In line with my thoughts of recent, stay well away from momentum stocks at the moment. Go into boring but stocks that can be seen to generate an increase in earnings. Ive been with this a few weeks and think a few may have picked up on that. Now breaking out and looking for further earnings enhancing Acquisitions.

Its a top notch architect company and not over exposed to the housing market. Has top management and is derd cheap on fundies, more to come on that . Any views appreciated, good or bad but I feel we could be onto a winner here.

Just look at this report from a tip sheet, all things checked out and OK........

Lifted this from another board..........

SMC stacks up - STRONG BUY
Companies: SMC
27/09/2005

Architecture and design group SMC, which works on major office, retail and residential projects in the UK, Eire and Europe, joined AIM via a 4.6 million placing in June with ambitions to consolidate this fragmented industry. Founder and chief executive Stewart McColl hopes that by creating a larger outfit, his company will be able to win bigger projects producing higher margins.

McColl founded SMC in 1996 and has delivered appetising organic growth in recent years by offering national coverage. This has allowed the group access to substantial and more profitable construction projects across a range of sectors and locations. Clients now include British Land, Canary Wharf Group, Morgan Stanley and Wm Morrison, amongst others.

We have already got the 100 million projects, explains McColl, but there is another step-change in scale to come that will allow us access to projects worth 200 million, 300 million, 400 million and even 500 million. Increased scale pays off because larger projects are higher margin, with higher fee levels and longer timescales, helping SMC plan staff requirements more accurately.

Last November, ahead of the AIM float, SMC appointed ex-Wembley stalwart Sir Rodney Walker, who has brought recent AIM success stories like Goals Soccer Centres and Spice Holdings to market, as non-executive chairman. His presence and contacts have boosted the groups cachet and, following the AIM listing, McColl is also keen to boost scale through acquisitions.

Shortly after the float, SMC completed the two acquisitions mooted in the prospectus Corstorphine & Wright Hills Erwin, a Manchester
and Lancaster-based commercial architecture specialist, and Philip Lees & Associates, an outfit based in Leeds city centre, with a bumper proportion of revenues wrought from repeat business.

We are one of the few consolidators that I know of in this market, adds McColl, and now that we are on AIM, we are after acquisitions that are far more significant in size.

SMC recently cheered followers with an update on new deals. Among a plethora of 100 million-plus projects was work on new headquarters for Deeley Properties in Coventry, Sports Centres for Warwick County Council as well as developments for Pillar Properties and Canary Wharf.

Overseas work included manufacturing and office units in Slovenia, as well as a 290-bed InterContinental Hotel in Pakistan. There was also news of planning consent for a 50 million British Land office campus at Coventry.

2004 was exceedingly strong for SMC, with turnover lifted by 43 per cent to 8.1 million and pre-tax profits sparking up from 100,000 to 1.1 million. Gross margins were a healthy 50 per cent.

More recently, SMC unveiled extremely strong maiden interims to June, sending the shares sharply higher to 70.5p. These revealed a 255 per cent profits jump to 1.1 million on a 47 per cent leap in sales to 5.4 million. McColl was particularly pleased with the 260 per cent vault in earnings per share and a 140 per cent surge at the EBITDA level to 1.45 million, especially since we only had 20 days worth of revenues from the two acquisitions completed at float in the numbers.

He says subsidiaries are already enjoying larger scale project wins as part of the larger AIM group. 'We are looking at a few businesses that we might acquire, and as the business grows bigger, we'll be more equipped to handle PPP and PFI projects'.

Analysts envisage further profits improvement this year to 2.9 million, with sales climbing to 12.8 million. On those numbers, earnings of 7.1p leave the stock trading on an undemanding multiple of 9.9. We believe SMC offers high earnings visibility as well as tasty levels of repeat business, and we are strong buyers.ENDS.

Worth doing your own research if you are interested.


DYOR

cheers GF.

Speculation on other boards that a Scottish acquisition is very close.

cheers GF.

Buyers coming back in after a poor start. Could end up blue on the day.

cheers GF.

Nice to see this one rising again.

cheers GF.

Nice bounce from yesterdays intra day low. Suggests that there is not much stock about imo.

Looking good

capa

A quid could be on the cards very soon.

cheers GF.

All buys this morning. We could be on for a good afternoon, fingers crossed.

cheers GF.

Speculation on other sites that a Scottish acquisition is on the cards. Slight move up this morning.

cheers GF.

Director buy !!

Looking good

capa

More good news

SMC Group Plc
05 December 2005





SMC Group Plc
('SMC' or 'the Company')

New Contract Wins

SMC Group Plc, the architects and design business, is pleased to issue details
today of the construction value and new fees contracted since mid-August. The
following projects have a total construction cost of over 500m and represent
stage fees for SMC in excess of 5m.

120m Mixed Use Development, Salford, Manchester


300 acre Mixed Use Development including 300K sq.ft. speculative
Distribution Warehouse, Humberside


30m Sports Facility Complex including Hotel, Student Accommodation &
Residential Apartments and 75K sq.ft. Offices


40m Iconic Structure, Piccadilly, Manchester


30m Iconic Structure, Liverpool


Mixed-Use Retail and Residential projects, Scarborough


Hotel and Leisure complex, Blackpool


30m (circa) Council Offices, Huntingdon


20m (circa) Office Development, Birmingham


6m (circa) Employment driven development scheme, Bootle, Merseyside


3m+ Health Centre projects Harrogate and Cleethorpes


3m+ Factory and offices, Ilkley

The business is also making considerable inroads into the BSF programme
(Building Schools for the Future) through being invited to tender with major
institutions and contractors, more information on which will be available at the
appropriate time.

The BSF news at the end is very encouraging.

Added this a.m

capa

Good call GF hope you've done well.

MS

Good call GF hope you've done well.

MS

Yes excelent news today. One of the tip sheets follows this one so watch out for more upside monday next I assume. We may get more in between aswell fingers crossed.

cheers GF. Still on a very cheap rating P/E less than 13. Forward P/E of 10.

Building on yesterdays gains I see.

cheers GF.

Well worth having a read of this link...........http://http://www.growingbusiness.co.uk/YcqLvTxoF2HDRg.html

cheers GF.

A nice move above a quid this afternoon.

cheers GF.

Still with you goldfinger.

Long term hold for me here.

all the best

capa

Up again aswell Capa. Looking for more after the new year when another acquisition is on the cards.

cheers GF.

Update from Hardman 6/12/2005................

It appears that they are being somewhat cautious but express even more confidence in their earlier figures.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Quoted architect SMC Group has announced a 5m boost to its order book, winning over a dozen new contracts over a broad geographical and sector spread. The work is for stage fees on projects with a total likely value of over 500m, and these stage fees are likely almost all to fall into the 2006 financial year.

Key points are:

As these are stage fees, there is a very high probability of their making it to the billable sales level during 2006, even though some of the projects do not at present have planning permission.

If SMC is winning the early stage architectural work it will probably also win the other architectural work through to completion this is a good indicator for the possible workload in 2007 and 2008 and good for
forward earnings visibility.

The broad spread of the project work is encouraging the company is less vulnerable to sudden cancellation or project deferral.

When we prepared our Inaugural Research Note on SMC in November we were even at that stage happy with the likely workload for 2006. This reinforces our opinion. While we are not upgrading our forecasts at this stage, it gives us increased confidence in our numbers.

It should also give increased confidence to the owners of medium sized private architectural businesses considering selling to SMC. When it floated on AIM earlier this year,SMC stated that its plan was to be an industry consolidator.

Cheers GF.

A slight pull back below the 1 level gives an opportunity to those not yet in.

Very cheap at this price.

cheers GF.