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

StockMarketWire.com
Speedy Hire, the UK's leading tools, equipment and plant hire services company, operating across the construction, infrastructure and industrial markets, has said that the results for the current financial year will be materially below the Board's expectations and the reported result for the previous period.

Following its recent announcements regarding the sale of the remaining oil and gas business in the Middle East, discussions with the third party concerned have not reached a satisfactory conclusion and have been discontinued.

The Board continues to explore and evaluate options for this business which, as previously advised, is operating at a break even position.

Mark Rogerson has decided to step down as chief executive officer. Jan Åstrand, who was appointed non-executive chairman late last year, has assumed the role of executive chairman and intends to revert to non-executive status at the time of the announcement of the half year results in November 2015.

Russell Down, group finance director, has been appointed chief executive officer with immediate effect and will also retain the finance role until a replacement is appointed.

Jan Åstrand commented: "This is extremely disappointing. I believe that Speedy remains a fundamentally good business but, whilst some progress has been made over the last year, the remedial action programmes have not been delivered as needed.

"Our immediate priority is to accelerate the execution of those programmes and realise the upside we believe they will deliver over the medium term. Additionally, we will increase our focus on the SME core hire market.

"Improving performance is our top priority. We expect to be able to provide an update when we issue our H1 FY2016 pre close statement which will be in the last week of September."

Blimey - I used to like this lot!

When you look at the last set of results and outlook Rodgerson should be shot .

I used to be a follower, too, from the time they were called Allen,
but their shenanigans dampened my interest. After my last sale, stopped
looking at them and have been sceptical since the Middle East palaver.

Not a hint from the Chairman back in May, misleading statement if ever I read one!

Someones bought a million at 47.88 , some other big buys too .

Panmure Gordon Under Review 48.63 - - Under Review

Investec Buy 48.63 100.00 - Under Review

I've had a small dabble - now just in the money.

Skinny, your flutter seems to be taking off...

Yes - nice change! :-)

I think I'll return to this.

Telegraph write-up here

Does this provide a bid opportunity ?

I may be totally off track but I thought it may be a good fit for KGF.
2517

StockMarketWire.com
Speed Hire said following the extremely disappointing start to the year it has taken action to grow revenue and cut costs. Whilst these actions will take time to come to fruition the company believes they will deliver material benefits over the medium term.

"Current year core hire revenue in the UK and Ireland is now expected to be c.10% below the prior year," the company said in a statement. "Accordingly the Board anticipates that profitability will be weighted towards the second half of the year and materially below current market expectations."

"Following the disappointing start to the current financial year, the Board and management team have implemented a number of remedial actions to address the legacy issues identified. These actions include: · A programme to increase engineering resources, redistribute assets throughout the depot network to improve asset availability, and optimise stock levels

· A realignment of the sales function to better address the needs of the SME market

· A more effective operational structure and overhead base which more closely aligns costs with revenues

· Improvements to the IT system to enhance management information and the customer experience.

"The benefits from these actions will be realised from the second half of the year onwards. Overhead costs across FY2016 are expected to be c.£13m lower than the prior year. Approximately £10m of this saving will be realised in the UK and Ireland business, of which c.£6m relates to people costs.

"In the Middle East the business continues to break even at an operating profit level, with further opportunities for revenue and margin growth.

"Net debt at 30 September 2015 is expected to be at a similar level to September 2014 (£104.4m). The Group is operating well within its banking facilities of £180m, which expire in September 2019."

Investec downgrades from Buy to Hold.

No wonder the share price has gone all the way down to 30p
has had a serious of negative RNS and big players are selling............

News today of Kames Capital Plc has reduce by 1M to 2.99%

StockMarketWire.com
Speedy Hire has swung to an H1 pretax loss of GBP13.5m, from a profit of GBP5.3m. Total revenue was GBP167.1m, from GBP190.8m. Interim dividend was 0.3p a share, unchanged.

"The Group expects to deliver a result for the full year in line with the Board's expectations, as detailed in the Company's trading update published on 28 September 2015," it said.

CEO Russell Down said:

"Following a disappointing and challenging start to the year, reflected in the results we are announcing today, we are beginning to see the benefits of the remedial actions put in place to address the various legacy issues.

"These are early days in the Group's recovery and the full benefits will only be realised over the medium term. However, remedial actions implemented to date have started to stabilise our revenue base and we are expecting to see an improvement in the second half.

"Whilst our markets remain competitive, Speedy remains a fundamentally good business which in a more lean, efficient and customer-focussed form, has the potential to once again deliver sustainable profitable growth.

StockMarketWire.com
Speedy Hire has acquired the entire issued share capital of OHP Ltd for an initial cash consideration of GBP1.5m, along with the assumption of net debt of c.GBP1.7m.

Contingent cash consideration of up to a further GBP0.8m is payable, dependent on the future performance of the OHP Group.

StockMarketWire.com
Speedy Hire confirms that the FY adjusted pretax profit is seen in line with market expectations and net debt broadly in line with the previous year end.

Following a review of the carrying value of intangible assets, the Board has concluded that the value of acquired goodwill held on the Balance Sheet (c.GBP45m) will be written off as a non-cash Exceptional Item in the full year results.

StockMarketWire.com
Speedy Hire has turned to a FY pretax loss of GBP57.6m, from a year-earlier profit of GBP2.1m, as revenue dived to GBP329.1m, from GBP375m. Its FY dividend was at 0.7p a share.

The numbers included GBP59.9m of exceptional costs, from GBP16.8m a year ago. The GBP59.9m comprised the previously announced impairment of GBP45.9m of goodwill, GBP7.7m of restructuring costs, GBP5.5m of bad debt provisions in relation to a Middle East debtor and GBP0.8m relating to losses on disposals of assets in the Middle East.

CEO Russell Down said the business had been restructured, with overheads cut to more closely align them with revenues, enhanced the management information generated from our systems and improved our cash performance.

"We are now starting to see an improvement in our culture and greater efficiencies throughout our operations," he said in a statement.

"The business is starting to respond positively to the actions we are undertaking. With a renewed focus on sales, tighter overhead control and better management information with which to manage return on capital we are creating a solid platform for the future."