This was mentioned in Shares Mag of 23rd Nov 2006 as a recovery stock.

Then the price was around 37p. It has since shot up 50% in one week to 56p offer today.

Management has grabbed the company's problems by the scruff of the neck and look capable of delivering a similar turnaround to the one that occurred over the last 5 years.

In the year ending 31 July 2005 the company made 3 million post-tax. If they can do that again then they should make EPS of 14p, so a share price of anything from 100 - 140p ought to be on the cards. 180p ought not to be out of the question.

PDR is continuing to acquire profitable businesses and their recent acquisition, Oriflame, has been earnings-enhancing from the off.

Prospects for the forthcoming year look good, IMO. I already wanted to buy at 40p, but got distracted. However, I have taken a stake today at 56p.

All IMO, PDYOR.






EDIT: RNS of 15 Dec 2006 announces that trading for the first quarter of the new financial year, being 01 Aug - 31 Oct 2006, is profitable and that Oriflame is contributing profitably.

From the Results statement:

Outlook

The Board is pleased to report that the remedial actions taken during the last
few months are proving to be effective and have been well received by our
distributors. In the important pre Christmas sales period, our distributors are
enjoying much improved levels of sales compared to both last year and historic
levels. The overhead costs of the Group have been reduced and the benefits of
this will be further evident in the results for 2006/07. Oriflame continues to
trade in line with the Board's expectations.

Following a very difficult second half of 2005/06, the Board is cautiously
optimistic about the future prospects for Premier Direct Group Plc.

From the trading statement of 17th Oct 2006:

CURRENT TRADING

The Board is pleased to announce that the Group has returned to profitability in
September 2006. The focus on supporting a lower cost and much simplified
territory network has been well received by our distributors.

Current SP: PDR Bid: 53p Offer: 56p Change: 6.5

Premier Direct Grp - Holding(s) in Company
RNS Number:6062N
Premier Direct Group PLC
11 December 2006


Premier Direct Group Plc
(the 'Company')

Holding in Company


The Board of Premier Direct Group Plc has received notification on 8 December
2006 that Nobel has an interest in 1,215,000 Ordinary Shares ('the shares') of 1
pence in the Company, representing approximately 5.85 per cent. of the Company's
issued share capital.


As parent to Nobel, HSBC France also has an interest in the shares.

As parent to HSBC France, HSBC Bank plc also has an interest in the shares.

As parent to HSBC Bank plc, HSBC Holdings plc also has an interest in the
shares.


11 December 2006


END

Premier Direct Grp - Holding(s) in Company
RNS Number:6069N
Premier Direct Group PLC
11 December 2006


Premier Direct Group Plc

(the 'Company')


Holding in Company


The Board of Premier Direct Group Plc received notification on 8 December 2006
that Nobel has purchased a further 50,000 Ordinary Shares of 1 pence in the
Company, and now hold 1,265,000 Ordinary shares ('the shares') of 1 pence
representing approximately 6.09 per cent. of the Company's issued share capital.


As parent to Nobel, HSBC France also has an interest in the shares.

As parent to HSBC France, HSBC Bank plc also has an interest in the shares.

As parent to HSBC Bank plc, HSBC Holdings plc also has an interest in the
shares.


11 December 2006


END

Holding steady at present: PDR Bid: 51p Offer: 55p Change: 0

New RNS out today.


Premier Direct Grp - AGM Statement/Trading Update
RNS Number:8953N
Premier Direct Group PLC
15 December 2006

PDR.L

Premier Direct Group Plc
(the 'Company')

AGM Statement and Trading Update


Premier Direct Group plc, the leading nationwide shopping-at-work provider,
announces that, during its Annual General Meeting to be held at 10.00 am today,
the Company's chairman, Graham Wilson, will make the following comments on
current trading:

'I am pleased to announce that the core business has returned to profitability
in the first quarter of the new financial year and that the key Christmas sales
period is progressing in line with expectations.

'The Oriflame business continues to generate profit and cash and is also trading
in line with expectations.'


15th December 2006


END

Header edited to include summary of trading statement.

If they manage to make even 1 million profit in the current year, the stock will start to look very cheap on prospects for the future, IMO. Given the way in which the business has been restructured, I am hopeful that the time it needs to return to its former glory should be fairly short.

Of course we will know for certain when the interims for the period ending 31 Jan 07 are released, but we might get another trading statement before then.

Current SP: PDR Bid: 52p Offer: 55p Change: 1

PDYOR, etc.

Looks interesting

http://www.premierdirectgroup.co.uk/

Hi Driver, thanks for being the first respondent to my PDR thread!

Indeed it does look interesting - I was very much convinced by the recent Shares Mag article and do not believe I will regret my purchase.

RNS issued post-AGM:

Premier Direct Group PLC
15 December 2006



PREMIER DIRECT GROUP PLC

(the 'Company')

RESULT OF AGM


At the Company's Annual General Meeting held earlier today, all resolutions were
duly passed.

It is the Company's intention to issue a further update to trading during the
week commencing 22 January 2007.

Good morning, ST.
I have decided to join you on this one, so do not be suprised if the SP plummets now.
Alan

Good morning Alan,

Welcome aboard - nice to have some company here :o)

I suppose I could always take advantage of the "Hewitt Effect" to top up ;o)

Good luck to all.

Alan, it seems the Hewitt Effect isn't as strong as was feared. Up a smidge today, 141k traded.

PDR Bid: 53p Offer: 57p Change: 1.5

That takes the SP back up to levels last seen six months ago (apart from the end-of-day high just over a week ago). Will be good if we hold and build on these gains after the profit-taking that took place in between.

Premier Direct Grp - Total Voting Rights

RNS Number:7470O
Premier Direct Group PLC
28 December 2006


Premier Direct Group Plc

Total Voting Rights and Share Capital at 28 December 2006


For the purposes of the transitional provisions of the Financial Services
Authority's Disclosure and Transparency Rules, the total number of ordinary
shares of 1p of Premier Direct Group Plc in issue as at the date of this notice
is 20,730,920 with each share carrying the right to one vote.

There are no shares held in treasury.

The total number of voting rights in Premier Direct Group Plc is therefore
20,730,920.

The above figure may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the
calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their
interest in, or a change to their interest in, Premier Direct Group Plc, under
the Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

PDR Bid: 54p Offer: 57p Change: 0.5

Obviously the news that I bought in hasn't got around yet.
Happy bunny.
Alan

:o) PDR Bid: 54p Offer: 58p Change: 1 at close of play today

And up again in the New Year:

PDR Bid: 55p Offer: 59p Change: 1

Only 3,711 shares traded though!

PDR
50,000 shares at 60......just traded !

ST: Thanks for the newsflow. As a bottom fisher, I piled into these in mid-November purely on the shape of the sp chart - a bumpy downhill slide with all those directors' buys at the bottom, and it was my front runner in December so decided to double my holding last week. After haggling, had to pay 58p, but that is already beginning to look reasonable. Hopefully, these will help to make our new year a prosperous one.
sd.

Hello Squidd,

Good to hear from you. I am convinced that when some profit figures start to come through, this will be quite a flyer. Pity I missed out on the days of thirty-something-p, but never mind, there should be plenty of legs left on this stock. FWIW I paid 56.9 when the SP peaked there in early December, so it's gratifying to see that the mid-price has now got past this point.

Good luck to all,
ST.

Looks like someone else is into this stock too:

PDR Bid: 60p Offer: 64p Change: 5

It looks as if two big buys of 1,065,000 and 250,000 went through, against only 10,000 shares sold.

Looks good to me :o)

Whoever traded that 1.065 mil traded 5.1% of the company, so expect an RNS declaration of interests.

Big trades today.....someone is confident ! Charts looking good for this one :-)

A purchase of 1.25 mil went through after hours at 62p yesterday. That's another 6% of the company.

As you say, RemoteH, someone is clearly confident!

And now we know who.
The question is..............Why???
Alan

Al, indeed we do - to a point! Two of the aforementioned trades have been accounted for, but the 1.065 mil hasn't yet been declared, as far as I know.

Sources on the Dark Side suggest a possible T/O may be in the offing.

But that's enough twirling of the rumour mill. For all I know, now that they know it's Nobel, the sources may have decided to contradict themselves.

Happy to hold until the financials improve :o)


EDIT - sorry, I got the posts below in the wrong order. See confirmation in later post.


Premier Direct Grp - Holding(s) in Company
RNS Number:0141P
Premier Direct Group PLC
04 January 2007


Premier Direct Group Plc
(the 'Company')


Holding in Company


The Board of Premier Direct Group Plc has today received notification that Nobel
has purchased a further 1,250,000 Ordinary Shares of 1 pence in the Company, and
now hold 2,740,000 Ordinary shares ('the shares') of 1 pence representing
approximately 13.22 per cent. of the Company's issued share capital.



Second RNS:

Premier Direct Grp - Holding(s) in Company
RNS Number:0137P
Premier Direct Group PLC
04 January 2007


Premier Direct Group Plc

(the 'Company')


Holding in Company


The Board of Premier Direct Group Plc has today received notification that Nobel
has purchased 225,000 Ordinary Shares of 1 pence in the Company, and now hold
1,490,000 Ordinary shares ('the shares') of 1 pence representing approximately
7.19 per cent. of the Company's issued share capital.


As parent to Nobel, HSBC France also has an interest in the shares.

As parent to HSBC France, HSBC Bank plc also has an interest in the shares.

As parent to HSBC Bank plc, HSBC Holdings plc also has an interest in the
shares.


4 January 2007

After all the excitement, thought there might be a dip on thursday and enable a top up, but even in a falling market PDR contiued to rise. Still my front runner, now overtaken CW overall, so will probably add today.
ST: In case you are looking in, my No 2 in the uphill stakes is BLVN. There's a pretty compelling storyline, and worth a look I think.
sd.

And we're up again, albeit on tiny turnover: PDR Bid: 68p Offer: 72p Change: 5

Squidd, thanks for your comment re BLVN. I actually had a go at this one last spring and made a few quid at the time. If you feel like publishing your thoughts at any point I started a thread for the purpose, although it's been a while since anyone posted.

Posted yesterday, but here's confirmation in a nice summary:

Premier Direct says HSBC France unit Nobel ups stake to 13.22 pct UPDATE


(increases amount bought after further notification)
LONDON (AFX) - Premier Direct Group PLC said Nobel has purchased 1,475,000
ordinary shares in the company, and now holds 2,740,000 ordinary shares,
representing approximately 13.22 pct.
As parent to Nobel, HSBC France also has an interest in the shares. And in
turn, HSBC France's parent HSBC Bank PLC also has an interest in the shares, as
does its parent HSBC Holdings plc.

newsdesk@afxnews.com
slm

And a good finish to the day: PDR Bid: 68p Offer: 72p Change: 5

123k traded

Can't afford anything else-no spare cash! Like the look of this but liked DCD even more the shares look very undervalued and I'm hoping the market wakes up with the next results what is your opinion ST?

On Friday, the 65 & 130 day m.a.'s formed a golden cross for PDR. I groaned when selftrade demanded 70p for my top up, but the sp continued to build and has now doubled since the dark days of November. Chart now looks very positive to me.
sd.

Squidd, it looks as if you now have a chance to top up much more cheaply:

PDR Bid: 62p Offer: 66p Change: -6

However, barely 103K have changed hands, so it's not a bit sell-off in comparison with last week's buying.

Probably just a bit of P/T?

Probably just someone has got wind that I bought in :-(((
Alan

I feel sorry for anyone who has got wind, Al.

A breather, I think after the mad scramble uphill. My best deals have usually been when I took Rothschild's advice and sold too soon, but I think this is much too soon and I'm looking for funds to add.
sd.

Can someone please take their foot off the break now !

I believe we're waiting for the next trading statement, Remote.

Sorry, OFF THREAD but if you are here Soul, please check QTI thread.

Even with shrunken volumes, there seems to be little downhill drift in PDR. Suggests to me that the MMs are mopping up in preparation for the next run uphill.
sd.

Nobel at it again:

Premier Direct Grp - Holding(s) in Company
RNS Number:8721P
Premier Direct Group PLC
19 January 2007


Premier Direct Group Plc

(the 'Company')


Holding in Company


The Board of Premier Direct Group Plc has today received notification that Nobel
has purchased a further 200,000 Ordinary Shares of 1 pence in the Company, and
now hold 2,940,000 Ordinary shares ('the shares') of 1 pence representing
approximately 14.18 per cent. of the Company's issued share capital.


As parent to Nobel, HSBC France also has an interest in the shares.

As parent to HSBC France, HSBC Bank plc also has an interest in the shares.

As parent to HSBC Bank plc, HSBC Holdings plc also has an interest in the
shares.


19 January 2007


END

Um !
What could they know !

I suspect they know what we know - that this co is a fantastic investment for those who get in soon enough!

Here we go:

Premier Direct Grp - Trading Update
RNS Number:0720Q
Premier Direct Group PLC
24 January 2007


PREMIER DIRECT GROUP PLC


Premier Direct Group Plc, the leading nationwide shopping-at-work provider,
today gives an update on trading prior to the half-year end on 31 January 2007.


The directors anticipate that in the first six months of the new financial year,
Group sales of approximately 12.5 million will generate pre tax profits in the
region of 0.7 million before charging goodwill amortisation. Both the core
shopping-at-work and Oriflame cosmetics businesses contributed to profit. This
return to profits follows the loss-making period experienced by the Group in the
second half of the year to 31 July 2006.


The Group has reduced indebtedness from 6.6 million at 31 July 2006 to 5.3
million at 31 December 2006. The Group has generated free cash flow from
operating activities of 1.3 million up to 31 December 2006, thereby
significantly strengthening the balance sheet.


The core shopping-at-work business continues to make steady progress. The
distributor network has grown from 488 distributors at 31 July 2006 to 525 at 31
December 2006.


With the exception of Oriflame's small administration centre in Milton Keynes,
the Group is now operating exclusively from its South Shields warehouse. The
operational restructuring, which was completed at the end of December 2006, will
result in reduced overhead costs in the second half of the year.


The directors will continue to implement the strategy set out in the 2006 Annual
Report and remain cautiously optimistic about the Group's future prospects. The
interim results will be announced on Wednesday, 28 March 2007.

I wonder if they'll break even on the half after deducting goodwill charges. Last year these amounted to 1,634,000 for the full year.

They should also manage to reduce interest payments by around 100k for the full year, which is nice. EDIT They've also managed to reduce overheads due to cost-cutting measures implemented in H1, the benefits of which will be felt in the current half.

Any other views?

Only 10,000 shares traded today though.

Looks pretty good without being bullish (!)
I would like to see a little more detail on possible recruitment drives among distributors as this is the real key to growth. Economies of scale and increased turnover etc.
Until they can show me that I will keep this as an interesting and profitable distraction from my main portfolio, though it has made me a very tidy sum so far and I am very happy.
Alan

Agreed re the distributors, Al. Hopefully they have managed to turn the tide of disgruntled distributors leaving.

Things look fairly positive, but there's certainly little room for errors.

Certainly looking very promising, yet apart from Nobel and we few, nobody seems to have noticed. On a busy day in the market everywhere else, the volumes are still below 10% of the monthly average.
sd.

Squidd, I think in part that the SP was already pretty much in line with today's news; I wouldn't have expected a huge jump in the share price as the RNS was reassuring rather than spectacular. However, there ought to be more SP growth to come.

But it could be good that we're among the few at present - wait for the bang when the world does sit up and take notice.

WDIK, etc, etc.

A bit of a skid today: PDR Bid: 55p Offer: 59p Change: -6.5

but it looks like it could be due to some manipulation by the MM's to get the 54k trade filled:

Time Price Quantity Type Bid Offer Buy/Sell Total Buy Total Sell Total Unknown
13/02/07 09:03 55.5 5,000 O 55.0 59.0 Sell 766 31,597 0
13/02/07 08:59 56.0 7,597 O 56.0 60.0 Sell 766 26,597 0
13/02/07 08:57 56.0 3,000 O 56.0 60.0 Sell 766 19,000 0
13/02/07 08:55 57.0 6,000 O 57.0 61.0 Sell 766 16,000 0
13/02/07 08:54 59.0 10,000 O 60.0 63.0 Sell 766 10,000 0
13/02/07 08:50 60.0 54,000 O 55.0 59.0 Buy 54,766 31,597 0
13/02/07 08:10 63.8 766 O 61.0 65.0 Buy 766 0 0


If I get the trades to display as a "live stream" rather than latest first, the 54k trade comes out on top, making me wonder if it's the cause of the malarkey due to a combination of the aforementioned manipulation plus late reporting of a larger deal.

Still, WDIK.

Up today, only 10K traded: PDR Bid: 53p Offer: 55p Change: 1.5

Results due on Wed 28th March.

Another tick up again today: PDR Bid: 53p Offer: 57p Change: 1 Only 17,000 traded.

Up again today. 20K traded. PDR Bid: 54p Offer: 57p Change: 0.5

Results due tomorrow.

Looking forward to them.
Hope I am not dissappointed.
Alan

You and me both, Alan!

Premier Direct Grp - Interim Results

RNS Number:8357T
Premier Direct Group PLC
28 March 2007


PREMIER DIRECT GROUP PLC

Interim Results for the six month period ended 31 January 2007


Premier Direct Group Plc ('PDG' or 'the Group'), the national shopping-at-work
company based in Newcastle, today announces its interim results.

KEY POINTS

6 months to 6 months to Year to
31 January 31 January 31 July
2007 2006 2006

Turnover 12.5m 15.6m 23.1m

Operating profit before charging
exceptional items & goodwill
amortisation 1.0m 3.2m 2.2m

Operating profit / (loss) 0.8m 2.6m (3.6m)

Profit / (loss) on ordinary
activities before taxation and
before charging goodwill
amortisation 0.7m 2.6m (2.5m)

Profit / (loss) before taxation 0.5m 2.4m (4.1m)

Earnings / (loss) per share 1.6p 7.6p (14.0p)


* Considerably improved profit performance after losses in H2 2006

* Overheads in core business reduced significantly and now a single site
operation

* Debt reduced by 1.6 million to 5.0 million at 31 January 2007 (31
July 2006: 6.6 million)

* All divisions trading in line with expectations

* Oriflame shopping-at-work launched

Commenting, Eric McClenaghan, Chief Executive, said:

'We are pleased to confirm that the core shopping-at-work business and the
Oriflame cosmetics business are continuing to trade in line with our
expectations. The restructuring of our overhead base and operational structure
have proved to be highly beneficial and have established a strong foundation to
build upon.'

Annualised EPS should be at least 3.2p. At current offer price of 57p, that's PE 17.8, that's fairly toppy.

Depends on what the prospects for the next half look like.

Of course, if they beat current profits then the rating drops off and the stock starts looking cheaper. I may keep the faith for a while and see what happens.

Not massively impressed, but if we accept that losses did not finish on the last day of H2 and profits start on the first day of H1, we must assume that there is a rising trend, so 17.8 times does not seem too toppy.
Staying in because downside looks very minimal.
Alan

Agreed.

Plenty of management buying of the shares according to todays RNS.
Not usually a bad sign.
And of course they should be just about entering the closed period.
Alan