Certainly got a lot going for it with a lot of post offices closing down. Im sure you have seen the bill payment service at a local shop were you can pay your utility bills, council tax, top up on your mobile cards, withdraw money from a ATM and a awfull lot more.

This type of business is usually low margin where the shopkeeper and paypoint get a cut of each transaction but they are moving into higher margin business that bodes well and people always have to pay their bills so its not like there is going to be a fall of in trade.

Heres a snap shot of the historical performance.

Summary financial information

Year ended 31 March
2002 2003 2004
m m m
Gross revenue 23.6 43.8 67.1
ABT deferred revenue release* 2.5 6.5 0.0
----- ----- -----
26.1 50.3 67.1

Net Revenue before ABT deferred revenue release** 14.0 21.1 28.6
Operating profit/(loss) before depreciation and (0.2) 4.0 8.1
amortisation ***
Operating profit/(loss)*** (1.4) 2.7 6.1
Profit/(loss) before tax*** (2.4) 1.8 6.0
Net cash flow before financing (0.1) 1.7 10.9

So you can see that they are profitable and in fact have tax credits to shelter future profits.

The company is also highly cash generative which is a very big plus.

The one thing that does look unatractive is the historical P/e, but with operting profits in the last year growing by 130% and this year the business is just booming along(50 new ATMS per month) Im sure we are going to see an attractive P/E come December when results are out.

Heres the link towards all the nitty gritty about the company. Note the name of the large blue chips which are its customers.

http://www.uk-wire.com/cgi-bin/articles/200409210700311519D.html

All in all a very fast growing company and should be worth a punt over the medium term.

DYOR.

http://moneyam.uk-wire.com/cgi-bin/articles/20070515123900H7010.html

Expansion into Romania just announced.

Results out in a couple of days.

Exciting times (hopefully !!)

;o)

Fingers crossed Ian.

The volume today suggests that the figures will be just fine (he said hopefully !!)

Ian

The figures were fine:

HIGHLIGHTS


* Strong growth in both revenues and operating profit ahead 31%
driven by 29% increase in transactions
* Operating margin[2],[3], increased by 2 percentage points to 44%
* Earnings per share of 27.7p, up 11% notwithstanding an increase
in the effective tax rate from 17% to 30% as prior year losses
are fully utilized
* Total dividends for year 13.7p per share, up 30%
* Terminal network expanded by 15% to 17,537
* Bill and general payments transaction growth enhanced by
exclusive BBC TV Licensing contract
* Entry into rapidly growing internet payment service market
through acquisitions of Metacharge and SECPay
* International expansion through acquisition of Pay Store SRL in
Romania since the year end
* Brand continuing to gain traction with prompted consumer
awareness[4] over 70%

The reaction ...............

a complete lack of interest (as usual !!!)

;o)

Not from me Ian.

Still in and holding one mighty profit.

Sound solid results and the outlook statement is very exciting.

Holding with confidence even though it is on a fairly high rating, but hoping brokers will revamp their predictions.

With this Company I can get a better idea of the prospects by talking to the agents nearby.

The feedback is always very positive - the TV licence deal has transformed the amount of cash that many of the smaller outlets take.

As more and more people will also pay Council Tax via this option I reckon the prospects n the UK are still superb.

Add to this the plans to roll out similar operations in Europe and, despite the current rating, I still think there is plenty of scope for upward revisions by the brokers.

Ian

Not only that but payment of benefits is on the cards dont forget.

Daily Telegraph today:

PayPoint
709p-18p
Questor says: Buy

IN a simple twist of fate, on the same day the Government confirmed that up to 2,500 post offices will have to close across the country, one of the companies that helped contribute to its downfall posted a stellar set of full-year results.

Of course, to be fair, PayPoint cannot be blamed for the post office closures, it just did a better job of collecting cash to pay for everything from gas bills to the congestion charge than the Post Office did itself.

Both companies currently have roughly 17,500 outlets, but the key difference is that PayPoints increased by 15pc last year, while the number of post offices is clearly heading south.

PayPoints real coup over the Post Office was when it landed the exclusive contract for people to pay for their TV licences in cash. That business helped drive a 31pc increase in revenues to 157m in the year to March, generating pre-tax profits of 27m. The core UK business continues to be a growth market as PayPoint pursues opportunities to allow consumers to pay for online transactions in cash, via their outlets.

But the company is also looking abroad. It recently bought PayStore SRL, the leading independent Romanian mobile top-up provider. This is a great growth business because, due to a lack of infrastructure, 97pc of bills in Romania are paid in cash, with separate dedicated cash offices for gas, electricity, etc. PayPoint intends to change all that by creating a one-stop shop, a little like its counter-top terminals in corner shops across the UK.

PayPoints shares are trading on around 22 times earnings for the year to March 2009 and took a slight hit yesterday on profit taking. The shares are likely to plateau for a short time, but in terms of extended growth prospects, PayPoint has much further to go. One to tuck away for the long term.

Good tip that.

Obviously the Questor tip is wrong many a times.

Bad news on the way for Paypoint.

Only 400p now. More downtrend on the cards.

Keep on selling PAY as its profits will be largely affected by price cuts in electricity by Centrica and British Gas. I think a profit warning on the way as the electricity and gas company will have a price war soon and PAY will suffer even more.
Now 366p but more down trend to come. Sell now.

E.on cuts gas prices - bad news for Paypoint


Eon today became the third British energy provider to cut gas prices, reducing household tariffs by 6 per cent.

The average dual fuel bill will fall from 1,232 to 1,185, but the reduction will affect only 1.9 million of Eons 5.5 million British customers. Electricity-only customers or those on fixed-rate deals will not benefit from the cut.

Last week, Scottish & Southern Energy announced a 4 per cent cut to gas bills after a 7 per cent reduction by British Gas. EDF, ScottishPower and RWE npower have yet to adjust their rates.

The decline follows a sharp drop in wholesale gas prices over the past 18 months, which have tumbled from more than 1 per therm in mid-2008 to below 40p.

This is so expected. Yippee!

The cost of gas will have risen considerably since the last couple of posts
A good medium/long term punt imho
dyor

not much more than steady for the time being imo - maybe a few points north perhaps short term

wasnt overly impressed with the director buy of 35 shares!? matched by 35 free shares - maybe he can add some zeros to the 35

The £508 million cap is forcast to grow pre-tax profit by 11.3% to £41.4 million in 2013
rising to £44.9 million in 2014. It is trading on a 4% dividend yield.

Shares in Paypoint have had a great year, gaining nearly 60% over the past 12 months, and hit a new 52-week high of 800p today. The company, which operates retail payment networks in the UK, Ireland and Romania, issued an upbeat trading statement in July, and is due to report interim figures on 29 November

If the full year meets current forecasts, we should be looking forward to a dividend yield of 3.8% on top of all that nice share price appreciation.