Sanctuary bullish as turnover rockets... .It's time to get in

possibly z, after the trading statement I'd guess there will be T10's for short term, value hunters buying for the medium'long term prior to the results.

Mine are to hold medium term.

3.8p eps concensus for this year, 2.16p eps under the belt in H1.

The 5 year record is that of a company that hasn't disappointed :

Sales: £0.00 £17.48m £23.06 £44.10 £82.28
Normalised eps for last 5 years: 0.53p 1.44p 1.46p 1.91p 3.12p

H1 sales up 41% to £49.8m, pre tax up 26%, eps up 31%.

Looks to me that this is a company with a superb 5 year growth record, trading on a single digit PE of perhaps 8 or less if these results are as good as the trading statement suggests. Might be one of those well oversold stocks that you get at the end of a bear market.

Recent 300K director buy too.



Heres the recent trading statement if anyone is interested:

In line with current market practice and before the start of its close period,
The Sanctuary Group ("Sanctuary" or "the Group"), the international music
company, issues the following trading update in respect of the full year to 30th
September, 2002.



The Board of Sanctuary is pleased to report that, for the year ended 30th
September, 2002 results are expected to show another year of record profits for
the Group with all business divisions operating profitably. The results are
expected to be in line with consensus market estimates, with cash conversion
significantly ahead of expectations.



There are a number of issues specific to Sanctuary's business model and focus
that contribute to this continuing success.



o Improving cash conversion. Sanctuary's maturing record business is now
converting cash more rapidly, whilst artist management, merchandising and
touring businesses are inherently cash generative. An increase in artists under
management, new managers and a strong roster of touring artists has increased
Group cash flow significantly in the past six months. The Group's EBITDA to
operating cash flow conversion rate is now in excess of 60% and is expected to
continue to show further absolute improvement. The net debt position at the year
end is expected to be approximately #38.8m, which includes loan notes for
earlier acquisitions.



o Sanctuary's global CD sales have shown good growth in 2002 increasing
16.25% against a reported global decline of around 7%. The Board believes this
shows the resilience of the Sanctuary model and backs up its contention that
demand for good quality product from long-term heritage artists has not
declined. Across the industry, total revenue generated from music on a global
basis continues to grow.



o Successful integration of acquisitions. The Group made four acquisitions
during the year in the Artist Services division all of which are performing and
contributing well. In particular, Bravado, the merchandising business acquired
in January 2002 has demonstrated a significant increase in trading in the second
half of the year and shows strong prospects for 2003.



o DVD market set to grow significantly. Over the past 12 months Sanctuary
has focused on its own DVD music operations. The Phil Collins documentary
recently broadcast on BBC 1, which Sanctuary co-produced with the BBC, will be
released as a Sanctuary DVD. Sanctuary accounted for close to 8% of all music
DVD sales in Europe in the 12-month period to August 2002 and expects to benefit
from the future growth in this sector. Whilst teen drama television productions
continue to deliver in over 100 territories, Sanctuary's proportion of profits
from screen drama will decrease as the Group grows and the proportion of music
audio visual production and product increases.



In the period since the year-end, the Group has not experienced any change in
the trading conditions for each of its divisions.



Commenting on the trading update, Andy Taylor, Executive Chairman, The Sanctuary
Group plc, said:



"At Sanctuary, we are continuing to see the benefits not only from our full
service approach to the music industry, but also our international positioning,
which enables us to benefit from growth in immature, but potentially immense
markets, such as China. Our proven approach of managing and recording
established artists with long- term careers continues to reap the rewards. With
new artists, our objective is to support and help create new, long-term careers
on a low risk basis. As the only company to participate in all the revenue
streams that derive from an artist's musical creativity, we are confident of
Sanctuary's future growth prospects, and those of the industry as a whole. "

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CR