Watch out for this one floating in the next few days, it could turn out to be the float of the year. Theres not much available on the company yet but I have found the write up below which shows the fantastic potential of this one. Note just how cheap it is.

New Issue: here's one that's more than hot air

Published: 12:45 Monday 27 February 2006
By Cliff Feltham, Companies Correspondent

Owners of thousands of buildings in the UK are facing massive bills over the next few years to comply with new energy standards, which is good news for new AIM entrant Worthington Nicholls.

Air conditioning and ventilation units using ozone depletive gases have to be replaced by systems using more environmentally friendly gases.

The measures are creating a windfall for air conditioning installation companies like Manchester-based Worthington Nicholls which is to float on AIM with a price tag close to 35 million.

The firm, which has been around since the early 1970s, needs extra working capital to cope with the influx of orders which will see this year's turnover climb from 11.7 million to nearly 30 million.

The flotation, sponsored by broker Corporate Synergy, will also allow founder chairman Peter Worthington, who is nearing his 70th birthday, to sell shares worth around 7 million.

After years of steady progress, the firm has seen a huge jump in work triggered by new energy efficient legislation flowing from the Kyoto Agreement.

The deadline for owners of buildings to replace air conditioning, heating, ventilation and chilled water systems using banned gases is the end of 2009.

Chief executive Mark Worthington, son of John, believes there are at least 9,000 buildings in the UK which will have to comply with the new regulations. But the figure could be much higher. ' We are talking billions of pounds here,' he says.

Worthington Nicholls has concentrated on servicing hotel and retail clients which include Hilton, Holiday Inns, Debenhams, Arcadia and Boots.

A new, energy compliant air conditioning plant in a high street store can cost anywhere between 80,000 and 120,000. Re-fitting a Debenhams branch cost 670,000 while hotels can expect to pay around 3,500 a room for a new air conditioning unit.

Worthington Nicholls offers a complete service, designing the system, managing installation and providing regular maintenance. At present income from maintenance contracts is running at around 20% of total sales but that is expected to rise.

The flotation, which is raising a total of 15 million, will also provide a warchest for acquisitions. Two deals have already been lined up with will add another 20 million a year to turnover.

Mark Worthington says there is huge scope for acquisitions. The company claims to be market leader yet it only has a 3% share suggesting plenty of room for consolidation.

The company is making some confident assumptions about future growth. Profits are expected to rise from 3.7 million last year to 8.6 million in the current year to September. By 2008 it is projecting earnings of 12.6 million on sales of 45 million but this does not take into account any contribution from future acquisitions.

Says Worthington: 'Stringent environmental legislation has changed our business. Now the large international hotel and restaurant groups prefer to deal with a single supplier. We believe there is huge scope for expanding not just in the UK but across Europe.'

Price of the shares being placed will be fixed over the new few weeks following investor presentations with dealings due to start in about a month's time.

Please DYOR and do not use money on shares you cannot afford to lose.

cheers GF.

Whilst I would love to believe them, it beggars belief that you can understate your current order pipeline by 50%. That's misleading, to say the least. It does suggest they are a little overwhelmed by the rapid expansion.

I sold my shares in the recent blip for a small loss, but would love to buy back in. Just watching and waiting for now.

Reminds one of what happened at SMC.

Well at least the directors will be happy with their share purchase the other day!!!

What a cock up.

The finance director should get the boot.

That put me off these too GF,very disappointing..

Still holding 2 tranches Jimmy but not interested in adding at the moment.

Got to admit to being very surprised that WNG have made such a Wimbledon of things, they've always seemed to be on the ball; whilst the Finance Director should have been more aware, it seems fairly obvious who the main culprit was. I could be wrong of course, maybe nothing to do with the former Chairman!

You may well be right, kim. That's one hell of a coincidence!

The original statement was either misleading on purpose or the Finance director is in competent , take your pick.

Either way it stinks.

And the other directors helped them selfs to a load of cheap shares on the back of this !

this thread is beginning to sound like the seo one!

The institutions that bought into the May placing at 170p must have been impressed to see directors buying at 111p at the end of June!

A bit of luck, being in the right place at the right time !

And the other directors helped them selfs to a load of cheap shares on the back of this !

Good point flipper........

I sold most of my holding just as the sp began to slide but, like GF, still have a rump of "free" WNG shares. Let's hope this is just a short-term corporate blip and that normal (upward) service will be resumed shortly. That doesn't make it any more palatable though, and I agree there may well be more to this episode than meets the eye. And is it my imagination or are these sort of cock-ups happening more often these days?

panlj
what more to this episode than meets the eye do you think may be happening.in your view.

Nothing concrete, micky. But with the bigwigs hoovering up all those cheap shares after the initial, disappointing statement and before the rosier, sp-boosting one, it does make you wonder... I guess I'm just fed up with the slapdash stewardship of some of the firms I've invested in recently. There's only so much research you can do - you just can't legislate for incompetence (or worse), can you?

There appears to be some sort of business model followed by some companies floating on AIM whereby they use floatation funds raised to buy up smaller companies in fragmented business sectors. Often companies bought are grossly overvalued and the buyer ends up with large amounts of intangible assets on their balance sheet, then they discover that the orders or contracts in the books of the company acquired do not materalise or sales forecasts have been overestimated. Next stage is change in the directorate, shortly to be followed by the inevitable profit warning(s).

You're right there, Halifax. The secret is to bail out before the inevitable happens! As you pointed out, SMC adopted an even more ambitious approach than WNG - with catastrophic results.
It's an infuriating fact that, though we can crunch the numbers and come up with forecasts etc to back our investment choices, at some point, you also have to rely on the judgement of those appointed to run things. Unfortunately, as we've seen to our cost here and elsewhere, many of them simply aren't up to it.

It appears to be the case paul.

I cannot believe the news we were given today.

The RNS should have been checked by both the CEO and the finance director before it was sent for publication.

Ill leave others to debate why this didnt happen.