Updates

Ask Central - Beats expectations again

October 2003

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.

Ask's Chairman, George Cracknell, noted that the group has just posted its tenth anniversary since the first Ask restaurant openedin North London. How appropriate then that this growth stock heroshould post another set of record figures, slightly ahead of expectations, for the six months to 29 June. Pretax profit rose 12.2% to Â£8.5m, while earnings increased 11.1% to 6.1p. Even more impressive was that turnover grew 13.3% despite most of the 8 new restaurants opening just before the end of the period â€“ so like-for-like sales (although never disclosed) rose significantly. There were no meaningful price increases, so thesegains were all volume driven and the only blot on the performance was aslight fall in ...

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Johnston Press

Nord Anglia - Nursery acquisition

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 - Strong buoyant candidate (June 2003)

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

ASK Central (March 2003)

Ask Central (October 2002)

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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