UK Investor Show attendees will know from the presentation I made there that I am a fan of Telecity (TCY) and its exposure, via its range of data centres, to the phenomenal growth in corporate data management requirements. Today was the beginning of the end of the Telecity journey as it was confirmed that its large US peer Equinix will be making a takeover offer half in cash and half in Equinix shares.
I am not sure if we should all be thinking about the General Election today or not but hopefully I will be able to squeeze in some time to vote given the newsfest frenzy on shares I am interested in around the world. Last month at the epic UK Investor Show I mentioned four UK stocks to the assembled audience (as you can watch here). Three of them usefully gave interesting updates today.
From the FCA's spreadsheet of short positions required to be disclosed to it, the following details changes to net short positions in the last week (red if short increased, green if reduced)...
There are a few candidates for the most interesting UK company update over the last week but high on my list are a couple of updates from the premium carrier neutral data centre operator Telecity (TCY). Regular readers will know it is a share that I have written positively about a number of times over the last year or so, most recently back in December when I noted that while ‘there has been a bit of huffing and puffing on the site about the old CEO’s exit but my view remains this is a business benefiting from the unbelievable growth in data need and usage with pretty reasonable barriers to entry. I’ve bought it three times in 2014 with a ‘6’ in front of it and I would certainly recommend embracing any volatility because ultimately we are going back to the 1000p+ level…’
Over the weekend, the issue of directors pledging shares for loans has spread from AIM to the Main Market. It is too early to say if anything untoward has happened, but next week we shall seek urgent clarification from Telecity (TCY), Partnership Assurance Group (PA) and Perform Group (PER) concerning arrangements made by directors of each company with UBS AG, over the course of 2014. In each instance (linked to in the RNSs above), it appears one director has used part or all of his respective holdings as security against loans received from UBS. There is nothing to suggest any rules have been broken, but, in light of the developing Equities First Holdings LLC scandal, the appropriateness of such transactions is now in question. Urgent clarification is needed from all three companies first thing Monday
Telicity (TCY) was a relatively early entry into the electronic data storage market. Since its 2007 IPO (at 220p per share), it has not disappointed shareholders with the shares almost five bagging to over £10 in June last year. But nothing lasts forever…
The post bank holiday cobwebs were well and truly blown away by this morning’s Telecity (TCY) regulatory statement innocuously titled ‘Board Change’. No third level non-executive director shuffling his range of fee paying obligations…no, this was a big one: the resignation of the CEO.
It is all about rotation I am told. Telecity (TCY) shares remain above where I talked positively about them in early December and early March, but frustratingly they are only a few percentage points to the good. Even so, as I explain below, this is still a stock I am happy to hold.
Most investors can see that data and the internet are still strong investment themes. Despite phenomenal growth over the last decade, consumer and business on-line activity is still growing fast. We can all see this in our day-to-day lives, as we interact with a growing range of devices.
