Pre 8 a.m. comments

I mentioned in my report of 4 Mar that the broker forecast for Tracsis (LON:TRCS) seemed to show turnover & profits expected to halve for year-ending 31 Jul 2014. The company has been in touch to say that this is definitely incorrect data, because there are not any forecasts in issue for Tracsis for year-ending 31 Jul 2014 yet, and that in any case they wouldn't expect trading to go backwards. So my apologies for this, and I'm happy to correct this error, which I have passed on to the data provider to be corrected at their end too.

 

London Capital Hldg (LON:LCG) shares shot up recently on it announcing that 3 competitors were interested in taking over the spread betting company. It all went wrong yesterday afternoon, with an announcement at 3:39pm saying that it is no longer in discussions, and the shares are back down to 36.5p, which is only slightly above the price before the takeover approaches.

One has to wonder about the shares, given that three competitors all looked at bidding, and all withdrew. I had a look at these shares recently, and had some concerns over a legal/compensation problem the company had, which seemed to involve large payments. Also they are in a very competitive sector, and I'm not clear what (if any) competitive advantage LCG has. I'd want up-to-date facts & figures before taking the plunge on this one, something just doesn't feel right with it at the moment.

 

Bond International Software (LON:BDI) announce a contract win to provide payroll & HR software to Carpetright's 600 stores. That's great, but no indication is given of the size of contract, or whether it is material to their results (which I suspect it probably isn't). Nevertheless, for a serial disappointer, it's good to hear that BDI is winning new business. I've been in & out of these shares several times over the years, and the company has often looked promising, but the accounts are a bit wobbly on closer inspection, due to capitalising development costs. I might have another look though, as you would imagine there should be a nice cyclical angle on the shares, as companies invest in new software as economic recovery beds in.

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