bit of research on them. They have a division called Edensure "Providing petrol retailers with an unrivalled level of accuracy in the monitoring and management of their wet stock, using the most sophisticated analytical techniques available worldwide." That is from their website www.brulines.com.

Just wondering how UNG fits in as a possible takeover by Blulines as looking into it they appear to have a bit of a history of doing that. Interesting that only a week ago they announced the appointment of Managing Director for Petrol Forecourt Division so maybe it's got something to do with that.

[geraldus] 11/9/2009 14:44

I always wondered what was going to become of Ray Mackies holding.Has he any left and why Brulines ..the plot thickens.

[bobby.ifa] 11/9/2009 12:53

Hmm Director sale to 'Brulines', odd.

[geraldus] 08/9/2009 15:53

250,000 buy at above the offer today,bodes well.

[addict] 12/8/2009 09:02

Next announcement likely to be director buying methinks.

[imabastard] 12/8/2009 08:54

One hell of a positive turnaround in performance though.

[addict] 12/8/2009 08:31

Competent management team-spot on.I think this is ripe for a t/over.dyor

[etome] 12/8/2009 08:24

Yes. Debt is down and profit & margin are up, and cash has increased 7 times. I am very happy that I put my money with a competent management team.


Highlights

Adjusted operating profit of £345,000 (2008: loss of £347,000) on reduced revenue of £7.3million (2008: £7.9million)

Gross margin increased to 32% (2008: 28%)

Operating loss of £21,000 ( 2008: loss of £483,000)

Loss Per Share (0.15p) (2008: Loss Per Share 0.54p)

Cash inflow from operating activities of £1,274,000 (2008: outflow of £417,000)

Borrowings reduce by £655,000 from £3.2million at the year end to £2.6million

Cash increases to £516,000 from £70,000 at the year end

[addict] 12/8/2009 08:02

The recovery starts here...

[brando69] 11/8/2009 17:57

yes, charmer, that just about sums up activity in UNG over the last year

[boadicea] 01/6/2009 15:04

OK - Found it and is as you say.
There seems to be an inference, given the comparative containment of cost of sales etc, that a significant amount of work has been brought in-house in 2008 as compared to 2007. Hence a substantial increase in the wage bill has been offset by a corresponding reduction in contracted out work costs. I haven't scanned the whole report to check whether there is any better indication that such is the case. There may well be another explanation.

Is it a concern?
Well, it raises the possibility of higher potential redundancy commitment building up over time as against the possibility that it may enable them to have better control over customer experience in theory, although that often doesn't work in practice. (I believe Sainbury's logistic problems of a couple of years ago to be a prime example.) Essentially direct or indirect control of operations is a management decision. Increasing the direct work-force runs slightly counter to recent tendencies to out-source where possible to companies that specialise in service contracts.

[colchester100] 29/5/2009 10:10

boadicea

I base it on the annual report page 43 section 23, Wages and Salary's.

I assume cost of sales cover a multitude of costs which can be played with.

[boadicea] 26/5/2009 18:21

colchester - I do not see anything to indicate a large increase, in fact it looks minimal to me. - How do you derive that figure?
The cost of sales only rose by £1.9M and I doubt that much of that was due to direct wage costs - more likely bought costs imho.

[colchester100] 26/5/2009 16:59

Have I read the accounts correctly, the wage bill has increased by £2.9m?

[geraldus] 23/5/2009 06:36

Had a look at the Jet Set website,must admit not impressed with their spelling,saftly(safely),cleanely and loosing(losing).Didn't look much more,not very inspiring or professional.I would imagine they have a good deal of competition with the armies of hand car washers you see everywhere. G.Spotts.

[howdlep] 07/5/2009 10:09

The company was profitable in H2 and the t*ps projection for 2009 is a pre tax profit of £1.6m. On that basis, or even a figure of say £1m, at what point does this become a recovery play?
The markets will start to look ahead imo.

[incorrigible] 06/5/2009 07:30

nope - can't see it myself. the net tangible asset value of 0.44p for one, and the huge proportion for intangibles...negative net cash...shall i go on?

[howdlep] 05/5/2009 12:46

Good to see a 100k buy go through at the full 3.5p. A tickup on the bid soon?

A good recovery play at this level

[howdlep] 29/4/2009 15:16

The first of the Press coverage:-

LONDON (SHARECAST) - Electronic payment and loyalty card provider Universe Group shot up after it reversed a first half loss to show a small operating profit over the full year.

Operating profit in 2008 was £0.5m versus an operating loss of £1.6m the year before. Profit before tax was £0.16m, excluding exceptional restructuring costs of £0.65m, compared to a pre-tax loss in 2007 of £1.88m. Revenue grew from £13.19m to £16.56m.

[howdlep] 29/4/2009 15:14

But this one could see some real movement right now