I wish I had moved into this one earlier but the poor markets of the last couple of months delayed my move into it. At last it looks like Techs are back on the recipe again with the NAZ showing considerable strength in the last week or so.

XN is not a fly by night tech indeed it as been going for about 25 years and I rate its management very highly.

It is involved in Electronic Point Of Sale Systems EPOS, in several markets including Pubs, Sports Centres, clubs, Cafes,etc. It is a market leader in fact in the Pub trade.

In the last year or so it as branched out and made the acquisition of African Casino Equipment ACE a supplier of Touch Screen Equipment to the Casino Industry and XN have signed up Stanley Leisure and Gala Group to use the ace software. ACE also provide an electronic payment card used instead of cash for the machines, I beleive this part of the business will be a real growth area and I expect more sign ups.

Financial Results And Projections
The company made a pre tax profit of 2.6 million on sales of 18.3 million sterling in the last year 2004. It as around 5 million cash on the books and is cash generative on a monthly basis.

The stock trades on market cap of approx 67 million and a forward P/E of circa 14 rather low for a growth tech company.

It as a fairly high Beta.

Conclusion

I know that Mark Slater is a big fan of this company and he usually gets them right. IF ACE (The jewel In the Crown) expands as fast as I am hoping, forecasts by the house broker will be beaten and I beleive we may well be looking at a SP north of 350p this time next year.

DYOR.

Cheers GF.

I think this is a year long investment GF. Should get some ackers through in a day or so then I'm in. I see MM's are playing silly buggers with HMY. Winnie feels it's fully priced at 230.

MS

Just nugged up, NICE.

cheers GF.

Nice move up today on this news..............

XN Checkout Holdings says in preliminary regarding a possible merger
AFX


LONDON (AFX) - XN Checkout Holdings PLC said it has noted the recent rise in the company's share price and confirmed it is in preliminary talks regarding a possible merger of the company.

The group said if the merger was to proceed it would be efected by an all share offer for the company.

newsdesk@afxnews.com

ec

cheers GF.

Down on very low volumes today.

cheers GF.

Looking very steady. Where is everyone?.

cheers GF.

Mickey as Winnie said anything about this....................

Torex Retail buys XN Checkout
MoneyAM
Torex Retail, which develops software for retailers, said it has agreed to buy rival XN Checkout Holdings for 72.7m in shares.

Torex Retail, which bought Alphameric's retail division for 15m in November last year, said the XN CHeckout deal would allow it build a presence in the new segments of the UK retail technology market.

'This transaction will bring an additional dimension to Torex Retail, becoming a market leader in the rapidly growing complementary sectors of hospitality and gaming,' said chairman Rob Loosemore in a statement.

XN Checkout sells its till technology to the likes of Mitchells & Butlers, Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries, the Spirit Group and to Young's and Stena Line.

The deal, which is expected to be boost earnings per share in the first year, will see XN Checkout investors receive 2.547 new Torex Retail shares for each of their original shares.

XN Checkout had a market capitalisation of 70.5m at its closing price of 257p yesterday. Torex Retail, which closed at 104p yesterday evening, had a market value of 199m.ENDS.

Torex is a good company and was one of Shares Mags blue sky tips but Im not so sure about this deal, any thoughts?????????????????????????.

cheers GF.

Sold out. Just not enough positives for me.

cheers GF.

Right decision GF. Winnie says that this was not a good tip and classes it as one of his failures. Sell in the market. For me it was a choice of this or MSLH I chose the latter. This did look good but the takeover has torpedoed it. Hope you got out without too many bruises.

LOL

MS