Yes I know Im on holiday so Ill make it quick. Just had a phone call and an e- mail from a City pal of mine and hes drooling over this company. Hes a trust worthy chap and has given me some fantastic tips over the last 10 years.
Hes going on about it being a ten bagger, but I dont like that kind of talk, best to just see how the market rates it. He says theres going to be a lot of news flow so that should provide for a momentum driven price. Have to say I have never known him quite so excited about a stock. Ive just gone in and bought a nice holding.

Heres the e-mail he sent me. It might be worth your while having a dabble. Citywire seem to think its going to be a hit.

Health minnow makes strong return to market
Published: 11:51 Wed 22 Oct 2003
By Joanne Wallen, Associate Editor
Email to a friend


The chief of Healthcare Enterprise Group sold his last business to private healthcare firm Bupa and he's now raring to go again; the business may be worth a second look.

Shares in the 24 million AIM-listed business were suspended in August pending a couple of key acquisitions, and returned to the market on Monday after the deals were announced.


Healthcare Enterprise Group (HCEG) (HCEG) paid a total of 11.5 million for the Safa Group and Industrial Pharmaceutical Service (IPS) as well as a 60.7% stake in SafaTec. The company raised a total of 10 million via a placing of shares at 1p to fund the acquisitions and also took on 3.5 million of bank debt.


Chairman Stuart Bruck, who previously founded private medical services business Barbican, which he sold to Bupa in January 1999, is hoping to build a significant business providing medical services to corporate customers. He is hoping to be a consolidator in what he told Citywire is a very fragmented market.


Both Safa and IPS provide first aid kits, training, first aid suites and a host of other medical and occupational health services to large corporate customers such as British Airways, Marks & Spencer, BT, Sainsbury and government procurement agency OGC. Both companies also have advanced 'replenishment systems,' which enable companies to maintain adequate supplies to satisfy UK health and safety legislation.


Bruck said these acquisitions would provide a 'platform' for further acquisitions.


The company had previously accrued minority stakes in a total of 14 small healthcare services companies in the UK and the US. In March it listed on AIM by reversing into a cash shell.


Bruck said the minority stakes offered it an entry into the market, but the company has now decided to focus on wholly operating and owning businesses. It has therefore identified four of its US businesses that it would like to buy the remaining stakes in. These are all within a two hour drive of the company's Los Angeles office, and would be run from there.


The company has also 'packaged up' the remaining eight businesses with a view to selling each of its minority stakes. Bruck said the pricing being talked about is already ahead of the indicative pricing given in March.


Safa and IPS apparently already have a 30% share of the corporate medical services market in the UK. They are both cash generative from operating activities. Both companies are based in the North of England and do not have a huge penetration in London, where Bruck believes the company has 'a huge opportunity.'


He reckons they have so far penetrated around 50% of the FTSE 100, and therefore have a 'great client base' to which they should be able to sell additional services.

SafaTec has interests in a number of early stage companies that have developed some innovative healthcare products and technologies, which the company is hoping to commercialise. For example, Safa has secured a sole international distribution agreement with Ebiox, a manufacturer of a unique decontaminant and cleansing product range based on a patented formula. SafaTec UK has a 35% interest in Ebiox and HCEG is negotiating to acquire a controlling interest for the enlarged Group.


Bruck does not expect to make any more major acquisitions in the next year or so, but thinks there are a lot of small players that the company might be able to mop up.


'This is very exciting, I am looking forward to digging in,' he said.


Shares are currently at 1.7p.


Citywire Verdict:


The corporate healthcare market is becoming increasingly regulated, which favours HCEG. Bruck's track record should also be worth buying into.


The corporate structure looks pretty complicated at present with all of the minority shareholdings, but Bruck now seems keen to get the point quickly where HCEG controls the majority of the businesses it operates.


This is obviously early days, but for anyone that fancies a speculative punt on a penny share, HCEG is worth a second look.ENDS.

Well it looks very good to me although its a speculative punt, what isnt in the markets today. Good chance to get on board aswell on a bad day.

Please DYOR. You are responsible for your own buying and selling actions.

GF.

ethel

I cant help wondering which is the hardest nut to crack, the American authorisation system or the NHS with its inbred institutionalised precurement procedures and all that implies. Either one is all the breakthrough that HCEG needs, when you consider the rising cleanliness issues within the Health service one could perhaps assume that someone somewhere in a position of power is choosing to ingnore the benefits of Ebiox in favour of other products

Loadsa

Foxtrot Foxtrot Tango

Still ticking up

Loadsa

Was.

Could this be the winter of our discontent

Loadsa

everyone lost interest then?

Not much left to be interested in ethel, not been one of my better ventures. Yet we are still travelling....hopefully :-/

What we need is an interesting announcement from HCEG

Loadsadosh.
What we want are no more screwups,they achieved the gross and blew it.
Have heard many reasons for not quite achieving results , but an invoicing glitch takes some beating.

So,has everyone jumped ship leaving lonely me to wonder what will happen?
The lack of news is painful.Has anyone anything cheery to say ?

Nope!

AAAAAAAaaaaaaaaggggggghhhhhhhhhh........ ... .. .

16p* today on a dire update + still more money needed, just to keep this ship stationary against the tide - Ah the Rocks, the Rocks....
/
Does anyone think the Directors have earned their fat bonuses?
/
This business should be ashamed of itself and good thing they aren't supplying hospitals in the UK in any sig qty.


(Prior to consolidation) *equal 0.64pence
Just shows you that consolidations are the last refuge of wasters.
DYOR

Today 14.25p proves that in two weeks you can lose a lottle over 10% - and if you include the spread, it's nearer 15%
..About time Directors.... made a statement - but would anyone believe them?

OK I admit it, (today) I've turned!
The sp graph shows the bottom was reached about two days ago and the sp has risen nearly 4p...I just got in at 3p over the institutional buyers, so I'm reasonably satisfied I'm not buying their cast-offs.
Is this business any better than 2 days ago?
- No it's exactly the same (no RNS's), .....but what has changed is folks willing to buy several chunks of shares for cash. That means sentiment is returning -and IMHO that counts for a lot. I'm sure the products are OK, no worse than others in the market....but they will need experienced salesforce to shift 'em. I still have doubts over Management that got us here.

Expect some return before it starts to climb, back - little by little. I may have paid a tad too much; but once an Opportunity presents itself , it need nerves of steel to hold-off, in the hope of retrenchment - and that might be short-lived. To me, this looks like the bottom is "over".

Rumour of the day
Healthcare Enterprise, the AIM-listed medical products developer that has tumbled after Novembers shock profits warning, added 2p to 18p on murmurs it is in talks with Johnson & Johnson, of the US, on the licensing of its Ebiox wipes, which are used to fight hospital-acquired infections. There was also talk that the company is mulling the sale of its Warrington site.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,748-2045784,00.html

This could be on the road to recovery at last, there seems to be some confident buying the last few days and the sp is slowly nudging up again.

yes ,i agree with you there keepitsimple,i think there will be some better news releases in the near future,i think we will hit 20pence within two weeks,and then a steady recovery back upto 50p within 3months.this company has still got huge potential when they have sorted out some of the teething problems,good luck all.

7p is really bad news - and little prospect of any return to what Management laughingly call shareholder value - grief these were 1.30 not that long ago (13 months?)...and no "dot-com" bubble to blame - sheer incompetance and lack of sales...I suppose any company with a grandiose name like "enterprises" should be under suspicion. I sold mine at 80p at a small loss, after a consolidation that tried to hide an earlier fall.
Monkeying with share density is a no-no for me, as it usually spells trouble, IMHO.
Grr.

AGM at 9.30 really says "stay away we don't want whinging shareholders here"....that being the case I won't buy any [HCEG] and the sp can stay where it is (6p) for all I care. When this (new) Management is kicked out, then perhaps (what's left of) the business can be run by professionals...until then I give up.

Oh and please don't let's have any Exec. Rewards when they go,- just slip away one night, switching off the lights.