Investors Chronicle back issues from July 2005:
The cat is not fatter.
Jul 01, 2005 ... "God is good. There are a lot of wrongs that need to be made right, and I look forward to seeing that happen." So said Richard Scrushy, ex-boss of hospital company HealthSouth, as he walked out of court a free man on Tuesday. I wonder whether the wrongs Mr Scrushy wants made right include ...
Victors aren't always winners.
Jul 01, 2005 ... Remember Victor Kiam? He was the bloke who tried an electric razor, and was so impressed that he bought the company behind it. Victor died some years ago, but his spirit endures in stock market investors everywhere. People frequently buy shares in companies because they like ...
Lemons & blankets.
Jul 01, 2005 ... However, the price of investment information seems persistently above its marginal utility. Analysts, advisory brokers and fund managers are paid big money for their 'expertise', and yet most fund managers (and perhaps, therefore, most investors generally) underperform tracker funds. ...
Party pooper?
Jul 01, 2005 ... Easy-listening music, a white beard, and a penchant for duets with Dolly Parton are normally the characteristics one associates with Kenny Rogers. Prescience in analysing the City's motives for supporting share issues has hitherto not been among them. But, in the week when journalists have ...
Long odds.
Jul 01, 2005 ... When I bought Vanco for one pound from an advert in the Financial Times, I saw it as the germ of a great idea - for three reasons. First, deregulation created 'critical disruption' in the telecoms industry. Second, the sheer potential of the market given the growing influence of IT, and ...
Sit back and take your pick.
Jul 01, 2005 ... The recent disappointing performance of the biotech sector belies the fact that the UK is becoming internationally renowned for the strength of its biotech industry, and as a place for foreign drug companies to do business. Because of this - plus the growing reputation of the Alternative ...
When history matters.
Jul 01, 2005 ... Many investors do it - they look for stocks with a good track record of earnings growth. But should they do this? Are past earnings really good guides to future returns? In theory, there are three possible answers. 1. Efficient markets: "Don't be such a blithering ...
Test of mettle.
Jul 01, 2005 ... Super-cyclists beware! All those who believe we have entered some kind of new era where commodity prices only ever go up would do well to take stock of the developments in the steel market over the past few months. A market that seemed so firm at the end of 2004 has buckled ...
Fuel surcharges soar at British Airways.
Jul 01, 2005 ... British Airways (BA) increased its fuel surcharge this week in response to the rocketing oil price. The long-haul surcharge has been increased by 50 per cent to GBP24 per sector, and short-haul by 33 per cent to GBP8 per sector. Some analysts ...
Floors 2 Go's shares collapse.
Jul 01, 2005 ... Shares in Floors 2 Go slumped by 40 per cent as the company revealed a huge sales decline. Like-for-like sales will be 20 per cent down on the second quarter of last year and, if poor conditions continue, operating profits are likely to be ...
Weak demand hits TripleArc.
Jul 01, 2005 ... Shares in TripleArc fell by more than 45 per cent to a two-year low as the company warned on profits. It continues to be hampered by weak demand - particularly a decline in the business forms market and a slowdown in demand from ...
Persian Gold joins Aim.
Jul 01, 2005 ... This week saw the Aim debut of the market's first Iran-focused gold mining company. Persian Gold, the brainchild of serial resources entrepreneur John Teeling and Michael Thomsen, chairman of Cambridge Mineral Resources, has secured prospecting rights over large alunite ...
Firestone gets De Beers boost.
Jul 01, 2005 ... Firestone Diamonds has signed a joint venture with mining giant De Beers to look for diamonds in the Groen River valley, South Africa. De Beers can earn a 61 per cent interest in the project by financing any discoveries to feasibility stage. Using a ...
Shell marks new era with old problems.
Jul 01, 2005 ... In the end, it was all a bit of an anti-climax. A century of unorthodox corporate governance came to an end this week when Royal Dutch Petroleum and Shell Transport shareholders voted through a merger to create a unified company. There were some rumblings from disgruntled ...
Yellowcake looks to uranium mining.
Jul 01, 2005 ... Robert Wallace, a well-known resources sector journalist, and Mark Watson-Mitchell, one of the more colourful long-term players on the small companies scene, have teamed up to create Yellowcake, a company that plans to invest in the booming uranium mining industry ....
Week ahead.
Jul 01, 2005 ... Monday 4 July Interims: None scheduled Finals: Total Systems AGMs: Futura Medical, Toledo Mining EGMs: Abraxus Investments Trading statements: Travis Perkins Economics: Confederation of British Industry/PwC financial ...
Hammerson shocks City.
Jul 01, 2005 ... Hammerson has shocked the market by selling a major Paris office development for 5 per cent less than it spent putting it up. The building was sold to a German fund for GBP179m. "The occupancy market in Paris proved to be considerably weaker ...
A word for Le Meridien.
Jul 01, 2005 ... pmarket hotels group Le Meridien has hired translation experts SDL to convert its websites into Chinese for the first time. It plans to use SDL's technology to automate much of the process. SDL shares climbed 9 per cent on news of the contract, ...
Quotes of the week.
Jul 01, 2005 ... "He wants to spend more time with his wife and, having met her, I can understand" Brian Souter, chief executive of Stagecoach, understands the decision of Graham Eccles, group executive director for rail, to retire. "If you go onto eBay, 90 per cent of the Mulberry ...
Protherics shares surge.
Jul 01, 2005 ... Protherics' shares rose this week on speculation that it could benefit from a second confirmed case of BSE in US cattle. Protherics' BSE-testing kit has been slow to gain US market share due to limited testing by the government. But Mike Mitchell, analyst at Evolution Securities, says ...
Vernalis' data boost.
Jul 01, 2005 ... Vernalis unveiled early Phase III data showing that its headache drug, Frovatriptan, works against menstrually-associated migraines. Frovatriptan is already approved to treat regular migraines. Studies claim there could be up to 7.7m sufferers in ...
European sugar reforms sour UK companies' profits.
Jul 01, 2005 ... Sweet it most definitely ain't. The EU's long-awaited plan to reform the European sugar market will cost the industry's two largest British companies tens of millions of pounds in lost profits over the coming years. But while the changes will clearly hurt both Associated British Foods ...
ITV licence costs cut.
Jul 01, 2005 ... ITV's licence costs for 2005 have been cut by regulator Ofcom to less than GBP80m, against GBP215m in the previous year. The reduction of GBP135m for ITV's 12 licences, including GMTV, exceeded expectations - a GBP90m-GBP95m cut was thought likely. And further ...
Punch eyes Spirit chain.
Jul 01, 2005 ... Speculation is rife that Punch Taverns could be about to buy rival, Spirit. Britain's second largest pub owner might pay GBP3bn to get its hands on its competitors' 2,000 pubs. Such a deal would probably force the already highly indebted group to ask ...
House of Fraser bids for Beattie.
Jul 01, 2005 ... House of Fraser has made a 168p-a-share bid for Midlands retailer, James Beattie. The offer has been unanimously recommended by Beattie's board, with acceptances received for 10.6 per cent of the shares. Viewed for ...
British housebuilders adjust to a cooler market in 2005.
Jul 01, 2005 ... The prospect of a post-election bounce in the housing market always seemed like a bit of a red herring. And recent updates from the housebuilders have confirmed just that. After a strong start to 2005, momentum faded with a soft spring selling season and the housing market ...
PartyGaming floats.
Jul 01, 2005 ... The year's most glamorous flotation kicked off in style as shares in PartyGaming surged by 11 per cent on their first day of trading. The world's leading online poker company now commands a total market value of almost GBP5.2bn. Following this success, ...
Institutional cash set to boost equities.
Jul 01, 2005 ... Bank of England figures released this week showed that financial institutions have huge piles of cash. Thanks to share buy-backs, institutions' bank deposits have grown by 21.5 per cent in the past 12 months - the biggest increase for seven years. They are now equivalent to 19.3 per cent ...
WPP trading bucks mediamarket trend.
Jul 01, 2005 ... Marketing services giant WPP reported a strong start to the year. In a trading update, the group reported a 6 per cent rise in like-for-like revenues in the first five months of the year. The fastest-growing sector was direct, internet and interactive advertising, ...
Hunting seeks cash.
Jul 01, 2005 ... Oil-services group Hunting is raising GBP45m via a one-for-four rights issue at a 31 per cent discount to its previous share price. Dennis Proctor, the group's Texan chief executive, wants to take advantage of buoyant market conditions to make acquisitions. He ...
High oil prices raise valuation puzzle.
Jul 01, 2005 ... High oil prices have created a puzzle: they have not caused a shift out of industrial stocks and into technology stocks. Previous rises in oil prices - in 1995-96 and 1999 - were accompanied by tech stocks outperforming general industrials, as investors anticipated the scrapping ...
Hays' happy after positive update.
Jul 01, 2005 ... Hays has confounded analysts' fears that it has been affected by slowing growth in its core markets. Credit Suisse First Boston wrote in May that plans to shrink the civil service would hit Hays, and more recently warned that the sluggish construction market would put a ...
Computacenter shares crash after warning.
Jul 01, 2005 ... Shares in IT hardware reseller Computacenter fell 22 per cent to a three-year low after the company revealed that first-half profits would be substantially below City expectations. The company's second warning this year came as a result of falling sales at its core UK product business, ...
Sage's Spanish scoop.
Jul 01, 2005 ... Shares in software group Sage hit a three-year high on news that it was to purchase Spanish business IT specialist Logic Control. The GBP55m cash deal will be immediately earnings-enhancing, and there is scope for significant margin improvement. Logic generated ...
Regulator warns on 'Phoenix' advisers.
Jul 01, 2005 ... The financial services Authority (fsa) has launched a campaign to crack down on 'phoenix' independent financial advisers (IFAs), who attempt to escape their liabilities for mis-selling compensation by starting new companies, and walking away from the ashes of their former businesses. ...
The 10 best ways to reduce risk.
Jul 01, 2005 ... Many people were tempted to invest in the late 1990s by soaring equity valuations - especially among technology companies - only to be hammered when the bubble burst between 2000 and 2003. Losses on shares, funds and pensions woke novices up to the risks involved in investing in equities ....
A commodity decanted.
Jul 01, 2005 ... Tales of celebrated Bordeaux bought for pennies back in the 1970s going on to fetch enormous sums at auction are enough to start most of us fantasising about giving up the day job. But is wine really liquid gold or is it closer to an illiquid lottery? Well, the good news is that wine can ...
Centrica sparks further gas price rises.
Jul 01, 2005 ... Centrica - owner of British Gas - is set to increase prices for its retail customers again due to spiralling wholesale gas prices. The price increases could spark further customer defections - Centrica has already lost 445,000 energy customers to rivals so far this year ....
Opening up access.
Jul 01, 2005 ... Despite the slowdown in the housing market, the attractions of investing in property have not gone away - but diversification should be the ultimate driver, rather than short-term profit through judicious market timing. The problem, however, has always been lack of choice ....
Congestion charge.
Jul 01, 2005 ... Alright, I am aware that just lately I have been behaving something like Coleridge's Ancient Mariner. While that bearded old fool stopped one in three to bore them with tales of a dead albatross, I have been barely less tedious, with approximately one column in three moaning about the lack ...
TRIFAST (TRI).
Jul 01, 2005 ... Nuts and bolts maker Trifast doesn't look especially well-positioned at present. Its industry is consolidating, raw material prices are rising and the group's customers are shifting manufacturing to Asia. But Trifast, which sells most of its products into the electronics, industrial and ...
HMV (HMV).
Jul 01, 2005 ... HMV is playing the right tunes. Underlying sales rose 1.1 per cent for the year, and fell just 1 per cent for the seven weeks ended 18 June. And when you strip out the effects of currency fluctuations - Asia Pacific accounted for 14.8 per cent of group revenues, and North America for 8.5 ...
PetroWorld.
Jul 01, 2005 ... Aim. Since the year-end, Petroworld has announced the acquisition ...
FIRST TECHNOLOGY (FRS).
Jul 01, 2005 ... First Technology is well-known for making crash-test dummies, but the company looked a little like a crash victim itself in April after issuing a profit warning. Its automotive and special products business was to blame for that, as production cut-backs at Ford and General Motors hit ...
RDF.
Jul 01, 2005 ... Aim. There was strong growth in new business, helping to boost turnover and margin ...
TRL ELECTRONICS (TRL).
Jul 01, 2005 ... With the threat of further terrorist attacks still looming, defence electronics company TRL is enjoying strong market conditions - the company's order book rose by an impressive 79 per cent during the year, to GBP21.3m. So, having successfully raised GBP10m when it floated on Aim last ...
Safeland.
Jul 01, 2005 ... Main market. Safeland benefited from a GBP1.2m profit on the sale of its stake in Hercules ...
BERKELEY (BKG).
Jul 01, 2005 ... Berkeley has shed its image as a builder of five-bedroom detached properties in leafy Surrey in order to focus on large-scale urban regeneration projects. Over 95 per cent of Berkeley's developments are now built on brownfield land and include flagship city developments such as Battersea ...
MULBERRY (MUL).
Jul 01, 2005 ... No-one seems to have told Mulberry's customers that there's a consumer slowdown. Like-for-like sales in Mulberry's UK full-price stores rose by 19 per cent last year, driven by strong demand for leather handbags. And this rampant sales growth is showing no signs of slowing. Like-for-like ...
CREST NICHOLSON (CRST).
Jul 01, 2005 ... Crest has confirmed what most people already know - that the hoped-for post-election bounce in the housing market did not happen. It says that the usually buoyant spring selling season was shorter and less busy than last year and that activity levels are low. Forward sales of GBP271.2m (at ...
STAGECOACH (SGC).
Jul 01, 2005 ... In April, Stagecoach said that its full-year results would beat expectations and analysts upgraded forecasts accordingly. But they obviously didn't upgrade them enough because Stagecoach still came in well ahead of expectations. Rail operating profits grew by 10.2 per cent to ...
E2V TECHNOLOGIES (E2V).
Jul 01, 2005 ... e2v Technologies is new to the market after floating last July, but it's not new to the complex business of high technology, having been around since the second world war. It has two businesses. Its electronic tubes operation is a solid cash-flow generator, but is suffering due ...
MEDIA SQUARE (MSQ).
Jul 01, 2005 ... Media Square has bought 12 companies, worth a total of GBP25m, since it started life in 2000. Indeed, this is the first six-month period in which the group hasn't done a deal since its GBP21m acquisition of quoted rival Coutts last October. But don't expect further big acquisitions by the ...
DIXONS (DXNS).
Jul 01, 2005 ... Dixons' underlying UK sales grew 2 per cent during the year, but chief executive John Clare describes the group's UK performance as "a year of two halves". In fact, it may be fairer to describe Dixons' UK performance as a year of four quarters: like-for-like sales were up 7 per cent in the ...
EQUATOR EXPLORATION (EEL).
Jul 01, 2005 ... Equator is similar to many of the exploration plays that are so popular on the junior market. It has no production, and certainly no cash flow to speak of. But it does have a large cash pile, a licence position off the west of Africa, and a boardroom packed with the great and good. ...
JAMES LATHAM (LTHM).
Jul 01, 2005 ... Timber importer and distributor James Latham has been benefiting from favourable building conditions and successful real-estate deals. The big uplift in earnings came from a GBP17.8m profit on the sale of its Clapton site, which helped the company pay a 7.5p special dividend in January. ...
JAMES CROPPER (CRPR).
Jul 01, 2005 ... James Cropper's sales rise solidly, but these results were overshadowed by a profits warning relating to gas prices (gas powers Cropper's manufacturing plant in Cumbria), causing the shares to slip 5 per cent. The company issued a similar warning at the half-year stage, only to retract it ...
NORTHGATE INFORMATION SOLUTIONS (NIS).
Jul 01, 2005 ... Northgate Information Solutions (NIS) has been on a spending spree in recent years - and its acquisition of RebusHR, in particular, helped boost full-year turnover. But this spate of big deal-doing has now come to an end, with the company working to consolidate its acquisitions. ...
FAIRBRIAR (FBR).
Jul 01, 2005 ... The sluggish housing market and problems on big projects both contributed to these grim results at housebuilder Fairbriar. No wonder chairman Kevin McCabe wants to take the group private, especially given the cost burden of maintaining a stock exchange listing. At the ...
WICHFORD (WICH).
Jul 01, 2005 ... property investor Wichford, which joined Aim last August, accompanied its maiden half-year results with a GBP100m share placing at 180p a share. Its strategy is to invest in government buildings outside central London. All 36 of its properties are let to the government and mostly have long ...
MEDISYS (MDY).
Jul 01, 2005 ... December's full-year results SUGGESTED that Medisys was finally getting back on its feet. But the Futura safety-syringe business, which the medical device manufacturer had sensibly decided to exit, has come back to bite it - losses soared after Medisys failed to find a buyer for the ...
UBC MEDIA (UBC).
Jul 01, 2005 ... UBC Media is leading the UK's digital radio revolution. It provides station operators with free programming, but retains airtime to sell advertising, allowing it to sell on a network basis. Its advertising revenues grew 22 per cent for the quarter to June so, stripping out goodwill and ...
MOUNTVIEW ESTATES (MTVW).
Jul 01, 2005 ... Mountview's chairman Duncan Sinclair pegged back full-year expectations after a tough first half, so the market was braced for these disappointing results. The weakening housing market resulted in a 12 per cent fall in operating profits at the residential property trader, mirroring the dip ...
ADVENTIS (ATG).
Jul 01, 2005 ... Sigma (see below), which was spun out of the property services subsidiary of Savills - and in which Savills retains a 45 per cent stake - is an investor in Adventis. Adventis floated last summer at 28.5p and now supplies marketing services almost exclusively to the property sector. And, ...
GUANGDONG DEVELOPMENT FUND (GDF).
Jul 01, 2005 ... Investors who think that strong economic growth in China means easy returns should bear in mind the woes of Guangdong. It has a board bursting with Hong Kong talent but, for a variety of reasons, its investments have been lame ducks. Last year's large loss included a net provision of ...