Telecom Plus (TEP) offers comparatively cheap deals on energy bills by bundling it with internet and house insurance, and customers have flooded in this year. In the six months to 30 September, revenue was up 52 per cent to £562mn against the previous year while adjusted pre-tax profit increased 23 per cent to £32mn. This was driven by an annualised customer growth rate of about 24 per cent.
The company saves money on advertising by relying on word-of-mouth marketing. Payments are given to customers that recommend friends – and squeezed budgets will encourage an increase in recommendations. Not only will the recommendation save the new customer money on energy bills, but it will also put extra cash in the pocket of the existing customer. So Telecom Plus looks well-placed in a cost of living crisis. However, attracting customers in desperate need of cheaper utilities could increase the number of customer defaults next year. Management says it has no more bad debt than other energy providers, but this could conceivably change.
Telecom Plus shares currently trade on a forward price/earnings ratio of 21. This is expensive for a utility, and with its share price up 38 per cent in the year to date there is a chance it is reaching a valuation peak. This could have informed chairman Charles Wigoder, his wife, and his family foundation in their decision to sell £62mn-worth of shares in a placing at the start of December.
The Wigoder sales amounted to around 2.6mn shares; the placing saw 3.5mn shares sold in total, according to Telecom Plus – equivalent to 4.4 per cent of the company’s share capital.
| Buys | ||||
| Company | Director/PDMR | Date | Price (p) | Aggregate value (£) |
| AIB | Jim Pettigrew (ch) | 05 Dec 22 | 262 † | 65,562 † |
| Amaroq Minerals | David Neuhauser * | 02-03 Dec 22 | 49 † | 36,972 † |
| Auction Technology | Suzanne Baxter | 06 Dec 22 | 733 | 24,857 |
| Avon Protection | Bruce Thompson (ch) | 07 Dec 22 | 1,055 | 52,750 |
| Carclo | Joe Oatley (ch) | 08 Dec 22 | 13 | 38,250 |
| Carclo | Frank Doorenbosch (ce) | 08 Dec 22 | 12 | 24,150 |
| easyJet | Ryanne van der Eijk | 02 Dec 22 | 390 | 39,698 |
| Elementis | Clement Woon | 08 Dec 22 | 111 | 22,110 |
| First Tin | Thomas Buenger (ce) | 05 Dec 22 | 8 | 40,000 |
| First Tin | Charles Cannon-Brookes (ch) * | 05 Dec 22 | 9 | 139,490 |
| Frasers | Mike Ashley | 08 Dec 22 | 815 | 815,233 |
| Gooch & Housego | Gary Bullard (ch) * | 06 Dec 22 | 402 | 60,555 |
| Gooch & Housego | Charlie Peppiatt (ce) | 06 Dec 22 | 417 | 20,850 |
| Greencore | Dalton Philips (ce) | 01 Dec 22 | 65 | 126,653 |
| GreenRoc Mining | Stefan Bernstein (ce) ** | 09 Dec 22 | 5 | 36,000 |
| HC Slingsby | Morgan Morris (ce) | 08 Dec 22 | 260 | 78,159 |
| Hostmore | David Lis | 07 Dec 22 | 13 | 26,901 |
| IQGeo | Ian Kershaw | 06 Dec 22 | 204 | 24,998 |
| Life Science Reit | Richard Howell | 06 Dec 22 | 74 | 22,259 |
| LXI Reit | Freddie Brooks (cfo) | 02 Dec 22 | 117 | 99,812 |
| LXI Reit | John White | 06 Dec 22 | 118 | 264,706 |
| N Brown | Lord David Alliance * | 02 Dec 22 | 24 | 170,448 |
| Naked Wines | Nick Devlin (ce) | 07 Dec 22 | 100 | 25,048 |
| Paypoint | Nick Wiles (ce) | 08 Dec 22 | 504 | 100,852 |
| Primorus Investments | Rupert Labrum (ch) | 07 Dec 22 | 3 | 22,073 |
| RBG | Nicola Foulston (ce) | 05-09 Dec 22 | 67 | 253,825 |
| Shearwater | Phil Higgins (ce) * | 01-07 Dec 22 | 104 | 120,015 |
| TMT Investments | Alexander Selegenev (ce) | 07 Dec 22 | 225 † | 81,975 † |
| TPXimpact | Steve Winters (cfo) | 05 Dec 22 | 53 | 26,500 |
| Wizz Air | Robert Carey | 08 Dec 22 | 2,394 | 49,987 |
Sells | ||||
| Company | Director/PDMR | Date | Price (p) | Aggregate value (£) |
| AJ Bell | Michael Summersgill (ce) * | 01 Dec 22 | 366 | 613,375 |
| Alfa Financial Software | Andrew Page (ch) * | 06 Dec 22 | 159 | 8,440,294 |
| Alfa Financial Software | Andrew Denton (ce) * | 06 Dec 22 | 159 | 696,695 |
| FW Thorpe | Antony Cooper | 05 Dec 22 | 424 | 31,800 |
| Mediclinic International | Koert Pretorius (coo) | 05 Dec 22 | 491 † | 367,994 † |
| Renew | Andries Liebenberg | 08 Dec 22 | 699 | 559,200 |
| Renewi | Philip Griffin-Smith (PDMR) | 07 Dec 22 | 572 | 21,450 |
| Residential Secure Income | Alex Pilato | 02-05 Dec 22 | 84 | 268,107 |
| Rio Tinto | Ivan Vella | 06 Dec 22 | 6,422 † | 128,009 † |
| TBC Bank | Vakhtang Butskhrikidze (ce) | 05 Dec 22 | 2,201 | 4,512,960 |
| Telecom Plus | Charles Wigoder (ch) * / ** | 06 Dec 22 | 2,400 | 62,003,880 |
| YouGov | Roger Parry (ch) | 08 Dec 22 | 980 | 147,000 |
| Zotefoams | Karl Hewson | 05 Dec 22 | 307 | 22,936 |
| *Spouse/Family/Close Associate. **Placing/open offer †Converted from €/$ /AUS$/ZAR | ||||
