Updates

Ask Central

October 2002

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.

No surprises from Ask, which has once again delivered strongresults, for the six months to June. Turnover rose 25% to Â£45.1m,while pretax profit and diluted earnings rose 28% to Â£7.6m and 26% to5.4p, respectively. Ask opened 11 new restaurants in the periodand has opened a further three so far in the second half, taking thetotal to 140. As only twelve are located in central London, Askhas escaped unscathed from the fall in tourist visits to the capital, aproblem which has hammered Pizza Express (283p). Although capital expenditure rose from Â£5.9m to Â£9.6m to fund thenew openings, net cash edged ahead from Â£0.9m to Â£0.97m. One of Askâ€™s trademarks has been its ability to consistentlyincre ...

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Hamleys

CRC

Ask Central - TDR Capital bids 220p (March 2004)

Ask Central - Receives offer from City Centre (February 2004)

Ask Central - In takeover talks (December 2003)

Ask Central - Beats expectations again (October 2003)

Ask Central - Strong buoyant candidate (June 2003)

Ask Central - Undeserved discount to Pizza Express (April 2003)

ASK Central (March 2003)

Ask Central - Thrashing pizza express (June 2002)

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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