Kingston Communications is an established UK communications company. The Group's national business-to-business capabilities encompass the provision of fully integrated and managed network solutions, complemented by the delivery of voice, data and call handling services in the towns and cities served by the Kingston Communications network. This infrastructure comprises twenty-five metropolitan fibre networks and a long distance broadband network, which was initiated for service in May 2001. Kingston's new media activities include the DSL-based interactive television service, KIT, and satellite broadband content, storage and distribution arm, Kingston inmedia. The Group's East Yorkshire network operation has served business and residential customers since 1904.

ttt

Happy up to now, esp after the shares comments on the other thread, fingers crossed I made the right call.

Does this mornings news breath new life into KCOM:

Kingston to buy Omnetica for 169 mln stg from KKR-controlled funds
AFX


LONDON (AFX) - Kingston Communications (Hull) PLC said it has conditionally agreed to buy Omnetica from a company controlled by funds managed by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR) for 169 mln stg, to be satisfied by 99 mln stg in cash, and 70 mln through the issue of new shares.

Kingston said it expects the acquisition to be both earnings and cash flow enhancing in the first full year of consolidation

The company added that when the deal is completed, KKR will become a strategic shareholder in Kingston with a 24.6 pct stake.

The acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of December, and is conditional upon shareholder approval at its EGM on Dec 20.

Also to pay interim divi.

Good morning opto, all sounds v. positive to me. EBITDA up nearly 20%, resumption of divi's, major acquisition. Totally different message to that recently released by the likes of Thus. Glad I topped up last week.

Morning RCT, nicely timed top up. As to THUS perhaps this news from KCOM will shake them into action.

Very good news indeed.... the dilution of Hull's holding will give greater impertous to any stakebuilding.....re, this company turning around, it has started today as far as we are concerned.

We should see further rises this week....... the m/m's are working it well enough, no great rise just steady......any retracement hapened during the day, so we may see a clear rise on the charts each day for a while, untill the price needs a rest....IMHO

must be honest, as a local user the system has been pretty good over the last few months. Internet has been quick, phones are working fine, let's hope this is the future. The cable TV is still up & running but I do not know what is / has happened with that or if it changed hands, it is still called KIT. As we bought back in at the 52p sp hope it keeps going up. For the TA's amongst us looking at the charts it seems there could be a resitance along the top of peaks at 62p, although charts show 71p as the next resistance point.

Happy New Year

Minx

the actual payment of the preposed divi may well see kc breach the resistance 62p - dumping of the loss making KIT would also help

New contract announced today:

Kingston Communications connects new TSYS European HQ data centre to process billions of credit card transactions

Kingston Communications has completed a major contract to supply high bandwidth communications links for the European operation of TSYS, the American electronic payments specialists.

TSYS, already a Kingston customer, called on the company in 2003 when they decided to move from leased premises at Harrogate to a purpose-built European Data Centre at nearby Knaresborough. The 53,000 square-foot centre was built to accommodate client growth and the company's expansion throughout the continent.

TSYS aims to become the leading transaction processor in Europe. It currently serves more than 20 million consumer and commercial credit card accounts in Europe, a market with 562 million credit and debit cards issued in 2003 alone.

Keith Harrison, IT Director of TSYS Europe said, " Investing in a purpose-built data centre demonstrates our commitment to the European marketplace and helps us achieve our objective of becoming the leading consumer finance transaction processor. Kingston's expert management of our communications links during the move from our previous site was crucial to the success of this project".

Andrew Tapley, Managing Director of Kingston Communications' Partner Services division said, "The credit card industry is booming and the chances are increasing that the next time you use plastic your transaction details will wing their way down a Kingston line. This was an incredibly sensitive project, which had to go smoothly in order to avoid any risk to the public's credit card transactions - therefore resilience and redundancy of service were the prime considerations. Kingston was chosen as the preferred supplier of communications to the new centre because of the strength of the relationship we have built since TSYS' entry into the UK ".

The large-scale contract included supplying connectivity over eight fibre pairs and supplying and managing a STM 16 bandwidth for carrying data from the Harrogate offices to the European Data Centre.

Andrew Tapley explained: "TSYS wanted to migrate large quantities of data between their old and new centres without restriction. Our solution included managing the provision of fibre connectivity and service bandwidth for the duration of the project."

Lots of 'bot' sells into the market today K5, K10, K15 and at the end 4 * K25 apart from all the rest of the sells and the market soaked them all up. Perhaps we have a buyer quietly taking them off the MM's.

Hope not too many people ordered a new car on the closing price for KCOM on Ceefax today, + 114p at close.

They may advertise high bandwidth Broadband 3000, they should get the slower one's working first - nothing but trouble, lost connections and the engineers don't know what is wrong. Works fine at night, but recently has had regular crashes in the day - not too good for real time data or spread trading. I was tempted to short but the spreadbet company don't cover them.

Is there some 'light at the end of the tunnel'

Kingston Communications has seen off competition from telecoms rival Siemens to win a 2.4m contract with the University of Dundee. Affiniti, Kingstons corporate services division, won the five-year contract to replace the universitys existing communications network with a modern converged voice and data system.

In November, Kingston pledged to undercut its rivals and steal their customers in Scotland after it hired James Lind, a former director of Nortel Networks.

Still no release of this on the KCOM web site.
Has the PR machine had a relapse? LOL

News of the contract released AT LAST on KCOM's website!

http://www.kcom.com/news/articles/news_06_05_05_1.shtml

Problems again, I suspect they are too busy trying to fix the server than worry about much else. Broadband down since 10am this morning, came back on at 6pm - not a lot of use to spreadbetting and online share trades - As I was totally blond tot he market and my rather heavy exposure to the spreadbets I went out to the pub with other half and put another complaint in to KCOM. Not that that will make any difference! Still a long way to go until this company can offer a reliable service, we also now have the new 3000 service - lot of good that did.

Bid talks off but trading better:

KINGSTON COMMUNICATIONS (HULL) PLC (KCOM.L)
PRE-CLOSE STATEMENT

Kingston Communications (HULL) PLC ('Kingston') is holding its normal series of
pre-close period meetings with analysts, ahead of its preliminary results
announcement on 23 May.

Approach

Further to the announcement made on 10 November 2005, Kingston announces that
the discussions relating to an unsolicited potential offer for the Company have
ended because the parties failed to agree on price and structure.

Trading update

As expected, overall the Group will deliver a stronger second half performance
than experienced in the first half both in revenues and earnings.

We have made progress in the implementation of our strategic repositioning
towards the delivery of integrated converged communications services whilst at
the same time reducing our exposure to capital intensive and increasingly
commoditised legacy business.

The market continues to evolve at an ever increasing pace reflecting both a high
level of competition and continued migration towards IP-delivered services. A
combination of regulatory change and shifts in technology is enabling us to
develop a more flexible approach in delivering services to our customers.

Kingston Communications

Trading has been particularly strong throughout the year. Our broadband service
continues to grow with the customer base likely to exceed 119,000 at the full
year, some 61 per cent higher than last year.

Activity in our traditional incumbent business has been focused on managing the
continued effects of both mobile and internet services on traditional voice
revenues. The launch of KC Talk, our bundled access and usage packages, together
with the growth in our broadband business have increased the level of
subscription-based revenues within our traditional licensed area.

Affiniti

In a challenging market environment, the business integration process has
established a stable platform for managing the continued transition of Affiniti
in to a leading provider of integrated communications and managed services. Our
pipeline of prospects has improved, order intake levels have risen during the
second half and churn has reduced. We have seen some significant new customer
wins including Toyota, together with renewals and service extensions with
existing customers such as the Environment Agency.

At the same time, the Affiniti business mix has continued to move away from
traditional network services, particularly those delivered through our partner
channels, into delivering more complex managed solutions direct to customers,
which is leading to a longer implementation and billing cycle. Whilst order
intake has strengthened, revenues and earnings will be below expectations for
the second half due to this longer implementation cycle.



Information Services

Our information services business has continued to perform well during the half
year.

To build on the success of our existing retail and wholesale directory enquiries
service, we have acquired the business of 118800 Limited for 1.187 million.
This will be funded by 1.012 million in cash and the issue of 254,916 new
shares to the value of 175,000. Application has been made to admit the new
ordinary shares to the Official List of the UK Listing Authority and to trading
on the market for listed securities of the London Stock Exchange plc. This
acquisition will allow us to increase our retail presence and exploit our
outsourced wholesale call handling capabilities.

Outlook

The outlook for the Group reflects robust underlying organic growth in the
delivery of both broadband services and integrated communications services to
enterprise and public sector customers. At the same time the mix of our business
continues to shift away from network intensive services. The impact of this
change is to reduce the anticipated level of capital expenditure within our
business model along with a commensurate reduction in EBITDA margins, but it
will enable the Group to continue to generate anticipated cash flows.

In the light of the change in our business mix and the increased commoditisation
of legacy network services, the Group will be making a further impairment
provision against the carrying value of its network assets.

Michael Abrahams, Chairman, said: 'We have a clear strategy to develop the
business. We recognise the challenges in the market and have made good progress
in our repositioning to minimise their impact whilst capitalising on the
opportunity to deliver integrated converged communication services. A
combination of clarity of strategy and strength of management gives the Board
confidence in the future of the Company and our ability to deliver returns to
shareholders.'

A main regeneration scheme has been going on for several weeks now in Hull with the city center being closed to traffic for the next 28 weeks. What has this got to do with KC I hear you ask. Well Hull City Council, holders of the worst council in GB award, are renown for running out of money and cash waste. I have a feeling that well before the end of the project they will be looking for a cash inflow. As they still own a huge amount of KC shares, they may need to look at a big slice of their holding being put to a different use. We all look to sell when we run out of cash. Just a thought.

Analysts are predicting a healthy rise in pre-tax profits.

Robert Hughs a local stockbroker said ( in The East Riding Mail ) analysts were predicting pre-tax profits of between 24m and 30m up on last years operating profit of 12.6m. Now I am not saying a local stockbroker knows more that none local analysts, but as said in previous posts just talking to KC engineers ( which I did several months ago when they were working almost opposite my house ) gives a good insight into how things are going, ie overtime being worked, numbers on waiting lists for connections etc. Local knowledge, connections can be a valuable tool. Someone once said ( I think it was Warren Buffet but I may be wrong ) that talking to a companies customers can give a good insight into the company itself.
Lets hope predictions are right.

Greekman, Robert Hughes may make a name for himself here. Hope he's correct...I'm going to upgrade my car, but will wait until after the 23rd (playing safe)