is the slump finished..., page-3

if anyone is interested, just found this at SMH





Driverless Repco skidding into wall



June 29, 2006

XCHANGE

The blokes who sold it to the public are said to be thinking of buying it back - at half the price.


CAR parts retailer Repco continued its slide yesterday, following its third profit warning this financial year - with another 7 per cent sliced off its share price.

The company is in a leadership vacuum, with new CEO Graeme Yeomans not due to take office until next week. Repco's share price has been in free fall, with the stock down more than 25 per cent this week. The company is set to be crowned the worst performer of the financial year on Friday, with its shares off by more than half.

There hasn't been a peep out of Repco since the announcement and a whole host of the big-name fundies exposed to the stock must be considering a dose of tax-loss selling before June 30.

Funds with holdings in the company include Lazard, Perpetual and Schroders.

Some analysts think Repco will struggle to break even in the second half and question whether anyone will stick up their hand to participate in a dose of "industry consolidation".

The boss of Super Cheap Auto, Peter Birtles, has declined to comment.

There are whispers the private equity vendors who made a truckload out of the $405 million float in 2003 might just be running a ruler over Repco to see if it's worthwhile doing it all over again.

While the bankers (ABN Amro Rothschild and UBS) and vendors (Macquarie Direct Investments, Gresham Partners and Grant Samuel Private Equity) laughed all the way to the bank, life remains tough for Repco and fellow former Pacific Dunlop spin-off Pacific Brands. Both are trading well below their issue price.








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