SPZ - Smart Parking (was CPZ - Car Parking Technologies)

[Lizard]

And the award for honesty after acquisition goes to...:eek2:


What we bought : the bad things
• Not fit for purpose accounting system
• Absolutely no visibility of the financial figures to any of the management team
• No understanding of the profitability of each individual car park mainly due to the fact that overhead expenses were not allocated and the accounting system was inaccurate
• Running on two back office systems, problems with both
• Manual and inefficient processes all around the business
• Technology installed in our car parks but not operational, only 30% of our ANPR sites installed were actually earning revenue

• Total lack of any accountability within the business
• Lack of organisational structure
• People who were on the payroll and never actually came to the office and nobody knew what they did
• No controls over who spent what and no managed procurement system
• Deals being sold with no understanding of costs or profitability
• Poor client management
• In summary big areas for improvement

[Lizard]

So, a turnaround story then? :-)

Maybe. Not yet. I'd give it 6 months first.

[elZorro]

The share dropped to A20c before recovering strongly yesterday, although in general the liquidity is lower, and it tends to be holding at some fixed levels at times. Still showing a loss each quarter. There was nearly a 40% gain over parts of yesterday.

[Lizard]

Share price has been down as low as 13cps since this thread started a year ago. I've been trying to pick up a few on a low bid to make myself look at it more closely, but finally gave up today and took a small handful at 15cps.

The use of smart parking technologies seems to have made a move mainstream in the last 12 months. On the back of falling AUD, SPZ will at least improve their competitiveness. Though, to be honest, I'm not convinced they're that cheap at 15cps (market cap $31m) and will likely need to see substantial revenue growth to justify. However, it has the elements of a possible turnaround and chart/depth giving the impression of having bottomed, so I'll take it as a small trade for now.

Probably should be asking El Zorro how he finds their technology at The Base - I was impressed when I saw it, but noticed all the local Hamiltonians seemed to ignore the signs saying the first carpark was full and drove in anyway, so I wondered about its accuracy! :mellow:

[Lizard]

Steady bidding on SPZ of late, with price edging up to 16.5cps and offer side now thin at 19cps and above.

[Lizard]

Has moved up to 21cps, helped by some director buying. Could be a little pricey at market cap $43m and not yet profitable, but October may shed some light on growth/recovery speed, with quarterly cashflow at month end. Also, the large (and possibly trend-setting) Westminster tender (http://local-government.governmentcomputing.com/news/westminster-tenders-for-smart-parking) is due to be awarded on 21st Oct and may come their way.

[elZorro]

Share price has been down as low as 13cps since this thread started a year ago. I've been trying to pick up a few on a low bid to make myself look at it more closely, but finally gave up today and took a small handful at 15cps.

The use of smart parking technologies seems to have made a move mainstream in the last 12 months. On the back of falling AUD, SPZ will at least improve their competitiveness. Though, to be honest, I'm not convinced they're that cheap at 15cps (market cap $31m) and will likely need to see substantial revenue growth to justify. However, it has the elements of a possible turnaround and chart/depth giving the impression of having bottomed, so I'll take it as a small trade for now.

Probably should be asking El Zorro how he finds their technology at The Base - I was impressed when I saw it, but noticed all the local Hamiltonians seemed to ignore the signs saying the first carpark was full and drove in anyway, so I wondered about its accuracy! :mellow:

Sorry I missed this post Lizard. I'm not a frequent shopper, and the outdoor parks are monitored just for stats I think. Early on, some of the covered parks were being hogged by 'all-day shoppers', and when they investigated these, they found a group of car-poolers would meet at the Base, park their cars in a secure area, and then travel to their jobs in Auckland in a lot less cars. They got the heave-ho.

I guess they are tendering for more parks and systems all around the place, and TCP gives them a foot in the door in England I guess. I noted more volume today in SPZ, highest for a while. Where did you find out about the Westminster tender?

[Lizard]

They mentioned the Westminster tender in one of their presentations. Have not seen any outcome published anywhere yet - but they seem to be getting plenty of traction with smaller contracts anyway and nice to see price now 25cps.

There seem to be plenty of mentions of intelligent parking systems being installed in recent days - Wellington got a mention on the news this morning as being about to trial sensors. However, there are lots of players and SmartParking is just one of them - and I'm still wondering how the equipment is financed in these arrangements and consequently whether they will need capital to grow.

[elZorro]

They mentioned the Westminster tender in one of their presentations. Have not seen any outcome published anywhere yet - but they seem to be getting plenty of traction with smaller contracts anyway and nice to see price now 25cps.

There seem to be plenty of mentions of intelligent parking systems being installed in recent days - Wellington got a mention on the news this morning as being about to trial sensors. However, there are lots of players and SmartParking is just one of them - and I'm still wondering how the equipment is financed in these arrangements and consequently whether they will need capital to grow.

I think I remember reading that councils using the devices for street parking enforcement have two options - to buy the installed equipment outright, or more commonly to assign a portion of all the fines collected, across to SPZ. Since the devices work so well, and the version 2 systems are even smarter, the revenue from these areas is probably above the expected level, and ongoing fees to SPZ should reach a tipping point sometime, where the cost to finance new units and maintain older ones is more than covered by the revenue streams. This looks to be reflected in the books, much smaller losses in the last financial year, increasing revenue.

There may be lots of parking systems being touted, but as with many business areas, the links to the big players have to be there too, along with the R&D capability, and backup capital. I think SPZ has all of that organised.

[Lizard]

Just announced that they were awarded the Westminster tender - stage 1 is 3000 sensors and ongoing parking data, with proposed stage 2 of 10,000 sensors if this is successful.

[elZorro]

Just announced that they were awarded the Westminster tender - stage 1 is 3000 sensors and ongoing parking data, with proposed stage 2 of 10,000 sensors if this is successful.

Yes, that's a significant contract in terms of where it's placed, lots of other car parks needing monitoring in future around London. The trading has been 1% of all the shares so far, a peak of A32c and even settling back at near 30c it's up 18% for the day. I don't think SPZ have installed 13,000 eyes in total so far, so this potential contract is going to expand their installed base by quite a lot. It is a NZ design and manufacturing enterprise, maybe the collateral has come mostly from Australia in the end, but a success story for the locals who worked on it. Should be a good investment IMHO.

[elZorro]

Lizard, looks like SPZ supplied gear for a small trial to Westminster in the middle of last year.

http://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20120803/pdf/427tsv268k9sqr.pdf

At that stage the only system anywhere like it was in California. Unattended parking monitoring means that every car park space has to have a networked car detection device on it, and preferably these need to be cheap and wireless, and reliable. That's quite a difficult job, not one many firms have tried to get into.

Good background detail in this August 2012 management report. http://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20120830/pdf/428cdsnq85fgnj.pdf

The new version Smarteyes (they are completed I assume) will listen and talk to the controlling network. This means their function can be changed on the fly, so they could change from being a P15 space to a P30 space, or even not send out parking ticket notifications at all during special events, this being controlled over the web. They are mentioning here that Westminster is a big test case for the system, with all of the UK being open for similar gear in heavily built-up streets.

[Lizard]

Would be good to go through the technology and competitors more closely at some stage - unfortunately, "smartparking" is not the most useful name to run through google to get an idea of their reach. I get more hits on "Streetline (http://www.streetline.com/parksight/)" who may have similar technologies (and also recently provided the technology for Manchester via NSL - the largest parking management coy in the UK, although I think Smartparking have also worked with NSL in Westminster?)

[winner69]

Are these the things the WCC is going to use in Wellington to get even more money from overstayers?

[stoploss]

Are these the things the WCC is going to use in Wellington to get even more money from overstayers?

Even more ...impossible !!!!!!!!

[Lizard]

Are these the things the WCC is going to use in Wellington to get even more money from overstayers?

Not sure - so far, I haven't seen anything that shows whose products they are using. However, Smartparking has got installations in quite a few NZ cities now, so would have to be a contender.

[elZorro]

I don't know about Wellington either. The product info in this item looks like the system The Base is using i.e. SPZ.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/9314296/Council-in-hi-tech-time-trial

Regarding Westminster, this would have been a hard-fought contract, looks like NSL would have been looking at using Streetline, and I agree their product range looks very similar. SPZ has the contract, most likely, through TCP. The Streetline sensors use electromagnetic sensing, not infrared. Apart from that, the mesh network etc looks similar. Streetline looks to be a well funded private company with a lot of big investors. They've also arranged a $25mill overdraft for R&D. No dilution.

http://efficiency.governmentcomputing.com/news/westminster-sets-meter-running-to-support-vehicle-parking

Where SPZ might have the edge for Westminster, is their car-held RFID tag idea for allowing doctors and tenants etc to validate the parking over special street parks. If the tag matches one of the codes for that space, that car can stay. Otherwise, the eye sends out a "write ticket" command I guess. This is very good for disabled car parking spaces too.

I noted that Streetline's website is bristling with the mention of patents.

3mill of those shares that were snapped up recently, were purchased by investment brokers S G Hiscock. They've been buying the share for a while.

http://www.smh.com.au/business/under-the-radar/golden-gates-permian-promise-20120130-1qop2.html

[Lizard]

Quarterly looks encouraging with good positive op cashflow on increasing receipts. Yet to see impact of recent technology contracts.

[elZorro]

Quarterly looks encouraging with good positive op cashflow on increasing receipts. Yet to see impact of recent technology contracts.

The tide might be turning for this company - a timely injection of capital a (http://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20131118/pdf/42kxzr3nyvhl2k.pdf)s the documentation associated with the Town & City Parking (UK) purchase frees up $2mill worth of shares. Just as well there were fishhooks in the TCP deal, as it was a tough division to trim up by the sound of it. These shares have been sold to some party, guess we'll find out soon enough who it is.

However, TCP also helped SPZ get a foot in the door in the massive UK market, where there is perhaps less competition from other technologies.

[Lizard]

SPZ fallen back lately and now rights issue and placement at 15cps to fund expansion. Sensor trial numbers look promising, but the level of parking technology revenue remains quite low. It is going to take a few more years for the parking technology business to really get established and show the promised growth, as results still more driven by the Parking Management segment.

[Dej]

SPZ fallen back lately and now rights issue and placement at 15cps to fund expansion. Sensor trial numbers look promising, but the level of parking technology revenue remains quite low. It is going to take a few more years for the parking technology business to really get established and show the promised growth, as results still more driven by the Parking Management segment.

Turn around is now, if they get the rest of the Milton Keynes trial then this is a strong buy. I have been buying from around that capital raising until around 9 cents. It dipped to 8 before the current lift to about 14 cents. Firmly in the green now, but I believe this is just the beginning.

Have posted a reasonably amount on HC regarding this, but I think they are finally getting their strides now. Worth a reevaluate if you have exited IMHO.