LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - Sell shares in Johnston Press, was the advice of the Sunday Times' Inside the City column. The publisher, recently added to its stable of local newspaper that ranges from the Burnley Express and the Isle of Man Examiner down to the Crawley Observer and Portsmouth's The News, with the acquisition of the daily national paper the i from the owners of the Evening Standard for a whopping £24m, of which £22m was cash, putting further pressure on a creaking balance sheet. Net debt stood at £137.7m at the start of July, according to recent interim results, of which there was £10.59m cash in the coffers.
At those results the company wrote down the value of most of its publishing titles and print assets by roughly £224m almost in half to £279m, excluding the i. The resulting market value of just over £11m means that Johnston is worth, if cash is stripped out, a heartbreaking £0.5m. A £24m loan could be useful but the banks' conditions require the company to improve its debt-to-earnings ratio before it can access it. Plans are to cut costs and sell assets, in order to keep afloat, although this might be a lot easier if it didn't have to pay interest costs of £19m a year.

IG Design is a stock worth buying, said Midas in the Mail on Sunday. The former International Greetings has been a recovery story since hitting a lot in 2008 but prospects for further growth from the maker of greetings cards, Christmas crackers, wrapping paper and children's stationary are said to be bright, with a customer list that includes Costco, Wal-Mart, Tesco, Target, Aldi, Lidl and Waitrose. Annual results to end-March showed how in recent years management have reduced the reliance on the UK, cutting overseas revenues risen to 66%; reduced reliance on cards and Christmas, with cards down to 9% of sales and Christmas still accounting for around half, as well as reducing the debt, which was down to £17.5m from £42.1m three years ago.

IG sells a range of around 0.5bn products in around 80 countries, with the US beginning to be a major market, helped by Fineman shifting the product range downmarket. Retailers buy IG products for an average price of about 55p and price them on the shelves at between £1 and £2, which keeps demand resilient whatever the economic conditions. IG's manufactures in The Netherlands, Wales, China and the US produce goods quickly and cheaply. Further investment to upgrade US manufacturing due to be complete by early next year, should add growth in what is the biggest market in the world for gift products and children's stationery. Brokers are sanguine for 2017, forecasting 13% sales growth to £269m and similar profits acceleration to £12.3m, with the dividend up 1p to 3.5p.

Email this article to a friend

or share it with one of these popular networks:

• DIGG
• FACEBOOK
• STUMBLEUPON
• MIXX
• YAHOO BUZZ
• DELICIOUS
• REDDIT
• NEWSVINE