ASOS have dropped quite significantly in the past week for no particular reason and I view this as the perfect opportunity to invest as I can see them bouncing right back up to the 5.50p mark in the next 2-3 weeks. STRONG BUY!!

Could even be a triple bagger from here on! Now that would be something!

PLC
03 April 2008


ASOS PLC
FOR RELEASE
7.00 AM
3 APRIL 2008


ASOS plc
('ASOS' or 'Group')
('a leading internet based fashion retailer')


PRE-CLOSE TRADING UPDATE

MONDAY, 28 APRIL 2008

ASOS, a leading internet based fashion retailer, will be releasing its pre-close
trading update for the year ended 31 March 2008 on Monday, 28 April 2008.

For further information contact:

ASOS plc Tel: 020 7756 1000
Nick Robertson, Chief Executive
Jon Kamaluddin, Finance Director

www.asos.com

from todays times.

Tiddler to watch

Tescos withdrawal from online clothing sales has boosted Asos, the online fashion group, up 12p to 267p. Kaupthing says buy with a 350p target price and believes that Tesco might be tempted to bid for Asos if it cannot get its fashion website right because failure in this instance could only be circumvented by acquisition.

just a whisker away from all time highs now

My view is that Tesco might well be tempted to bid but Robertson and allies have a near controlling stake and I don't think will be tempted, almost at whatever price. See my three-bagger comment above.

makes good reading

STOCKWATCH ASOS shares higher after Daniel Stewart upgrades to 'buy' from 'hold'
LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Shares in ASOS were higher in early trade after
Daniel Stewart upgraded its recommendation on the shares to 'buy' from 'hold',
and raised the price target to 350 pence from 280 pence, with the broker taking
an upbeat view of growth prospects in internet sales.
At 9.24 am, shares in ASOS were up 6 pence at 273 pence.
In a note to clients Thursday, Daniel Stewart said it met with ASOS
management yesterday.
The broker said it was not changing its forecasts ahead of the trading
update due on April 28, announced Thursday.
It noted, however, that there is likely to be potential for upgrades at that
point. It said this is due to a number of positive developments.

The broker pointed to a Mintel report published this week highlighting the
popularity of internet shopping in the UK compared with other European
countries. Mintel forecast that online retail sales in the UK would triple by
2012; if ASOS were to follow this growth trend, revenues would reach around 230
million pounds by 2013, said Daniel Stewart, which is almost 50 percent more
than the broker is currently forecasting.

The broker also noted Hitwise data for March 2008 showing that ASOS.com has
moved up to rank 23 in terms of market share for online retail sites, well ahead
of closest competitor - in terms of target demographic - Topshop.co.uk. ASOS is
also closing in on Next.co.uk, down to 13th in March, from 10th in December.
Daniel Stewart said it continues to see ASOS as an attractive acquisition
target for a retail major looking to add an online clothing retail presence, or
strengthen an existing one.

Again, though, the acquisition potential. Leave them alone, I say, to move gracefully into the FTSE 350.

Jon Kamaluddin, ASOS FDProfile: Jon Kamaluddin, FD of online retailer ASOS

When it comes to finance, Jon Kamaluddin, FD of booming online retailer ASOS, is bang on trend


Written by Michelle Perry

Accountancy Age, 03 Apr 2008
If the holy grail of finance directors is continuous double-digit growth, a hefty cash pile and zero debt then that explains the relaxed demeanour of Jon Kamaluddin, finance director of internet clothing store ASOS.

On a tour of ASOSs offices on the second floor of a former tobacco factory in north London, Kamaluddin strolls along with the contented, proud manner of a father showing off his fast growing brood.

This was the size of our original warehouse, he says poking his head around a room roughly 3,000 sq ft stacked high with the latest fashions in shoe, clothes and the all-important accessories, bags, scarves and belts. Seven years on and the company is currently moving into a warehouse measuring 158,000 sq ft.

Floated on AIM in 2001 by co-founder Nick Robertson, ASOS has annually exceeded all investor and analyst expectations and in 2003 became the UKs second most popular online fashion store behind Next but ahead of TopShop a position it still holds today. The gap between us and Next has been narrowing, while between us and Topshop its been widening in recent months, says Kamaluddin.

Originally known as As Seen on Screen, the business is now more commonly known by its acronym ASOS, shorter, sharper and neater reflecting perhaps a change in its clothing lines. Where once it marketed itself hard with cheaper, copycat outfits of originals worn by the likes of celebrities Paris Hilton, Sienna Miller and Mischa Barton, it has now expanded to offer own brand products and luxury branded items.

In its most recent accounts, ASOS reported revenues up 116% to 42.6m with a pre-tax profit of 3.4m, up 144%, and 1.3 million registered users. It now has as many as six analysts watching their stocks a clear sign of its success and all its brokers recently upgraded their forecasts for the year ahead.

Organic is better

So far growth has been 100% organic. Kamaluddin doesnt rule out acquisitions as a possibility in the long-term but in the immediate future he sees little need to acquire, given that the UK clothing market is worth 45bn, and we dont need much of that to continue growth. Thats not even factoring in expansion on the international scene.

This success has, of course, a lot to do with timing and the penetration of broadband internet and admittedly its much easier to grow a new company than it is to maintain high growth once youre established. Nevertheless you cant deny the ingenuity of the business and the vision of its directors.

We are in the right place at the right time. The internet is growing very rapidly and online retail is growing at 30-40% and has done for the last three to four years. But we have delivered on average 80% growth a year, he says.

Customers want convenience and choice and the ASOS brand is clearly delivering to achieve such fast growth and high visitor levels. The site attracts two million shoppers a month, launches 200 new items every week and offers more than 5,000 products at any one time across womenswear, menswear, footwear, accessories, jewellery and beauty.

In addition its target audience of 16 to 34- year-olds have grown up with the internet and arent so hung up on trying things on in stuffy changing rooms. Moreover the returns policy is clear, effective and efficient. What more could a girl want?

Kamaluddin says hes a risk taker in comparison to the traditional accountant, but ironically within the business he presents the more cautious face of its directors.

They have taken some bold moves at times, investing ahead of the curve by recruiting top people before they actually need them, allowing them to move fast when the risk pays off. Financially Kamaluddin ensures he maintains a balance by ensuring fiscal stability in a fast growing business: The business has no debt. Its cash generative. We have a cash balance and for our growth cycle thats the right approach.

Caution, and the ability to look ahead, doesnt only extend to finance either. The directors have chosen their non-executives well, including the respected Peter
Williams, former Selfridges FD and current CEO of Alpha Airports Group. Williams is chairman of both ASOSs audit and remuneration committees.

For a young FD, Kamaluddin, 34, has exceptionally broad experience in accountancy and business and it is this he puts down to his clinching the job.

He began his career at now defunct accountancy firm Arthur Andersen further proof that the demise of the firm had little adverse impact on many its staff spending the first five years in corporate recovery dealing with distressed businesses, which were either in insolvency or on the brink.

I spent a lot of time doing investigations on behalf of companies and bankers, looking into the prospects of a business, at what cash flow was like and recommending remedial action. It was a fantastic way to start a career.

Kamaluddin then went to Marks & Spencer where he spent three years working on the George Davis brand Per Una a business created from scratch, which hit 200m in turnover: Again that was an intense experience for a short period of time and gave me exposure to something entrepreneurial and fast moving, he says.

Red hot fashion

Not one to hang around, he then moved to a small start-up, which he helped float on AIM in 2004, paving the way for the perfect step up to FD of a fast moving public company. Cue the ASOS position. It was his blue-chip and Andersen experience that first impressed CEO Nick Robertson, he believes.

But the companys trajectory hasnt always followed a smooth path. ASOSs warehouse, among other businesses in Hemel Hempstead, was seriously affected by the Buncefield blaze, which took fire fighters two days to put out. Yet the fire failed to torch the businesss growth. The cash reserve the business enjoys has not only allowed it to come out fighting after disasters such as Buncefield, but has also given it much more room for manoeuvre, which will come in handy in the coming years as the economy wavers.

If, as is expected, the business continues to grow, its three biggest investors: Bill Currie, a private investor; ASOSs CEO Nick Robertson; and Fidelity, holding together almost 40% of shares, will be rubbing their hands in glee.

On almost every measure the business is far bigger than three years ago in terms of staff numbers, warehouse and office space, sales, cash balances, profit and, of course, the finance team, which since Kamaluddin became FD has grown from one person to 12, and hes still looking to recruit.

While accountants across industries are shifting uncomfortably with the economy threatening to nose dive, in the world of online clothing Kamaluddin is, for now at least, sitting pretty.

Dressed for success

The UK clothing industry is an incredibly aggressive marketplace dominated by only a handful of brands. It is worth 45bn and is growing annually at an average rate of between 30% and 40%.

Despite being a relatively small outfit, in terms of turnover, compared to the likes of Topshop and Next, ASOS's business model is well placed given that according to Internative Media in Retail Group, total online spend in the UK is expected to grow by 30% in 2008. Women's, girls' and children's clothing account for the major share of the market, making up 68.7% of the total value, which offers an additional advantage to ASOS, as its biggest sellers are womenswear.

According to a research report from Infomat, as fashion clothing retailers continue to find trading conditions difficult in the face of weak consumer demand and heavy discounting. Marks & Spencer, Arcadia Group, BHS Ltd, and Moss Bros Group are among those struggling to maintain their position. Those thriving however include discount chains such as Matalan, Peacock's and Primark Stores, which are expanding rapidly and are predicted to increase their market share.

Nevertheless, we are entering a much tougher economic period and the latest update from the British Retail Consortium shows that UK retailers saw consumers cut their spending 'in earnest' in February. Clothes sales were lower than a year earlier for the fifth month in a row, 'despite continued discounting and promotions'.

Stephen Robertson, director general of the BRC, said the figures illustrated that both retailers and consumers were being squeezed by sharp rises in utility bills and fuel costs.

In its favour ASOS has the ability to rely on its cash reserves, its agility to adapt to changing market conditions because of its size and fewer overheads because it's primarily an online business. FD Kamaluddin isn't ignoring the signs however and is monitoring economic events closely.

For more information on the retail industry go to imgr.org and infomat.com

with all these buy recommendations one wonders how hi this one will go. Anyway we are in "new" territory now as it has just gone thru its highest lvl ever

Powered by IST's

Can it cross 3 today

lits only a matter of time before 3 is taken out

looking at the chart just proves that beauty is in the eye of the shareholder!

Supercharged by beautiful girls!

good news asc joins ftse aim 100 index from monday
FTSE - Mecom Group PLC
RNS Number:5162S
FTSE
16 April 2008


Mecom Group PLC (UK): Transfer to Main MarketChanges In FTSE Indices

16 April 2008
Subject to the expected transfer of Mecom Group PLC (UK) from AIM to the Main Market, FTSE announces the following
changes:

INDEX CHANGE EFFECTIVE FROMSTART OF
TRADING
FTSE AIM UK 50 Mecom Group (UK B06H7T2) will be deleted. 21 April 2008
Desire Petroleum (UK 0268949) will be added to
the index with a shares in issue total of
227,128,012 and an investability weighting of
100%
FTSE AIM 100 Mecom Group will be deleted. ASOS (UK 3092725) 21 April 2008
will be added to the index with a shares in
issue total of 72,547,014 and an investability
weighting of 100%
FTSE AIM All-Share Mecom Group will be deleted. 21 April 2008

Wannabe celebs provide the silver on screen

The man behind the rapid growth of the online fashion retailer Asos.com, Nick Robertson, keeps thinking bigger

* Julia Finch, City editor
* The Guardian,
* Friday April 18 2008
* Article history

About this article
Close
This article appeared in the Guardian on Friday April 18 2008 on p31 of the Financial section. It was last updated at 00:23 on April 18 2008.

Ask a big-name rag trade retailer to name a rival they admire and the response is almost always none. Insist they name one and the response is almost always the same: Asos.com.

Nick Robertson, the 40-year-old who has built the online fashion business from scratch, is pleased as punch that a business he dreamed up for selling products that shoppers saw on TV is so highly rated. So are shareholders in the Aim-listed company. Four years ago the shares were changing hands at 5p. Today they are nudging 282p, valuing the business at 206m and Robertson's stake at 28m - not bad for a business with an annual turnover of 80m.

David Jeary, an analyst at the broker Investec, expects the heady growth rate to continue and has set a 12-month target price for the stock at 355p.

Asos, for those with their fashion heads stuck in the sand, was founded in 2000 and built on showing young shoppers how to emulate the designer looks of celebrity magazine favourites such as Victoria Beckham, Lindsay Lohan and Jennifer Lopez for a fraction of the cost.

The site still links looks to faces. Customers can click on their favourite celeb/wag/pop star and view clothes that look a bit like things they have been pictured in. Want to look like Coleen McLoughlin, Wayne Rooney's intended? Well a "cupped satin corset in the style of Coleen McLoughlin" may be one way. Maybe you prefer the style of Kate Moss? The cheapest way is not to buy her signature range at Topshop but to choose a 6 Asos Lurex vest "in the style of" the Croydon supermodel.

Today, however, the site, and the business, have morphed into something far more aspirational. Though 70% of sales are still own label, the site is also selling some 250 brands, including luxury labels such as Balenciaga and YSL.

Robertson makes no apologies for its celebrity bias: "We are not doing anything different to what women's magazines have been doing since the beginning of time. We are presenting fashion in the way it has always been presented and the way people like to see it presented - with pictures of people wearing stuff."

To prove his point he scoots off to find the latest copies of Vogue and Grazia. Turning the pages, he says: "Ooh look, there is a picture of a celebrity wearing something. There's Kylie. There's Victoria ... and there's Kate Moss ... and there's Kate again."

The target audience is women aged 18 to 34 and Asos has 1.7 million registered users. Some 180,000 potential customers browse the site each day. It receives 200,000 orders a month, averaging 60 a time. Menswear makes up 15% of sales; beauty and cosmetics ranges account for another 3%.

Constant shoots

Asos HQ, with 200 staff, is a former tobacco factory in Camden. It is one of those trendy "workspaces" beloved of dotcom companies. Robertson and the senior team work out in the open-plan office. The buying department, as always, resembles a jumble sale. The catwalk and studio are used in videoing and photographing every item of clothing - and there are 8,300 on the site. The stock is turned - replaced - every nine weeks, so there are a serious number of snaps to take.

It is the range that the internet can provide that Robertson wants to underline. There are 354 full-price dresses available on Asos. There are also 53 from premium-brand ranges and another 214 on the virtual clearance rails. "The Topshop site," he says, "has got 64."

Not that he intends to disparage Topshop. "I love it," he says - several times. And despite its much larger range, Asos is still smaller, in terms of turnover, than Topshop's flagship Oxford Street store. "We are tiny really ... but we have an enormous opportunity."

Robertson's background is in advertising, but there is retailing in the family genes as his great-grandfather founded the Austin Reed menswear chain.

The Asos chief executive left school after A-levels and worked as a media buyer until 1996, when he set up a business called Entertainment Marketing to place products in films and TV programmes. By 2000 he was running a website detailing which products were used in movies and on TV. The business was called AsSeenOnScreen, and it was fashion that proved the biggest success. The product-placement operation was finally ditched last year.

Other fashion retailers are having a tough time as debt-laden shoppers rein back spending: Next has warned sales may fall 7% in the coming months and M&S says the downturn could go on for two years. Ethel Austin went into administration this week - a path trod by several other fashion chains this year including Elvi, Base, Select and Dolcis. Robertson, however, reckons Asos will sail through largely unscathed.

"We are not seeing any signs of a downturn. There are a lot of reasons - things are changing at Asos very quickly and there's so much stuff to look at and buy." He quotes research that suggests "30% growth is guaranteed online" and the fact that "pundits are saying 10% of all clothes will be bought online by 2010 - compared to 3% now".

Robertson is full of ideas for the future. "It can be what we make it," he says. The Asos range may already be large, but he wants it to be bigger, stocking the entire ranges of high-street chains and turning Asos into an online fashion mall. "High-street shoppers go to seven to 10 shops, but internet shoppers go to just two or three websites, with bigger ranges."

High-street chains, he says, like to put their product on Asos because "it looks better than it does on their own website because they don't have the catwalk".

Different hats

There have been mutterings in the trade that Asos is trimming its margins by selling so many brands. Robertson says critics just don't get it. "Take the traditional retail hat off," he says. "In traditional retail, margin is everything but it is not the be all and end all of this business because we don't have stores."

He does, however, have big ideas. He is keen to show off the Asos magazine, a handbag-sized publication - 100 pages with plans for 200 - with an audited circulation of 360,000. "By the end of this year we will be doing 700,000 and it will be the biggest fashion monthly."

Does he ever envisage having any shops? "Categorically no ... well, if I could have the Topshop Oxford Circus site, then yes. It's not that I want a shop, it's because of the marketing benefit. But it is not going to happen in the next five years and it would a shop, not shopssss."

Making a rather more rapid appearance, he says, will be a new intelligent website, like Amazon, which recognises individual shoppers and only shows them relevant products. "So when my wife visits Asos she sees a different shop to the girl in the office."

Then will come Asos marketplace, a cross between eBay and Asos, so customers can run their own mini-boutiques, selling their own clothes online alongside a selection of Asos goods. Asos will then pay a commission or offer a discount.

Another project, codenamed Asos Red, will see the site offering designer end-of-lines at knockdown prices .

The father of a five-month-old daughter, Robertson is also toying with a childrenswear business. "But we would not do it under the Asos name. We don't think kids and fashion go together."

Asos's growth has not been without hiccups - in 2005 the Buncefield oil depot explosion blew the roof off its new Hertfordshire warehouse. Sir Philip Green, says Robertson, was one of the first people to offer help. "He rang up and suggested we use his loss assessor. He was very helpful."

So does he think the acquisitive billionaire would be interested in adding Asos to his portfolio? "No," says Robertson, "he doesn't buy premium-rated businesses at the top of their game."

So, to return to the original question - which retailer does Robertson admire? "H&M, Zara, River Island," he offers. "But I just love Topshop."

New all time hi today

I read somewhere that Asos could be a takeover target by Tesco, since the latter have pulled the plug on their online retailing of clothes (sorry to be so vague but just stuck in my mind as it makes sense)

toya it was in a few papers a couple of weeks ago,robin not long for 3 is taken out?

woodie your quote "robin not long for 3 is taken out?"- Why the question mark?