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Completely agree mate, it seems that the primary objective is to get Sentiance listed and the market exposure it fully deserves. And reassuringly a lot of big name money tied up in getting it on board
Re: warrants - I was also skeptical when Mesh set exercise prices at significant premiums to placings or whatever the current price was. And was delighted to see those prices met - with high volume especially for a Nex exchange stock.
ASLR appears to be following the same remit, and if the pattern follows then £2.80 is not beyond the realms of possibility upon acquisition of a majority stake.
Lindsay Mair of MESH is also ex Bidstack, of course.
As are Stewart and Taylor of Asimilar, ex Bidstack.
Join the dots and they are all closely involved with each other.
Maybe getting Nigel Wray on board was the clincher, and helped differentiate Asimilar from MESH, and generates additional opportunities for clinching the deal.
I was a bit wary of the details in the RNS at first (would we go the same way as MESH?) , but I am much happier now as it appears all are working towards the same objective. - which I guess is getting Sentiance listed on the LSE.
I must say this did catch my eye from one of the earlier RNS's
"08 January 2020
Asimilar Group Plc, the AIM quoted investment company focused on technology opportunities in the fields of big data, machine learning, telematics and the Internet of Things (IoT), is pleased to announce that it has raised £6.8 million (gross) of new equity by way of a placing (the "Placing") of 17,000,000 new Ordinary Shares in the Company (the "Placing Shares") at a price of 40 pence per Ordinary Share with existing and new investors.
A warrant will be issued for every Placing Share subscribed for as part of the Placing exercisable at 130 pence per Ordinary Share from the date of issue up to 31 December 2021 ("Warrant"), with an accelerated exercise provision in the event that the mid-market price for Asimilar's Ordinary Shares reaches 280 pence per Ordinary Share for 5 consecutive business days"
I did think maybe it was hyperbole, but then maybe not.....
We know that there is a link between MESH and ASLR as Chris Ackers owns around 3% of MESH and 7% of ASLR.
Another link is that they were (are) both after taking ownership of Sentiance.
On 20th January 2020 MESH announced Board changes including the resignation of Mark de Smedt and the appointment of Lindsay Mair as FD and Company Secretary.
The directors of Asmilar since 3rd December 2019 are Mohammad Bhatti, Donald Stewart and John Edward Taylor at which time the company was known as Yolo Leisure. It had been announced on 1st November 2019 that Stewart and Taylor (ex Bidstack) would take over the running of company. Chris Ackers began building his stake at that time, going over the 3% threshold on 4th November 2019.
Clearly something was brewing in early November 2019.
On 22nd November 2019 a new company was created Low 6 Security Trustee Limited with its initial directors being John Taylor now Non-Exec chairman of Asimilar (appointed 3-12-2019) , and Lindsay Mair now FD and CS of MESH (appointed 20-1-2020).
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/12328115/officers
Since 9th July 2019 they are also the two directors of Ignis Capital
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/12094025/officers
of which Chris Ackers is one of the controlling shareholders
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/12094025/persons-with-significant-control
So it would appear that whilst maybe Asimilar is a preferred vehicle for an RTO of Sentiance matter could be being coordinated closely with MESH and their 16% shareholding in Sentiance.
Clearly much more going on behind the scenes, than at first appears and which may have prompted the somewhat cryptic article in The Times.
Rather than being rivals, Asimilar and MESH could be working hand in hand - board appointments and associations suggest this could be the case.
I hadn't notice The Times article previously -
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/dotcom-financier-robert-bonnier-linked-with-sentiance-bid-6ljrwkcg6
Makes interesting reading -
"A financer best known for his rise to prominence during the dotcom boom and for the fall of Scoot.com during the bust that followed is behind a cash shell attempting to take control of a Belgian technology company and to list it in London.
Robert Bonnier, 50, made a name for himself as the former chief executive of Scoot, an online directory valued at more than £2.5 billion during the dotcom boom. His stake in the business was valued at about £130 million before his star, and that of the business, fell early in the new millenium. Scoot’s main business was sold to BT in 2002 after its shares slumped and it ran out of cash.
He was fined £290,000 by the City regulator in 2004 for misleading the stock market a dozen times in a seven-week period over his interest in Regus, the office services group. He has since made shortlived attempts at stock market comebacks, including through Future Internet Technologies.
Now it has emerged that he has links with Mesh Holdings, until recently listed on the Nex exchange, which has been buying shares in Sentiance, an automated intelligence company based in Antwerp. It was planning to take a majority stake and to submit a draft prospectus to the Financial Conduct Authority to seek admission to the London Stock Exchange’s main market, but missed a deal deadline.
Mr Bonnier does not appear to be directly involved in Mesh, but Nashida Islam Bonnier, his wife, is the largest shareholder, with a stake of almost 10 per cent. Other investors include Chris Akers, who sold Sports Internet Group to Sky for £300 million in 2000. He holds 3 per cent. Mr Akers worked with Mr Bonnier at Swiss Bank Corporation and introduced him to Scoot’s founder.
Mesh’s chief executive and chairman was Marc de Smedt, 58, a former director of Scoot, but Mesh said yesterday that he had left and had been replaced as chairman by Michael Power, 55, a non-executive director.
Mesh was incorporated in 2000 and has changed its name several times. It raised £500,000 in November 2018 at 16p a share when it agreed to invest in Sentiance and to change its strategy to “disruptive investments”.
It completed a £5 million private placing at 35p a share in June and the next month agreed to exercise an acquisition option to increase its stake in Sentiance to 80.05 per cent. The acquisition was to be carried out through special purpose vehicles that are owned by Mr Bonnier’s wife.
In October Mesh secured an extension to the option until November 5 after increasing its stakes to 16.8 per cent, making it Sentiance’s largest shareholder. It said at the time that it planned to submit a draft prospectus to the Financial Conduct Authority to list on the main market in London."
Taken from last year, but some interesting coverage to whet the appetite!
Since the start of the calendar year, Sentiance has added 25 new clients, a significant acceleration from 2018 client win levels. Of these new clients, 23 are Proof of Concepts and two have moved into roll out stage. These clients are predominantly in the automotive, health, insurance, banking and entertainment industries, and include Autoliv, Uber, Careem, Absa, InsureApp and Trov. Given the sensitive nature of Sentiance's client partnerships and the type of disruptive service options currently being developed, many of Sentiance's client relationships and initiatives remain at present strictly confidential."
https://www.nexexchange.com/announcements?newsid=4349568
Could be that the plan is to rto Mesh directly into ASLR? Mesh were planning an LSE listing upon completion of majority stakeholding in Sentiance.
Perhaps the LSE were apprehensive about some of those associated with Mesh, (Times article last month) and board decided the best way to get Sentiance market exposure was an rto, which would eliminate LSE concerns regarding associated individuals - for appearance sake anyway!
Or it could be that ASLR will make a direct cash purchase of the 17% stake...
I’m a big fan of Sentiance - phenomenal client list and capable of capturing market imagination with the right coverage. Very little pure-play AI London listed companies, so massive first mover advantage.
Best of luck to all holders, looking forward to watching this story unfold!
MESH has today terminated its facility with JP Jenkins and its agreements with its financial adviser and PR adviser.
Hopefully we won't go the same way (suspension always makes me nervous - although it was inevitable at some stage in this case) and presumably this means we are now in pole position on the Sentiance deal.
One assumes there has been a bit of a tussle over the last few weeks and ASLR came out on top.
News soon, please.
https://www.meshholdings.net/category/announcements/
MESH does own 16% of Sentiance, which presumably gives them some leverage.
The common link between MESH and ASLR is Chris Ackers who holds (held) 3% of MESH and holds 7.5% of ASLR.
But ASLR also has Nigel Wray on board holding around 12%, so hopefully that may clinch it for is to get Sentiance listed on the LSE, which is obviously where it wants to go.
MESH obviously couldn't raise enough cash and maybe going onto JP Jenkins was the last straw.
Fingers crossed!
It looks like MESH had (has) a deal with Sentiance, and holds 16.8% possibly with an option to go to something like 80%, but that may have expired.
It looks like CEO Mark De Smedt left on 20th January 2020 and whilst this appear on the company's website and at Companies House I can't find it on the bb's so appears to have been missed by many investors.
Mark De Smedt was also on the board of Sentiance and the companys announcement states -
" It is the intention that in due course Mike Power, on behalf of MESH, formally takes up the Board seat at Sentiance reserved for a MESH Director"
So it looks like the transition wasn't seamless.
Presumably this is when it all went pear shaped and Asimilar have now stepped in.
MESH does however appear to own 16,333 Sentiance shares which at the last subscription price of 750Euro were worth £12.2M.
That may give them some leverage, but it does look like Asimilar may have supplanted them in terms of getting them listed on the LSE.
Hopefully more details "soon".
Looks like The Standard was about to break the story and forced them to suspend prior to their being ready to issue an RNS.
Waiting game now.
Looks interesting - given the right terms should be good for a rise -
https://www.standard.co.uk/business/aim-listed-asimilar-backed-by-nigel-wray-to-buy-stake-in-belgian-ai-tech-firm-a4362071.html
And 150k appears to have been bought immediately before they went "off grid", mmm....
Someone always knows something.
Hopefully not too long.
It is either going to be very good or....
Mainly buys from 11am onwards, so we live in hope.
They got £4M @ 40p on 24th January 2020, which will be followed by a further £2.8M @ 40p on 13th March 2020.
Presumably action could take place around that time.
If people have put money in at 40p, when the shares were below 20p, then they must be confident of getting a good deal in the fullness of time.
Holding tight here.
Presumably the Tranche 1 share issue at 40p completed on 24th January 2020.
Confirmation tomorrow with revised (upwards) shareholdings for Nigel Wray and Chris Ackers?
A number of TR1's filed by Directors of the company liquidating their positions........... Here we go guys it will drop like a bad habit !!