Good morning! Firstly a couple of reminders for dates. It's the UK Investor Show tomorrow, at the Queen Elizabeth Centre, just off Parliament Square. I'm looking forward to it, but also dreading it, as I've been roped into speaking not once, but twice! Firstly on the Stockoedia stand, to talk about small caps, from 1-2pm, then as part of a panel on shareholder activism at 3:45pm. Ed, Dave and the team will be on the Stockopedia stand, and there will be other interesting seminars & demos on the stand throughout the day. So I look forward to seeing many friends there on the day.
Secondly, my own event in Brighton is almost fully booked now. It's a newly created Brighton branch of ShareSoc (the UK individual shareholders society), and we're holding our first evening event on Tue next week (8 April). Everyone attending must be booked in, as places are limited. We have a fantastic speaker, John McArthur of Tracsis, who will speak for about an hour about Tracsis itself, but also his experiences of being an AIM company CEO, then Q&A. Also we have Roger Lawson of ShareSoc who will precede that with a brief intro about ShareSoc. Then we will spend the rest of the evening having a slap-up meal & plenty of drinks! To book your place, please click here. All are welcome.
Flybe (LON:FLYB)
Regional airline, Flybe, announces its Q4 trading update for the year ended 31 Mar 2014. The key sentence says;
The Group performed in line with management expectations through the final quarter of the year ended 31 March 2014.
There is then more detail on the turnaround strategy, etc. I don't normally go near any aviation shares, as it's such a historically difficult sector for investors. However in this case I was tempted in by new management's turnaround plan, and their credibility (ex-Easyjet). What clinched it was the huge fundraising recently, which has transformed their Balance Sheet, with about £150m being raised in a Placing & Open Offer at 110p. So it now has a very strong Bal Sheet, and the management & strategy to become a lot more profitable. Time will tell, but it ticks the right boxes for me.
As with all…
