This week: Cashbox makes a cashpoint, EnCore continues to perform and there’s gold in H&T’s profits
Cashbox (CBOX, 3.5 p / £5.4m)
Cashbox has just got a little bigger. It has been awarded a contract to manage 220 ATMs installed in the Orchard Pubs and Dining estate of leisure retailers. This brings the number of new ATMs in the Cashbox estate to more than 800 in the past three months, taking the total estate to more than 3,000 ATMs (although the focus should be on the transaction numbers rather than the absolute number of machines). With this level of growth and the increasing use of cash by consumers we expect current trading to be strong.
Claimar Care Group (CCGP, 37.75p / £18.9m)
We wrote a few weeks ago on the UK's leading provider of domiciliary and complex care to individuals living in their own homes. The shares have risen 18 per cent since then. Claimar has reached agreement on the terms of a unanimously recommended cash offer to be made by Housing 21 to acquire the entire issued ordinary share capital of Claimar Care for 39p per share, payable in cash. This is three times the share price before the initial announcement. At 39p, Housing 21, the national provider of older people’s services, is paying £39m including net debt, amounting to 0.7x sales or 8.8x EBIT. It would appear that Claimar has found the right home and this doesn’t look to be a bad deal for Claimar shareholders.
EnCore Oil (EO., 14.75p / £45m)
EnCore has now completed the sale of its 15 per cent interest in the Breagh gas discovery in the North Sea. As a result, the company’s core asset is a £47m net cash holding. With a market cap of £45m, you would think that there is nothing else going on. Not so! There is plenty of upside: first gas is now expected from the Ceres field in Q4 2009. Q1 2010 could well also see the drilling for oil at the onshore Markwells Wood property, as well as the drilling of an appraisal well at the Cladhan light oil discovery. In 2010 we can expect to see drilling of a test well at Catcher and at the Bennett gas prospect, another appraisal well at the Cobra discovery and at the Biscathorpe structure. Furthermore, the board will seek approval…
