Has Speedy hire turned the corner?
It's looking interesting. Any thoughts?
Takeover time?

what do Investec know that others don't?

Interim results due next Tuesday 12th November.

Thanks for that h. Hopefully it will give the sp a kick up the wotsit!

Interim - Maintaining Our Consistent Strategy

Financial Highlights
· Revenue increased by 0.4% to £169.8m (2012: £169.1m)
· Earnings per share+ increased by 1.8% to 1.12 pence (2012: 1.10 pence)
· EBITDA decreased by 2.7% to £32.7m (2012: £33.6m)
· 3.0% increase in adjusted+ profit before tax to £6.8m (2012: £6.6m)
· Profit before tax increased by £0.6m to £5.3m (2012: £4.7m)
· Return on capital employed increased to 7.6% (2012: 7.0%)
· Net debt to EBITDA+ (trailing 12 months) improves to 1.1x (2012: 1.2x)
· Strategic investment in the hire fleet to support key sectors (£12.5m increase in net book value)
· Interim dividend increased by 18% to 0.26 pence per share (2012: 0.22 pence per share)
+ before amortisation

Trading and Operational Highlights
· Continued focus on active hire markets and increasing service revenue streams
· On-going evolution of customer base and improved quality, security and transparency of long-term earnings
· Strong growth in infrastructure: revenue from the UK's top 10 infrastructure customers grew by 31% - Group well positioned and growing revenue in its targeted markets of water, waste, energy and transport
· Satisfactory UK performance positioned for growth - Speedy's market share remains strong
· Full mobilisation of the National Grid contract will provide strong momentum into H2. International division continues to make good progress and is building a strong reputation for expertise and delivery - mobilisation on key projects continuing to plan and will enhance H2 revenues
· Rigorous approach to cost management and operational efficiencies continuing to drive improvement in costs and ROCE

Post Period Activity
· Advanced acceleration of depot network and logistics strategy plan based on success of existing Multi Service Centres (MSCs)
· H2 expected to benefit from post period contracts secured to underpin second half performance
· International set for further expansion with the investment in a joint venture in Kazakhstan, announced today, which will enable long-term access to a number of the world's largest oil fields in the Caspian region.
· Management team further strengthened through experienced UK and International appointments

Caspian Joint venture

Speedy's International Division enters into Caspian Joint Venture


Speedy today announces that it has entered into a 50/50 joint venture with J. & J. Denholm Group ("Denholm") to provide asset management and equipment rental services to the extensive oil & gas sector in Kazakhstan, including the "super giant" fields at Tengiz, Karachaganak and Kashagan, three of the largest oilfields in the world.

Denholm, through its specialist oilfield services business has a market-leading position in the provision of maintenance and turnaround services in Kazakhstan which it has established through 20 years of operating in the region. Since 1999 it has operated this business through Denholm Zholdas LLP ("DZ").

DZ is headquartered in Atyrau, with an operating hub at Karabaton, adjacent to the onshore processing facilities at the huge offshore Kashagan field. In addition to Karabaton, it has permanent facilities at the onshore production plants at Tengiz and Karachaganak and at the export port of Aktau, which also acts as a supply base to Kashagan.

The joint venture will trade and operate under the brand "Speedy Zholdas" in Kazakhstan. Both Speedy and Denholm have identified the opportunity to leverage DZ's existing infrastructure by providing a full range of asset management and equipment rental services in support of existing clients of DZ, who include amongst others Chevron and Exxon, whilst at the same time extending such services to other oil & gas clients with whom Speedy already has, or is targeting, long-term relationships.

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I know the figures weren't particularly spectacular, but turnover, profit & divi are all slightly up, so a little positive sp action would have been welcome!

Yes - I'm getting bored now.

Investec Buy 68.63 100.00 100.00 Reiterates

there are some new boys on board - the CEO in an interview

Liberum Capital Buy 64.00 64.00 - 88.00 Initiates/Starts

RNS accounting irregularities in the middle east CEO resigns.

Not looking good - extended auction.

29 Nov: Panmure Gordon: Sell - TP down from 75p to 52p. Downgraded.

More on the SDY saga here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/supportservices/10482201/Speedy-Hire-boss-quits-after-discovery-of-5m-accounting-black-hole.html

sp under 50p down 22% being hit hard by accounting problems overseas.

market cap reduced by £75m today is there more bad news to come?

lets see how is moving on after the sharp drop with bad news.

marked up from the start after press comments, but already losing half the gains

at what point will the shares bounce from?

Liberum Capital Buy 51.38 50.50 88.00 67.00 Reiterates

Details of the Panmure Gordon note (post #175):
"Accounting irregularities are never good news, and this looks no different. Speedy has revealed “deliberate circumvention” of accounting processes regarding a number of small contracts in its Middle East operation. For this we presume the issues involve something more that wrong depreciation policies, and the suspension of the divisional FD suggests a more serious (and complicated) issue given a legal investigation is also under way. So far, the adjustment to the current year to March looks to be circa £3m (some of which will include investigation costs), with re-statement to previous years International contribution. We believe the appointment of a new International MD (Andy Wright from Lavendon) has brought this problem to light, and CEO Steve Corcoran also resigns as a result.
Outlook: For this to happen just as investors were becoming more optimistic about a recovery in activity levels is unfortunate to say the least, though to be fair the view on Speedy has never been unanimous and this possibly clears the decks now? UK operations are not involved and “95% of revenues remain unaffected”, though we suspect it will need a full set of results before there is confidence given we would expect a full internal audit on Group procedures as a result of this. That said, similar issues for Hargreaves Services (where fraud in Belgium was uncovered) appear to have been more than discounted given its own share price performance since announcement of issues, and we expect the same for Speedy given the opportunity for geared recovery and its strong market position. We suspect Speedy pops up on a number of radars over the coming weeks as a result, despite a breach of banking terms as a result of this (which we expect is an automatic trigger in these kind of instances), and while we believe this is a (fairly big) setback this is not a game-changer for the medium term.
Forecasts & Recommendation: we reduce our bottom-of-the-range £19.8m to March 2014 to £16.8m (new EPS 2.5p, -13.8%) and our £25.5m to March 2015 to £23.5m (3.5p, -5.4%), though this remains our “best guess” given the events. We reduce our Target Price from 75p to 52p, and switch our Hold recommendation to Sell."

StockMarketWire.com
Cantor Fitzgerald has effectively double-downgraded its recommendation on Speedy Hire (LON:SDY) and moved straight to "sell" from "buy" following last week's announcement that full year pre-tax profits would be cut by around £3 million after the company identified accounting irregularities in its International Division. As a result, the Finance Director of this division has been suspended and Group Chief Executive, Steve Corcoran, announced that he will be stepping down in due course. The broker has lowered its price target to 45 pence per share (from 75 pence) to bring it in line with its peer group. "We were previously BUYers of the shares as we saw Speedy Hire as a geared play on UK economic recovery, Cantor said. "Given last week's events, we have changed our view."

3 Dec: Seymour Pierce also joins the Sell lot. TP down from 75p to 45p.