Updates

Brandon Hire

November 2005

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.

Following a downbeat trading statement in July, tool hire firm Brandon Hire’s interim results were poor, with pretax profit falling from £2.1m to £1.7m, although turnover rose by 18% to £26.4m, reflecting the increase in its estate from 130 to 140 hire branches. Earnings fell 20% to 4p. Brandon blamed its decline in profitability on a less buoyant trading environment, but the costs of integrating acquisitions was also a factor, with operating margins falling from 11.2% to 8.7%. Although Brandon claims that trading has recently picked up, the downgrade in broker Numis’ earnings forecasts to just 10.2p for this year and 11.2p for next, provides little confidence. Sell. ...

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Brandon Hire - Acquisitions drive new branch growth (November 2004)

Brandon Hire (September 2004)

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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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