susanne9
25 Apr 2017
SP Thank you Claude Reins for useful and fairly reassuring information. I have always thought this was a good company with good ideas and in tune with what is necessary in today's world.
claude reins
25 Apr 2017
Looking back and forward At the Interims, 14th March, there were also management changes. The Chair is standing down. The FD goes straight away. The share price falls 45.5 to 262.5. Perhaps the message was there at the time. A temporary FD appointed for a 6 month period; a new Chair coming in with substantial financial experience. Today’s announcement – 25th April – sees the effect of a full review of the finances, and indicates that the financial control was slack – between the former Chair and the former FD, and the CEO? One additional question I would be interested in is the split of the extra £4m needed, between that which has gone – the pay-outs and fees, and the late coming in – which have both been promised by the end of the year.The year end figures of revenue and adjusted operating profit - are still as promised – i.e. according to market expectations, but have been affected by ‘the later arrival of a large government contract and the slipping of larger contract deals to later in this current quarter.’It is also interesting to note that there have been two comments from the same broker, Cantor Fitzgerald, not a house broker, - during the last 2 months which have stayed with the same 270p target price, but the more recent one on 6th April was a buy recommendation from hold. The former in mid March had been a downgrade from buy to hold. What made them change their minds onlyThe final twist is that Philip Rogerson, a very experienced executive, and Chair of two large companies, became a non-exec in the March re-shuffle. As recently as mid March, he added to his shareholding, which he woiuld have bene unlikely to have done if he had known today’s news. Philip Rogerson , Non Executive Director, bought 10,000 shares in the company on the 15th March 2017 at a price of 253.21p. The Director now holds 17,500 shares.So the conclusions we might reach are mixed. This hole in the finances has come along or been identified very recently, and is not a good indication of the management financial controls. On the other hand, the management team has been strengthened – Chair, non-Exec, new FD (albeit temporary) and perhaps the dirty linen is all out on the table.On the plus side, the new Chair and the new Non-Exec are steady hands. The growth in Q3 has been good. The company is still forecasting revenues and adjusted operating profits for the year ending June – not a long time away – to be in line with market expectations (presumably before the large SP fall this morning!). The forecast debt at the year end is only modestly higher at £5.5m than previously stated - £5m. So they need £4m to tide them over a short term cash flow issue. What does the market expect? An increased bank loan would be the most likely? A placing at a heavy discount? Couldn’t be heavier than the SP fall today. In trading, there seems to have been about 500,000 shares dumped in 2 tranches at around 9.30 (maybe an institution losing patience? What Paul Scott calls he Hargreave Hale effect? They are substantial shareholders, though not the biggest), but other are seeing it as a buying opportunity with a series of purchases of 25k tranches, or even bigger – a 125k trade coming through. The tide has turned a bit, and the SP should recover. It will be even better when the £4m gap has been filled and announced.
bare faced liar
25 Apr 2017
Re: sp Just bought 3500 shares which are showing as a s
susanne9
25 Apr 2017
sp Cash flow problems but good profit and growth forecasts - does this merit the 26% fall in sp?Seems a bit sudden - is something else going on?
equity_dev
22 Mar 2017
Recording of results webinar A recording of the recent results webinar is now avaiable to view at: [link]
susanne9
14 Mar 2017
disappointed I recently vowed not to invest in anymore mining stocks and instead concentrate on blue chips and good companies with an interesting product and future prospects. Blancco was one of these!I am really disappointed and hope it will come good eventually again.
claude reins
14 Mar 2017
Closing shorts? Or what? Latest trades Time Price Volume Value17:15
1 260 100,000 260,00017:10:36 249.75 329 822170:20 249.75 1,762 4,40116:48:32 240 57,000 136,80016:480 290 16,500 47,85016:47:53 290 1,650 4,78516:47:26 290 16,500 47,850
gretel
14 Mar 2017
Re: Poor results, sold out To add to my mistrust, I also noticed this:[link] Prevails in Patent Non-Infringement Lawsuit Against Blanccoby ITRenew | Mar 9, 2017 | News from ITRenew - An Industry Leader in ITAD Solutions, Relevant - 3 Vulnerabilities - blog post | 0 commentsSuit dismissed after two separate examinations by a Blancco-appointed expert found no evidence of infringement by ITRenew’s TerawareITRenew, an industry leader in IT asset disposition (ITAD) and data sanitization software for large-scale data center decommissioning, today announced that the company’s patent non-infringement lawsuit brought against Blancco Technology Group has been dismissed. Blancco had been court-ordered to file infringement claim by March 2, 2017, which would have required the company to produce actual evidence of infringement. Blancco instead filed stipulation for voluntary dismissal after two separate examinations of ITRenew’s Teraware by a third-party digital forensics expert found no evidence of infringement of a Blancco patent covering a particular method for erasing data from solid-state drives (SSDs).“It is extremely unusual in such cases that a countersuit asserting actual infringement is not filed, which speaks clearly to the irresponsible allegations made by Blancco,” said Aidin Aghamiri, vice president of corporate strategy at ITRenew. “filing the voluntary dismissal, Blancco effectively retracts its unfounded allegations, but that’s not what the company will lead the public to believe.”With no good faith basis to assert counterclaims, Blancco contends in a press release it issued last week that Teraware uses compressible data, and any system that uses data compression is a security liability. According to ITRenew’s director of product management Matt Mickelson, who was closely involved in technical analysis of the patent claims, Blancco’s position is both inaccurate and misleading. etc"
claude reins
14 Mar 2017
Re: SP Interesting purchase just now? Well above the range of 250-251. Thoughts?11:44:27 268 50,000 134,000
claude reins
14 Mar 2017
Re: SP See your point. I am holding for the moment. Agree with both comments this morning. Hopefully over the worst. Put all the bad eggs in one basket, blamed the finance guy and to some extent the Chair who have both gone. Good strong new Chair with finacial experience. CEO still there, so either survived or strong and in charge of future situation. Going forward - assuming that all the bad eggs ahve gone in the last half - the business looks sound. Lets look to the continuing business and sales team ecxpansion to deliver the promised growth, and the CEO has said that he expects to deliver market expectations for the full year. What are those expectations? Prior to today or after today, perhaps reflected by the Cantor Fitzgerald broker comment?There has certainly been a marked reaction in the market, so maybe a buying opportunity. For the moment, I plan to hold, protecting my gain since purchase . After all, it is only Saturday last that there was the positive report in the FT. So it is a question of have all the bad eggs gone - financial and management - or is there more to coem. I would guess it is the former. Hope so!.
susanne9
14 Mar 2017
SP Typical ! I was congratulating myself yesterday on what a good share this was and why a good profit I was making! Just logged on to find disaster! Sold out just in time but only just!
gretel
14 Mar 2017
Poor results, sold out I sold out today, largely first thing on the bell at around 295p.At this high rating the management, numbers and prospects need to be clear and trustworthy. Management seem to be all over the place - the CFO's departure so quickly after just 6 months is a bad sign. The numbers seemed somewhat lacking, and prospects good but maybe pushed out further into the future with the problems in sales force recruitment and costs therein.Too many red flags. Back on the watchlist.
gretel
13 Mar 2017
Good article in Saturday's FT [link] cyber security companies, this week provided a boost. Following an exposé from WikiLeaks, it was revealed that the US Central Intelligence Agency and Britain’s MI5 had built an arsenal of tools to exploit holes in ordinary citizens’ devices including iPhones, Android smartphones and Samsung smart TVs.If these holes exist, governments are not the only ones targeting them — hackers will be equally wise. And if companies such as Apple and Google have chinks in their devices, other companies may decide to take a closer look at their own defences.Next year, Britain will be subject to an EU-wide directive that will fine companies 4 per cent of their turnover if their data are hacked, stepping up the pressure to tighten cyber security. Reflecting this trend, many UK cyber security groups, such as the recently listed ECSC and Blancco, have benefited from rapid growth in the past year. But for others, such as the NCC Group, recent months have been more challenging..........BlanccoBlancco is not a traditional cyber defence company, but provides an unusual security service: secure data erasure. This means the company sells software that can destroy all electronic data on devices including hard drives and mobile phones without physically destroying the device itself. Its product ensures that deleted data cannot be recovered even by experienced hackers.While data erasure is still a nascent industry, its importance is growing rapidly in light of large-scale data theft at corporations such as Vodafone, TalkTalk and Ashley Madison. The market is estimated to be worth roughly $2bn a year.Blancco’s customers include global security agencies such as Nato, the US Department of Defense and companies such as eBay.The company’s revenues of £22.4m were up 49 per cent year on year for 2016 and it expects similar growth this year. It narrowed its operating loss from £1.6 to £400,000.Growth should be driven by regulatory changes, including EU rules that come into force in Europe next year and will fine companies that do not protect and dispose of sensitive data properly.Blancco’s shares closed the week at 290p per share — almost a third higher than a year ago."
equity_dev
09 Mar 2017
Results webinar If you would like to hear management present the half year results for Blancco we will be hosting a webinar on Thursday 16th March at 5.30pm. Patrick Clawson, Chief Executive Officer, and Keith Butcher, Chief Financial Officer, will give a presentation lasting approximately 30 mins and there will then be an opportunity for Q&A.To join please register at: [link] you would like to submit any questions for management ahead of the meeting please send them to [email protected] regards,The Equity Development Team
gretel
07 Mar 2017
BLTG featured in Megabuyte Nice summary of - and positive verdict on - BLTG from a couple of weeks ago on the respected Megabuyte site:[link] hits the ground running in 2016We initiate coverage on AIM-listed data erasure specialist Blancco Technology Group, following a busy 18 months of moving away from the old Regenersis mobile phone repair business and towards being a complete data erasure and diagnostics provider. The period was rich with corporate activity, and fiscal 2016 results detail 49% growth in revenues to £22.4m (35% organic) and 62% growth in EBITDA to £6.9m. The future looks positive as Live Environment Erasure (now called Active Erasure) and the US drive growth, while in a conversation with CFO Keith Butcher, it was made clear that GDPR regulation also poses opportunities for the business here in Europe........The business as it stands today is a data erasure specialist, bringing in core technology and expertise from its current components, the Blancco, Tabernus and Safe IT erasure solutions and Xcaliber mobile diagnostics. The data erasure arm, the largest segment by far, develops software solutions to help customers securely wipe data from a range of devices as part of the IT Asset Management lifecycle on a Cloud-based or on-premise basis. It also provides an "active erasure" solution that is built into a customer's system, securely erasing files on an enterprise network, based on pre-configured business rules. The mobile diagnostics arm is still relatively nascent, but offers a does-what-it-says-on-the-tin range of products on an on-device or web portal basis.Based on our conversation with Butcher, it seems as though Blancco is one of very few players in the data erasure market with a product of scale and, with the acquisition of Tabernus, has given itself geographic scale ahead of its competition. On the mobile diagnostics piece, though, Blancco is one of many players, including a number of vendors that have diagnostics as part of Enterprise Mobility Management suites. Blancco currently operates primarily on a direct sales strategy, with 275 people, of which 85 are in sales, working in 23 offices across the globe, two of which are development centres in Finland and India. It is also developing an indirect channel model and has a dedicated channel team working with resellers, distributors and other channel partners and sees this as the key to accelerated growth. In the year ended June 2016, Blancco grew revenues by 49% to £22.4m, 35% organically, driven almost solely by Erasure revenues, which increased 45% to £21.7m, while Diagnostics contributed revenues of £0.7m (Xcaliber was only acquired in April 2016). Profit performance also improved, with adjusted EBITDA up 62% to £6.9m, expanding margins from 28.3% to 30.7%. This translated relatively well into cash generation, with operating cash flows more than doubling to £4.9m.Despite operating on a cash-generative model, large exceptional items from the busy corporate activity schedule and a negative swing in working capital requirements restricted cash conversion to 71%. Operating cash flows were quickly consumed by £0.6m of tax payments, £2.5m of capex,£7.8m in acquisition costs and £3.1m of dividend payments, leaving Blancco with a net cash position down from £7.8m to £1.0m at the close of the year.Drilling further into revenues, at a product level, Active Erasure (the former Safe IT business) revenues increased from £0.8m to £2.3m driven by two deals worth over $1m, while Mobile sales rose 42% to £3.7m, although the largest component of revenues is still "IT and other" standard erasure products, which grew 44% to £17.4m and benefit from demand for professional services and hardware products. Geographically, Blancco derives the majority of revenues from the US, which was also the primary driver of growth, up 146% to £9.6m, while Europe grew 8% to £8.1m and Asia and
