Vianet Share Discussion Threads

[edpick] 02/12/2019 01:07

Posted on his trades page with a 180p target price. He gets more right than he gets wrong...

[crazycoops] 21/11/2019 18:48

It appears the Naked Trader has added it to his portfolio (as per email to subscribers today). I am not a subscriber, so don't have any details but it probably explains the rise this afternoon.

[galeforce1] 21/11/2019 18:09

Yes. There seems to be a determined buyer out there.

[crazycoops] 14/11/2019 18:48

Ha Ha, absolutely not

[jeffian] 14/11/2019 17:40

#673,

No PRM?!

;-)

[bouleversee] 14/11/2019 14:38

Thanks. I had a quick look and see only 3 of mine there: GSK, RDSB and PSN, of which only the latter has performed particularly well for me and someone on Citywire was suggesting it was time to sell now. If Help to Buy comes to an end, a share price drop is likely but we still have some committed great divs. to look forward to which would be hard to sacrifice.

[zoolook] 14/11/2019 14:35

Market is catching up with last update. Strategy of repositioning business now proven to be successful and strong profit growth looks assured.

[crazycoops] 14/11/2019 12:47

If it helps, I publish my portfolio quarterly - since the last update, I have sold SEDY, DUKE, III, SPT and bought VNET, AMO, MONYI get most of my ideas from Stockopedia (sometimes Twitter) - absolutely no advice intended but might be helpful as a starting point for your own research.

[bouleversee] 14/11/2019 12:01

I wish I could say the same re dividends. I have a few holdings which pay nothing, a mistake I won't make again. VCP is one of them and has recently taken a steep dive for no known reason. I was making a fortune on them at one point; my mistake is to fall in love with the successes and not to take profits when they are there.

So do tip me off when the time has come to sell Vianet. Am slightly in love with it at the moment. I wonder what the new political regime of whatever colour will legislate as to AIM shares. If the IHT advantage disappears it will be slightly less attractive though all my rubbish holdings will be got rid of first.

[jeffian] 14/11/2019 10:12

Same here. Top 3 holdings all liquidated by takeovers. Probably a good thing to have plenty of cash in these uncertain times but I do love to be in the market, I do, me, and I wonder how long I can resist! Glad to hear that you have weaned yourself off the bluesky stuff. I keep my PRM certificate framed for posterity as a reminder not to be an ass. (Although it is fun to have one or two high risk punts for the hell of it).

[crazycoops] 14/11/2019 09:38

All is well thank you. I do this share thingy for a living these days (some call it early retirement). Every share in my portfolio pays a dividend, no blue sky stuff anymore. It would not surprise me to see VNET as a takeover target but that is not why I own. I have already lost 3 companies this year to takeovers and while the instant gain is nice, you then have to find something to replace it with.

[jeffian] 14/11/2019 09:23

Morning, cc. Well there's a voice from the past. All well, I hope?

[jeffian] 14/11/2019 09:21

Well it still seems quite lively so something is going on.

[crazycoops] 14/11/2019 09:21

Well hello jeffian(pet), I trust you are well. I bought into VNET a couple of months back and added after the trading update. I first discovered it after it came up on my Stockopedia screens where it is currently rating as a Super Stock. The shares are pretty illiquid so it doesn't take much volume to shift the price, which seems to be the case at the moment. I am not reading anything into it other than a few retail investors spotting the value and growth potential.

[jeffian] 13/11/2019 20:00

Strength continues. Is this a re-rating on the back of the "strong trading" update or something more? I don't know enough about the wider industry. Could this be a bid target or is it a minnow below the radar?

[galeforce1] 12/11/2019 14:23

The share price is creeping up slowly but nicely. But there's still not a lot of volume and the buy/sell spread is still pretty big.

[illiswilgig] 08/11/2019 09:40

Interesting to see some familiar faces(usernames) - Hello Boule.

Just to be pedantic Jeff, Longterm shareholders in GEC gained from the merger of GEC-Marconi Systens and British Aerospace to form BAE Systems.

The rump of GEC, firms such as GPT (GEC PLessey Telecoms) then got confusingly renamed Marconi PLC and, Lord Weinstock having died, hired a couple of city boys to spend all their cash on US telecomms companies and went bankrupt very swiftly.

Not saying that GEC shareholders did well from the Marconi debacle - but over the years with BAE systems they will have done alright, Anyone who bought into Marconi after the formation of BAE systems, the rebadged GPT, lost a packet.

Useful insight into Brulines aka Smart-Zones - and somewhat reassuring thank you.

I noticed in the last results that the rather forgotten USA operation of i-Draught is now breaking even rather than loss making.

Should not be forgotten that the Smart Machines business is in transition - from an electronic manufacturer selling boxes - to a software and service operation selling licence contracts. This has reduced the rate of income growth - but is increasing the recurring revenue. In the end, providing that Via Net continue to develop services that the customers want/need - it should provide a much higher margin and scalable business. Sadly there is way more money in coffee machines than beer pumps!


Boule - I've been buying more FSJ on the recent drop on the basis that its caused by uncertainty. FSJ regularly moves up and down by 200p and I am trying to learn to take advantage of this,

cheers

Illis

[bouleversee] 06/11/2019 16:24

I used to get a total return of around 20% p.a. but I'm afraid I haven't been getting that recently, though t.b.h. I still haven't worked it all out for the last tax year or so far this one. Diversification is key and I am sure I would do badly if I restricted myself to 30 or so holdings as some advise. So far I have at least kept my head above water every year.

[jeffian] 06/11/2019 15:53

No, 'buy and hold' doesn't work on every occasion and that's the point. Yes, we'd all love to have bought every share cheap and sold at its all time high, but my attempts to time the market in that way failed, as most do apparently (although Mrs J has a foolproof method, looking over my shoulder at the graph of any share we own, pointing to the historic high point and announcing "I would have sold there"!). At one point, the biggest holding in MOM's portfolio was GEC which, as you know became the worthless Marconi, but she still died a much wealthier woman than she started. As I've said elsewhere before, my best-performing portfolio for years was the dummy one I kept with the shares I had sold at the prices I sold them (one of which, funnily enough was FSJ, sold in 2004 under £3 to 'protect a profit', and another one was Greggs and look where they are now!). Sure, there will be bumps along the way and maybe a few terminal cases but in the long term most good companies will prosper, I believe.

[galeforce1] 06/11/2019 12:09

CWA - There seems to be a keen buyer. Not much stock about, so any keen buyer pushes up the price.

Boulversee - Welcome! I think Lord Lee's interest in Vianet is one of several good reasons for holding here. The companies he follows and holds frequently seem to get bought.
The pub business is definitely 'mature', but it seems to be a nice, steady earner (paying the generous divi) while the vending machine business provides the growth.
Both sides of the business have very high % of recurring income.

[cwa1] 06/11/2019 10:46

Nice uptick just now, anyone seen anything that might be the reason for it?

[galeforce1] 28/10/2019 14:13

Jeffian - that's interesting that you are a satisfied client of Vianet's beer monitoring systems business ('Smartzones'). I think I have quite a good picture of how that business works. It's in about 25% of English pubs and its a profitable niche business.
I'm less clear about the Smart Machines business. 250k vending machines, many of them coffee vending machines, But also drinks vending machines. But what is Vianet's relationship with this huge number of vending machines? I think the answer is a variety things: (1) they monitor them for the operators, to make sure they are working, re-filled etc (2) they install their own hardware in vending machines which enables contactless payment. This hardware/software is leased to the operators. (3) they handle payments on some vending machines (??).
I think I need to sit down for an exciting evening with the annual report!
I agree with you that dividends are great, but only if companies can afford them. Vianet's divi is costing about £1.4m, which is a little over half of Net Profit. That seems sustainable.

[jeffian] 27/10/2019 11:34

Thank you, galeforce1. My company was one of the first to adopt the beer monitoring technology and I was an earlier investor in the previous ill-fated (well, ill-managed actually) incarnation Comprehensive Business Services which became Brulines, so I felt I knew enough about that side of the business. As you say, it is a useful base 'earner' from which to grow the vending technology business which now seems to have the more exciting prospects. I am also a big fan of companies which maintain a dividend whilst waiting for their growth plans to bear fruit. If the share price is going nowhere for a while, it makes it easier to hold if you are getting some sort of return on your money while you wait.