Tipped by the independent 2/01/2004

........."And so to our traditional "wild card". Pipex Communications, formerly known as GX Networks, is a telecoms company created by one of the entrepreneurs behind Ukbetting, Peter Dubens. It has been assembled from six smaller players. The ambitious company is generating cash for the first time but is still not widely followed in the City. It could be an undiscovered gem".

I am dreaming - What a start to a week - I am with one exception all blue (including Pipex) - shhhh !

Thus shares slip as Kingston swoops for rival Omnetica

JOHN BOWKER
SENIOR CITY CORRESPONDENT


KINGSTON Communications yesterday unveiled a 170 million swoop for a telecoms rival Omnetica - boosting the chances that Glasgow firm Thus will remain independent.

Shares in struggling Thus have been held up recently by talk of circling rivals, but yesterdays announcement turned the market off the idea.

Dan Gardiner, a telecoms analyst at Seymour Pierce, said: "The prospects of consolidation in the sector have diminished as a result of this announcement. Energis, Easynet, Fibrenet, Pipex - theyve all said they want to go it alone."

What to we make of a 4 mil transaction at 7.25p

Looks like a buy to me

Who woke this one up. It's blue. Are we heading back to 12p, probably not.

MS

City probably liked the Kingston news - May be Pipex potential will now be realised

8p on the offer; what's going on?

Oh I feel faint with all this excitment. What's going indeed.

MS

Level 2

5 v 5

this has been a good sign in the past that Pipex is about to take off!

here's hoping

Just wonder why UBS Investment Bank has been accumulating such a large holding. Is their 19.32% about to be sold on to a competitor?

Pipex Communications PLC
05 November 2004
SCHEDULE 10
NOTIFICATION OF MAJOR INTERESTS IN SHARES
UBS Investment Bank
Total holding following this notification
421,681,404
Total percentage holding of issued class following this notification
19.32%

I need to know. Think i will sit down and wait for the news.Wow !!!!

Troys

maybe they are leading a push by Dubens to take company private?

10p a share sounds about right?

You can bet your bottom dollar that UBS are up to something. Investment Banks do not accrue near 20% holdings for nothing. You can be sure their Merger and Acquisitions people have been involved. They are deal makers afterall. Lets see what transpires!

Mack 1705

10p far too cheap. Is Dubens the kind of guy to take it private? I think not

Troys

dunno maybe he is if he could?

Pipex buisness is projected to throw off 20/25m cash pa

that would easily service 200m of debt at say 5.75% - 11.5m pa

buying out existing shares at 10p = 220m

UBS control 20% = 44m

so debt required 176m - easily funded by above corporate banking facility

Taking it private at this price would be a piece of piss, then you work the business for a couple of years and refloat it...Dubens could make an absolute fortune for himself and his backer(UBS)!!!

why else has the price stuck at current very low levels unless its being manipulated to fit the 'hidden agenda'

watch this space over the next couple of months

What would attract a potential shareholder and/or stakeholder to Pipex Com?
Well it certainly wouldn't be the dividend! I hold by the way (COUPLE OF GRANDS WORTH)!! Any views anyone? Feel free to comment about this little gem! Just interested in mixed opinions about the Company from some other investors.

Cheers

GOD CONSCIOUS: I think it's simply a matter of consolidation. There are thought to be too many telcoms carriers out there. UBS Investment Bank did not pick up around 30 million of stock to be long term investors. That's not what they do. They are deal makers. They who would have assembled a team with the sole task of arranging a merger or takeover of PXC. UBS must have done their sums as to what they believe PXC is worth. Now all they have to do is persuade another company to meet their price.

Good luck!

grevis2 just a quick question, i have recently got into this share, not to heavily i might add. if UBS are gonna persuade a company into making an offer for PXC who do you think is in the running?

watcher

watcher: It needs to a competitor who can offer cash for UBS stake. The only one in the frame IMO is Cable & Wireless. They have tons of cash at the moment and recently bought Bulldog. The most significant point is they believe broadband is the growth sector. As PXC are number 4 in the market and they have their own cable network it would be an obvious fit.


LONDON (AFX) - Cable & Wireless PLC, the UK-based telecoms group, is hoping to grow revenues from broadband internet services to businesses and households in its home market by 250 mln stg over the next four years.

'We believe Cable and Wireless has unique advantages in participating in this market, fundamentally linked to the national network we have,' chief executive Francesco Caio told reporters on a conference call.

But he refused to say how much profit the increased revenues could generate.

C&W, which bought UK broadband services provider Bulldog Communications Ltd for 18.6 mln stg in May, said it had already unbundled 38 of BT Group PLC's so-called local loops in central and west London and hopes to have unbundled up to 400 exchanges by the second half of 2005.

It said it expects to spend 40-50 mln stg in the year to March 31 2005, on Local Loop Unbundling (LLU), and a further 15-35 mln the following year, subject to the speed of subscriber growth.

Under directions from communications services industry regulator Ofcom, BT began making its local network -- the copper cables that run from customers' premises to the telephone exchange -- available to other companies in 2002.

Operators such as C&W are then able to upgrade individual lines using digital technology to offer services such as always-on high-speed internet access, direct to the customer.

Though the number of Britons with access to a high-speed internet connection has grown rapidly in recent years the UK still lags well behind most other leading nations.

Figures from UK-based research company Point Topic Ltd show the UK had just 1.8 mln Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL) as at the end of last year, compared with 3.4 mln in France and 4.5 mln in Germany.

It's significant that UBS acquired a further 14,500,000 shares at the end of October 2004, which coicided with Cable & Wireless supporting it's share price buy buying in it's own stock.

Cable & Wireless PLC

22 November 2004, it purchased
2,000,000 ordinary shares from Cazenove & Co. Ltd at a price of 114.9201p

23 November 2004, it purchased
1,250,000 ordinary shares from Cazenove & Co. Ltd at a price of 113.8877p

29 November 2004, it purchased
1,000,000 ordinary shares from Cazenove & Co. Ltd at a price of 114.0192p

30 November 2004, it purchased
2,000,000 ordinary shares from Cazenove & Co. Ltd at a price of 113.0588p



UBS AG
02 November 2004

Lodge with a RIS or Newstrack, if appropriate, and the Takeover Panel. A copy
must also be sent to the company the shares of which are acquired.

Date of disclosure...1 November 2004...

DISCLOSURE UNDER RULE 3 OF THE RULES GOVERNING SUBSTANTIAL ACQUISITIONS OF
SHARES ('SARs')

Date of acquisition ...29 October 2004

Acquisition in PIPEX COMMUNICATIONS PLC(name of company)

(1) Class of voting shares Number of shares/rights over shares shares acquired, .14,500,000........ shares
...ORDINARY SHARES.