Web Site : http://www.universe-group.co.uk/

HTEC Web Site : http://www.htec.co.uk/


Nov 2005 CNBC Interview with Ray Mackie (open the url below in Windows Media Player or equivalent)

http://www.universe-group.co.uk/news/media/ray_mackie_cnbc_111105_large.mpg


Half Year End 30th June
Full Year End 31st Dec
____________________________________________________________________

Latest Broker Forecasts

Charles Stanley 9th December 2005 BUY

2005 Pre Tax Profit 1.37M
2005 EPS 1.8p
2005 Div 0.75p

2006 Pre Tax Profit 2.03M
2006 EPS 2.3p
2006 Div 0.75p
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31 OCTOBER 2005
UNIVERSE GROUP PLC

HTEC UPDATE
NEW HYDRAPOS INSTALLATIONS

Universe Group plc ("Universe" or "the Company"), the forecourt payment and
loyalty systems company, is pleased to announce that it has received a further
significant order for its HydraPOS petrol forecourt system. Following ASDA's
purchase of 12 former Safeway stores from Morrisons, which include five petrol
sites, in Northern Ireland, ASDA has placed orders with HTEC for HydraPOS to be
installed at each of the petrol sites on Toshiba TEC hardware.

This follows other recent forecourt industry developments which saw Fuelforce's
sale of 22 sites to Somerfield, 61 petrol sites to Murco and 25 sites to
Malthurst. As a result:

* Somerfield, and Malthurst, one of the biggest of the independent groups,
have now become significant customers of HTEC;

* HTEC, with Toshiba TEC, now has the largest presence in Murco's Point of
Sale estate. HTEC was already a supplier to Murco.

Commenting on today's announcement, Ray Mackie, Chairman , said: "It is pleasing to see continuing success from our efforts to gain an increasing our share of this dynamic market. HTEC is working closely in partnership with Toshiba TEC to give our customers the best service on the best equipment."

___________________________________________________________________



Universe Group PLC
09 September 2005

UNIVERSE GROUP PLC
UNAUDITED INTERIM RESULTS
FOR THE SIX MONTHS ENDED 30 JUNE 2005

Universe Group plc ('Universe' or the 'Company'), the retail and information
systems company, is pleased to announce its Interim Results for the six months
ended 30 June 2005.

Highlights:
Continuing turnover of 14.7 million (2004: 11.0 million)
Operating profit on continuing business 1,229,000 (2004: 757,000)
Profit before tax 482,000 (2004: loss of 224,000)
Adjusted earnings per share 1.45p (2004: 0.84p)
Sale of First Remit completed on 12 August 2005
Unchanged interim dividend of 0.25p
Appointment of Bishopsgate Communications Ltd as Financial and Corporate PR.


Commenting, Ray Mackie, Executive Chairman of Universe said:

'In the first half of 2005 we achieved an operating profit on our continuing
business and before exceptional items which was 62.3% higher than last year. In the main this was the result of an excellent performance at HTEC. Continuing operating profits before exceptional items were 1,229,000 compared to 757,000 for the first half of last year on a like for like basis. Our continuing business is that of HTEC and the Paris shops of Master Change'.

'The medium term prospects for HTEC are excellent although the second half will
be quieter. With its shop closure programme completed there are signs that the
Paris shops will put in a strong performance for Master Change.'

.
______________________________________________________________________


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,2740-1851929,00.html

The Times November 01, 2005

Smaller stock to watch

Universe Group, the AIM-listed provider of forecourt payment systems, added 2p at 19p on announcing further orders from Asda for its HTEC division. Universe, after the purchase by Britains second-biggest grocer of 12 former Safeway stores in Northern Ireland, is to supply the sites with its HydraPOS petrol forecourt system, in conjunction with Toshiba hardware. The company also said that Somerfield and Malthouse, the independent petrol retailer, have also become significant customers, while HTEC now has the largest presence in Murcos point-of-sale estate.

Thanks for that Papal ,i wondered why the price had gone up.
I just hope they got a good price for it and they spend the money wisely.
DB66

DB66 paying back the debt will do wonders for the SP as it allows a higher PER rating. Not long to wait now as results and full update due on 9th Sept.

DB66 with the sale of First Remit for a nice sum and with the cost of running First Remit removed from some of the second half I am sure that full year EPS will be 3 or above, which makes UNG very undervalued at present.

Watch for any broker updates to forecast Tue/Wed and read those interims, as I feel they will contain good news with this latest action.

DB66, an nteresting start to the day with initial buy under 23 but recent reported (under NMS) of 23.5p buys. Could be looking at some strong moves up here.

Anything over NMS size will be delayed reported by 1 hour.

DB66 In fact I got things the wrong way around yesterday :) Mastercharge is making profits now and First Remit was still losing money in operating costs.

They have kept HTEC making big profits and growing, Mastercharge which is now making profits, and got rid of First Remit which was costing money.

Thats why the EPS forecast for year end and 2006 will soon be raised up a lot higher in my opinion, as they have sold the loss making First Remit for cash and now have 2 profit making business, so earnings per share will be flying up, if of course something bigger does not happen after the results ?

I hate to rumour but if you take a new revised year end EPS of 3p and forecast 2006 of lets say 3.5p, you really could sell this company for loads of money on forward earnings ! It is well known and stated that HTEC by 2007/8 could be worth 20 million on its if sold on future profits. Maybe someone is now wanting to get it before the price goes crazy ? That is why the large spread is being kept in place to limit buyers ?

Hold on tight DB66 it might explode soon.


30th June 2005 Trading statement
Universe Group, the retail and information systems company, announces that its results for the six months to 30 June 2005 are expected to be in line with management forecast. The board anticipates that results for the full year will be in line with market expectations.
The key features of trading in the first half are Turnover at HTEC has increased significantly over the same period last year, primarily as a result of Chip & PIN. Currency Division (Mastercharge) has been reduced to a core of ten bureaux de change all operating in the centre of Paris. The bureaux have historically reported an operating loss in the first half but following the restructuring of the division it will report a profit in the six months to 30 June this year.
The cost to the group of operating First Remit international cash transfer is continuing to reduce. In the period we have expanded our 'send' business from Austria.

The interim results are expected to be announced on 9 September 2005.

UNG certainly are comming good like you predicted Papal,you topped up just at the right time.
A nice buy went through at the end 50,000 at 25p.I am in the nice position of not being down on these now,so everthing upwards now is a bonus.
Cheers DB66

DB66 it is looking good. I am thinking over if someone like RTD would be buying UNG.

If you look at the release over the sale of First Remit it says "undisclosed price" and you only do not disclose it if it was terribly low or other bigger things are going on in tte background. I would not believe the price was low at all, so I think there are other things happening.

No broker upgrade today but it may come tomorrow, the forecast has to be upgraded as with the sale of First Remit end of year EPS target must be in the region of 3p now and next year much higher.

Keep holding them tight, the results and full statement are just 3 weeks away.

DB66 we are on the up again, I would say a price in the mid 30's is possible going into the results, lets hope so.

DB66 looking at trades you can see our T buyer getting them in, same one snapped up a load on Tuesday too.

17/8/2005_25.00p_40,000__Buy T
17/8/2005_23.00p_10,000__Sell O
17/8/2005_23.25p_25,000__Sell O
17/8/2005_22.00p_500_____Sell O
17/8/2005_23.50p_3,500___Sell O
17/8/2005_23.24p_2,659___Sell O
17/8/2005_23.10p_20,000__Sell O
17/8/2005_23.50p_146_____Sell O
17/8/2005_25.56p_750_____Buy O
17/8/2005_25.00p_50,000__Buy T
17/8/2005_23.00p_8,087___Sell O
17/8/2005_23.24p_802_____Sell O
17/8/2005_23.50p_20,057__Sell O
17/8/2005_23.50p_3,547___Sell O
17/8/2005_22.87p_385_____Sell O

Everything sold yesterday was purchased at 25p, which confirms why they raise the offer price so high and make a big spread to try to stop buyers, but anyone through a broker can buy under the offer price, just deters people when they look at it on the screen.

If its a large buy order we might see the bid officially go up to 23p today and they take sells at 24p, with the offer up to 28 or 28.5 to deter buyers again.

100K buy at 25p DB66, its not a surprise, people are still quite happy to sell out and hand their shares over to this buyer at the time when UNG is turning very positive.

Just put a new thread up for KIB (Ki-Bi) it looks good for a solid rebound.

From what I hear Teather & Greenwood upgraded from hold to buy this week after the sale of First Remit.

Anyone got any info ?

UNG was also tiped by thewrongrice,some weeks ago

Hello Papal things really are looking positive for UNG long may it continue.

I did have a look at KIB and have got to say i do like the look of it.A drop in price for solid company like that is always a good buying opportunity,i`m just looking to liquidate some funds at the moment.
DB66

Once the results are released and statements made then we will see all the brokers upgrade their forecast for 2006 during mid September, we should move easily through 30p then and target mid 30's.

DB66, I have just got into BSP as well, its more of a risk, very low, but could move up well as time goes on and could spike on news of the deal going ahead. If the deal goes ahead the SP should be in the region of 3p.

Post rom ADFN;

GIOVANNINA - 19 Aug'05

Universe announced that it has sold its international money transfer business, First Remit, to Travelex Money Transfer Limited (TMT), a subsidiary of Travelex PLC for an undisclosed sum. This leaves the group with HTEC and Master Change, both of which are profitable and cash generative. With the former showing good growth prospects and the improved group visibility following the disposal, we expect the shares to be re-rated and upgrade our recommendation to Buy from Hold (August 1 2005).

The performance of First Remit has been disappointing over recent years; with the business unable to reach critical mass in a competitive market, it has continued to be loss-making. As such it has held back the group, diluting the strong performance of HTEC and improving performance from Master Change.

For the year to 31 December 2005, we were forecasting First Remit to contribute an operating loss of c.0.45m. With the majority of this weighted to H1 (and with the interim results due on 9th September) we are leaving our group pre-tax profit forecasts (before exceptionals) unchanged at this stage at 1.5m giving adjusted EPS of 2.2p (assuming an effective rate of tax of 10% given losses brought forward) and DPS of 0.75p.

We expect the impact on cash-flow in terms of consideration received to be immaterial although the disposal will free up working capital to be invested in HTEC. For the 2006 financial year we were forecasting pre-tax profits of 1.8m (including losses of 0.25m from First Remit); we plan to formally review our forecasts following the interim results on 9th September.

Db66 the other exciting thing is the comment from the 13th of May, if we see the money from First Remit moved onto accelerating HTEC it could be very good for future growth with it coming more quickly.


13th May 2005 Universe Group plc
AGM Statement

Looking further ahead, we are very excited by our PIN enabled unattended payment system. We have commenced installation in petrol forecourts and we are seeking unattended applications outside our traditional markets. We anticipate that unattended systems will be a growth market as a result of the introduction of Chip and PIN'.

Investors Chronicle says it was a good move selling First Remit and that the price at 23.5p is Good Value.

Going up soon DB66, not long to wait for results and news.

That makes UNG tipped as a buy by t1ps.com and thewrongprice.com and now the IC.

Mid 30's target after results and broker upgrades after results on 9th Sept.

Good to hear its getting backed by the tipsters,maybe this will give UNG the momentum it now deserves.
DB66