Work Group Share Discussion Threads

[deswalker] 11/9/2009 08:41

where ? nothing that I can see at that level.

edit: guessing you mean the 5k trade at 8.09 this morning. nothing else doing now though.

[battlebus] 11/9/2009 08:15

Cheap stock around you can buy again for 9.5p.

[battlebus] 08/9/2009 13:46

RESULTS 22ND September hopeful of a rise as we appproach. Certain that we have bottomed here.

[sbs] 26/8/2009 08:43

I just missed TAN by a fraction of a p, only to see them double.

Is it worse to sell after the beginning of a rise, to miss a bigger rise? I doubled my money on APH, but could have made more again if I had stayed in.

Still, other ones did go up after I bought :-)

[stemis] 26/8/2009 07:58

I hate buying after a rise

I know what you mean. That's why I missed MUBL at 60p (up from 40p at the time). Now 155p. :-(

[deswalker] 25/8/2009 19:30

SteMiS,

Saw your article a few days back and would have jumped in if it had still been flatlining. But it had already risen somewhat and I hate buying after a rise, especially one which at least in part is the result of a tip. Ofcourse it has risen further now.

That said I'm happy I've got some decent juice in the portfolio at the moment and one can't catch em all. I'll be watching for any weakness though ...

Cheers,

Des

[stemis] 25/8/2009 18:36

Des,

If you're looking for recruitment, what about Matchtech?



Price is up 22% but still looks good value, with a yield of 8.7%, little debt and a prospective P/E of 7.7

[battlebus] 25/8/2009 17:56

Hopefully the start of a steady rise. No problem buying these shares in 5/10 thousand lots if you pay the full asking price.

[deswalker] 25/8/2009 17:07

They are as rare as hens teeth. I managed to pick up 38k last week in two lots and have been trying to buy more at 10p but the seller (presumably Morgan Stanley) wasn't interested.

This share shouldn't really be listed. I tend to gravitate towards very small illiquid shares but everything else I own (that is listed) is far more liquid than this. The mm is already acting like a matched bargain broker which it could do anyway without the listing.

Cheers to Steve for highlighting the share. Never heard of it before but it ticked the boxes for me and I was light recruiters following the takeover of Spring.

[foodcritic] 25/8/2009 16:49

Ticked up which is nice but I can only see one early morning trade on plus for £83.80? Any ideas?

[battlebus] 20/8/2009 14:51

SBS every £1000 is an overhang with this share. Foodcritic thats even better.

[sbs] 20/8/2009 10:29

3% is only around £75k, isn't it? Hardly a major overhang.

Liquidity definitely adds value to a share!

[foodcritic] 20/8/2009 09:13

Hi battle bus that was £500.

[battlebus] 19/8/2009 18:07

Thats quite a difference witin the spread for a sell. 9.25-10 even for 500 shares. Morgan stanley still reducing below 3% now we'll soon be rid.

[foodcritic] 19/8/2009 08:10

Yes, you are correct just tried, 500 to sell at 9.25

[stemis] 19/8/2009 07:48

I think the online limit is 500. That's what the RSPs are quoting. Only one MM so no real choice.

[foodcritic] 19/8/2009 07:44

Yes, I have some in my Fidelity Sharesnetwork account. Could only buy £1k worth at a time without phoning though. I will try buying some more with etrade and let you know.

[battlebus] 18/8/2009 23:10

Can this share be traded online anywhere from memory it can't.

[foodcritic] 18/8/2009 21:20

SteMiS thanks for that. Although the spread is off putting try a dummy sell and you get well inside the spread generally.

[battlebus] 18/8/2009 18:05

My thoughts exactly the 2p spread will be meaningless when the recovery begins. SteMis hope you don't mind me posting the article if so just say and i'll remove it.

I offer Work Group PLC (LSE: WORK). Work operates in the recruitment sector but is more focussed in managing the recruitment and retention process for larger businesses than just sourcing candidates [

As you can imagine Work has been adversely affected by the recession, especially as 28% of its income came from the banking & finance sector in 2008. Nonetheless in its recent trading statement Work confirmed it was trading at a breakeven level



Underlying trading is probably better as Work continues to invest in building up its New York and Hong Kong offices which no doubt are losing money.

Work is run by Executive Chairman, Simon Howard, and FD, Michael Warren. These are 2 of the 3 that set Work up in 2000 and still have 6.6% of the stock each. They previous did an MBO of Park in 1994, which they sold to SHL in 1999. So they have a track record of realising value for shareholders and a material motivation to do so again in Work.

In the last two years Work's share price has fallen from 85p to 9p. Most of the recruitment sector has seen similar (if not quite so extreme) falls, although unlike most of them Work's share price has not taken part in the recent bounce. This could be due to recent selling by Morgan Stanley which had reduced its stake from 6.0% to 3.8% in the last 3 months.

Currently Work is valued at a mere £2.6 million [28,622,473 shares x 9p]. That's not a lot for a company which last year had net fee income of £14.9 million. You might think that Work must carry a lot of debt then. Actually in the recent trading statement it confirmed net cash of £1.4 million (slightly down from the year end of £1.566 million). Net assets are £14.776 million (or £2.579 million if you exclude goodwill).

So that's an enterprise value (i.e value less free cash) of £1.2 million. In better times, i.e. 2007, Work made an operating profit of £3.22 million. That's just in one year. The upside, when conditions improve is clear.

It must also be clear to Jon Moulton. He owns 17.8% of the shares. He bought a fair chunk of those last year as the share price was falling, probably at about 60-20p. Jon Moulton is no fool. He won't be owning a large illiquid stake in a small illiquid company just for fun. The last time I owned shares in a company in which he had a large stake was Infast. It all ended rather well for shareholders with an agreed takeover. In Work the top 4 external shareholders effectively control the destiny of the company (owning 41.8% of the shares). Very much like Infast in fact.

Work is a pretty illiquid stock. RSP's are offering it in lots of 5,000. There is only one market maker. If you get your broker to contact them they will deal in larger amounts, but you'll be lucky to get much below 10p to buy. That means a 25% loss just for starters (10 - 8p spread). However I think the upside is so good that 2p is neither here nor there.

I do hold.

[stemis] 18/8/2009 17:55

I posted a review of WORK on TMF

[battlebus] 18/8/2009 17:23

Hopefully a rise in the not to distant future. Surprised to see those trades like 33,000 going through at 10p because i can only buy 10,000 for that. Anyway nice to see mainly buys the last couple of days. 50% rise to 15p will happen very quickly!

[foodcritic] 18/8/2009 17:07

Volume seems to be picking up. Good sized trades today.

[battlebus] 17/8/2009 16:54

Interested to know who the buyer is as another 100k traded at 9p and bought at 9.25p. Thats over half a million in a few days.

[battlebus] 17/8/2009 10:49

Morgan Stanley still selling now below 4% hopefully we will see a nice rise when they finish.