The way i heard his presentation is they are a VC firm that uses insurance, not an insurance firm that does some VC
in addition
rd.yahoo.com*http://cbs.marketwatch.com/archive/20000912/news/current/stwatch.htx?source=blq/yhoo&dist=yhoo
Thom Calandra's StockWatch
Company presentations still work
Radvision, London Pacific are shares on the move
By Thom Calandra, FT MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 4:42 AM ET Sep 12, 2000 NewsWatch
Latest headlines
LONDON (FTMW) -- There are increasing signs that company presentations are once again swaying investors and Wall Street professionals.
There are, of course, corporate concerns about looming Securities and Exchange Commission regulations that restrict companies from tipping professional analysts before common shareholders. Those disclosure regulations, together with a tentative market for technology stocks this spring and summer, might have taken the gloss off company presentations. But talk still works, provided the words are well chosen.
At a Friedman Billings Ramsey gathering of financial and technology companies this week in Washington, D.C., several companies saw their shares leap on a day that for many U.S. stocks was lackluster.
One of them, annuity and venture capital firm London Pacific Group (LDP: news, msgs), enjoyed a 5.5 percent gain to a level the New York and London-traded stock (UK:LPG: news, msgs) hadn't seen since April. Chief Executive Arthur Trueger's one-hour presentation highlighted several developments, including the company's recent inclusion into the FTSE-250 Index in London.
Back in London, chief financial officer Ian Whitehead explained what was said. "Now that we are the 180th largest U.K. company by market cap, the fund managers can't ignore us. If a firm is running quantitative analysis, or a tracker fund, they have to consider owning us."
Leaping volume
As many as 50,000 shares of the company are now changing hands in London each day compared with 5,000 a day during the summer. London Pacific, which runs an annuity business and invests in Silicon Valley technology companies, handles more than $5 billion of assets. The company hopes to use its new myOfficeOnline project to serve European and American investment advisers.
To be sure, one or two investment presentations will not lift a company from a slumber. CNET Networks (CNET: news, msgs), the computer content publisher and owner of www.news.com, was a presenter at the same Friedman Billings (FBR: news, msgs) conference. CNET executives are fully confident their pending merger with ZDNet will generate sales next year of almost $600 million, or almost 20 percent greater than their estimates when they unveiled the $1.6 billion purchase earlier this year. Alas, CNET shares have been stuck in a holding pattern this summer, and the presentation appears not to have made an immediate impression.
Disclose, disclose, disclose
In the case of London Pacific, the company has benefited from sharp gains for its publicly held investment portfolio. One holding, networking equipment specialist New Focus, saw its shares notch an 11 percent gain one day this week.
Greater disclosure to investors also may be helping London Pacific. Whitehead in London said the company's londonpacific.com Web site now lists the group's publicly held and private holdings. "We did this for the first time and I think people are starting to notice," he said. London Pacific shares in New York and London have almost doubled in value since July, giving the company a market cap of $1.5 billion. (See earlier story.)
Another case in point is Radvision Ltd. (RVSN: news, msgs), the data packet company with roots in Israel. Radvision looks to demonstrate its voice and video products, which use Internet protocol software, at a conference in Atlanta this week.
Ami Amir, chief executive, will deliver the keynote address at the Voice on the Net Conference. Radvision's plan to allow users to make calls using its new Internet appliance business phone might have been part of the reason Radvision shares rose 23 percent Monday, with 2.6 million shares changing hands on Nasdaq.
Losing run
Radvision's volatile shares then had suffered seven losing days. The stock almost certainly also benefited from a report from Lehman Bros. in which the bank repeated a "buy rating."
Victor Halpert, a Salomon Smith Barney analyst in New York, pointed out last week that Radvision shares were getting unfairly punished for being in the crowded Internet telephony field. He noted that Radvision has "whipped" analysts' estimates in recent quarters.
Indeed, sales estimates of $44 million in 2000 and $83 million in 2001 are "likely to be conservative," Stephen Levy, the Lehman analyst, said in his report. (See earlier report.)
Not all companies, whatever their business, will benefit from upbeat presentations and press releases. In CNET's case, investors are probably waiting to see how well the San Francisco company makes use of ZDNnet's Web sites and sales force, some of which might duplicate what the pioneering publisher of Internet content already has.
Kick that flagging stock
Network Commerce (NWKC: news, msgs), a developer of electronic commerce systems, this week kicked off a road show across the United States in an effort to kick-start the company's flagging stock. The Seattle company, in the judgment of several Wall Street analysts, is doing everything right.
Network Commerce even expects to reach $30 million of sales for the September quarter, a fact it pre-announced this week. Still, the company which helps electronic retailers set up their online stores, is still regarded as "dot-com scum," as we put it earlier this summer. (See the story.)
Network Commerce shares rose almost 7 percent after it said it would exceed 50 percent gross margins in its business of developing payment systems and other marketing tools for online sellers of goods and services.
Yet a stock price gain of 41 cents to $6.34 is probably little consolation to those who remember when shares were trading in the mid-20s in January.
It just might be that even with a smart, hard-working executive team and some excellent products, like swap site www.ubarter.com, investors don't want to touch any company that earns its bread in online retailing. We'll see. |
