News from this evenings Standard

I ESPECIALLY LIKE THE 3RD FROM LAST PARAGRAPHS COMMENT BY MR ALLAN!!!!



Thus pulls plug on its call centres
Steve Hawkes, Evening Standard
9 July 2004

THUS is quitting the call centres business in a shake-up that will delay the telecoms group's move into the black.


The Scottish Power offshoot is selling its loss-making centres to put more cash behind its core voice and data business.


Chief executive Bill Allan said the sale of the interactive division, which makes money from scratchcard competitions, may not be far behind.


Thus will be in profit towards the end of the financial year to March 2005. Two months ago, Allan was hoping for profits across the second half. 'We will be ebit [earnings before interest and tax] positive at the back end of the year,' he said today.


The group has been looking to sell the call centres for two years, after clients baulked at the idea of buying such services with a telecom package.


Murray International subsidiary Response Handling is paying 4m for the business. Allan said: 'The price is good for us and good for the shareholders.'


In a trading update, Thus said first-quarter cashflow was ahead of last year but it was still suffering from an increase in lower-margin business. Overall revenue was 'strongly in line with year-end expectations'.


It plans to access BT exchanges to target smaller and medium-sized firms. The shares today fell 2 1/4p to 20 1/2p.

wish it was closing at 20 1/2p ,


Aerotus...
That knocks my theory in the head.
7-5,million late trade............total of 62,million buys, and the blighter still keels over.
Whats a foot with these m/m's??

Have a nice weekend away from the shares....till 8-00am monday then////

From this level very possible. Reaction was well overdone as can be seen by the buying.

chrissie can we please change the title to "Are THUS shares about to halve?. I'm a holder but loosing heavily at the moment.

Azhar,
Quite right,
I'll go along with that, reiterating loses, we are being shafted by the m/m's yet again, more buys than sells and down again

Don't get sucked in by these Buys and Sells columns.
Every Buy is also a Sell, and every Sell is also a Buy.

Look for trend and volume.
Is the volume coming in on down days?
IE, more folk wanting to sell than buy that pushes the price down to attract
buyers.

Or is it coming in on up days?
IE, more folk wanting to buy than sell that pushes the price up to attract sellers.

MM's make their money on the spread. They won't want to take a position
unless they have a big buy or sell order to action.

IMHO, of course.

Melnibone.

Dont believe all you read .I sold a stack on Friday and all listed as buys .

And the last two 2.5m/2.7m look like buys to me?

Which way is THUS trending.
Stick a ruler on the screen if it helps.:-))

Which days have the high volume?
The up days or the down days?
Which way is the Macd indicating?

Melnibone.

thus shares to double ......thought i was doing nicely but just realise i have the chart up side down

Maybe management are standing on their heads. That's why everything looks OK. The statement wasn't meant to be a profits warning but all analysts saw it that way. How can you say that all expectations will be met and still see a 30% fall in share price. Is there any hope for us?

Thus is becoming more and more like a coiled spring. Negative sentiment and the failure to recognise Thus's brilliance has been going on for at least 9 months now. At some point in the future, there will be a SHARP correction, a rise of 50-100% within a week. This will happen when the final results come out showing a decent profit compared to the other flagging telcos. Only then will people wake up and show THUS and Bill Allen the respect they deserve.

Aerotus.
Go for it and tell the world (investors world that is) the sooner the your views are accepted by the majority the better.
This last week has been a disaster for THUS but the trend must surely change soon as this is a good company operating in a very competitive field, yet producing results as forecast and continuing to gain good new business on a regular basis.
Bill Allen continue on this format and THUS will be on a much different rating than it is today.

My views
opto

From www.Frequentrader.info (Monday 12th July) ...

"I see Thus (don't hold at the moment) is getting a bit of a battering. But at some point soon it'll start to look undervalued - keeping my beady eye open for a possible good entry point. Just watching for the moment."

1anT

what is a protected portfolio transaction see posting no. 118

mpw777,

To be honest I am no really sure - this is the description from the stock exchange if this helps:

Protected Portfolio
The transaction was reported as a protected portfolio or, was as a result of a worked principle agreement for a portfolio transaction.

I will try to get a more details explanation.

Ian

THUS is not looking good....

ROUNDUP Thus shares plunge after PROFIT ALERT stuns city

LONDON (AFX) - Shares in Thus Group PLC (LSE: THUS.L - news) plunged today after the UK group stunned investors, warning full-year profit will be depressed by ongoing margin erosion at its main telecoms business and problems at two of its other operations, one of which it has agreed to sell.
A spokesman said the company expects to report earnings before interest and tax of 47-53 mln stg in the year to March 31 2005, down from 53-59 mln previously.
House broker Investec (LSE: INVP.L - news) meanwhile slashed it forecast for earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) by 16 pct to 49.3 mln stg.
That compares with reported EBITDA up 61 pct to 43.6 mln stg in the year to March 31 2004.
The company said margins at its core telecoms operations, which provide voice and data services to business customers throughout the UK, as well as offering high-speed internet access were under pressure.
It said that was partly because growing numbers of Britons have been switching from dial-up internet access to broadband, on which its margins are lower.
Thus also warned its telephone-based marketing promotional business was unlikely to make money this year, having previously expected the business to generate underlying profit of around 4 mln stg.
It said following the 'poorer than expected' performance of the unit, which was created by Thus' former parent Scottish Power PLC, it is 'reviewing its options' and will make a further announcement when it delivers interim results in November.
The so-called Interactive division, which makes money from newspaper scratch cards, inviting the holder to dial in to claim a prize or promotion, last year generated generated sales of 13.0 mln stg, around 4 pct of the total.
Separately, Thus said it had agreed to sell its loss-making call-centre business to a subsidiary of Murray International Holdings, one of Scotland's largest private companies, for around 1.75 mln stg.
Thus will also retain working capital of around 2.25 mln stg.
Although the unit has consistently lost money since Thus was floated on the London stock exchange (LSE: LSE.L - news) in December 1999, Investec had expected the unit, which has a net book value of 3 mln stg, to contribute around 2 mln stg to underlying profit in the current year.
The alert mirrored a similar warning from rival Colt Telecom PLC (LSE: CTM.L - news) last week, when it said profits would be hit by tough market conditions and pressure on margins.
The company, which has seen its shares plunge from a high of 862 pence in March 2000, attempted to make light of its latest difficulties.
'Although we remain cautious on the general economic outlook and the competitive dynamics of the existing market structure for UK telecommunications... we remain comfortable with the range of market expectations for the full year, and will now exit the year EBIT positive,' the company said.
At 12:30 pm, Thus' shares were trading 4.5 pence, or 20 pct, down on the day at 18.25, valuing it 246 mln stg.
rob.branch@afxnews.com

Old news hyleo98!

optomistic
Agreed, for anyone who is holding Thus shares last Friday seems a very long time ago
I do however, as your name suggests remain optomistic for the long term

Hi Rampage, optomistic also remains cautiously optimistic for the long term, hopefully we could see some earlier return to 'normality'. THUS seems to be on target for Bill Allen's projections and just the slightest change in sentiment to the alt telco sector would see a tremendous boost to THUS's share price IMO.

p.s. I was going to have optimistic as my name, not really very creative I know, but someone else had used it with a number attached so I chose optomistic, perhaps it could be changed to just opto