Time now for all us Wiggins watchers to move with the times and start using Planestation, the new company identity. The name Wiggins Group plc has now disappeared from the database at Companies House and Planestation is now listed on the LSE website.

So fellow travellers, forget Wiggins, the name of the game is now PLANESTATION. Lets hope it goes like an express train.

I think that we will see that airlines will find it easier, more efficient, less delays & more profitable to avoid Heathrow & Gatwick & use other airports for growth.

This also applies to passengers & freight operators.

Heathrow & Gatwick are just too much hassle already.

The new high speed rail link will make Manston very easy.

All

Headline from local thanet paper:

TRAVEL GIANT MY USE MANSTON.

Cosmos are in talks with Planestsion ...........
If a deal was signed this would bring 1ks of passengers through every month.....
New passenger terminal will be built an manston this year.....
Plane satation has also secured flights to malta , italy and croatia.

This is only parts taken from the report .

Regards G12 :))

Thanks G12

Buys were nearly 3 Million & sells were less than 500 Thousand

Then someone sold 1 Million

BUT buys still outnumber sells by 2 to 1

MM's seem to be holding the price back.

in the local paper planestation was offering trips to italy this year??????lets keep our fingers crossed that this company can go all the way with there new look and ideas!

I am new to this group and purchased some Planestation shares on the 16th of this month. I live in Kent and I have followed the debate concerning airport capacity in the SE with interest. Manston had great potential if managed correctly.
I am surprised there has been no comment here on the following press release which is available in the News section of this site.

Any informed opinion would be welcome.

Press Release

19 January 2004

PlaneStation Group plc ('PlaneStation' or 'the Company')
Re: Issue of Warrants

PlaneStation Group plc announces that it has today made an application for a
further 2,320,000 Warrants to be admitted to the Official List of the London
Stock Exchange. The further issue of Warrants is as a result of the exercise by
Christopher Foster, a director of PlaneStation, of 11,600,000 share options on 8
December 2003 (as detailed in the Listing Particulars dated 10 December 2003).

Dealings are expected to commence on 23 January 2004.

wrider,

Christopher Foster exercised his option after the placing documents had been sent out. Therefore the amount of warrants in the placing document did not account for these extra shares. The company has now issued the extra amount of warrants (1 for every 5 shares received in the exercise of options). That's basically it, it's not a major announcment

VERY BIG Trades going through in the last hour.

Wrider, in answer to your query.

Debt
A large element of the 46 million raised from the placing will go to paying off debt - fantastic - because that was one of the reasons why they went into a loss situation - the exhorbitant interest on the Mezzanine debt (i.e venture capital debt etc) of 48%. Now what they did was pretty stupid, but they are now out of that situation, and have an opportunity to move forward. They also have no crippling interest payments and a guaranteed expense reduction in the p&l!

A Scenario
Multi-bagger - potentially - but lets talks single-bagger -in the next week - zero chance, in the next month - 20% chance because it is high on the radar of investors , 6 months - 50%, 1 year - possibly. Even if it was a 10% bagger that would be twice as good as putting it in the bank - and the possibility is not that remote, given the technicals - very strong support at 3.5 ish, and given the recent spate of buying I would say very strong support at 4/.25-4.5.

Political
The government wants to expand the airport base in the Uk in order to compete. Manston fulfills part of that requirement. Any referral higher up the planning chain to central government is likely to be met with a Yes, as opposed to an application in Central London and the like - which would take a long long time.

Economic
The airport has room for expansion (car parks, runways, food preparation buildings etc etc) and plenty of slots available. It has landbanks that can be sold off or leased to raise additional cash.

It is set to expand the terminal building by the end of 2004 to cater for larger throughput. It should be noted that it can expand relatively cheapy onto its own land compared to Heathrow etc etc i.e its competitor airports.

Tour operators are now taking an interest. And it serves the expanding South East - remember - there are plenty of plans to provide zillions of extra housing in that part of the world.

Social
It has links to other cheaper airports worldwide. It has modern clean terminals complete with the duty free lounges and all the other stuff people care for in a modern airport terminal building. i.e relative convenience, and over time they will make this aspect stronger - via the proposed new Rail link from Central London straight out to Manston. The housing point mentioned above also applies.

Technical
Manston can take the large planes - longer haul if need be = Greater potential customer base - short haul to long haul, tourist and Cargo.

Legal & Environmental
Expansion is more likely to get planning permission in this part of the world than in Heathrow, Stansted or Gatwick, and as stated earlier less noise pollution.


Summary
Compare this to a new start-up? Sure it has an associated risk which will be perceived differently by different people depending on their investment timescales etc, but I would argue that the risk is a lot less than many Aim shares (for instance) with no profits, huge cash burns, and no 'hard assets' like Land and buildings and real existing customers etc. i.e They have something concrete and tangible to work with.

It is a 'real company' that has got itself out of real problems and is a survivor. Persistence overcomes failure in the end.

Interestingly
An article I have just read stated that the best UK fund last year was a fund that specialised in recovery stocks...when no one else was interested they provided the finance via placings and, well, now they have relatively large shareholdings in solvent companies with good futures. Now you have to admit at the very least they are in a situation of trying to recover!


Planestation is a recovery play:

Experience counts for a lot. They will have had to do a lot of 'explaining' to those who put up shed loads of cash in the placing. Common sense really, and those involved will have had access to accountng records, sales forecasts, future contract information etc i.e much more information than you or I are likely to get our hands on - and the result - 46 million quid.

Institutional ownership has come on board - just below the threshold for disclosure in some cases - remember the debacle a few days back where a bank bought 3.9% approx of the equity, announced it via RNS and then realised they did not have to disclose it and withdrew the RNS announcement - well too late -we now know about it.

A quote from shares magazine two weeks ago:
"In conclusion ...The companies covered in this article (Planestation) are just a fraction of those which have received financial transfusions. The important point is to overcome past impressions and watch where the professional money is going."

And another quote from the Daily Mail about the same time:
"With heavyweight fund manager Prudential sitting in 14pc following the recent 47m refinancing and UBS Investment Bank recently buying 39m shares or 3.78pc the shares, at 4 1/4p, could soon take off."

And from the Lemings http://www.lemminginvestor.com/PlaneStation0601.html

The past is not the future. The professional money is going into planestation.
Planestation is also getting a lot of talk and focus on several bulletin boards - i.e lots of chatter by the masses who buy these things.

And finally,Geoffrey Ambrose the new non-exec, previously General Manager at Stansted,and Planning Director at Heath Row, who was formally elected at the EGM in Jan 2004 with extensive knowledge of the airport business such that he knows exactly what each airline needs, and how to position the company's services to make it attractive; and knowing why each one does not use Manston, is well placed to make an impact so that they do. Oh, and a new passenger facility is to be built at Manston later this year - on the basis that ..........go figure - if for example Cosmos sign, then that opens the door to low cost airlines getting involved..a good, solid macroeconomic play ...imho. Good Luck Folks

Article in Financial Mail about Hop Airways, a potential Planestation customer.

http://www.thisismoney.com/20040125/nm73391.html

Interesting bunch of scenario's building up. Will be interesting to see how they play out. Good luck folks. Will be digging around later this afternoon to see if there is a connection between shareholders in Cosmos and shareholders in Planestation group

In the meantime, some interesting relevant stuff:

Council Plans:
http://www.planet-thanet.fsnet.co.uk/local_plan/thanet_plan_2.htm

"The Councils Vision for the Plan period is to see the business parks and the airport being developed at a much more substantial rate than previously, with a wide range of companies and economic activity. In parallel, and as a consequence of an upturn in economic activity, average earnings, per capita GDP and unemployment levels in Thanet should converge significantly towards the Kent averages.

" The development of London Manston Airport as an important regional freight hub and business location, and its proximity to the business parks should ensure a key role for the Airport in the economic regeneration of the area. The development of the business parks will also assist in, and be assisted by the development and expansion of Ramsgate New Port"

Minutes from meeting - Manston Airport Group 16/12/2003
http://www.m-a-g.fsnet.co.uk/macc/03_12_16.htm

Whichs show that after debt is paid off with the proceeds of the recent placing that 20 million is available for working capital and that 'one or two' UK travel companies are in talks with Manston and that Wiggins believe that at least one of them will come off See Section 3.4. If so then that would move the shareprice upwards.

Just found this on another bulleting board:"There is a 3/4 page article in todays News of the World headlined FLIGHTMARE (page 45) It describes there reporters revealing security loopholes at regional airports. It is heavily critical of Norwich, Exeter and Coventry airports.The penultimate paragraph reads: "Only at LONDON MANSTON Airport, in Kent, was security tight enough to deter our men, with CCTV cameras and security staff stationed near the planes."

Europe Planestation Network

In addition there are links into Melbourne Florida - close to Disney and planning in for residential development ;-)

26/01/04 07:30 Company Update RNS

Looking good today

Is someone out there offloading a huge amount of stock?
There seems to be masses of buys out there with very few sells (although some big ones here and there) but no price movement...

I'm beginning to think that there are plenty of buyers, including one or two corporate buyers who are sucking up the stock BUT there is a huge buyer that has instructed his MM to sell the stock to whoever is looking to buy rather than just put amounts up for sale.
Because of this the price just won't move because there is no demand for shares (by buyers) due to there being an available seller...

Does that make sense or am I talking rubbish??!!

Anyone got any comments?

Ta, JFish

There was a recent share issue.

Once this lot is out of the way, then I suppose the brokers will run short of stock & the price will rise.

See lemminginvestor


Re-financing:

The company made it clear to shareholders that the proposed re-financing was a must to ensure survival. The group is now on firmer ground and has finally got underway. The placing and open offer of 46.35m, after expenses, closely equal to the whole capitalisation is an astonishing achievement, with the issue over subscribed, and with firm undertakings. Thus Wiggins escapes the high expenses of underwriting. Of the total, 6,550,000 was raised by placing 8% Convertible Loan Stock with institutional and other investors. Holders of shares on 3 December have received an open offer of a subscription at 4p for one share per every six. Institutions will each be slightly short of the original amounts tendered for. There will also be a distribution of one 10p warrant for every 5 shares held on the 9th January to encourage institutions who have bought at the placing price to refrain from taking quick profits. Prudential have increased their holding from 99m shares to c290m, and thus remain loyal to the group, this should not be lost on shareholders.

There is some offloading..usually at end of day. The mm's know this is going to happen hence the no-movementin price scenario. How much left? don't know. Will keep watching.but demand is outstripping supply on a daily basis. My guess is that the mm's know that there's no joey sellers at this price,but plenty of buyers. An increase in price would attract buyers...I know several buyers waiting to buy when the price moves through 8p..if...thats their trading style..

A lot of buying yesterday

Buy 5,564,696 Sell 2,220,466 Unknown 500,000

Price was unmoved.

2.7% drop today, good buying opportunity.

Local news paper says that people are flocking to buy tickets to fly abroad from manston this year through New market promotions!

G12

More big buys this morning.

This share must be like a coiled spring at the moment!!

G12