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Penny Share Review 151

Monday 23 September 2002

The Weekend's Comments

The Business from the weekend is confident that Mears (MER) is well placed to carry support from investors. The paper notes that companies that have a proven business model and have achieved self-funded growth using clean accounting methods are likely to be favoured and Mears "recently produced results which suggest it has many of these attributes." "Despite a market-leading position, the Company maintains only a small fraction of the UK public housing stock - 200,000 out of a total 3m." Spending on social housing this year is likely to exceed £5bn, "so the market opportunity is significant." Contract bidding costs are written off as incurred, and future growth is underpinned by long-term contracts and an order book of £267m, "Mears offers good earnings visibility." "The general sell-off among support services stocks has seen the shares fall 30% from their recent high, and they now look an attractive opportunity." At 10.47am the shares were up 2.5p from Friday's close of 67.5p.

Saturday's Daily Mail mentioned Mice's (MEG) Friday's announcement that it knew of no reason for the fall in the share price. Trading was described as buoyant and record results were expected. Evolution Beeson Gregory maintained its outperform rating and the shares rose 1.5p to 39p. The shares at 10.49am were up 1p to 40p from Friday's close.

Osmetech (OMH) may consider a secondary market listing in America as part of the next stage of its expansion, reports The Mail on Sunday. The US is the main potential market for its products and the Company has enlisted healthcare consultancy True North Partners to help market its products there. True North normally invests in its clients but is not allowed to, due to regulations restricting investment outside America, raising the prospect of a dual listing. The management are currently focused on winning shareholder approval to raise £5.4m through a placing and open offer at 2p. The £4m placing has been fully underwritten by Osmetech's broker Evolution Beeson Gregory. At 10.49am the shares were unchanged from Friday's close.

The Sunday Telegraph suggests that the reason why Sibir Energy's (SBE) shares trade at 50% discount to net assets is because of the Company's lack of control in Russia. This was exemplified by the break down of negotiations with its prospective partners in the Moscow Oil and Gas Company announced last week. Nevertheless, the paper notes that the news had no impact on the shares, but the shares "remain an interesting test of what can be achieved in a modernising Russia." The shares at 10.50am were up 0.25p from Friday's close of 10.625p.

Today's Announcements

The following companies, in which City Equities customers may have an interest, released announcements to the market this morning. These can be found by entering the relevant company name or ticker code in the search box on this site.

Cambridge Mineral Resources (CMR) Interim Results.
Virotec International Ltd (VTI) Expands into sewage industry.

Look Out For This Week

23 Sept - Cambridge Mineral Resources (I).
24 Sept - US Interest rate decision, consumer confidence (Sept).
25 Sept - Eurozone wage growth (Q2); German business climate survery.
26 Sept - UK MBBG mortgage lending and consumer credit (Aug); French business confidence (Sept); US new home sales (Aug), Federal Reserve interest rate meeting minutes.
27 Sept - UK National accounts (Q2), Current Account (Q2); French unemployment (Aug); US GDP (Q2 final revision), Consumer sentiment (Sep, final reading).

Compiled by Andrew McLintock

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