| Pendragon directors snap up shares in troubled dealer group |
| Thursday, 29 November 2007 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Pendragon directors snapped up shares yesterday amid investor concern as the value of the UK's largest dealer group was slashed by almost a third. In the wake of Tuesday's fourth profit warning in little over a year, Pendragon's share price plummeted by more than 30 per cent to a yearly low of 37.75 pence – handing the company a market value of £265m compared to £500m in July.  Pendragon's executive board have all been quick to increase their stake in the struggling company. Increased stakeChief executive Trevor Finn and chairman Sir Nigel Rudd acquired the highest number of shares with each upping their stake by 1 million shares priced at 35.5p at a cost of £355,000.
David Forsyth, Hilary Sykes and Martin Casha also increased their stake by at least £14,000.
Mike Allen, an analyst from stockbroker Panmure Gordon, said Pendragon had been hit by strategic problems as well as market pressures.
“A lot of it looks company specific – it looks like there has been over leverage in the used car arena,” he said.
Market concernHe added that the group was “sitting on too much stock” and had also suffered from the slow down in the US market – it operates a prestige car division in California.
Allen said he was “concerned” for the market going into 2008 and expected less movement from private equity firms.
“Banks are tightening up on who they lend money to so the appetite for debt leverage deals has diminished,” he added.
Pendragon warned its current year operating profit will miss market forecasts by £12m and has also reduced its expectations for next year by £18m.
It is now expected to post pre-tax profit of £33m this year while the forecast for 2008 has fallen from £70m to £52m.
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Comments (13)
rich jones
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I kind of agree with... I kind of agree with current employee. I had a decent time with pendragon and found their were some very hardworking individuals, and there were lots of people who just didn't like change. Pendragon do have some good processes it was just difficult to get the dinasaurs to change with the times. PDG do indeed want their pound of flesh. Personally though I feel that car salesman are way overpaid. How many nurses, fireman ect get 35k+ a year for seeing a few customers a day, ordering a car and handing it over. |
current employee feed back
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i was taken over by ... i was taken over by pendragon two and a half years ago,i have been a technician for 24 years,first greating by mr vems(chairman) was a search of tool box and locker !!,since take over by this great company !! i have had no annual pay rise,overtime will not be payed if i have to stop late during the week to finish a job,also sat**day morning overtime has been stopped,strangly friday is now overbooked in the diary!! there is no sick pay,also the bonus scheme is a joke,made target in december but not payed a penny due to not making enough money above the target to actually pay for your bonus !! what a disgracefull company,i wounder why a lot of employees dont care ? i used to care about 10 years ago with a company that looked after you if you worked hard,ie payed bonus,not with pendragon !!!!!!! |
Current Employee!
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"Nowehere to go" as ... "Nowehere to go" as i said i do not need to look at Lookers & Inchape, i stated 1st time that not all companies are suffering. I just find it amazing that people who appear to have worked for PD have nothing better to do than slate every story that appears about it. Very sad state to be in when you can't let go of an ex employee. I personnally have worked within a couple of other large motor dealer groups (one of which has now "left" the market place) and i dont find PD to be the worst of these, far from it. And i'm in a managerial position (where people say your hands are tied??). So all those that say the company is losing good people, i would differ my opinion by saying that one of the biggest problem is the amount of employees who do work for us that really dont care, and thats down to individuals rather than how PD has treat them. A good old saying worth noting, "Life is what you make of it". And i'm having a pretty good life working for Pendragon... |
Nowhere to go
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"Current Employee"
... "Current Employee" Perhaps you need to look at your compet*tors results in the current climate. Far, far better than PDG. You only have to check out Lookers & Inchcape. This company has nowhere to go. It's only a*set overvalued goodwill???? I guess the next excuse will be "Bushfires rife in the UK" How ill conceived was that comment? And yes, still huge clouds of smoke & numerous mirrors, but hasn't it always been like that? How long will the shareholders put up with this shambles? |
Current Employee!
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A lot of you people ... A lot of you people who make comments on every Pendragon story that appear need to realise that what is happening within the motor trade is generally happening within the motor trade and its the largest groups that are likely to look like they are suffering the worst (as they probably are). But its a current market trend, not an individual company that's struggling. And yes i agree not everyone is suffering, but there are no "super-power dealers" within the market otherwise we'd all be working for it. A lot of you ex-PD employees seem to have an unhealthy interest in what is still happening with the company, if you didnt like working for PD thats fine, you have now left the company and can get on with your lives, dont worry about whats happening with PD, its not your problem anymore. Oh, and i wonder how many more times i will see the phrase "smoke & mirrors" appear... thats just getting boring, find a new catch phrase!! |
Ex Senior Employee
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As mentioned before ... As mentioned before the strong arm tactics of PD will not sit with the ma*ses. You can only beat up a person so many times and eventually they will kick back. Investors in people is more like your face fit with with the Directors and you do as they say(be it right or wrong). |
Restyn
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Trevor Finns obsessi... Trevor Finns obsession with the Vardy group and how they managed used cars will be his downfall. After all it's people that make a business and if you don not invest in them business's will not survive. surrounding yourself with yes men who are too frightened to question new policies is not good business sense, when will they learn that without people you have nothing! after all people buy from people and we are in the business of selling after all!!!? |
Ex-employee
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Until Pendragon real... Until Pendragon realise the value of people long may their downturn carry on. I have never been treated so poorly or lied to as much as happened when I recently spent 2 sorry years with Stratstone. |
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