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Looks like sells to me. So the share price rally was odd I thought.
Am pleased to see the SP gain a little ground but isn’t that a bit odd?
Almost as if someone knew the price was going to drop and had their finger on the trigger.
yeah, must be - overhang cleared - we off to the races!
?
Late March Results will provide an update on the 2023/24 outlook. Glass half full is that the South Bend capacity remains fully on track for Q3 and Lab Testing continues to pick up and will be profitable in the near term. Tangible wording / evidence around those to breed confidence required if the SP is going to climb back up into the 30s.
£250m - yes that’s correct £250m - of shareholder value lost in less than 18 months - 2/3 of the business valuation. Even discounting for the covid boost that’s still absolutely dreadful. Incredible corporate mismanagement and all triggered by a badly concocted RNS with no follow up reassure the market. SB
...downwards...and then down some more!
It appears there's little investor goodwill left - certainly I won't be averaging down and further biasing my portfolio towards its losers.
I wouldn’t rely on the buy sell price at the moment Scooby - could have been a delayed trade. There is no price support evident for now from what I can see. A decent set of results should have seen us trading in the 50’s. Instead we are 50% below - meaning we need a 100% increase to get back there. Any directors buying at this level…..SB
II support -
10-Feb-23 13:02:23 30.41 727,500 Buy* 28.70 29.90 221.23k
At a 3% above ask price.
I have a holding in Ygen and ADL are supposed to be selling their Nipt test I believe. Hope they can pull their fingers out though I know they only launched it last Oct/Nov. They did mention some green shoots along those lines rgds ADL so maybe they are selling a few.
Hawker - I do get the need to put some perspective on this weeks need - and appreciate it was not all disaster level feedback. However / comments such as “ The Company will recognise large exceptional costs in 2022” for me are akin to a profits warning. In H1 2022 the company made a £1.6m exceptional provision - which merited no ‘large’ narrative. Makes you wonder what’s coming. Further / given the level of cash flowing out the business, and bearing in mind our H1 earnings were already suffering - our full year earnings are likely to be below our dividend payout which raises the possibility that will require to be reviewed. The fallout continues and still many issues to be fully addressed. I hold / but as others have commented this is becoming a familiar tale of Harwood led stock fails. And to now blame COVID given the positive impact at the time - truly bizarre imo. SB
Fully appreciate the disappointment here, however the shares are now back at the very dark lows of last summer and therefore seemingly treating the trading update as a major profit warning, which it so clearly is/was not. The core business is clearly growing well and in great shape and the reformed management team now need to demonstrate they can create value out of the ADL acquisition, which is heading in the right direction away from Covid, but clearly needs to ramp efforts in this respect much more quickly if it’s to move from laggard to contributor in the coming year. It’s worth adding here that this is the smallest business in the mix and therefore should not be wagging the dog, so to speak. I also assume with ADL not meeting performance targets that they’ll forfeit the additional compensation agreed in the acquisition terms and that will be a saving in due course. I’m more optimistic about the update in March, albeit just around the corner, as they should be able to give clarity on the speed of the cost cutting related to Covid and the shift of remaining resources to growth. Net net, the shares are pricing massive disappointment, having fallen from 50p to 30p and the news flow into summer should underpin their recovery to at least the 40-50p range. I bought yesterday and am adding more today.
It is a tail of 2 halves. The core POC business sounds to be doing very well. The delay in the fermentation facility would be ok, if it were the only problem. The other 2 issues are the most concerning, an unprofitable Laboratory and a contract manufacturing facility which sounds over staffed and under used. I wonder if the purchase of the laboratory was a good idea? If only they had just stuck to core business, this would be booming. Clearly seems that many poor decisions were made (and problems ignored) of the last 24 months. Not sure if I will remain invested, frankly I dont think they deserve my investment, but I must do what is best for me, and that might be sticking around a bit longer to get a better exit.
I have the feeling this will be a stitch up - either way the business goes, good or bad.
I think we can see from the share price reaction the TU has been deeply unsettling. There are many questions which have been raised and remain unanswered - the majority financial. Until there is further clarity on exactly what has transpired in H2 there is now a degree of risk attached to ekf that was starting to reduce after its rapid covid expansion and exit. I suspect we will have to wait until the full year results to find out what the real impact of yesterday news will be on revenue, earnings, cash for both 2022 and 2023. The further issues clearly relate to a BOD who appear to have been asleep at the wheel which is equally troubling. £100m in market cap wiped in a few weeks - £25m Harwood/Mills alone. Insider leaks/trading. All very damaging and in the public eye. It will take time to regain confidence - but in the first instance we need a clear and transparent set of audited accounts with an honest narrative to reassure investors there is not further trouble to come. SB
Presumably the recent big share sales were something to do with ADL and once those shares have been placed the price should return to a more sensible level (40p plus)
Looks like baby and bathwater price action to me, is this not just another reset before stronger revenue and profit numbers are delivered later this year? I'm happy topping up at this level and see near-term upside/recovery to 45-50p.
Lots of words used here today, to describe how some PIs are feeling.
I’ll just add “shafted” to the list.
I think that sums up investor feelings today.
The two failures were on what I would expect to be managed under project/program governance.
Time, cost, quality and risk management.
If this was so then there should have been no surprises.
If the company do fron up and have an investor meet, then I would be looking for reassurance that they have competent project management in place to avoid more surprises.
Pretty devastating, but an entirely fair summary.
I'd like to see Harwood Capital's take. Come on Mr C. Mills, you own 29% and you're keeping your job, what's the reasoning?
Very disappointing update. Decent core business but we are screwing up both our investment plans and acquisitions. Oh and BTW we have spent all the COVID upside money and in addition have some exceptional costs to close down all the capacity we brought on line to process tests (a simple side line but looks like we have managed to mismanage our foray into that sector) but thought we would wait to drop that nugget until we had lots of bad news to get out. Our CEO is useless and has clearly been running a bottomless investment pit but we will let him hang around as no one else knows what's going on in the US but on the plus side we will bring back our exec chairman who was paid (and others) a £2m bonus 18 months ago for getting the market cap to a decent yet entirely temporary level driven by unsustainable and costly COVID ramp up which has since capitulated as we evidence an inability to run our business. Well done EKF. A total sh_t show. But 2024s looking good eh. Amateur. SB
Just in case EKF scan BBs like this, I echo a couple of previous comments
"The disappointment is that inside information not available to private investors has made them the short term losers." Vigneron
& as unhooked puts it "I didn't expect a company like EKF to be so leaky!"
Agree - previously thought EKF tried to do the right thing in the right way so its a greater disappointment for its governance to seem to be tainted. It will be interesting to see an RNS particularly if a clever II reports an increase in holdings (presumably from a net increase having sold & bought back in)
Like some i was suckeredin with the lowering sp. I have topped up this morning but i don't have as deep pockets in these trying times. GLA
The CEO gave an upbeat update in late September. It looks like he was not totally transparent on the outlook. For this he has rightly been removed.
Optimism is fine, but as investors we need realism, and is clear the board have the same view.
The results disappoint, but only compared to what we know know were over optimistic projections.
The disappointment is that inside information not available to private investors has made them the short term losers.
The business potential is still there and they need to kick on from here and deliver.
It’s deffo not a 20% statement though plus already lost 20+ last couple of weeks, it’s a buy here
Yes, someone always knows ….nice to see the city functioning as per usual!!!