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Authoritative Independent Monthly Share Selections Using Technical & Fundamental Analysis

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Northgate

February 2007

Investing in shares may lose you all or some of your money. Past performance is no indication of future performance. Some of the shares recommended here may be small company shares, which can be relatively illiquid and hard to trade and this makes such shares more risky than other investments.

  • Epic Code:
  • NTG
  • Price:
  • 1133p
With the shares not far from levels last seen when it received a bid approach, van rental firm Northgate posted strong interims. Pretax profit increased 34% to £37.8m on turnover up 48% to £262m, while earnings before goodwill rose 25% to 39.1p. This growth came in spite of absorbing higher interest rates on both its Euro (+0.75%) and Sterling (+0.5%) debt and was helped by first time contributions from Arriva Vehicle Rental (AVR) and Fleet Technique, plus the acquisition of the remaining 51% of Record Rent. In the UK, operating profit rose just over 21% to £36.5m driven by increases in the fleet from 52,400 vehicles to 65,300, plus utilisation rates rising to 91% and higher rental margins, helped by efficiency g ...

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With small companies there is an above average degree of risk compared to buying blue chips. Please be aware that we have not assessed the suitability of any of these investments for you. The newsletter simply states a personal view and diarises the editor’s investment decisions. Please speak to your stockbroker or other qualified individual to ascertain whether any of these companies mentioned would form useful additions to your own portfolios. Past performance is no indication of future success.

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