It seems THE Colt could be on its way back from yet another Year Low .

The stock is now at a very vunerable level at market cap level of only 500million -

My own opinion and that of other investors is great time to tuck away as a recovery from the present lows looks set to start...

What goes down must come up...

France Telecom still looks set to the main bidder though CABLE and Wireless is another contender named...

DYOR AS ALWAYS AND HAVE SAFE INVESTING ON YOUR MIND...jULES99

60-80p is the comeback target...

Possibly something hot coming up...

in case you are not aware,

The colts company update is on 21st july, been worth the wait, this little number look set to rise before this, a treat for all holders..!

recent director buys looked very positive to add..

DYOR as always...
JULES

Jules
Thanks for that, will watch with anticipation

Maybe not now...with all this bombings around...sentiments will be gloomy

I really don't know what is going on in Colt at the moment. I spend about 2m a year with them but in the last 3 months the service and the quality of the call termination has collapsed. Just to make things worse they are moving all of their back-office funnctions to India and that has caused mayhem with basic things such as fault reporting on invoice settlement.

Well i'll be damned, Today the colt raced up upto 68p+ in an early buy frenzy but settledown at 63.5p, a clear indication there is interest in the golden oldie stock once again, This week CTm could race further up again, results still on the cards, and all is well so far, price creeping past the important 62p, last week. The next level is anybodys guess???
Stay Lucky.
Juless 99

LONDON (ShareCast) - London managed to end higher on a buoyant Wall Street, falling oil prices and plenty of bid chat, although gains were trimmed following further security scares in the capital.

The Dow Jones was trading almost 80 higher when London

packed up for the day as some big takeover news provided a fillip, although security alerts in Whitehall and at Kings Cross hurt trade over here.

Prudential led the risers for most of the day on the back of reports that Citigroup (NYSE: C - news) is weighing up a bid for its online bank Egg (LSE: EGG.L - news) , in which the insurer owns a 79% stake.

Exel (LSE: EXL.L - news) was upbeat on the back of persistent bid speculation, following comments by Deutsche Bank (Xetra: 514000.DE - news) last week that highlighted the potential of a bid for the logistics group.

Telecoms carrier Colt Telecom (LSE: CTM.L - news) also dialled in gains on talk of a possible approach from US finance outfit Fidelity.

gradual rise up today 5%, on the basis of us market riselast night, 8 more days left now to quarter update.

julessss

A REMINDER TO ANY COLT followers..

Second quarter results Thursday! and looking very good indeed this week, lets hope the wait have been rewarding.

Turnover of appx - 950m
MK cap - apprx 980M
2004 - Loss of 142m

expectations much higher than above I should think.
Jules

published earlier today at:

http://www.internationaltaxreview.com/?Page=9&PUBID=210&ISS=17460&SID=525700

Weekly News - July 18, 2005

COLT Telecom hires tax head from Novar
Sed Crest, London

COLT Telecom Group has hired Charles Staveley, former tax head at Novar, the secure printing and industrial group, as the company's new head of tax and treasury.

In his new role Staveley will report to Tony Bates, chief administrative and financial officer, who sees more tax work ahead for the group. "The volume and value of tax work is growing as our operating companies move into profitability and our pan-European customer base grows," said Bates. "Treasury matters are also becoming more significant as we drive the company towards being cash-flow positive, and we manage our working capital and debt profile more tightly."

Staveley's role did not really exist before he joined the company. "One of the interesting things about joining COLT was taking on the treasury role," he said. "More and more tax people are actually doing that because the two areas are very complimentary. Traditional tax planning often deals with financing and funding. Reorganizing and restructuring from a tax perspective involves moving cash around, so I think there are a lot of things that are common to both."

Because COLT has operations in 13 countries, international organization will be the key challenge for Staveley. There are also sector-specific challenges for him. "COLT, being in telecommunications, is in a sector that is very fast-moving and there are a lot of issues going on. They will flow-through to my role," he said.

Transfer pricing, cross-border funding, efficient structuring and managing working capital efficiently are all issues that Staveley says are in his in-box. "I have been in international tax for over 20 years now dealing with those different tax regimes and the problems that a business faces as well as the opportunities," he said. "The group now has a potential tax-asset of half a billion pounds, which isn't on its balance sheet," he said. "It is basically tax losses from when the telecoms sector suffered."

One of the new concerns in the UK for Staveley are the new cross-border tax arbitrage rules. "Often they use a hammer to crack a nut," he said. "I think it is going to become more challenging to do more artificial cross-border planning. More time will be spent on the bread and butter commercial transactions, such as transfer pricing."

Staveley was group head of tax for three and a half years at Novar, which has just been taken over by Honeywell, the US-based aerospace and materials group. From 1996 to 2001 Staveley was director of European taxes at Textron, the US-based aircraft and financial services group. From 1992 to 1996 he had an in-house tax role at security printer De La Rue. He began his tax career as a tax adviser at Arthur Andersen in London.

Colt Telecom sees cashflow turning positive in H2 after Q2 tops estimates UPDATE
AFX


(Adding more comment from chief executive, analyst reaction)

LONDON (AFX) - Colt Telecom Group PLC said turnover would exceed costs during the second half of 2005 after the UK-based alternative carrier delivered better-than-expected second-quarter results this morning.

'We expect to be free cashflow positive in the second half of the year ... (and) are confident that we will be free cashflow positive on a sustainable annual basis going forward,' said chief executive Jean-Yves Charlier in a statement.

The guidance came as Colt's second-quarter figures topped consensus forecasts. Turnover rose 4.5 pct to 316.7 mln stg, while earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation improved by 1.4 mln stg to 40.8 mln. A poll of 5 brokers suggested sales of 314 mln stg and EBITDA of 39 mln stg.

Colt, which sells corporate telecoms services to businesses in the UK and Europe, said the move to positive cash flow would help it meet investors' expectations for full-year revenues and underlying profits.

Consensus estimates for the full year call for a 5 pct rise in sales to 1.27 bln stg, while EBITDA is expected to jump 10 pct to 169 mln stg. Charlier said he is 'comfortable' with this consensus forecast.

Nonetheless, Charlier said the market for corporate telecoms services remained 'challenging' as rivals like BT Group PLC, Cable & Wireless PLC and Thus Group PLC continued to fight hard for a limited number of new accounts.

'The market is as competitive as ever ... in the traditional spaces (such as voice),' said Charlier on a conference call with reporters.

'Where new technologies emerge it is less competitive,' he added, referring to new voice over internet protocol and Ethernet services.

By 8.55 am, Colt shares were up 1-1/4 pence at 63-1/4, buoyed by the better-than-expected second-quarter sales and EBITDA growth figures.

However, some analysts cautioned that Colt's improved performance during the period was down to a rise in the amount of voice traffic it carried for other telecoms companies -- typically the most unstable and least profitable segment of the industry.

'Colt was ahead (of forecasts) but only by the wrong means,' said Matthew Pearson, a telecoms analyst at Investec. 'Switched (voice) revenues was the driver of growth, most of it coming from other carriers.'

Pearson, who rates Colt a 'sell', explained that revenues from wholesale business tends to be 'lumpy' and only marginally profitable. Network owners tend to 'play around each other on price' for short term contracts with other carriers, he said.

Charlier admitted that growth in more profitable data revenues had grown 'more slowly than we would like to have seen' in the second quarter.

Colt has been transferring many of its back-office jobs to India in an effort to lower its cost base since Charlier joined the company last year, and the chief executive this morning said he is satisfied with the progress Colt is making in implementing this 'Future in Focus' plan.

'We are pleased with the progress on all the strategic initiatives we

announced last October,' said Charlier.

The company is still investing in new internal systems and its transaction processing centre in India, where it has boosted its headcount by 100 to around 400 in the second quarter. Some 10 pct of the company's workforce was now in India, and the plan remained to raise that to 15 pct by the end of the year, said Charlier.

The group had 335.9 mln stg in cash at the end of the second quarter, but the chief executive maintained that he had no plans to use this cash to buy a competitor.

'We do not see ourselves taking part in the consolidation process, and making any transaction in the near or medium term,' said Charlier.

The telecoms industry is rife with speculation that C&W is close to acquiring indebted peer Energis for 700 mln stg -- the largest deal in the UK fixed-line arena for a number of years.

simon.duke@afxnews.com

sd/slm/





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Colts next update on Oct 21st...for those who hold - Will be looking for that rise back to the 70-80p levels again.

Keep watching..
Jules99

Jules99,

Agree on the short term price range back to circa 80p. Looks like a cup and handle foramtion on the chart with handle formed. Wait and see if it happens! If so break should be very soon if it confirms. Keep posting!

stock Price reversed back this week on huricane worries on stocks in general I beleive I notice.

well I am back in october, The 3rd Q-results are due october 24th if one is correct, Next week should the urge to buy back in again at sub60p.

Most Buleetins are expecting Colt to zoom pass old high of 67/70 before annoucement then towards the expected 70-80p mark - Its been a long and worthy wait for investors..so a hold on my part..!

Good luck to all the oldies..

Jules99.

City13.
Oversold and an opportunity to buy at sub 60p before results, some great news delivered by CTM this week, regarding products and client base and 2 major contract wins, more to follow -watch this space as they say!

Back to 66p+ and then the expected 70-80p mark :-)

jules99 - 12 Oct 2005 23:56 - 99 of 99
City13.
Oversold and an opportunity to buy at sub 60p before results, some great news delivered by CTM this week, regarding products and client base and 2 major contract wins, more to follow -watch this space as they say!

Back to 66p+ and then the expected 70-80p mark :-)

Colt artice as follows following 10% rise on q3 results :


Colt sets its sights on profitability

By Mark Odell, Telecommunications Correspondent
Published: October 21 2005 03:00 | Last updated: October 21 2005 03:00

Jean-Yves Charlier, ColtTelecom's chief executive, insisted yesterday that profitability was "in sight" after he said the alternative network operator had become cash flow positive on "a sustainable basis" for the first time.

"We see a path forward to becoming one of the first alternative networks in Europe to become profitable," Mr Charlier said, as the company reported third-quarter results.

.. etc ..
Colt's shares rose 10 per cent to 60p on the back of improved gross margins, up from 33.6 per cent in the second quarter to 34.6 per cent, and sharply reduced losses.

The company, which targets international corporations, especially financial institutions, operates a modern fibre-optic network connecting 32 of Europe's largest cities in 13 countries.

Pre-tax losses fell to 19m in the three months to the end of September, down from 35m in the same quarter last year, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose to 45.9m (33.8m). Turnover rose to 312m (305m).


Full article (Subscription)
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/7785aa70-41cf-11da-a45d-00000e2511c8.html

Following the results the price technically bounced back towards 60p, and holding on for 2 days - If my assumption is correct this is a good signal from the market and a further rise looks to follow as the confidence is there as CTM is doing exactly as it has promised in the last 4 quarters - IT really is looking good for this Teleco again.

A much reduced risk to invest in going forward -
but the reward factor looks excellent in the weeks to follow.
A great Buy for my portfolio ..!
(DYOR as always)

Colt still has a lot of convincing in the City to do:

Market miscellany
Edited by Grant Ringshaw
(Filed: 23/10/2005)

Colt Telecom

Colt Telecom, like a number of tele-coms companies, has seen its share price surge on the back of excitement about a new wave of industry consolidation following Cable & Wireless's acquisition of Energis and British Sky Broadcasting's 211m deal to buy Easynet. Last Thursday, Colt's shares shot up by 10 per cent to 60p after the company posted a 35 per cent rise in third-quarter operating profits to 45.9m, in line with City expectations.

But it is still hard to see why the market got so excited. Colt, led by Jean-Yves Charlier, the chief executive, is not expected to make a profit at the pre-tax level until 2007 at the earliest. It made a pre-tax loss of 19m in the three months to September. The company is keen to talk about improved cash flow and higher margins, but this cannot disguise the fact that Colt is still a long way from actually making any money. Core revenues are barely rising and the telecoms market is still fiercely competitive despite some consolidation. Colt (59.25p) still looks too expensive. Sell.

http://www.money.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=M3&xml=/money/2005/10/23/ccmm23.xml

http://uk.biz.yahoo.com/051031/35/fvnyt.html

Take over frenzy makes the Colt a very like ly target - A must read IMHO.

Signs Of A Telecom Revival

Market Comment
[ October 31, 2005 ]

By David Kuo

It seems that telecoms are back in fashion after being in the doghouse for a good half decade or more. In fact, two of our four Champion Shares picks so far are from the telecom sector.

The change in sentiment towards telecoms appears to have started back in August when Cable & Wireless (LSE: CW.) won a battle with Thus (LSE: THUS) to buy Energis for 594m. Since then, Telewest has agreed to merge with NTL (NASDAQ: NTLI - news) , and Sweden's Ericsson has consented to buy the rump of Marconi (LSE: MONI.L - news) (LSE: MONI) for 1.2b. Elsewhere, BSkyB (LSE: BSY.L - news - msgs) (LSE: BSY) said it will buy Easynet (LSE: ESY) for 211m to spearhead its march into the broadband market.

Not to be outdone, Spain's Telefonica (Madrid: TEF.MC - news) was talking telephone numbers today when it agreed to buy O2 (LSE: OOM) for 17b. The deal, which is the largest acquisition in the European telephone industry for five years, will give Telefonica a strong foothold in the German, Irish and UK mobile phone market. That's provided it can fend off possible counter-bids from T-Mobile and Holland's KPN (Amsterdam: KPN.AS - news) . It also ends years of speculation as to whether O2 can survive as a standalone operator.

Unfortunately, today's mega deal is unlikely to benefit too many private investors. Earlier this year, O2 got rid of many of its small investors because it felt that maintaining a register of a million shareholders who owned less than 600 shares each was just too expensive. However, private investors may still benefit from consolidation elsewhere in a highly fragmented telecom industry.

Top of the takeover list is likely to be loss-making Colt Telecom (LSE: CTM). The company, which was founded in London in 1992, has enjoyed seven years of continuous revenue growth. However, Colt is not expected to turn in a profit any time soon; losses have been forecast for this year and next. But Colt shares, which stand at 56p, value the company at 0.7 times sales, which could make it a cheap play on the UK telecom sector.