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".

grevis2, cheers for that I shall be digging around for the C and W info. am i right in thinking PXC just increased their business side of broadband customers and therefore are becoming more attractive on the buyout front. something posted here before i think?

watcher

watcher: PXC now has 380,000 broadband users. That would make them very attractive to Cable & Wireless in light of their stated strategy and belief that broadband has tremendous growth potential.

Pipex Communications PLC
08 September 2004

8 September 2004
PIPEX COMMUNICATIONS PLC
RESULTS FOR THE SIX MONTHS ENDED 30 JUNE 2004

PIPEX Communications plc, the telecoms network operator and provider of business
broadband solutions, today reports its results for the six months ended 30 June
2004.

Financial Highlights

Turnover of 43.6 million, from 11.1 million in H1 2003
Gross profit of 20.3 million, up almost four-fold from 4.4 million in H1
2003
Gross margins increased to 46.5% from 39.5% in H1 2003
First-time EBITDA positive and bottom line profitable, before
amortisation: earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation
of 4.9 million, up from a comparable loss of 1.9 million in H1 2003
Loss before tax of 1.9 million, improved from a loss of 3.8 million in
H1 2003

Loss per share of 0.1p, narrowed from a loss per share of 0.5p in H1 2003
Gross cash balances of 16.0 million (H1 2003: 5.1 million) and net debt
of 4.4 million (H1 2003: 2.5 million)

Operational Highlights

PIPEX established as the 4th largest broadband operator in the UK by
customer numbers
Acquisition of Host Europe plc strengthens PIPEX's position in key growth
sectors of hosting and domain names
Total customer numbers for the Group now 380,000
Post-period end acquisition of Nildram brings significant number of SME
business broadband users

grevis2, keep it coming,

watcher

I think this is significant: "The forward PER of 13 is hardly cheap but if C&W can capitalise on the growing demand for broadband and continue to cut costs then decent growth could return."


Cable & Wireless - Wednesday 10th November 2004

Telecoms group Cable & Wireless has announced a big restructuring and a number of management changes today, alongside its interim results. The shares responded with an 8p jump to 117.5p, but the group has been a dismal performer of late. If it is successful in tapping into the burgeoning demand for broadband internet it could return to growth, says Ian Forrest.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Few major UK companies have experienced a reverse in fortunes as sharply and on a such an enormous scale as Cable & Wireless in recent years. Shareholders will need little reminding of the fact that turnover has collapsed 70% over the past four years, and pre-tax profits have halved.

Drastic action has been taken to try and turn things around and the group is now looking more focused and in better shape than it has for some time. It is still a rather strange hotch-potch of different businesses ranging from traditional national fixed-line telecoms networks to mobile services to internet service provision.

Today's interim results were largely in line with market expectations with revenues down 7% to 1.6bn and pre-tax profits up from 185m to 199m. The company reinstated its dividend in June and continued it today with an interim divi of 1.16p. Shareholders are set to benefit further after the company announced a share buyback scheme totaling 250m.


The first half has seen the retreat from the domestic US business at a cost of 220m and the sale of the Japanese business, C&W IDC, for 72m. There was also the purchase of Bulldog Broadband in June for 18m. Bulldog provides broadband internet services to both residential and business customers and is benefiting, along with a number of other companies, from the "local loop unbundling" process.

This is basically the process wherby BT has to give access to its local telephone exchanges to other telecoms companies who want to install the necessary kit to provide their customers with broadband internet down their telephone wires.

More significant today was the news that the company has decided to close its London headquarters and reorganise the UK business into four divisions: Enterprise, Business, Bulldog and Carrier Services. The company said it expects to shed around 600 staff as a result.

Chief executive Francesco Caio has decided to take personal responsibility for the UK business, the largest market for the company, which means that Kevin Loosemore, the chief operating officer, and Royston Hogarth, UK chief executive, leave the company.

Loosemore has effectively been replaced by Harris Jones, formerly chief executive of T-Mobile UK, who joins the board as director of international business.Ciao has also today appointed a whole raft of new non-board managers today.

The balance sheet still looks strong with a net cash position of 1.4bn, but investors will want to see signs of an improvement in trading before they rush to get on board. Broker Seymour Pierce is forecasting full-year profits of 331m and expects roughly the same in 2006.

The forward PER of 13 is hardly cheap but if C&W can capitalise on the growing demand for broadband and continue to cut costs then decent growth could return.

With PXC's shareprice close to it's bottom, now would be the time for a predator to pounce. Just look at what's been going on:

There are currently 2,181 million PXC shares in issue. David Richards sold 80 million on 29 October representing 3.7% of the equity. UBS bought 14.5 million on the same day increasing their stake to 19.32%. That left 65.5 million shares or 3% of PXC's equity nearly all of which could have been bought by 'another' without disclosing a notifiable interest. UBS could still pick up a further 14 million without breaching that magic 20% figure.

UBS AG
02 November 2004
Date of acquisition ...29 October 2004..........................................
Class of voting shares Number of shares/rights over shares shares acquired, .14,500,000........ shares
...ORDINARY SHARES.


03 November 2004
...following the disposal of his holding of 80 million PIPEX Communications plc ordinary shares on the 29th October 2004, Mr David Rickards no longer holds a notifiable shareholding in the Company.

05 November 2004
UBS AG 2.
Total holding following this notification 421,681,404
Total percentage holding of issued class following this notification 19.32

Big G, thanks for that, considering uping my holdings in this, as the background is positive even if the buyout does look close or the share price has got to be moving upwards on good news shortly. I bet you've heard that before.

watcher

thanks G2 your analysis reaches an attractive conclusion and the L2 at 4 v 1 is strong at close. It all bodes well as we go into the weekend and beyond...

Looking at the (PXC) 5 yr chart, can anyone suggest a reason why the dramatic fall in share price all the way down from 22p - 2p?

Thank you

Pipex to offer voice over net phone service
Tony Glover
December 05, 2004 6:00 PM (GMT)
INTERNET provider Pipex is to launch a voice over internet service for small businesses that could cut phone bills by as much as 75%.

The company has been secretly trialling the technology since the end of the summer and will provide a service that enables companies with as few as 20 staff to route their voice calls across the internet, resulting in huge saving.s An announcement is expected from Pipex on Monday.

Next to rent and wages, the largest overhead for smaller organisations is the cost of phone and internet. Voice over internet enables users to make calls over the internet instead of using a fixed-line network. A source close to Pipex said that the pricing of the service would mean users pay roughly the cost of off-peak calls for those made through the working day - cutting costs by about three-quarter.s

It is expected that Pipex's new service will be tailored to small and medium-sized companies, who do not have the bargaining muscle to persuade network operators to install voice over internet on their behalf, as some larger organisations have done.

News of the Pipex offering will come hard on the heels of last week's announcement by US-based Vonage that it will offer voice over internet to UK consumers from 28 December, as exclusively predicted by The Business earlier this year.

In the case of both offerings, the installation of equipment is straightforward, requiring little more than plugging in a box to connect the phone lines to the computer network. Manufacturer Cimol, a company founded by former Pipex staff, offers business users a box that can also be used to stream voice over internet to cordless phones in the office.

Some City analysts believe voice over internet will start to threaten mobile as well as fixed-line voice revenues as new technologies such as wi-fi and wi-max enable mobile users to make low-cost calls over the internet.

According to a recent report from Westhall Capital, although voice over internet is still perceived as a fixed-line technology, mobile voice over internet is closer than the market appreciate.s "Voice over internet threatens mobile revenues far more than fixed line revenues We estimate that voice over internet will reduce global mobile voice revenues by 75%-80% by 2010."

Here we go - Merry Christmas

And a very good morning to us all

Jumped into PXC this morning, as it was tipped by a friend over the weekend, not really one for tips, as I like doing the research, as anyone who knows me from the PET thread can atest to, but my friends last tip of NBR, jumped more than 50% in a week, lets see if this one can do the same

Welcome onboard Tokyo. Hope you will not be in as long as the rest of us.

RNS Number:0323G
Pipex Communications PLC
06 December 2004

6 December 2004

PIPEX Communications plc

Launch of VoIP to Business Customers

PIPEX Communications plc, the telecoms network operator and provider of business
and residential broadband solutions, announces today the launch of a fully
managed voice product that enables businesses to save money on telephone line
rental and call charges, and to access securely the Internet via the PIPEX
broadband network.

Voice over Internet Protocol ("VoIP") for Business combines a high speed
Internet connection and IP telephony with in-built security and extensive PBX
(Private Branch Exchange) functionality. This enables users to access the
Internet and make telephone calls simultaneously, without losing voice quality
or being exposed to hackers targeting their network.

This service will be promoted to the existing PIPEX business customer base and
allows customers to make intra-office calls free of charge and calls to 01 and
02 numbers for less than 1p per minute. They can also benefit from highly
competitive rates to UK mobiles, non-geographic and international destinations.
Centrally managed PBX functionality provides extensive services such as
destination blocking, three-way conferencing, caller line identify and remote
voicemail functionality. The PBX will be 'network based' hence saving customers
the cost, plus maintenance charges currently experienced by many businesses.

Mike Read, Chief Executive of PIPEX, commented,

"PIPEX sees VoIP as an important offering to our SME customer base and a natural
evolution of the voice business. PIPEX will now be able to provide a bundled
broadband, security and voice product at very competitive prices. This product
is perfect for the SME market because it reduces the capital expenditure for the
customer and the monthly operating costs for voice calls, as well as providing
additional functionality. It is our intention to follow today's announcement
with the launch of a bundled voice and broadband service to the residential
market early next year."

Peter Dubens, Chairman of PIPEX, added,

"PIPEX has achieved strong organic growth through 2004, especially within
broadband, shared hosting and domain name registration. The launch of VoIP is
consistent with our strategy to sell multiple products to our customer base,
which has now exceeded 400,000 customers from just under 150,000 at the
beginning of 2004. To this end we also continue to explore the opportunities
for a wireless broadband offering using our national 3.6 - 4.2Ghz wireless
spectrum. Like many others we are following with interest the growing number of
successful examples of wireless broadband deployment outside the UK, such as
those in Australia."

-Ends-


For further information:
PIPEX Communications plc Tel: +44 (0) 20 7766 6909
Peter Dubens, Chairman

Financial Dynamics Tel: +44 (0) 20 7831 3113
Edward Bridges
Juliet Clarke
Ben Way




This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END

thanks Troys - the above RNS is not showing on my stockwatch where did you find it grevis2?

A nice increase in customer the base over 400,000 now . up a 1/3 rd since last time. It can only be good news from now on !!!

still can not see the above RNS on moneyam or anywhere else

Tokyo:
It is showing on ADVFN.
The RNS was issued at 7.01AM:

06/12/04 07:01 UKREG Launch of VoIP

thanks grevis2 - just seen it, a little strange that moneyam are not showing it, is there another problem with the news icon?

Tokyo: Can't understand that as they have picked it up on 'Monday's Leaders & Laggards'

MonAM

Pipex Communications added 8.3% to 8.125p after announcing the launch of their Voice Over IP service.