Telecom Plus
Shares: 184p +28p
Questor says Buy

Tory party backer Charles Wigoder must have felt truly blue earlier this year when shares in his residential telecoms and energy supplier fell below 100p for the first time in almost four years. In early 2004, Telecom Plus - in which Wigoder has a 20pc stake - had peaked at 400p. But a failure to hedge its gas supply contracts caused the stock to tumble as the gas price soared.

Then came the explosion of competition in the broadband sector led by that "free" offer from Carphone Warehouse. It is easy to see why investors got spooked. Since this summer, however, Telecom Plus has staged a modest recovery. Yesterday it got a fresh fillip as Wigoder promised record profits in the current year.

NPower has taken over Telecom Plus' energy-buying operations, along with an option to buy management's 29pc stake in 2009 at a price based on a set formula.

Based on analysts' earnings expectations NPower's strike price would be somewhere near 300p, which would represent an impressive return over three years.

The arrangement makes Telecom Plus pretty much bid proof for now but shows that NPower has confidence in the low-cost business model pioneered by Wigoder, who built Peoples Phone into a sizeable mobile phone service before cashing in millions by selling it to Vodafone in 1996.

Telecom Plus owns no network but buys in bulk and seeks to undercut larger rivals. Not only does it not have to build or repair switches and pipes, but it sells through agents and sub-agents so it has minute marketing costs - customers are given incentives to win new business from friends and family.

On 15 times forecast earnings, falling below 12 for 2008 and yielding 2.6pc, there is room for upside.

Whitbread

Telecolm Plus TEP

On the weekly candles A BUY -IF now
validated with todays SP action
ie, it should read BUY tomorrow
on this site.

Often put down and sneered at this
site but if you know how to use candles,
technicaly its an excelent trading/
investment tool.

http://www.britishbulls.com/weekly/StockPage.asp?CompanyTicker=TEP&MarketTicker=Telecommunications&Typ=S

TEP Telecolm Plus

Nice to be able to put some SP
targets to the Broker buy recommendations.

Heres the lates figures from Digital
Look...............

Date Broker name New Price Old price target New price target Broker change

13-Feb-12 Peel Hunt Limited Buy 645.00p 850.00p - Reiteration
13-Feb-12 FinnCap Buy 645.00p 760.00p - Upgrade
22-Nov-11 Brewin Dolphin Buy 732.00p 705.00p 925.00p Upgrade

So SP targets range from 760p
to 925p.

Very Nice.

A BUY- IF flagged up on the weekly
candles.

http://www.britishbulls.com/weekly/StockPage.asp?CompanyTicker=TEP&MarketTicker=Telecommunications&TYP=S

TEP Telecolm PLUS

Brokers like this stock.....

Telecom plus Broker Views

Date Broker Recommendation Price Old target price New target price Notes

13 Feb Finncap Buy 693.00 760.00 760.00 Upgrades
13 Feb Peel Hunt Buy 693.00 850.00 850.00 Reiterates
13 Feb N+1 Brewin Buy 693.00 925.00 925.00 Reiterates
09 Dec N+1 Brewin Buy 693.00 925.00 925.00 Reiterates
06 Dec N+1 Brewin Buy 693.00 925.00 925.00 Reiterates

Telecolm Plus (tep)

Long Term Historical Chart giving some
idea as to the future SP............

TEP TELECOLM PLUS

N+1 Brewin maintained its "buy" stance on Telecom Plus (TEP) with a target price of 925p. The multi-utility business is introducing a range of new tariffs as well as multiservice sales, which the broker believes will increase its attractiveness to customers. Brewin pointed to a number of incentives to customers who buy four or more core services, such as 10% off energy in the first year. The broker also noted the firm's plan to provide fibre optic broadband, which could lead the way for a TV offering. Shares in Telecom Plus inched up 6p to 693p.

Trading Update and Notice of Results
Telecom Plus PLC (trading as the Utility Warehouse), which supplies a wide range of utility services to both residential and business customers, today issues a trading update for its financial year ending 31 March 2012.

Highlights
· Strong fourth quarter

· Results in line with recently upgraded market expectations

· Half of new customers now taking at least four services

· Final results expected to be reported on 23 May 2012

· Intention to recommend a final dividend of 17p per share (total dividend of 27p per share)
The last quarter of the current financial year has seen a continuation of the positive trends referred to in our Interim Management Statement issued on 13 February 2012.

Cracking trading Statement from TEP

..http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201203300700103999A

Telecolm Plus (tep)

Long Term Historical Chart giving some
idea as to the future SP............

Telecom Plus: Peel Hunt reiterates buy rating and 850p target.

july ex divi

Telecolm Plus TEP

Brokers By and Large very Bullish.....

SP a fair way to go yet to reach historical
level on the P/E of 23/24 2011.

Telecom plus PLC

FORECASTS 2012 2013
Date Rec Pre-tax (£) EPS (p) DPS (p) Pre-tax (£) EPS (p) DPS (p)

Peel Hunt
27-03-12 BUY 30.46 33.22 27.00 33.98 37.54 28.00
N+1 Brewin
26-03-12 BUY 30.20 33.10 27.00 33.50 36.80 29.40
W H Ireland Ltd [R]
16-03-12 SELL 26.60 27.80 22.00
FinnCap
13-02-12 BUY 30.60 32.80 27.00 35.10 35.50 30.00

2012 2013
Pre-tax (£) EPS (p) DPS (p) Pre-tax (£) EPS (p) DPS (p)
Consensus 30.41 33.05 27.00 34.16 36.67 29.08
1 Month Change 0.16 0.19 0.00 0.12 0.22 -0.05
3 Month Change 0.40 0.43 0.01 0.31 0.37 0.11


GROWTH
2011 (A) 2012 (E) 2013 (E)
Norm. EPS 53.33% 10.54% 10.96%
DPS 7.32% 22.73% 7.70%

INVESTMENT RATIOS
2011 (A) 2012 (E) 2013 (E)

EBITDA £28.58m £28.94m £32.41m
EBIT £27.50m £m £m
Dividend Yield 3.18% 3.90% 4.20%
Dividend Cover 1.36x 1.22x 1.26x
PER 23.14x 20.94x 18.87x
PEG 0.43f 1.99f 1.72f
Net Asset Value PS 68.97p p p

Digital Look Premium.

StockMarketWire.com
Telecom Plus reveals that pre-tax profits for the year increased by almost 12% to £30.7m (2011: £27.5m) on revenue up by 12.6% to £471.5m (2011: £418.8m). Earnings per share for the year were 33.8p (2011: 30.1p).

The rise in revenue is due to strong organic growth in the number of customers using its services.

The company is particularly encouraged by the 18% growth in the number of services it is providing, which reached 1,381,023 (2011: 1,171,136) by the year end - an increase of almost 210,000 services during the year.

This has been driven by a doubling in the proportion of new Gold Status customers taking at least four of the core services (Gas, Electricity, Home Phone, Mobile and Broadband) to almost 50% during the course of the year, and means that the average number of services taken by each residential Club member has increased to 3.63 (2011: 3.43).

Breakout?

Ex-div 18th July '12 (17p)

Telecom Plus's interim profits to hit new record
9:02 am by Philip Whiterow Telecom Plus added that the number of customers taking at least four services has exceeded 55% in each of the last six months.

Multi-utility provider Telecom Plus (LON:TEP) expects half-year profits to be well ahead of a year ago after another healthy rise in new customers.

The group, which owns Utility Warehouse, had 438,000 customers at end September, an 11% rise on six months earlier, while there was a 16% increase in the number of services supplied at 1.49 mln.

Telecom Plus added that the number of customers taking at least four services has exceeded 55% in each of the last six months, with the average for each residential club customer now at a record high of 3.72.

The company is now focusing its efforts on customers who take a combination of gas, electricity and phone and mobile. This is reducing churn levels and also boosting average revenue per user it said.

The company added it was comfortable with consensus full year market expectations for both earnings and dividends despite additional short-term costs arising from the focus on higher quality customers.

"We anticipate that our half yearly report will show pre-tax profits and earnings per share that are firmly ahead of the figures for the comparable period last year. Shareholders can expect a significant increase in our interim dividend payment, as we move towards a more even split between our interim and final payment each year in future," the firm said.

Andrew Lindsay, chief executive, added: "We are confident that we can build upon this strong performance during the second half of the year, and meantime look forward to announcing record half yearly results in November."

Shares rose 14p to 886p.

For a utility supplier Telecom Plus (TEP) is growing at a blistering pace. Half year to end Sept figures show revenue up 30% and earnings nearly 10% higher. Limited capital needs mean the firm can afford a dividend payout ratio of roughly 80% for the full year. The company is forcast to distribute 31p this year, equivalent to a 3.5% yield. This £627 million cap has tapped barley 1% of an estimated £50 billion market
so there is enormous scope for future growth.

Interim Management Statement


Highlights



· Confident of reporting full year profits in line with market expectations

· Continued strong organic growth

· Improving customer quality

· Total Group services up by 55,488 during the quarter to 1,544,233

· Strong underlying cash generation

· Intention to increase total dividend by 15% to 31p for the current financial year (2012: 27p)



http://www.moneyam.com/action/news/showArticle?id=4536014

Telecom Plus to boost divi by 15 per cent
By Natasha Roberts

Mon 11 Feb 2013


LONDON (SHARECAST) - Telecom Plus, the FTSE 250 utilities services provider, said Monday that it was confident that it will report full year profits in line with market expectations, following a period of continued strong organic growth.

It said underlying cash generation has continued to be strong, while total group services were up by 55,488 during the quarter ended December 31st to 1.54m.

As such, it plans to increase its total dividend by 15% to 31p for the current financial year (2012: 27p).

Chief Executive Andrew Lindsay said: "The business has delivered another strong performance over the period and I am particularly pleased with the sustained improvement in customer quality and the strong growth we have achieved in the number of services we supply."

"The high levels of distributor activity we have seen since the beginning of January, and the increased interest being shown by new distributors in taking advantage of this exciting business opportunity, bode extremely positively for the year ahead."

"Our confidence that we will announce record results when we report our full year figures in May is reflected in our commitment to a substantial increase in the total dividend for the year."

The company said that since the beginning of the year, distribution channel activity bounced back strongly after the traditional Christmas lull, with a significant increase in the number of new distributors joining the business over the last few weeks. It also said that it has made "good progress" developing its online presence, and has begun to see encouraging results from marketing additional services to existing members of its residential club.

Customer numbers at the club increased by 41,156 and service numbers have increased by 210,237 over the last 12 months, representing year-on-year growth rates of 13% and 18% respectively. The number of services taken by these members continues to climb, and has now reached an average of 3.76 (2012: 3.58).

"This reflects the continuing high proportion of new members taking at least four major services, which remained at over 55% for the quarter. These high quality members now account for 38.1% of the residential Club, up from 33.8% at the end of our last financial year," Telecom explained.

Opus Energy Group, in which Telecom has a 20% equity investment, is performing ahead of budget and is on track to deliver record turnover and profits for the current financial year

Climbing very nice in 2013.