Thanks Fundamentalist,
Error corrected, it must have been the wine gums.
Will buy you a drink in the Tea Rooms.
cheers optomistic

Some more positive news - little reaction in the share price yet tho


TRADING UPDATE

THUS DELIVERS POSITIVE FREE CASH FLOW AHEAD OF TARGET

THUS Group plc today announces that the Company turned free cash flow* positive
in the third quarter of the financial year, which ends on 31 March 2004, one
quarter earlier than expected. As a result, THUS will be free cash flow positive
for the second half of the current financial year.

The early delivery of free cash flow positive marks an important milestone in
the development of the business. THUS believes that it is the first UK
alternative telecommunication operator to have achieved this goal on a
sustainable basis.

The Board remains comfortable with expectations for the full year and is
confident that the business is on a steady trajectory to deliver positive
operating profit in the second half of the next financial year ending 31 March
2005.

The company will announce a pre-close trading update on 29 March, ahead of its
Preliminary Results on 4 May 2004.

Commenting on today's trading update, William Allan, Chief Executive said:

'Today's announcement validates our consistent focus on delivering profitable
growth to create sustainable shareholder value. Despite challenging trading
conditions and continued uncertainty on the market structure for UK
telecommunications, we remain confident on our trajectory for our key financial
objective for operating profit in the second half of the next financial year.'

* Cash flow after returns on investments and servicing of finance and capital
expenditure

big buys going in and very little reflection on the price i would bet that the ceo was hoping for a better response from the markets on what is essentially good news
Any thoughts as to why the hold back?

I agree planttec but instead it is retreating. i think that's general sentiment all around today.

Positive write up from todays Scotsman:

MUCH like Tony Blair, Bill Allan would never be found guilty of "sexing up" one of his trading statements. The chief executive of Thus has been hammering on about the importance of going "free cash flow positive" ever since he floated the telecoms company back in 1999. Yesterday he got there.

The phrase, perhaps one which not many of its retail shareholders will be familiar, sounds like the sort of jargon hangover from the dotcom days when companies did not have to make real profits.

Another expression of the same ilk is Ebitda - which stands for earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, but used to pass for "earnings before I trick da auditor" at some dodgy dotcom companies before the bubble burst.

Unfortunately, this lingo comes with the territory in telecoms - but maybe not for that much longer.

Thuss milestone means that, for the first time, interest payments, operating costs and capital expenditure will be covered by cash flow. For a young company, it is a key staging post on the way to turning a profit. It also puts its development marginally ahead of rivals such as Kingston Communications and Colt.

Shareholders who bought in at the time of Thuss over-hyped stock market flotation must long ago have realised their fingers have been burned.

But after a rocky few years, the City does not need any hype to warm to the companys prospects today.

Carvaggio
Not to miss that Bill Allen states that he is just half way through his development plan for THUS and is free cash flow positive ahead of plan.
Not least he states that he is on track and exactly where we should be, I am sure he is sincere in his statements and if he continues to meet his targets we must be in for a long period of share price growth. Albeit like all other shares it will have 'its ups and downs' giving rise to the possibility of long term growth coupled with short term trading oportunities.
IMHO
optomistic

AFX News Feed
Monday, 02/02/04, 09:18

Thus Group wins multi-million stg services contract from Southern Water

LONDON (AFX) - Thus Group PLC said it has won a "multi million pound" strategic managed services contract with Southern Water.

The strategic agreement will see THUS provide telecommunications infrastructure and services including a fully managed wide area network (WAN), managed local area network (LAN), voice services, and video conferencing.

The contract was awarded after a competitive tender and will initially last for three years, with the potential to extend a further two years.

newsdesk@afxnews.com

rf/

THUS Group plc ('THUS')

THUS was today informed by Legal & General Group plc that on 2 February 2004
Legal & General Group and / or its subsidiaries had a notifiable interest in
54,409,011 THUS Group plc ordinary shares (representing approximately 4.03% of
the THUS Group plc ordinary shares in issue).

Just to note that Legal & General previously held 41,497,890 shares (3.08%)
An increase of 12,911,121 shares over their previous holding.

I see that Legal & General have reduced their shareholding to 3.98%. Does anyone know why? I, on the other hand have, just bought a further 10,000 @ 36.7 and am hoping that the recent slide will be reversed.

mtd118
Just read your post, I was thought that L&G had increased their holding by approx 1.7 mill shares. Would as always stand to be corrected.
Rgds
optomistic

mtd118
Correct myself,L&G holdings at 2 Mar 53.739.011 shares 3.98% reduced from approx 54.4 mill. No idea why but IMO does not seem an amount of size to cause any concern.
Rgds
optomistic

I like this company and it's management but have no faith in sp at present. Seems more that management deliver the worse the sp!!
Looking to get back in when it settles, hopefully soon.

Never expected to see this price again and certainly not after these results.
Nothing fantastic in the figures really but everything in line with what Bill Allen has predicted, and at this stage in the company's development I would have thought that a small increase in the share price would have been more appropiate. Choice is sell out or be patient and hold and look to topping up.
I'm going for the latter option.
LOL
opto

Held firm yesterday, up 1p today, could this be the start of a small recovery?
Anyone volunteer L2 info on Thus please,
opto

Optomistic

I joined the fun yesterday. I previously sold out at 38p and have taken a long Dec spreadbet from 25.4p (have no cash available to buy actual shares). I hope I am bottom fishing but my take on the results was positive with the targets set being met.

The cashflow position appears to now have turned to positive, which to me was always the key with this company. This increased cash generation and debt reduction will be key to the long term performance of the company and its share price. Turnover is growing on the back of new contracts, the only real concern being that margins have shrunk slightly. The focus of the business now appears clearer before, how the change in Chairman will affect this only time will tell.

Fundamentalist, thanks for your post. Re your comment on shrinking margins. I consider that in the ultra competative world of telecoms to have only slightly reduced margins is a positive achievement in itself and I am sure several other telecom outfits would be pleased to have similar results (time will tell)
Good luck with your spreadbet, dont understand those, I only run cash positions and am holding THUS at a small loss at the moment so am patiently holding on.
Overall I feel in the long term we are going to get good returns here but at the moment it seems that we are going to move sideways. Yet as you know nothing is certain in this game so we could get lucky.

Opto

Like you I think the long term will be good but the short term is liekly to be quite volatile. I have a target price of 34p for these by year end.

The spread bet as a long is just like buying the shares (but without the stamp duty)

for example:

Thus share price bid offer is 25p - 25.5p.

IG index quote me a spread for Thus share price in Dec of 24.2 - 25.4p. I decide to buy so go long of 25.4p. Rather than actually buying the shares I take a position for every point the share price moves. Say for example I take a 10 per point and the spread moves to 27.2p - 28.4p (on the share price rising). I can close my bet at 27.2p and my profit is (27.2-25.4)*10 = 18 or I can leave it until December and receive whatever the mid price is. The alternative is to go short where I would bet that it would go down from 24.2p. In this eg I would be losing as I could close at 28.4p so I would be 42 down. As you can see IG make there money on the difference from the buy sell spread. Hope this makes sense.

Fundamentalist, thanks for your insight to spread betting. Your year end target is not wildly optimistic, 34p is not too far away now. Wait for the next new contract news to give support, and of course there is always the possiblity of takeover talk, which however spurious will give rise to a price increase to your target. My target is openended but certainly higher than 34p. Could be wrong, have been before!!
lol
opto

THUS was notified yesterday that Deutche Bank now held 41.9 m shares 3.11% of the company's o shares.
Not a potential bidder but good to see another major institution taking an interest in THUS