Christie Group - 114.5p

The back end of the last tax year saw many people selling their investments to lock in capital losses.

Given the poor performance of many shares, there were a lot of opportunities to take this course of action and this could well present a situation whereby shares in some companies have fallen to artificially low levels.

Those prepared to take a long term outlook have got a good range of shares to look at as recovery plays and it would seem that there are a number of shares which now look excellent value based on fundamentals.

One example is Christie Group, which we featured last September when the shares were priced slightly above 200p.

This must seem a long time ago for those who bought at that time. Since then the share price has collapsed along with that of many other smaller companies, but recent results show that the business is still doing well and we believe that now could be an opportune time to look at the company again. By way of a reminder, Christie Group offers professional business services to the leisure, retail and care sectors.

Its offering includes surveying, valuation, agency, consultancy, finance, insurance, stock control and business software solutions.

The company operates mainly in the UK and Continental Europe but North America and the rest of the world are also covered. There are offices in the UK, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Belgium and Canada at the moment.

The results released on March 28 showed that profit before tax was some £7.2 million in 2007, which translates into earnings per share of 19.12p.

A final dividend of 2.75p was declared, taking the total to 4.25p for the year.

The company accepts that trading conditions could be tough in 2008 but at the current price the shares trade on just six times historic earnings, which for a business of the quality of Christie Group looks too low.

The balance sheet is in very good shape and this should allow the company to trade through a rough patch if this does materialise.

Last year the shares looked good value at a much higher level than where they stand now. Although the stock market in general has been poor since then, we believe that shares in Christie Group have been hit hard despite the company doing well and on this basis the shares remain a buy.

WARNING: Opinions expressed are the writers' judgments at the time of writing. The information does not constitute a personal recommendation and readers should seek their own professional advice as to the suitability of the investments.