Since the demerger from Chorion the shares have not done well ..... despite a clutch of director buys last June the price has halved .... mostly on market worries and the idea that peeps wil stay away from the City centres as talk of a war and possible terrorist action grows ..... not so IMHO - my children are still out clubbing and soon forget about talk of war - after the first drink or so.

The format is for the 20/40 age group who like to spend and have a good time but the main bars and restaurants are open most of the day to catch lunch time trade etc.

last broker comment - about 5 weeks ago - Numis Securities sees no reason why Urbium should not trade at a similar multiple to rival Inventive Leisure. Accordingly it has set a 15p target price.


Trading

after an encouraging statement on Christmas and New Year trading. The group, which owns the 'Tiger Tiger' bars and the 'Sugar Reef' and 'Zoo' outlets in London's West End, said like-for-like sales over the four week period to Dec 31 rose by 3.4%. Total sales for the period were up by 37% to 9.8m. Within these figures, the flagship 'Tiger Tiger' brand increased its like-for-like sales by 11.7 pct, with the West End outlet recording a 7% increase on the same period last year.

"In 'Tiger Tiger' we've got a different product from the rest of the high street operators," group managing director Robert Cohen told AFX News. "We've never seen London and the West End as a weakness and 'Tiger Tiger' is a well-known brand that punches well above its weight," he added. Based on today's trading update, Cohen said the group had reversed a first half 1.1% decline in like-for-like sales with the second six months producing a gain of 1.0%.

Total bar nightclub sales were up by 32% to 34.8m in the second half of 2002. "There was a much stronger performance in the second half and this leaves the group well placed to meet current market forecasts for the year to Dec 2002," Cohen added. Analysts presently anticipate pretax profits of between 8.8m and 9.2m for 2002.

House broker Old Mutual Securities this morning reiterated its 'strong buy' for the shares. It reckons full year sales will be around 60m with profits of 9.15m. "This is a very commendable performance given the downgrades which have recently been required for other leading operators in the sector," the house said in an investment note this morning. Based on forecast earnings per share of 1.54 pence for the current year to Dec 2003, the stock currently trades on a "ridiculously low" multiple of 3.6 times, OMS says. "Based on this reassuring update, there must surely be some re-rating of the shares," it added.


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shares on 20/02 mid 5.12p - currently 6.25p mid 24/02

Thanks dick .... interesting and honest post. I have to say my own experiences are based on London only - where people tend to stay after work rather than return after dinner. I suspect peeps in the northern cities live closer to where they work and a trip back into town might be less attractivee if local clubs/restaurants offer is attractive.



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