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Penny Share Review 179

Monday 14 April 2003

Invox (INX.L) is featured in the 'Broker Buys' section of Saturday's Daily Mail. Seymour Pierce, after the Company's interim results, is of the opinion that at 1.5p the shares are a 'buy'. The broker notes, as paraphrased in the Mail that Invox is a "young company with an excellent growth record, which is sustainable." This doesn't appear to have stirred any interest among investors, as the shares at 8.58 were unchanged from Friday's close of 1.5p.

The sale of the investment banking division of Seymour Pierce (SYP.L) to a team made up of management and backed by Alchemy Partners received some coverage on Saturday. The Times reported that of the £7.35m cash consideration, about 60 staff have put up £3.5m of their own money to support the buy-out. The Independent highlighted that the management team's first bid to buy the entire business was rejected and it was after this that their attention turned to the investment banking division. However it was the return of cash to shareholders that was the focus of The Daily Telegraph's article. Chairman Keith Harris commenting on the cash return stated, "I am a large shareholder and so I am just as keen to get this done." There was no detail as to how much would be returned. Harris will remain as non-executive chairman of Seymour Pierce and executive chairman of the new company where Richard Feigen and Nigel Wray will join him. According to The Daily Telegraph, in contrast to the figures in The Times, the managers paid under £2m for a 65%, while Nigel Wray bought 4% with Alchemy taking a minority stake of 31%. The fund management arm is next, which the Telegraph values at £20m and is supposed to be attracting the attention of New Star Asset Management. The shares at 8.58 were ahead by 0.25p from Friday's close of 3.38p.

Confirmation of changes to bingo taxation in the budget, which had been widely expected, spurred Sally White of The Independent, in her 'Private Investor' column, to review various stocks affected by the changes. One such company was Top Ten Holdings (TTH). She points out that having only been launched on AIM last year it is "now the fourth largest in the UK bingo business, and plans to grow up snapping up more of the many privately owned halls." Sales and profits rose to £3.7m and £267,000 at the interim stage last September, but the article highlights the relative illiquidity of the shares. Norman and Alan Weston (Deputy Chairman and Finance Director respectively) hold a large percentage of the shares. Despite this the article concludes, "at 4p the chances if winning look excellent." At 8.58 the shares were unchanged from Friday's close of 4p.

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.

Eurasia Mining (EUA) - Drilling start at West Kytlim.

Look Out For This Week

14 Apr - UK retail sales monitor (Mar), UK producer prices
15 Apr - Maverick Entertainment F), UK retail price index (Mar), US industrial production (Mar).
16 Apr - UK unemployment (Mar), average earnings (Feb), Eurozone industrial production (Feb), CPI inflation (Mar), US CPI (Mar)
17 Apr - UK RICS housing market survey, Eurozone ECB meeting
18 Apr - nothing of note.

Compiled by A McLintock

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