Some good news at last from this weeks Shares mag. Tim Freeborn revisits the company and altho no firm details are given about new deals he says they will be announced this quarter. I would think that this could be at the same time as the interim results are announced. I for one will be holding on cos they will fly sooner rather than later! ( 8.30% up today!)

ssanebs - 21 Oct'04 - 09:21 - 584 of 586

I'm sure with the benefit of hindsight TF regrets ever speaking with RC, if TF reported accurately his discussions with RC (at this stage we've no reason to believe otherwise )then sadly he has been conned which really makes CEO's position untenable. As a follow on then its fair to say shareholders have been misled, in fact there are people i suspect who became shareholders as a result of articles which were published in Shares magazine, i know some will say do your own research etc before buying any shares which is fair enough but with respect many retail investors rely to some degree on what they read from so called experts, apart from shares magazine what other research is available on EPO, apart from research published by their previous brokers Seymour Pierce. This note suggested 4.2m revenues y/e 30 June 2004 , in fact it must have been endorsed by EPO because for some time it appeared on their EPO official website, i can also confirm copies were sent by Peter Chappell on request.

I think most people accept EPO future was very bleak until new money was raised from Vanrenan / Parker ( existing shareholders ) in Jan / Feb 2002 and RC was appointed CEO to lead the turnaround thru his so called investment vechicle Gelande which i think was described by Citywire as a venture capital boutique ( to the best of my knowledge little money if any was invested by Gelande at that time.

No one ever expected it was going to be easy, management must be given time to deliver but almost 3 years later we appear to have gone backwards rather than forward and probably have lost a lot of credibility for a number of reasons.

I've been slated & supported on a rival board since Jan 2004( people are entitled to their opinions just as i am )My chief concern is the senior management, in particular the CEO who in my opinion has not a track record which makes him suitable to lead the turnaround and propel EPO forward, recent events reaffirm and reinforce reasons why new leadership is required.

I'm a longstanding shareholder who wants EPO to suceed, i accept its not easy but continue to believe in the product but sadly not management to date.

and for those who are sceptical of charts...see the correlation here with epo and the whole sector.....(epo is pink line/sector green)...

sector is moving up...epo to follow?

dynamicsoul - 21 Oct'04 - 17:10 - 586 of 589

I suggest lets all concentrate on EPO fundamentals rather than technical analysis, if they get the fundamentals right share price will take care of itself.

Re Court case update, who knows they may get some money but i suggest its a long way down the road, so in short term concentrate on trading business rather than exceptionals which may come thru at some point in future.

It will be interesting to see what provision EPO make in their annual report & accounts to cover ongoing litigation v baltimore and maybe Egg plc.

Agreed,with news this could turn rapidly,
unfortunately news is not one of epo's strong points...
doe's anyone know when wanadoo is going live...
also if sms gateway was opened in sept as stated in trading update wouldn't
it help to announce it...and debit card in oct..

not just the court news, any favourable news should see it move from this price, even favourable market conditions will move it from this low price!!

believe me this is overdone,it could fall slightly more, but upside is far greater possibility than downside..all in my opinion of course..

we can talk and speculate all we want about what they may or may not announce but in the meantime best to trade what you see...I see an oversold stock with the possibility of some good news to come...maybe, as you say, not soon...but who knows...

Surely the best bit of news EPO could release is that useless CEO's resignation( although a deal or 2 wouldn't hurt either). Had a lot of faith in this company and it cost me dearly. Still believe in the concept but no faith in the management. With a change in management and a deal or 2 formally announced and not about to be signed in the next quarter bs like before I'd be tempted to give it another go.
I do admire you guys for sticking with it. I only hope the rewards are worth the wait. S

dibbles

Yes TF is still a holder but he reduced it to 50% of his holding. Also RC is visiting one of its large shareholders tomorrow, Savoy investments, they hold 18m shares @ 2.5p. When they purchased at that level they were told the BA deal was due to be signed. Lets see what he tells them tomorrow, i was invited as i am a client but declined the offer. I have never been in a room before with someone who has cost me 35k by misleading me!.. safer for both of us!

ssanebs - 21 Oct'04 - 22:33 - 595 of 595

Who initiated the visit, did Savoy invite RC to meet and update their clients, what form is this meeting going to take, interesting to hear what RC has got to say, i imagine very little he can say as they are in closed period.

Its interesting you mention BA deal( remember Citywire reported this as a done deal) there is one long standing investor who lives in mainland Europe who has been very supportive towards EPO but seems he may have invested on the understanding BA deal was in the bag, its not for me to comment on what he presently thinks of our CEO but i'm sure you can guess.

I think its important RC is challenged re airline deal, asked to explain and provide evidence as to why shareholders were told this deal was about to happen or in fact was done.My sources will confirm initial contact with BA ( email/s circulated to at least one investor but possibly more by RC confirming Airline deal was done or about to complete. I suggest RC provides contact name/s whom EPO were dealing with in BA, then make your own enquiries, follow it thru and then report your findings, should be interesting exercise.

Lets assume the deal fell apart at eleventh hour ( doubt it ) why did RC not report back to Citywire and investors who participated in private placing on the strength of airline deal .

Do you mind providing us with some background on Savoy Investments and how they came to get involved with EPO, what is their view on EPO investment and CEO.

jw

Yes they are in a closed period. i did not ask who arranged the visit. But i assume they want an explanation of lack of deals, his insistence that Baltimore are depressing the share price and the promised BA deal. Savoy purchased the stake in the placing i think at least over 18 months ago. One definite question they will be asking is to clarify the cash position. I know they did sell some stock when they heard the cash shortage story, but how many i do not know. Will have more news later.

ssanebs - 22 Oct'04 - 08:33 - 597 of 597

his insistence that Baltimore are depressing the share price

.........................................................................

When did RC actually mention Baltimore being the so called guilty party, i know its mentioned somewhere by RC about so called strategic selling, strange RNS has not yet been released providing shareholders with more info on this matter.



Maybe he will update us on who is building a position in EPO, there is someone or company taking stock from mm's on a daily basis which i suspect is supporting price.

It would be interesting to hear RC's statement on so called market abuse, he would have some difficulty explaining himself i suspect.

Hello folk. Back for a visit. Sold out about a month ago, despite the fact that I had been arguing the case on this thread for EPO. Basically, felt the call to put the money into oils: PCI, SEY and, particularly PET. Given that EPO looked a boom or bust gamble, better bet on PET even though its a bet on Iraq and a Dublin minnow. Still, know its wise to keep an eye on EPO.

The comparison with the software and computer services market is quite revealing. I think it is a fair conclusion that the early part of the EPO fall, shortly after many of us had bought in following the Shares recommendation, was just a general fall in the market. That was clearly overdone because there is so much public sector business around and the overall spend on IT continues to rise. Interesting companies are: Logica/CMG (LOG, computer services) which, after falling into losses is back in profit at interims); Sage (SGE, software)which is another market leader and which has been really steady as it goes trading-wise and has just moved with market sentiment. With these companies, the market has just said that they were over-sold and still have decent profits. EPO, of course, would recover with the index if there was any decent news at all. Presumably, any information given to Savoy should be given to the market (but would RC observe that?) and EPO can hardly be asking them for more money, so it is likely to be about being sold a pup (not big enough to be called a dog!).

Re the trading, generally pretty low key and seems to have been sells at around 0.9p and buys around 1.05 (the 1.04 sell must be a buy) although the spread quoted has not been altered. Volume of 7.5M on Thursday (1.4% of equity) but still only 70K which is not big enough for an institution. So EPO is still in the 'keep a watching eye' category and hope I can make some money on the oils in the meantime.

Good luck, all - Eric

EWROBSON

i have been quoted 1p to buy recently depending on quantity so i imagine a few
of the sells were actually buys.

ssanebs - any news from the meeting ?

he did not turn up friday, i was told wednesday..... lets see

Thanks ssanebs

Do you mean RC broke an appointment - or that your contact didn't turn up to tell you what had happened ?

ok. RC did go to see savoy. just spoke to my guy who has said that everything was positive and there was no cash position problem as rumoured, but he would say no more as he did not want to be as an insider. They are in a closed period so obviously he could not say much. so its wait until the end of the year for news.

Thanks for that ssanebs,
closed period or not they must be concerned about falling sp.
Every time i think it won't go any lower it proves how stupid i am.
Don't suppose anyone mentioned when wanadoo goes live?

Contract news at last.....
will keep holding now...

Have all the old regulars deserted this column! Here we have an annoucement of a contract delivery with some real money involved, not a lot but real, and only dibbles (no offence, only only in the sense of the only one!) comments. Price quite nicely up but few buys and lots and lots of sells from those who are grabbing their money and making for the exit. Could be they have left orders to sell at a price with their brokers. One buyer of 2M shares. But credit where credit is due: RC said there would be two deliveries, plus Wanadoo going live (I seem to recall - anyone client know if it is oeprational), in October and he has made a delivery. Be thankful for small blessings. But not to be too excited unless and until we see the follow through.

Eric

EWRobson....Virtually all the transactions today were buys. I bought some more myself and although the spread was 1.05p-1.40 I bought for 1.09p. I bought at quote on Self Trade, the price to buy at best was 1.33 and only the odd person bothered to do this. I already had some Earthport shares at a higher price so I now see this as a good chance to make a profit as they go up which they will. I, like many, I suspect have been waiting for Earthport to bottom out before buying some more.
;-)