Opened a new position in these after finding them to be extremly cheap, and also cheap going forward. P/E now circa of 12, forward P/E to end of june 2005 is 8.7.

Broker Numis is forecasting full year pre tax profit of 8.8 million and Earnings per share of 30.3p, stunning growth

Highlight Of results Interims 31/12/2004.

Profit of 4.45 million before goodwill amortisation and tax
(2003: 3.15 million)
Earnings per share 15.1p before goodwill amortisation (2003: 14.3p)
Interim dividend increased to 7.25p per share (2003: 7.0p)
Brightview acquisition completed
Current trading encouraging

Director Speak

The Company enjoyed a good half-year to 31 December 2004. Cash generation was
strong and as before a high proportion of this cash is being returned to
shareholders as dividend.

In the six months to 31 December 2004 Invox made a profit of 4.45 million
before goodwill amortisation and tax, compared with 3.15 million for the six
months to 31 December 2003. This includes a contribution of 1.26 million from
Brightview, the Internet Service Provider acquired on 9 August 2004.

During the period the postal promotions business continued to demonstrate its
resilience with a broadly maintained operating profit of 3.19 million (2003:
3.15 million). Most of the six months under review showed year-on-year profit
improvement but December, though still profitable, was not as strong as December
2003. Once again, margin improvements arose from a deliberate and increased
focus on our own highly responsive database, and a reduction in less profitable
third party campaigns. Further new promotional and prize innovations, such as
portable CD players, have allowed us to maintain a fresh and attractive
offering. A number of test SMS-based promotions have been conducted during the
half year, but with inconclusive results. Current trading is encouraging and we
continue to seek new ways of leveraging our database.

As an independent Internet Service Provider, Brightview has a relatively large
customer database of over 300,000 users, the great majority of these accessing
the internet via dial-up rather than broadband. It appears inevitable that
dial-up business will dwindle over the years, and management is therefore making
strenuous efforts to establish Brightview as a significant presence in the
broadband marketplace. We are looking to convert a significant proportion of our
Brightview customers to broadband as soon as possible, as well as attracting new
customers. We are now able to offer a range of broadband services, making us
more competitive than before. We are therefore promoting the offering in a
number of ways. Our experience to date has been that converting existing dial-up
customers to broadband is proving much easier, and more profitable, than
recruiting new users from advertising. Brightview's broadband customer numbers
have increased from around 3,600 at the time of the acquisition to almost 10,000
now, and the rate of increase has accelerated in recent months. Shareholders
should be aware, however, that while broadband customers are potentially a very
valuable asset in the longer term, in the short term they contribute relatively
little to profit, owing to the initial costs of connecting a broadband customer
and supplying a modem.

Outlook.

Further progress is now likely with its database of over 400,000 mobile phone users, and Brightview will be a challenge converting customers from dial up to Broadband. The core mailed promotion business which is highly cash generative should see the company realise Broker forecasts.

Highly Speculative but derd cheap. As a high beta and hopefully we should see a re - rating .

DYOR

cheers GF.

UK smallcap opening - Invox up on talk of bid approach
AFX


LONDON (AFX) - Home gaming and internet service provider Invox made early progress, climbing 9 pence to 101-1/2 amid talk that a quoted company headed by entrepreneur John Gunn has made a tentative bid approach at a price of 125 pence a share.

fjb/ak

What's going on today??

bid 19p