W.h. Ireland Share Discussion Threads

[gargoyle2] 05/3/2019 07:14

And there's the placing. what a shambles.

[gargoyle2] 06/2/2019 14:12

I wonder if the 2019 results will be a kitchen sink exercise -- new management will want to get as much bad news as possible into those results, so that they can start with a clean(ish) slate.

[davydoo] 06/2/2019 12:04

They need to split this company up, huge potential for conflict of interest, and let each part find its way in its own market.

Though I note Arden Partners are now setting up a wealth management arm

[meijiman] 06/2/2019 10:19

You couldn't make it up.

[gargoyle2] 06/2/2019 09:02

"Exceptional costs for the financial year ended 31 March 2019 are anticipated to be higher than originally expected following a number of significant one off expenses as
we continue with our transformation strategy."

How many times are they going to come up with this? Higher than anticipating?! Let's hope the new CEO and finance team are better at cost control than the previous shower.

I wonder when they'll let us know that the 'transformation strategy' is complete? It seems to have been in place for about five years now.

[gargoyle2] 05/2/2019 18:49

Numis had a profit warning today, Daniel Stewart allegedly in trouble. I wonder what the next results will hold here? Another placing to existing shareholders?

[a2584728] 05/2/2019 12:57

i think the wealth arm must be worth 100p?

[gargoyle2] 09/1/2019 11:55

910k shares sold today at 60p. If I remember rightly, that was the number that Killingbeck held when he was fired (sorry, left to pursue other opportunities). Must be him finally out, I reckon. I wonder if the share price can move ahead, now that the overhang has gone.

[gargoyle2] 04/12/2018 16:17

Halved in value in 4 months. Nice investment M&G!

[meijiman] 01/12/2018 12:15

Place is full of deadlegs.........

[ny boy] 01/12/2018 11:06

On my watchlist, post Dec 11 HoP vote , long term support around 60p

[arthur_lame_stocks] 28/11/2018 15:31

And they can't be far off another fundraising either.

[gargoyle2] 28/11/2018 15:03

What a shambles. The CFO had to go after the cost overruns on their ongoing 'restructuring' of the business. Following the last CEO out of the door. More 'jam tomorrow' from the chairman, with no indication of when the reorg is going to be completed. Agree with you A_L_S that this will be sold off sooner or later. Oceanwood and Polygon must have been hoping for that to have already happened, but the performance has been so dire. They must be well underwater on their investments here.

[arthur_lame_stocks] 16/11/2018 11:37

I was just looking at the two major shareholders here. They both focus on corporate activism, mergers and acquisitions/disposals and the like.

Basically I expect WHI to get sold sooner or later and there is talk of a lot of corporate action in the market.

That said the shares don't currently look all that cheap given the poor performance over the last few years so i'm not sure it's worth joining them in an investment.

[gargoyle2] 25/10/2018 11:49

M&G 15% down on their money now. (Except it's not really their money, its their clients' money, oh well.)

[gargoyle2] 03/10/2018 13:45

Killingbeck has 910,000 shares here, which I'm guessing he'll want to get rid of, now that he has no control over what's going on at WHI (if, indeed, he ever did). Could be a drag on the share price for a while. Now trading below the recent placing price.

[gargoyle2] 27/9/2018 16:22

No trading update at the AGM today?

Anyone else here?

[gargoyle2] 22/9/2018 20:11

Simon Thompson (IC):

There has been some important newsflow from Aim-traded shares in WH Ireland (WHI:107p), a corporate brokerage and private client wealth manager.

Firstly, 21.86 per cent shareholder Kuwaiti European Holding has exited. Its holding of 6.52m shares has been effectively acquired by existing shareholders Oceanwood Capital Management and Polygon Global Partners, and new shareholder M&G Investments. The three institutions are also backing a £2m placing of new shares at 100p to increase WH Ireland’s core tier 1 capital ratio (11.2 per cent at end of March 2018) and ensure the company has adequate resources in place to comply with the FCA’s capital adequacy requirements. The fundraising bolsters pro-forma net funds to almost £9.5m, and is subject to shareholder approval at a general meeting on 10 October.

Their backing is significant as it comes after WH Ireland posted a thumping £2m operating loss in the last four months of the 16-month reporting period to end-March 2018 (new financial year-end) due to the resolution of legacy issues as part of a major restructuring of its private wealth management arm. I certainly wasn’t anticipating that, nor was the market. I wasn’t expecting chief executive Richard Killingbeck to depart either. He is being replaced by former Panmure Gordon boss Phillip Wale.

WH Ireland had previously reported an underlying operating profit of £423,000 on revenue of £28.5m in the 12 months to end November 2017. The company incurred around £2.5m of restructuring costs in the 16 months to end-March 2018 with the aim of generating £2m-worth of cost savings in the current financial year by targeting a greater proportion of higher-margin discretionary (accounting for more than two-fifths of assets under management of £2.56bn) and fee-paying execution-only mandates (a third of the total).

Clearly, Oceanwood, Polygon and M&G are taking the view that with the restructuring now complete, trading conditions more benign since the start of April and monthly fee income of £1.3m equating to 55 per cent of overall revenue, WH Ireland is finally in a position to capitalise on the hefty investment it has made in its platforms and IT infrastructure and create a scalable business.

Understandably, other investors have had concerns with the management changes and the hefty loss reported, which is why the shares are down by around 7 per cent since I last covered the company ('Running gains’, 21 May 2018). However, M&G Capital’s emergence on the share register with a 14.2 per cent stake is very interesting at this stage and is clearly a vote of confidence in the business. The fund manager wouldn't have taken such a large new position without having a degree of confidence that WH Ireland has turned the corner. We will have to await the half-year trading update from the company to ascertain whether that is the case. So, having first advised buying WH Ireland's shares at 68p ('Broking for success', 1 August 2011), it makes sense to continue to hold on to your shares. Hold.

[gargoyle2] 20/9/2018 12:26

Good to see the new CEO's bio now on the website. Is there anyone he hasn't worked for?

Phillip began his career in UK Gilt Edged & convertible bonds, spending ten years at Goldman Sachs in New York and then London, as co-head of pan-European equities. He managed the equity businesses at Commerzbank and then at Knight Securities, where he was appointed European CEO. In 2004 he moved into fund management as CIO of a multi-strategy hedge fund, returning to the sell-side in 2007 with Collins Stewart working closely with the expansion of the wealth management product. Phillip joined Seymour Pierce, the corporate & institutional broker and wealth manager, in 2010 and was appointed its Chief Executive Officer in 2011. Between 2012 and 2016 he was Chief Executive Officer of Panmure Gordon & Co. Prior to joining WHIreland in August 2018, Phillip was Head of Fixed Income (Europe) at Cantor Fitzgerald Europe.

[gargoyle2] 20/9/2018 11:35

Another placing. What a shambles. At least they wouldn't have had to do much work on the placing announcement, it's almost a word for word copy from the 23 January placing announcement.

On a more positive note though, good to see Polygon and Oceanwood staying committed, although they probably have little choice at this point. M&G is a welcome new investor.

[gargoyle2] 19/7/2018 09:56

Phillip Wale has had 9 jobs in the last 20 years. How long do we give him at WHI?

[eentweedrie] 19/7/2018 08:23

WCW is a better bet imo

[gargoyle2] 18/7/2018 12:36

Final results for 16 month period ending 31 March 2018 due this week. Thursday would be better than Friday...

This is what they said in May. Will be interesting to see whether this is still the expectation, or whether we're going to have yet further delays in returning to decent profitability.

"Looking forward to the year ending 31 March 2019, the Board anticipates that the combination of lower costs in the Private Wealth Management division together with more normalised levels of transaction revenue from the Corporate and Institutional Broking division will lead to strong progress in the Group's profitability during the current financial year. A further update will be provided with the release of the final audited results in July."

[harry_david] 16/7/2018 11:50

You would think a fund manager and financial advisor could write a clear market statement. It makes you wonder if they are hiding something.