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.

Pace acquisition of Aurora Networks, Inc.

Strategic rationale
· Positions Pace to support operators' and consumers' constant demand for cost effective delivery of ever increasing bandwidth
· Highly profitable and growing business with blue chip customer base and market leading positions, serving over 200 customers in 50 countries, including all of the top 10 cable operators in the US
· Strong management team that has delivered 30 straight quarters of profitability
· Creates deeper and more embedded relationships with key customers
· Cross-sell opportunity across customer footprints
· Further widens Pace out beyond PayTV Customer Premise Equipment ("CPE")

Financial rationale
· Significantly accretive to earnings in 2014 and accelerates Pace towards improved profitability target of 9% Return on Sales in 2015
· Expected to generate annual run rate cost synergies across CoGs and Opex of $8m by the end of 2014
· The headline consideration represents a historic EV/EBITDA[4] multiple of 10.5x before synergies and 8.2x after expected annual run rate synergies, based on the results of Aurora for the 12 months to 31 March 2013
· Opportunity to apply robust Pace working capital controls to deliver significant working capital benefits
· Following completion of the Acquisition Pace expects to be conservatively levered and retain significant financial flexibility

Breakout. What a lovely return is such a short term period. Very nice.

Interim Management Statement

Trading Update
Trading performance in the period has shown good progress with continued momentum across the business.
· Key wins have been achieved in the period giving further confidence for 2014. Project delivery for the new wins is well underway and the underlying demand across the business is strong.
· Revenue in the period, as expected, was lower than the same period in 2012, reflecting the impact of dual-sourcing of Media Server supply by a large North American satellite customer.
· Gross margins in the period however benefitted from improved revenue mix and procurement savings resulting from improved supply chain effectiveness.
· Operating costs in the period are lower than in the same period in 2012.
· Adjusted EBITA and Return on Sales are higher than the same period in 2012, despite the lower revenue, reflecting the Company's continued progress towards improved medium term profitability.
· Cash flow in the period has been strong following the completion of the Electronic Manufacturing Services ("EMS") consolidation, working capital has been further reduced and Pace is now in a net cash position (Peak net debt of $321.7m at 31 December 2011).

Outlook
Trading in the period has been strong and the outlook for the remainder of the year is reiterated:
· Revenues for FY2013 expected to be broadly in-line with 2012;
· Operating margin for FY2013 is expected to be greater than 7.5%; and
· Strong cash flow will continue, and excluding acquisitions, Pace expects to retain a net cash position through to the end of 2013.

Another up leg?

Pace plc: Completion of Aurora Networks acquisition and Trading Update notification

Pace plc ("Pace" or the "Company") today confirms the completion of its acquisition of Aurora Networks, Inc. ("Aurora") (the "Acquisition").

On completion of the Acquisition, Pace paid Aurora shareholders US$323 million comprising a headline consideration of US$310 million (on a debt and cash free basis) plus a further US$13 million relating to tax benefits to be recovered over the three years post Acquisition.

The consideration for the Acquisition is subject to post-completion cash and working capital adjustments.

A five year term loan for $310m to finance the acquisition of Aurora Networks Inc plus a new five year $150m revolving credit facility is now in place.

Pace will make a 2013 full year Trading Update to the market on Thursday 9 January at 07:00 GMT.

-ends-

Trading Update

FY2013 expected to be ahead of guidance: operating margin not less than 7.7%, revenue growth of 2.4% to $2,460m, free cash flow in excess of $200m

Saltaire, UK, 9 January 2014: Pace plc, a leading global developer of technologies and products for PayTV and broadband service providers, today announces the following unaudited update for the financial year ended 31 December 2013 ahead of preliminary results to be announced on 4 March 2014.

The Group performed well in 2013; and full year results will be ahead of the Board's previous guidance:
· Full year revenues expected to be up 2.4% to $2,460m (2012: $2,403.4m).
· Adjusted EBITA1 of at least $190m, 20% ahead of 2012 (2012: $158.1m).
· Underlying operating margin expected to be not less than 7.7%, at least 1.1ppts ahead of 2012 (2012: 6.6%).
· Free cash flow2 in excess of $200m (2012: $182.7m).
· Debt repaid in full prior to the end of the financial year3 (zero debt), cash position in excess of $30m as at 31 December 2013 (31 December 2012: $163.3m net debt).

The Group has made good progress throughout the year in the execution of our Strategic Plan:
· Leadership in PayTV hardware:Pace maintained market leadership positions in Set-top Boxes, Media Servers and Gateways whilst making further progress into previously under-penetrated markets such as cable in Europe and IPTV.
· Widen out into software, services and integrated solutions: Pace built on the momentum of 2012 with a number of key wins and a strong focus on product and customer project delivery for major launches and deployments in 2014.
· Transform core economics: Continued focus on efficiency has delivered further sustainable overhead savings and the transformation and rationalisation of our supply chain was completed, delivering significant benefits in 2013 and beyond.

Preliminary Results

Strong performance in 2013: Adjusted EBITA up 22.5% to $193.6m, Free cash flow up 14.4% to $209.0m, Dividend up 22% to 5.49c per share.

Financial highlights
· Revenue up 2.7% to $2,469.2m (2012: $2,403.4m).
· Adjusted EBITA1 up 22.5% to $193.6m (2012: $158.1m).
· Operating margin2 up 1.2 percentage points to 7.8% (2012: 6.6%).
· Profit after tax up 65.6% to $96.7m (2012: $58.4m).
· Basic EPS up 60.8% to 31.2c (2012: 19.4c) with Adjusted basic EPS3 up 26.2% to 44.3c (2012: 35.1c).
· Proposed final dividend 3.66c per share, resulting in full year dividend of 5.49c per share, a 22% increase on 2012
(2012: 4.50c).
· Free cash flow4 $209.0m (2012: $182.7m).
· Debt repaid in full prior to the end of the financial year (nil gross debt), cash position of $33.0m as at 31 December 2013
(31 December 2012: $163.3m net debt5).

Operating highlights
· Increased operating profit through top-line growth, improved revenue mix, supply chain efficiency and increased operational efficiency.
· Highly accretive acquisition of Aurora Networks, Inc ("Aurora") (completed on 6 January 2014), a leading provider of Optical Transport and Access Network solutions.
· Further progress made against the Strategic Plan laid out in November 2011:
o Transform core economics:
§ The rationalisation of the Electronic Manufacturing Services ("EMS") footprint was completed, delivering significant operational and financial benefits in 2013 and beyond.
§ Continued focus on efficiency has delivered further sustainable overhead savings; $16.2m (5.8%) underlying savings compared to 2012.
§ Further Working Capital reductions and robust cash management enabled a second consecutive year of over 100% free cashflow to EBITA generation.
o PayTV hardware leadership:
§ Reconfirmed as the market leader in PayTV hardware; global number one in Media Servers6, Set-top boxes ("STBs")7 and Telco Gateways8.
§ 2.6% revenue growth in PayTV hardware (2012: 3.9%) to $2,355.4m with strong demand from major customers and a number of wins achieved in previously under-penetrated markets such as cable in Europe and Internet Protocol Television ("IPTV").
o Widen out into Software, Services and Integrated Solutions:
§ Built on the momentum of 2012 with a number of key wins across all areas of our software and services offerings and a strong focus on product and customer project delivery for major launches and deployments in 2014.
§ 5.4% growth in software and services revenue to $113.8m (2012: 7.6% to $108.0m).


2014 Outlook
Considerable progress has been made in delivering on our strategy in 2013 and there remains further opportunity in 2014 to build on this success to develop and improve the performance of the Company.

The Board is confident that the Group (including Aurora) will make further progress in 2014:
· Revenues for 2014 expected to be c. $2.7bn.
· Operating margin for 2014 is expected to be c. 8.5%.
· Strong cash flow will continue, and Pace expects to generate in excess of $185m of free cash flow.

Excelent results truly outstanding.

Added first thing.

direcotorstalk.com, cant post here for some reason.

Jeffries SP Target 467p

Peel Hunt Sp Target raised to 490p.

Worth a read as parts of the Full Note are on the site and its free to sign up.

Director's Talk :-)

Ohhhhhhh well done skinny but the main news is just below your link.

Could you please post the jeffries and Peel hunt part broker notes and post them across the road aswel .

No site seems to have got these upgrades yet.

cheers.

If you copy and paste the following,

<a href="http://www.directorstalk.com/peel-hunt-and-jefferies-thoughts-on-pace-today">Peel Hunt and Jefferies Thoughts on Pace Today</a>

it will give you this link :-


Peel Hunt and Jefferies Thoughts on Pace Today

Cheers skinny so thats the code you use. Appreciated. Ill save it.

skinny just tried it on advfn and hasnt worked. ??

Yes if you C&P it exactly as it is - obviously I've used some different HTML in order to make the code appear as it does above.

On edit - I've just done it by copying and pasting the above ?

It looks like afn don't like the direct link to director's talk - it works the 1st time and then is converted to .com.

Think its directors talk that dont like copying????.

Cant for some reason blue the text and use ctrl +c

Can on all other sites.

That's becoming more common - even PC World's site won't let you - it makes it more difficult to compare goods elsewhere!

GF - my post 41983 still seems to work.

Ahhhhhh right. Cheers skinny.