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Ian Pollard: HSBC Pays The Penalty – Yet Again
HSBC has had to cave in and pay yet another huge penalty to fend off claims in the US of widespread fraud and corruption. It took the benighted bank some ten years until 1916 before it had the grace to cough up and agree to pay compensation to US customers to whom it brought financial misery and in many cases deliberately made homeless. The bank has now been forced to pay a huge $765 million settlement to the US Department of Justice but still will not admit to any wrongdoing, which raises the rather major question, as to why in that case it has agreed to make the payment. Banks are not particularly noted for their generosity.
The bank paid up rather than try to defend itself against allegations that it misled investors, misrepresented the quality of securities, hurt people and abused their trust, caused major losses by investors and contributed to a crisis of foreclosures. The amount involved at $24bn was not chicken feed but this is the worlds bank so nobody has actually been sent to prison. The bank claims that it has put things right by strengthening its internal controls but in the same breath it admits that it is still completing the turn-around of its US operations. Twelve years after the event and it has still not got its act together!
Page Group plc PAGE saw third quarter gross profit rise by 19.7%, the highest quarterly growth rate since 2011. The increase ranged from virtually nil (0.8%) in the UK, to 30% in the Americas and 27.7% in Asia Pacific. operating profit for 2018 is expected to be marginally ahead of consensus
Sanderson Group plc SND updates that trading results for the year to the end of September are significantly ahead of 2017, but also slightly ahead of current market expectations. Group revenue rose by nearly 50% and operating profit by 30% to over £5 million compared to 2017’s: £3.90 million. Sales orders in the second half of the year were strong and on a like-for-like basis, the order book at he year end was up by over 9%..jpg)
Iofina plc IOF produced the largest quarterly total of crystalline iodine in its history with a total of 172.3 metric tonnes for the third quarter, an increase of 37.8% over the third quarter of 2017. The company expects the positive momentum which it is currently experiencing will significantly increase Group revenue and profits from those attained in the first half.”
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Ian Pollard: Bellway Enjoys Inflation Beating Price Increases
Bellway BWY updates that it has broken through the 10,000 homes barrier for the first time in its history, with an increase of 6.9% to a total of 10,307 for the year to the 31st July. Market conditions have remained favourable, trading and customer confidence have been robust, enabling the average selling price to be increased by 9.4% to an all time inflation beating high of 284,900.
Paddy Power Betfair PPB After a flat first quarter, the half year was saved by double digit growth in the second, the pending arrival of the world cup and especially strong performances in the USA and Australia where revenue jumped by 20% and 19% respectively. For the six months to the 30th June, revenue rose by 5%, profit before tax by 4% and earnings per share by 1%. The interim dividend is to be increased by 3% and the company believes that the momentum which is now underway, will carry it through the second half.
Quilter plc QLT reports record adjusted profit before tax of £110 million and a special interim dividend of 12.0 pence per share in its first results as a listed company. The Chief Executive believes that its market offers significant growth opportunities and that the company is someway from demonstrating its full potential.
Page Group plc PAGE increased both profit before tax and basic earnings per share by over 18% in the half year to the 30th June, whilst revenue grew by 11.7% shareholders are rewarded with a 5.1% increase in the interim dividend yo 4,10p per share and the payment of a special dividend of of 12.73p per share. However there are challenges to be faced including Brexit in he UK and elections in Latin America.
Spirax – Sarco Engng SPX reports strong organic sales growth of 7% in the half year to the 30th June. Reported revenue rose by 28%, adjusted profit before tax by 22% and basic earnings per share by 25%. The interim dividend is to be increased by 14%.
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Ian Pollard – Burberry #BRBY Forced To Adopt Meaningless Jargon
Burberry Group BRBY claims to have completed global roll out of new digital clienteling tool. Despite this first quarter comparable sales have grown 3%, which it finds pleasing.Even worse in the jargon stakes it is engaging consumers with frequent and sometimes unexpected “drops of fresh product”. The final insult to the intelligence of its readers, shareholders and customers is its claim that “Farfetch collaboration” is performing ahead of its expectations. What management in its right mind, especially one trying to market high end luxury goods, is so lacking in know how, that it proudly admits to having anything in its armoury which is far fetched
Barratt Developments BDEV updates that it has produced a strong financial and operational performance for the year to the 30th June and achieved 17,579 completions the highest level in a decade. Helped by a strong end to the year, profit before tax expected to be around £835m a rise of some 10% on last years figure.
Wetherspoon JDW in the 10 weeks to the 8th July like for like sales rose by 5.2% sales. In his by now almost one man battle to ensure that Brexit happens, Chairman, Tim Martin explains in detail the benefits of Brexit to both Wetherspoons and many other companies. “The main advantage of Brexit is that the EU is a protectionist system that imposes high tariffs on non-EU imports such as wine, rice, coffee, oranges, children’s shoes and clothes, and over 12,000 other products. “Leaving the EU allows the UK to adopt the approach of countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, Switzerland and Australia by dismantling the tariff walls, which improves general living standards.He ends with a quote from the Australian High Commissioner that there was never a country that embraced free trade that was poor as a result.
Page Group plc PAGE The second quarter produced a number of records with a record 16% rise in profits and a record total profit for any quarter of 202m. The rise of 16% was the highest quarterly growth rate for seven years. For the half year total profits rose by 12.5% or 14% at constant exchange rates.
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Ian Pollard – Page Group #PAGE UK impacted by Easter, Germany 28% record growth
Page Group plc PAGE delivered a record first quarter with gross profits up by 12.3% after strong global rises everywhere except for the UK where the fall of 7.1% illustrated the abysmal state of the UK economy. – sorry perhaps I should not have said that, the real excuse for the UK apparantly, was the timing of Easter which leaves one wondering how the Germans which share the same dates for Easter, came out top with a record quarter and growth of 28%.
Tesco plc TSCO announces another year of strong growth for 2017/18. Despite challenging market conditions profit before tax leaping by 769.7% from £145m. to £1.208bn.The year also produced the 9th consecutive quarter of growth and a final dividend of 2p per share is to be paid, making a total for the year of 3p. Group sales rose by 0.6% or 2.3% at actual exchange rates.
BCA Marketplace plc BCA updates that it has traded ahead of market expectations and the positive outlook referred to in Novembers interim results has continued. The outcome is that profits for the full year have grown strongly and net debt is lower than market expectations.
McCarthy & Stone plc MCS claims that underlying trading in the half year to the end of February remained resilient despite a substantial 15% rise in the average selling price from £260,000 to £298,000. Legal completions showed a fall of 12% and not surprisingly profit before tax did not look very healthy with a slump of 52% and earnings per share more than halving from 3.3p to 1.5p per share. Net debt more than doubled from £30.4m to £75.9m. The interim dividend is tweaked upwards but the best that could be afforded in the circumstances was a rise from 1.8p per share to 1.9p.
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Ian Pollard – Rolls Royce impacted by engine issues.
Rolls Royce Holdings RR 2017 was a year of strong recovery, with financial result ahead of expectations. Underlying organic revenue for the year to the 31st December rose by 6%, profit before tax by 25% and earnings per share by 27%. The results were however impacted by the challenge and cost of managing what it describes as significant in service engine issues which are likely to continue for several years. 2018 is expected to be a year of significant operational progress despite the fact that it will take a few years to implement solutions for customers, to the engine problems which Rolls is currently experiencing and the costs of which are and will continue to be, significant.
Paddy Power Betfair PPB produced good growth in 2017 with a final dividend of 135p. per share promised, making a total rise of 21% for the year. Preliminary results for the year to 31st December show a rise in underlying revenue of 13%, EBITDA up by 18%, earnings per share by 20% and operating profit by 19%. The Chief Executive describes it as as an exceptional business with market leading positions in key online and retail markets which will continue to generate shareholder returns in the long term.
Page Group PAGE 2017 was a year of many records with 22 counties producing record performances. Revenue at constant exchange rates rose by 9.8% for the year to 31st December and the final dividend is to be increased by a modest 4.3% to 12.5p per share on top of the special dividend of 12.73p. announced in October.
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Ian Pollard – Sainsbury Beats The Pessimists
Sainsbury J plc SBRY expects full year underlying profit before tax will be moderately ahead of published consensus after a strong third quarter produced a rise of 1.1% in like for like sales, excluding fuel, for the 15 weeks to the 6th January. Groceries online and convenience saw growth of 8.2% and 7.3% respectively leading to a rise of 2.3% in total grocery sales. The icing on the cake was that general merchandise and clothing outperformed the market in challenging conditions. Online now accounts for 20% of total group sales lending support to those who expect families to continue replacing the car for shopping, in favour of the armchair. The size of the turnround in Grcocery can be seen from the fact that last years third quarter rise over 2015/16 came in at 0.3% compared to this years 2.3% rise over last year.
Page Group PAGE was held back in quarter four by a miserable performance in the UK which showed a fall of 2.8% in gross profit compared to growth well into double digits in the rest of the world. Those old UK favourites of challenging market conditions and the impact of macro economic factors are held responsible for the UK letting the side down.For the full year 22 countries produced record gross profits with an average rise of 9.9% in what was a record year.Nor only was the UK not one of the 22, it produced, again, a comparatively abysmal perfornance with a fall of 3.8%.
Ted Baker TED produced a good retail performance over Christmas, with retail sales for the 8 weeks from the 12th November to 6th January showing growth of 10.5% at constant currency rates. This was however overshadowed by a particularly strong performance from e commerce which produced growth of 35%.
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Countryside Props. Slashes House Prices
Countryside Props CSP did what for a house builder, is the unthinkable, it slashed its average selling prices with the result that for the year to 30th September, completions rose by 28% overall and the forward year end order book stood at a record level. The rise in completions was 17% in the partnership division and 31% in the private division. The private average selling price was reduced by a massive 23% to £515,000 and not surprisingly customer demand remains strong. The private average selling price in the partnerships division, however was increased by 12% to £343,000 with the strange explanation that this was due to strong price growth in outer London and regional cities. The logic of all this appears to be dubious to say the least because it indicates that we should, logically speaking, be expecting bad news from the private house builders whereas the opposite is more likely. (but see Telford Homes below)
Telford Homes TEF expects pre tax profits for the half year to the 30th September will be significantly lower than they will be in the second half of the current financial year and than they were, last year. Shareholders must understand that this is all down to the timing of completions and the company’s answer to this is to base the interim dividend on what they expect the full years profits will be, rather than on the actual outcome of the first half. It is understood that there is no question of a refund being asked for if the boards expectations for the full year are wrong.
Dunelm Group DNLM Trading in the first quarter to the 30th September was boosted by favourable weather which helped to produce strong growth, as the company outperformed the homewares market. Revenue rose by 24.8% reduced to 9.3% on a like for like basis. % new stores were opened in the quarter and five more are still to come.
Page Group Plc PAGE Gross profit for the groups third quarter grew by 8.8% in constant currency terms but with the poor old UK the laggard, with a fall of 7.6% due to those old favourites, challenging market conditions and the impact of Brexit. Only one other country showed a decline and that was Australia, down 2%, whilst the mighty French grew strongly, up 21% and the US led the pack with a rise of 29%. Foreign exchange movements also gets a mention, having contributed 3% points to the profit growth.
Wood Grp (John) Plc WG. has been awarded a new five year multi million dollar contract by Total to provide onshore maintenance services at it Lindsay oil refinery. There is a right to extend the contract for a further 2 years. Woods CEO immediately goes for the jargon and says that the new contract will help the company to broaden its downstream footprint but thankfully makes no mention of pipelines.
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Marks Surrenders to Sainsbury
Marks & Spencer MKS is giving little away in its first quarter results for the 13 weeks to the 1st July. The subdued tone certainly seems to indicate a surrender to Sainsbury at least for the time being. The quarter did at least see an end to discounting in Clothing & Home, whilst Simply Food openings produced strong growth and food revenue rose by 4.5%. Like for like UK sales however were miserable with Clothing & Home down 1.2% and food down 0.5%, In constant currency terms international revenue for the quarter fell by 4% whilst group revenue rose by 2.7%.
Galliford Try GFRD updates that the year to the end of June has been one of excellent progress and robust market conditions. Underlying results are expected to be strong and the final dividend is expected to be in line with previous guidance.
Page Group PAGE In constant currency terms gross profit for the first half grew by 7.7% to record levels. The UK was bottom of the pile with a fall of 4.5% compared to the Americas which showed a rise of 13.8%. The weakness of sterling was a major factor benefitting the group and adding £28m to gross profits for the half year. In the second quarter growth in France rose to 23% but even this was dwarfed by SE Asia with a rise of 35%
Grafton Group GFTU performed strongly and better than the company expected in the 6 months to the 30th June. Group revenue rose by 9% or 5.7% on a like for like basis and 6.2% on a constant currency basis. However, it is important to note that the company remains cautious in the short term because of uncertainties in the economy and fears that spending on housing may decline because of pressure on real incomes. Housebuilders beware !
Ilika IKA continued development of its new batteries during the year to the 30th April but revenue remained small despite nearly doubling to £1.1m. Losses remained level at £3.5m.
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RWS Becomes A Major Global Player
RWS Holdings RWS After a strong first half performance, record revenues of not less than £76m are expected for the six months to 31st March, a rise of 33% on 2016. Adjusted profit before tax is expected to show a rise of 36.7%. Following the acquisition of LUZ in February, integration of which has proceeded smoothly, RWS is now a major force in Life Sciences and a premier global supplier of intellectual property support services. This makes it an attractive home for niche companies specialising in these fields. Further expansion and further progress are expected during the remainder of the year.
The share price has risen by over 50% since May 2016 and now stands at 340p.
WH Smith SMWH is increasing its interim dividend by 9%, after what it calls a good first half in which group revenue remained flat but group trading profit rose by 5% and earnings per share by 7%. Travel was particularly strong with a like for like sales rise of 5%.
PageGroup plc PAGE produced a record first quarter with gross profit growth of 9.1%. Regional profits grew strongly on a world wide basis except for the UK which lagged way, way behind and actually managed to produce a decline of 0.1%, all due it is claimed, believe it or not, to the uncertainties created by Brexit
HydroDec Group HYR First quarter revenue grew by 25% over quarter 1 2016, leading the company to believe that it will have achieved positive EBITDA. Further growth in both revenue and EBITDA is expected for the remainder of the year, as further progress is made in establishing the company as a profitable business.
Tricorn Group TCN benefited from an improvement in trading towards the end of the year with second half revenue up by 7.5% on the first half and 20% on the second half of 2016. The energy division was particularly strong and it is anticipated that adjusted profits before tax for the year to 31st March will now exceed market expectations.
D4t4 Solutions D4T4 expects that profits (excluding foreign exchange gains) will be ahead of current market expectations for the year to the 31st March. Software revenue and recurring revenues both showed strong growth with sales of Cerebrus rising by 48%. The company claims it is in robust shape.
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TUI In Line For 2016 Gringlish and Jargonish Prize
TUI AG (TUI) appears to have ignored the basic principle that its financial reports should be written in a language which is understandable by a good number of its shareholders. At least the tables are clear in the third quarter interim report which shows turnover down by 5.7%, net profit up by 116.4% and like for like earnings per share rising by 140%.
9 months figures show turnover down 0.9%, net profit down by 70.1% and earnings per share by 77.1%. Trading for this summer is expected to be in line but winter bookings are already up by 8% on top of which, average selling prices have been increased by 5%.
The reasons for what it describes as a good 3rd quarter performance are given as;
Becoming more “content centric”, having a balanced portfolio of “desti-nations”, being well positioned to deal with changes in the geopolitical and macro economic environment (presumably getting tourists back into geopolitical areas like Turkey and north Africa “), having selective control of all stages in the value chain and a vertically integrated resilient model which is delivering merger synergies.
That is really going to be difficult to beat when it comes to the year end Obfuscation Prize.
What is wrong with plain old fashioned basic English. It might even attract more shareholders to what seems to be a fairly successful company with tight management.
Page Group PAGE is pleased with its half year performance to the 30th June but is well aware of the uncertainties in the UK caused by Brexit. Profit before tax rose by 16%, basic earnings per share by 18.7% and revenue by 8.6%. The interim dividend is being increased by 4.2% in addition to which a special dividend of 6.46p per share is also to be paid.
Cineworld CINE saw first half growth in admissions, box office revenue and retail sales and strong growth in ROW ( Rest Of The World) Group revenue rose by 6.8%, and EBITDA by 7.2%. Despite that, profit before tax fell by 34.6% and profit after tax by 33.9%, one of the main causes being currency movements which hit it with an adverse swing of £15m. compared to half 1 2015. The interim dividend is to be increased by 4% to 5.2p per share.
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