Boardroom Sweep: Top men swing into action
Published: 07:25 Fri 28 Nov 2003


The Sweep has picked up some interesting deals - several directors have bought shares in resurgent Innovation Group, a senior director has sold at First Group and an outgoing director of Schroders has also cut his stake.

* A day after Robert Bonnier, the entrepreneur who founded Scoot, increased his stake in software company The Innovation Group (TIG) the directors have also made several significant purchases.


Chairman Geoff Squire and non-executive directors Chris Banks and David Thorpe bought 2.3 million shares between them at 18-19.35p.


Squire was the biggest buyer taking 2 million shares for 360,000 to take his total stake to 4.2 million shares or 1% of the 75.6 million company.


Banks bought 200,000 shares for 36,480 and Thorpe bought 100,000 shares for 19,350.


After his latest investment Bonnier controls 6.2% of the company through contracts for difference (CFDs).


Once thought to be a very exciting prospect the company suffered from terrible over expansion during the dotcom boom and was forced to report a 27.1million loss.


However, it has reorganised and refinanced and has attracted back plenty of sharp investors. AAA-rated Patrick Evershed of New Star and similarly rated Giles Hargreave of Marlborough have both bought the shares recently.


Innovation closed up 1.75p at 19.75p last night.

Tip Updates: Dubens continues building his empires
Published: 12:03 Wed 19 Nov 2003
By Joanne Wallen, Associate Editor
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Peter Dubens is either going to turn out to be a major tycoon or he isn't, but no one will be able to say he didn't try after Ukbetting's announcement of yet another acquisition while GX Networks, now called Pipex Communications, is just starting to digest Pipex.

Dubens is vice chairman of Ukbetting (UKB) and the former GX Networks (GXN), both Citywire tips. His vision for both was to take advantage of all the millions of easily won pounds that had been poured into either poorly conceived or poorly run businesses at the height of the 1999/2000 boom.


Both companies have already made several acquisitions and yesterday Ukbetting bought Oddschecker for 4.75 million to add to its Sportinglife content business.


Ukbetting is also raising 11 million via a placing of 26 million new shares at 45p each. Dubens and chief executive Eric Semel are both investing 500,000 in the placing.


The remainder of the money is already earmarked for yet another purchase, which is likely to complete before Christmas. This would bring to eight the number of acquisitions made since the company floated on AIM in August 2001.


Oddschecker is a web site that pulls together all of the odds being given by the various bookmakers for a given horse race or sporting event onto one screen. Punters can then chose which odds they prefer and click directly through to that bookmaker's website to place a bet. Oddschecker receives a commission for each click through.


Dubens said that while it was not a huge acquisition in value terms, it formed a very important 'part of the jigsaw' for Sportinglife, the company's sports content business. As well as providing content and analysis on a standalone basis, Sportinglife also provides services to Ukbetting's own betting sites and to rival betting sites.


So far the company has a good track record of taking in the key bits of the businesses it buys and stripping out the rest. TeamTalk is a classic example of this sort of acquisition. Ukbetting talk the content part of TeamTalk and integrated it with Sportinglife. However, it jettisoned a radio business, a website and most of the employees that went with them.


In September Ukbetting announced the appointment of Trevor Beaumont, formerly Racing and Trading Director of Corals, as managing director of betting. Dubens said that while the company, as its name suggests, has to date taken most of its bets from the UK, Beaumont will introduce more betting from Europe.


For the six months to June the company reported turnover of 27.6 million and losses before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of 1.6 million. The drive now is toward profits before write-offs, Dubens said.


As Citywire reported, GX Networks, itself the product of Dubens' telecoms consolidation strategy, bought the larger Pipex, and internet service provider (ISP) and broadband company for a total of 55 million last month. The deal takes the number of customers to 140,000 from just 600 a year ago, and is a good demonstration of the extent of Dubens' ambitions. (continued...)

Ukbetting's shares rose 4.5p to 53p yesterday and are unchanged today, valuing the business at 33 million, while Pipex dipped fractionally at 7.375p, unchanged today, valuing it at 131 million.


Citywire Verdict:


Citywire tipped GX (Pipex) in August at 5.625p and Ukbetting at 35.5p. Dubens is the complete opposite of a dotcom-era business builder. He is acquiring companies that have already benefited from millions of pounds of infrastructure investment, start-up costs, listing costs, advertising and brand building, for a fraction of their book value.


He is assembling highly experienced management teams with plenty of grey hair between them and ruthlessly stripping out all of the dotcom excesses.


Both Ukbetting and Pipex are in areas of business that should enjoy very substantial growth over the next few years, and while both may still be a gamble, they would appear to be gambles worth taking for now.