Marchpole is one of those stocks which have had a really bad time. Boardroom battles, losses, price collapse, profit warnings up the ying yang.

Now all of those things seem to be sorted out, new management are getting to grips, new contracts and the price is on the up. So much so that Monday ought to see a 50/200 day MA golden cross.

DYOR of course, but I think I will be putting a few of these away at the open.

Socco

You're welcome Capa. Would be expecting some updates in the magazines very soon. You know how fast these move on a tip somewhere! Been having a bit of a think about whether there may be some more director buying, always nice to see them put their money where their mouth is, but they do have shed loads of these as it is. But if there's no more buying, then maybe we can read that as they are lining up the Feraud brand as reported previously. I'm not sure if they could buy knowing full well of a possible acquisition, perhaps not.

Pond Life, as to whether the good news is in the price already, then I don't think so. The possible acquisition of Feraud or indeed any other brand could be paid for with the outstanding shares, 42m I think of the top of my head. In the short term, it may subdue the sp as you point out, but looking at the bigger picture, what would an acquistition bring to Marchpole. Quite a lot IMO, especially if they can get it cheap enough.

Another article on Citywire:

Marchpole dressed for success, says Shore
Published: 14:30 Tue 9 Nov 2004
By Dylan Lobo, Market Reporter
Email to a friend | Printable Version


Mens fashion group Marchpole Holdings has more than doubled first-half profits, leading housebroker Shore Capital to raise its forecasts.

Pre-tax profit at Marchpole (MPH) came in at 2.5 million versus 0.8 million a year ago, with turnover up 97% to 15.7 million.


The company, which designs and sells clothing and accessories for six of the biggest names in fashion, including Yves Saint Laurent, Boateng and Jean-Charles de Castelbajac (JCC), also declared an interim dividend of 0.25p, compared with nil a year earlier.


The group's autumn-winter order book stands at 16.6 million, of which 86% has already been delivered to customers.


Marchpole shares gained 1.25p to 34.5p.


Chief executive Greg Tufnell said the results highlighted the group's success at developing our current brands while extending our portfolio through acquisitions and licensing agreements.


Tufnell said he expected continuing success to be reflected in the full year results, with the board adding that the company is currently in discussion with third parties to advance new opportunities both in terms of licensing and brand acquisitions.


John Stevenson, retail analyst at Shore Capital, said the results were ahead of his forecasts and raised his profit forecast for 2005 by 0.2 million to 4.5 million.


Shore predicted compound earnings per share in excess of 32% in the next three years, with return on capital employed rising from 36.3% to 70% over the same period.

Stevenson, applauded the successful integration of JCC into the business, which was further strengthened last week through the distribution and marketing deal struck in Korea for the JCC brand.


Shore is also looking forward to next years debut of the Ungaro collections designed by top designer Jacob Levy, for which Marchpole owns a worldwide licence.

Shore Capital aren't exactly chancing their arm, are they? We got 2.5m in this half year according to post 263.......

MPH easily beat forcast way ahead of expections eyes blindfolded and hands tied behing back.Buy,imho.dyor.

L2 only 1 mm logged on - EVO

KBC decided to muscle in...

Agree Shore aren't exactly sticking their necks out but I prefer this cautiousness to overt optimism.

Think about it, plenty of broker upgrades to come ! Far better than the alternative imo.

capa

Still don't understand why the sp didn't fly on those results.....couldn't have asked for better,surely.

exactly my thoughts. especially as the price had bee dropping recently anyway. I ex[ecte 38p with these results. However if the mags make it a buy at the weekend it could make up some ground

Could it be this Feraud business, punters not sure how it might pan out?

55011, Feel punters might be put off because of this Feraud business. Maybe theres some uncertainty because nobody knows how mph will actually fund the acquisition... Long term its a cert, but feel the sp is being held back until we have some clarification on whether its a deal involving shares or money etc etc

On the other hand, now that recovery seems to be confirmed by these results, there is the possibility that a bid might come in at these relatively cheap levels.

Another possibility, either way I feel our patience will be well rewarded. If we do managed to get Freaud, chances are we could get them at a steal due to thier current financial state! Really feel it would be major acquisition and would certainly put us on a new level.

Anyone noticed the last few trades that have gone through, pretty decent sizes.

chunky trades gav... cant see where this is going but up?
any comment on bdh?

Yes but they are all sells. Its baffling me how a company with such good resul;ts can have suce a negative share price performance.why would 6 million shares be sold from what must be major investors? Unless they are being sold into the market to meet institutional demand?

Maybe they are directors buying in again. If they are all sells then surely we would have dropped quite a bit today. Perhaps funds buying. Will be interesting to see where this goes today.

how do you work out they are sells?
I would say at these sizes they are probably discounted purchases...

also an hour late in notification and the price has been recovering..

Double bottom.When the time comes watch MPH bounce to 40p.Excellent results,grows from strength to strength and company pays dividends.Win,win.imho.

agree... I tend to like my charting and see the same in the near future.
would think this is institutional buying after having studied the results.