Scott Tod reversed into shell company Darwin Capital last november.
On 2 October 2003, Darwen Capital announced that it had acquired a 20%
shareholding in Scott Tod Developments Limited ('Scott Tod'), which distributes
and maintains automated teller machines and is also involved in the development
and manufacture of card vending machines and change machines, for 525,000 from
A Cohen & Co PLC.
On 7 October 2003, Darwen Capital announced that it had agreed to
acquire the outstanding 80% of Scott Tod, and raised 2.5 million in a placing at 25p per share.

David Massie, the Chairman of Darwen Capital, commented:

'Scott Tod is an excellent business with tremendous growth prospects.
The flotation through reversing into Darwen will not only raise its profile in
the City but will enable it to grow more rapidly through carefully targeted
acquisitions.
Trading at Scott Tod is encouraging and, with plans for a further 200 ATM
machines to be deployed over the next two months, I am confident that the
outlook for the business is excellent.'

The Three Business Divisions

ATMS.

Scott Tod's ATMs are
all free-standing and are situated indoors, typically in pubs, leisure and
retail outlets. Scott Tod currently has an estate of over 900 ATMs in operation,
with revenue generated from a transaction fee of, on average, of 1.43 per
withdrawal and approximately 19p for all other transactions effected on any ATM
owned or operated by Scott Tod.
Key ATM customers include Scottish & Newcastle plc, Enterprise Inns PLC,
Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries PLC, Six Continents PLC, The Laurel Pub Company
Limited, Megabowl Limited and Tussauds Group.
In April 2001, Scott Tod became a full member of LINK, the ATM network operated
by LINK Interchange Network Limited. This enables Scott Tod to process all
transactions through its estate of ATMs.

Card Vending Machines

Scott Tod develops and manufactures its own range of card vending machines.
These are able to vend all types of cards, from pre-paid mobile phone top up
cards to pre-valued payment cards for use on land line calls, bill payment or
simple business or scratch cards. There are approximately 1,500 Scott Tod card
vending machines in operation, of which 1,200 are installed in approximately 120
hospitals in the UK and the Netherlands.

Change Machines

Scott Tod develops and manufactures its own range of change machines,
predominantly for the leisure industry, including free-standing and wall-mounted
machines which can give back change in either coins, tokens or tickets from an
input of coins, notes or both.

Jewel In The Crown

This is of course its ATM business which is growing at massive pace and is one of only 3 listed ATM companys other than Banks on the main markets the other two being Cardpoint and Ambient, which will float off its atm business Moneybox in a few months time.
The other independent ATM deployers being Hanco ATM Systems
Limited, TRM Corporation, Bank Machine Limited,
InfoCash Limited, INKAS Financial Corp. Limited, OmniCash Limited
and the Travelex Group.

There is of course a fantastic opportunity therefore for SCD with its 1.8 million cash the opportunity for consolidation in the sector.


Business Development

Scott Tod

* Over 900 ATMs deployed

* 1,500 Card Vending Machines

* Over 10,000 Change Machines installed

* Turnover 6.9 million (up 94% from 2002)**

* Profit before tax 158,000 (up 95% on 2002)**

* Market continues to grow

* Current trading encouraging

* 200 ATM machines planned to be deployed in next two months

* Orders for over 500 card vending machines

* Positive about future growth prospects.


Financials

Years ended 30 June 30 June 30 June
2001 2002 2003
'000 '000 '000

Turnover:
Change and card machines 1,724 2,684 3,154
ATMs nil 866 3,747
---------------------------- --------- --------- ---------
1,724 3,550 6,901
---------------------------- --------- --------- ---------
Operating profit 81 200 488
---------------------------- --------- --------- ---------
Profit on ordinary activities before taxation 15 81 158
---------------------------- --------- --------- ---------


Forward Outlook

The Directors and the Proposed Directors, having regard to the performance of
Scott Tod in the current financial year as warranted by the Vendors believe
that, taking into account the additional working capital to be provided by the
Placing, the prospects for the new group for the remainder of the current
financial year are good.
Current trading is encouraging with orders for over 500 card vending machines
and plans in place to deploy a further 200 ATMs in the next two months.

Accordingly, the Directors and the Proposed Directors view the future growth
prospects for new group with confidence.

Results

Interims due 11th of February and the directors propose to pay a dividend.

I rate this as a medium to long term recommendation and as always please DYOR, and you are responsible for your own buying and selling timing actions.

cheers Gf.

From Citywire, just had it e-mailed.

Hot Scott Tod

Published: 09:02 Wed 11 Feb 2004
By Jemma George, Smaller Companies Editor
Email to a friend

Scott Tod has been on the market just four months but has captured the hearts of private investors who believe there is plenty of growth ahead for the supplier of ATM and card vending machines.

Scott Tod (SCD) reversed into Darwen Capital in November last year.


The goal is to expand the business by participating in the growth expected in the ATM (automated teller machine) or cash point market and by winning market share.


There are more than 45,000 ATM machines in the UK which facilitate some 200 million of transactions every month.


Fellow listed company Cardpoint (CASH), a Citywire tip, is already experiencing rapid growth in this market. Cardpoint provides ATMs to shopping centres, motorway service stations and small corner shops. The company has also diversified in the past year into providing electronic mobile phone top-up terminals.


Scott Tod had installed 1,053 ATMs by the end of December and is looking to double that figure by the end of June this year on the back of two recent deals.


Tod has landed an exclusive supplier agreement with Mitchells & Butlers, one of the UK's leading operators of managed pubs, bars and restaurants; and a contract with Leisure Link Entertainment for the supply of ATM's to another major pub chain.


The two contracts should account for 900 ATM installations, although a little further down in today’s announcement, the group also revealed it may lose between 50 and 240 installations due to consolidation within the pub sector.


Supplies and orders of card vending machines to customers such as the NHS, are running at a reasonable rate of 180 machines in the last three months.


Interim results to December include only a five week contribution from the Scott Tod business and judging by the level of profit there is good reason to be positive.


Group profit of 7,000 masks a contribution of 71,000 from Tod (in just five weeks).
It will be much clearer as to the trend in profitability by June this year. At the moment it is difficult to gauge whether the earnings are seasonal and how much cost is needed to support the expansion.


The Mitchells and Leisure Link deals are clearly important in accelerating growth and going someway towards justifying the 16 million valuation on the company. Equally, further consolidation in the sector may hit the gross number of installations.


Tod is stamping its mark on the pubs sector much more effectively than other suppliers in the past such as Pub Network (internet terminals) and CBS (liquid monitoring), and it has the opportunity to improve its product and service both for pubs and other sectors.


A pilot scheme is underway for ‘cash in transit’ business, whereby the company takes in-house the delivery of the cash and restocking of various
ATMs. The results to date are good albeit with related costs of employing 10 staff.


The net cash position is 1.2 million having spent 400,000 of working capital since the reversal.


Citywire Verdict:


Tod is in good shape. Some would argue that the reversal and the placing to raise 1.75 million was done at a fairly high valuation given the stage of the business but owners only ever get one chance to price their business on the stock market and that’s on flotation.


cheers Gf.

Watch out for further coverage of this by the financial press.

cheers GF.

Well its up yet again.

cheers GF.

And yet again, WOW.

cheers GF.

Goldfinger graph looks good, any thoughts on short, medium or long term targets? Currently focusing on mining stocks, recently bought Mano River, Africa Gold and African Eagle but this posting caught my eye. Mainly a medium to long term investor, but not adverse to a short term profit.

Goldf - I would be interested in your views about how cardpoint and scott tod line up against each other. According to etrade their market caps are 45M and 20M respectively, and as I recall CASH have about 2000 ATM outlets and Scott Tod about half that. Cash have the additional mobile connections and presumably have first mover advantage. Presumably SCD have greater takeover possibilities. Where do you think the best value lies, or are you giving them both equal weightings?

Scott Tod at the moment is a straight swop for Cardpoint as I have done. Cardpoints rating is well over the 119p target Evo Bee Greg have on it so we can only expect downgrades from the broker. Think t1ps site I read have a 120p 18 month conservative target on Scott Tod, so I think this one is the better placed of the two untill of course we see acquisitions which both are going for.

Good luck Guys.

cheers GF.

ps, could swop over again at some time, its were the money is that counts. Watch out for Ambient floating money box in a month or two, similar business.

Profit taking going on this morning and an ideal opportunity to BUY SCD on the cheap , added myself.

cheers GF.

Cheers for that GF

BID AT APPROX 69P - GOT SOME MORE BUT NOW RISING AGAIN

ouch, a rather serious fall today. What goes up......

A lot of small caps have taken a whack over the last two days, it didnt help today with the BoEs figures on the last interest rates increase, all going for the rise.

Never mind, things will right themselves before the weekend, fingers crossed.

cheers GF.

Starting to go north again.

gf.

Scott Tod V Cardpoint.



SCD black line, Cash red line.

As you can see over the last 3 months Scott Tod is indeed outperforming Cardpoint as the price momentum shows.

cheers gf.

GF,

personally i prefer the steady climb of Cardpoint to the more dramatic rise and fall of Scott Tod, each to their own I suppose.

Hi andy, havent seen you for a while. Still think there is more value to be had going forward with SCD, in fact worked it out per ATM and that included the new to be floated money box, SCD came out better value.

cheers GF.

GF,

Well I'll certainly look into them, and Shares mag have featured them a couple of times, so people will be aware of them now.

Thanks for the chart, BTW, a picture really does portray the story better than words.

Been working hard recently, not so much time online, so glad to be back.

Cheers Andy, glad your back.

GF.

I notice that at the close of play this week there has been a seller of 25K each day. Could this be someone unwinding a position, or possibly one of crocs bots ! Either way it seems to depress the opening price before smaller buyers come in.

Tipped on Friday by the weekly share tipster. Should put a bit more demand in to this one.

cheers GF.