Pace have fallen a lot over the last 6 months. The move to digital is near, do you think they can recover. Presently way off previous highs.

Final Results.

Financial Highlights1

Revenues increased 52% to 1,133.4m (2008: 745.5m)

Profit before tax up 405% to 69.9m (2008 13.8m)

Adjusted2 Group profit before tax up 168% to 76.5m (2008: 28.5m)

Strong balance sheet with net cash of 73.5m (2008: 37.7m)

Adjusted2 operating margin increased to 6.7% (2008: 3.9%)

Gross margin of 17.6% (2008: 18.1%) reflecting the increased diversification of the enlarged Group product mix

Basic EPS of 17.7p (2008: 4.0p), with adjusted EPS of 19.3p (2008: 7.8p)

Final dividend of 1.0p proposed (2008: 0.6p) taking total dividend for year to 1.5p (2008: 0.6p

Pace plc AGM and Interim Management Statement

"In the Preliminary results announcement on 2 March we updated our outlook for 2010. I am pleased to report that trading has continued in line with our expectations and Pace continues to deliver against management's plan.

"We entered 2010 in a strong operating and financial position with our payTV markets continuing to be positive and with good demand for the Group's products. For the full year we expect a combination of solid volume growth and a modestly lower ASP resulting from product mix, to lead to mid single digit revenue growth. Gross margins are expected to increase, with a focus on operating cost and efficiency generating further improvements in operating margin. We will also continue tight management of the supply chain as we manage a sector-wide risk of component shortages.

Am looking around the technology sector atm. Any thoughts on this one as a recovery play for 2011? Possible downside on the chart looks a bit worrying.

Harry - its had a reasonable run this month (but then so have most) interims on the 27th.

Interim Results.

Financial Highlights

Revenues increased 21% to 635.2m (six months ended 30 June 2009: 526.5m)

Improvement in gross margin to 18.6% (six months ended 30 June 2009: 17.2%)

Adjusted[1] operating margin increased to 7.5% (six months ended 30 June 2009: 6.5%)

Profit before tax up 46% to 45.4m (six months ended 30 June 2009: 31.0m)

Adjusted1 profit before tax up 39% to 47.8m (six months ended 30 June 2009: 34.3m)

Basic EPS of 10.7p up 43% (six months ended 30 June 2009: 7.5p), with adjusted basic EPS of 11.6p up 40% (six months ended 30 June 2009: 8.3p)

Interim dividend of 0.725p, increased by 45% (six months ended 30 June 2009: 0.5p)

Strong balance sheet with cash of 94.1m (at 31 December 2009: 73.5m, at 30 June 2009: 48.9m)


Proposed acquisition

Pace today announced the proposed acquisition of 2Wire Inc, a leading provider of advanced residential gateways and associated software and services for the broadband service provider market to widen Pace's US customer base and opportunity

I bought a few of these yesterday morning on the back of the article in the Times.

and.....

RNS Number : 6139A

Pace PLC

03 February 2011

Statement from Pace:

"Pace plc notes recent press comment regarding its business in India and can confirm that it is currently working to agree contract terms with a satellite operator for the launch of a new digital service".

Quiet thread considering the potential here?

Pace plc Preliminary Results for the year ended 31 December 2010



Financial Highlights

Revenues increased by 17.4% to 1,330.9m (2009: 1,133.5m), with organic revenues[1] growing 9.7%

Adjusted[2] EBITA up 35.6% to 103.6m (2009: 76.4m) with organic business1 contributing 94.3m and acquisitions 9.3m

Return on sales[3] increased to 7.8% (2009: 6.7%)

Total operating profit before exceptionals up 31.9% to 91.9m (2009: 69.7m)

Profit before tax (after exceptionals) up 1.7% to 71.1m (2009: 69.9m)

One-off exceptional costs of 19.0m from transaction related expenses, acquisition integration costs and restructuring to implement post-acquisition operating structure

Adjusted[4] basic EPS up 23.8% to 23.9p (2009: 19.3p), basic EPS 17.0p, down 4% post one-off exceptional costs (2009:17.7p)

Proposed final dividend of 1.45p, resulting in total full year dividend of 2.175p, up 45% (2009: 1.5p)

Closing net debt[5] of 200.7m, after successful $450m debt raising to fund acquisitions

Usual reaction after results. The direction can change fast.

Broker Buy list from hemscott premium.........

Forward P/E of just over 5 for 2012, derd cheap and way undervalued imo.

Pace PLC

FORECASTS 2011 2012
Date Rec Pre-tax () EPS (p) DPS (p) Pre-tax () EPS (p) DPS (p)
Peel Hunt
05-04-11 BUY 113.37 25.67 2.50 125.49 28.41 3.00
The Royal Bank of Scotland NV
28-03-11 BUY 118.44 26.36 2.40 135.71 29.89 2.50
W H Ireland Ltd
23-03-11 BUY 114.28 27.24 2.50
Execution Noble
14-03-11 BUY 27.80 2.60 32.40 3.10
Altium Securities
09-03-11 BUY 114.90 27.80 2.40 136.00 32.60 2.60
Numis Securities Ltd
09-03-11 HOLD 103.00 24.10 113.00 26.40
Seymour Pierce [R]
07-03-11 BUY 115.10 25.30 2.20 136.20 30.70 2.50
Milkstone Ltd
14-02-11 BUY 115.30 26.30 2.50
Collins Stewart [R]
04-11-10 BUY 30.00 32.70

2011 2012
Pre-tax () EPS (p) DPS (p) Pre-tax () EPS (p) DPS (p)

Consensus 104.69 25.98 2.48 115.08 28.98 2.80
1 Month Change -1.03 0.15 0.04 2.65 0.37 0.20
3 Month Change -10.29 -0.80 0.10 -15.08 -1.59 0.06


GROWTH
2010 (A) 2011 (E) 2012 (E)

Norm. EPS 14.74% 16.26% 11.58%
DPS 56.82% 43.77% 12.86%

INVESTMENT RATIOS
2010 (A) 2011 (E) 2012 (E)

EBITDA 114.40m 159.88m 172.04m
EBIT 92.20m 108.04m 119.84m
Dividend Yield 1.08% 1.56% 1.76%
Dividend Cover 12.95x 10.47x 10.35x
PER 7.13x 6.13x 5.50x
PEG 0.48f 0.38f 0.48f
Net Asset Value PS -59.48p 97.17p 117.06p

Nice to see a drop in stock on loan (proxy for shorters) to about half in recent days.



DATA EXPLORERS

Interim Management Statement.

Key Points

Volume shipments and revenues have continued to meet Pace's expectations (Q1 2011 revenues up 24% on Q1 2010), but profitability has been impacted due to the following factors:

o Pace has built inventory and purchased components ahead of schedule to ensure that it can deliver on customer orders within a tight supply chain environment. This has increased costs;

o The Japanese Tsunami has further exacerbated the supply chain environment in the period and increased risk for the year;

o Profitability in the Pace Europe business unit during the period has been below expectations, despite this unit having achieved its revenue and volume targets;

o Insufficient demand for Pace Networks products, which resulted in the closure of this division as a standalone business unit.

Down 50 after extended auction.

sales up - h1 profit down by about only 3 to 3.5% - profit f/c to recover h2 - one of the reasons h1 profit down a bit japanese tseunami - sp down 40% - this will bounce of current low imo

Have been watching this one for a while now and couldn't decide whether to invest or not. Am I glad I stayed out!!! Still not convinced that a turnaround is on the cards yet.

upside in the share price from this level........... good sp to buy in at......???

http://www.growthcompany.co.uk/news/1622898/losing-pace.thtml

10/05/2011 Ben Jaglom
Reduce text size Decrease text size Increase text size Increase text size Print article Print Share this article Share Email article to a friend Email Set top box manufacturer Pace (PIC) has issued a profit warning blaming factors including the Japanese tsunami for a fall in first-quarter profits.

The fully-listed venture warns it expects that as a result of a challenging first half year so far, profits for 2011 will be in range of $150 million- $170 million (97 million- 110 million) - substantially below the circa 129 million analysts were forecasting. The company blames the tsunami for having 'exacerbated the supply chain environment in the period' and increasing risk, while also conceding that there was 'insufficient demand for Pace Networks products' , which led to the closure of the division as a standalone business unit.

Chief executive officer Neil Gaydon laments that Pace had made a 'disappointing start to the financial year'. He warns that the business will 'now not be able to make up this first half under-performance in the second half.'

Following the announcement analysts at house broker Collins Stewart have placed both their forecasts and recommendation under review. The broker had forecast profits of 129 million (2010: 71.1 million) in 2011 on turnover of 1.55 billion.

Shares in the company have come under considerable pressure after the warning, plummeting almost 40 per cent to their current price of 93.25p. While the news is likely to be devastating for existing Pace shareholders, we think there is an opportunity to profit from the fall in the share price, with the company's fundamentals still remaining relatively solid, particularly overseas where it has recently won contracts in both Asia and Latin America.

We see some short-term upside to the share price, certainly not to the previous level but a modest recovery is certainly a distinct possibility once investor panic begins to settle down.

seymour pierce maintain buy rating:

Analyst view

Jonathan Imlah at Collins Stewart is holding fire for now: Ahead of a conference call this morning, we have placed our forecasts and recommendation under review. The shares are clearly likely to come under severe pressure in the short term.

However, Ian Robertson at Seymour Pierce remained positive on Pace based on valuation and maintained his buy recommendation, pending the results of the conference call this morning. He said in a note: Paces IMS does not make for good reading. Green shoots of hope may have stopped the management taking the knife to this business at the end of FY10 but it has taken action now.

Guidance for EBITA is below our estimate $190 million and so we expect to revise profit forecasts downward although our revenues figures ($2.6 billion) should remain intact. This is not a disastrous statement but it is a further hit to management and company credibility.

come on pace!!! the rns was not that bad!!

Pace profit warning


Set-top box manufacturer Pace said volume shipments and revenues have continued to meet expectations but operating profit is likely to be below targets.

Q1 2011 revenues are up 24% on Q1 2010, however, profitability has been impacted due to the following factors:-

o Pace has built inventory and purchased components ahead of schedule to ensure that it can deliver on customer orders within a tight supply chain environment. This has increased costs;

o The Japanese Tsunami has further exacerbated the supply chain environment in the period and increased risk for the year;

o Profitability in the Pace Europe business unit during the period has been below expectations, despite this unit having achieved its revenue and volume targets;

o Insufficient demand for Pace Networks products, which resulted in the closure of this division as a standalone business unit.

The Board has reviewed the potential impact of the above factors on the rest of the 2011 financial year. In the first half the Board now expects operating margins to be at around 5.5%. In the second half the Board is confident that Pace will return to close to its medium term 8% operating margin target. For the full year the Board expects operating profit to be below management expectations and in the range of $150m - $170m (97m - 110m1).

During this period the build-up of inventory ahead of schedule has caused a higher than planned cash outflow. The Board expects cash to return to prior-year-end levels by the half year.

The Pace Americas business unit has performed ahead of management plan in the period. The 2Wire acquisition integration programme has proceeded as expected with the Americas 2Wire business fully integrated into a new Americas Telco customer account team (CAT), which has performed well.

Pace Europe has continued to win business, for example new contracts with Tata Sky in India and Net Servicos in Brazil. Pace also marked its one millionth shipment of standard definition set-top boxes to the Net Servicos business. It was announced by the European Commission on 14 April that Pace had won its long-running case with the European Court to prevent a change of classification by the European Commission to impose duty charges on set-top boxes with a recording function.

Pace Enterprise has continued to build its businesses in telecom gateways and software and services outside of the Americas. Following the closure of Pace Networks, its existing customers and related opportunities will be managed through Pace Europe.

As previously stated Pace will provide details of its dollar conversion by the end of May.

Commenting on today's announcement, Neil Gaydon, CEO, said:

"It is clear from today's statement that despite revenues and product shipments being on track, we have made a disappointing start to the financial year with our profitability. We have taken action and are making changes to improve our second half performance and beyond and to ensure we return to our 8% operating margin target.

"Although we will now not be able to make up this first half under-performance in the second half we continue to drive long-term growth and profitability. The demand for our products and technologies continues to grow, ensuring our ongoing market leadership."

hyleo - i am out here now - i noticed at least 1 broker target reduced to 80p an hour or 2 after my last post here - hence swift exit before my profit disappeared - looks like others must have read the same later - interesting tomorrow not made up my mind here yet

gl