Forum Archive Index - December 2000

["P Maiden" <pmaiden@xtra.co.nz>]

The CSG six months result to Sept was "affected" by providing $700,000 for doubtful debts.

 

One can see why this was needed when looking at the cash flow statement for the period. Reported revenues for the period were $6,654,000. From the cash flow statement only $1,294,000 was collected.

 

It might be a bit dangerous to jump to conclusions based on a six month reporting period but in view of the company has already decided to make a provision for bad debt debts it is likely that further write-offs will be needed.

 

Another cause of concern raised in the financials is that reported margin of 15% ( $985,000 profit before tax and abnormals on $6,600,000 of sales) is a far less then other software companies make.

 

Little wonder that the market has sold down to below 140 ( yesterday's quote in Oz was 96cents).

 

I have been keeping a close eye on CSG with the intention of buying sometime when things started to look good. Too many downsides for me at the moment but I'll  keep an eye on them in the future.

 

Pity because the company has some good products to service an important part of any successful business these days. In addition they have managed to sell their products globally. 

 

Peter