Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
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7.1% now for Mr Brown.
https://www.lse.co.uk/rns/AUK/holdings-in-company-aw4dhl7ugb72wvd.html
Trevor Brown owns 5% of the company.
He also owns large chunks of other 'on their last legs' Aim companies. Seems to be a known investor when discussed on other BB's. For example owns a lot of CMH too.
Dartron......lost you on Trevor Brown?
There are now over 1,000 Companies that have left Russia – many permanently, taking the ethical view that it is not a country that they wish to link their brand with in the future.
Despite a complete cavalcade of UK Companies exiting, Aukett remain, and the CEO’s only comment was not on ethics, but on gaining a financial advantage.
UK Companies that have made a ‘Clean Break’:
Allen & Overy, Asda, BP, BAT, Centrica, Chapman Freeborn, Clarivate, Clifford Chance, Compass, Currency, Dentsu, Esri, Eurovision, Eversheds, Freshfields, Hogan Lovells, ITF, John Wood, Linklaters, Lloyds, LSE, Mondi, Morgan, Morrisons, Norton Rose, Reckitt, Savills, Shell
Willis
UK Companies that are ‘Suspending Operations’:
Abrdn, ACCA, Asos, Aston Martin, Boohoo, Edrington, Knight Frank, Kodak, M&G, Mothercare, QS, Rolls Royce, Shiseido, Wise
Aukett! ...happy to continue earning the roubles, whilst Ukraine burns
Enjoy reading your write ups. Where does Trevor Brown fit in then?
CEO STARTS SELLING THE FAMILY SILVER
THE 'FAT CONTROLLER' IS WAVING GOODBYE
After announcing that he is leaving his sinking ship, the CEO now announces that the only marginal quality part of the UAE business is being sold, to extract some cash to stay liquid.
Bank meeting this month - I guess the Bank gave him an ultimatum. You owe us money, you owe Boris money, and you are making a 1.5m loss, on a collapsing revenue base.
This then collapses the UAE 6m pa turnover business, down to 1m pA, with massive losses - and that has happened in two to three years. It was always going to happen - buying third rate actors does not work out all that well in a professional business. What a disaster!
Aukett S****e Group PLC - London-based architect - Says it is to sell John R Harris & Partners, which operates out of the Middle East, to its local management team for a maximum consideration for maximum of GBP1.1 million. Says the sale is part of a series of intended actions to restructure the group's operations and to allow the John R Harris business to fulfil its potential without the burden of a central overhead
".....without the burden of a central overhead!!"....ouch!!
Yeap, that is the CEO himself and his band of non-fee earning board members.
The CEO - just a Central Overhead that has never earnt a penny in his life. He does look like he has eaten a sheep, in his latest photograph.
What's next?
Sell off all Non-UK Assets - not much left to go now. [CEO does love Putin - he is about the only one still in Moscow - no shame]
Sell off UK Assets, perhaps selling off Veretec & UK Design Business separately - they are different businesses, but of insignificant size. However, what happens if the main fee earners in those UK businesses simply say, 'we are out of here', and set up their own practices - AUK will be left with nothing, as Clients will follow the fee earners. These fee earners are not shareholders - so why should they pay The Fat Controller for earnings that they created.
Finally sack the entire Board - perhaps do that first?
So, after that, there will be not enough cash to pay off the liabilities. Shares zip?
I am not sure why the shares are at such a dizzy height of 1.3p!
WORSE RESULT EVER! CEO THROWING IN THE TOWEL
AUKETT collapses once again with another MASSIVE £1.53 LOSS Before Tax
NET FUNDS now at £15k, a total collapse from £837k 12 months ago.
Report states:
In February 2022 the Group received a 3-month covenant waiver to avoid the risk of a breach on the net gearing covenant from February to April 2022. The Group will then attend the scheduled 6 monthly review with Coutts & Co in May 2022 to discuss the Groups’ financing needs. The Group is therefore currently reliant on the ongoing support of Coutts & Co
Cash is now simply based on the 500k overdraft from Coutts
Revenue decreased 22% to £8.8m: a massive 50% reduction over 5 years
AUKETT DEBT now extends to cover £500k CBILS debt, £250k Overdraft Debt, Rent Debt, and a range of other Deferred Debt.
NET ASSETS collapses to £2.3m, however the more concerning matter is that CURRENT LIABILITIES at £5.2m now is approaching Current Assets £5.4m.
UK DESIGN BUSINESS [AS Ltd] has collapsed from a c.£10m pa position in 2016, to a c.£2m pa in 2021. The UK Design Business is plagued by fee competition, delays in projects, lack of ability to win work in the City pitched against leading London practices on design skill, and high costs holding unproductive staff. The UK Design Business is not skilled enough to compete with other London based architectural practices. The CEO has failed to cut the staff numbers to respond to the down turn – hence the substantial loss. Churning out the back-end services on other architect’s projects with low margin services of VERETEC is all that the company seem to be able to do in London at c £4m - at significant discounted fee levels. Another MASSIVE £848k LOSS
MIDDLE EAST DESIGN BUSINESS has also collapsed by over 60% in two years, to £2.5m pa. The CEO has again failed to adequately cut the cost base to reflect the downturn that started two years ago – hence the substantial loss. What a complete nightmare the Middle East has been, with loss after loss, draining cash. Buying a THIRD RATE set of local practices was doomed from the start. Throwing shareholders cash away in the desert. Another MASSIVE £936k LOSS
The UK DESIGN BUSINESS and the MIDDLE EAST DESIGN BUSINESS, are in TERMINAL DECLINE.
Any project 'wins' are on VERY LOW FEES, and so any future profit, is highly unlikely.
How AUKETT will produce a profit, to free cash, to pay back the MOUNTING DEBT PILE is the considerable concern. Dividends are a pipe dream.
We are reaching the end of the road I fear: the CEO departing after 25 years seems to signal the inevitable end. Cash is King: and he has none left!
At the current cash rate decline, the banks cash will run out sometime in 2022, so what is left for the AIM listed company:
Liquidation?
Clients will begin to run when they see this set of accounts - it might come quicker than we think......
6 months to verify the Middle East positions sounds ominous!
The Middle East has been one poor performance after the next, with a 280k loss at the half year, on top of a cumulative 1m loss over the past few years.
Revenue had collapsed by 50% over the course of 24 months, and the CEO had failed to cut the cost base to account for the massive downturn.
Lots of cash being thrown away in the desert.....disaster!
Aukett may be about to release the worst set of figures ever, with plummeting revenue and a substantial loss .....waiting 6 months for that news, without any prior announcement is a real concern, but not uncommon from this bunch.
Shares might be back to 1p - but let's see what unfolds.
The CEO states today:
The Company has experienced minor delays with the 2021 Audit, due to the effects of COVID-19 in the Middle East. The fieldwork has, however, now been completed and the Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 30 September 2021, will be published on or before 31 March 2022.
Oddly quiet
Definitely a buyer taking here.
The Demise of Auketts: Updated Half Year Results
• 1.0m Half Year Loss – adding to the already 2.6m from prior years!
• UK 2.5m revenue, with 0.8m loss – two highly paid accountants [CEO & CFO] need to go, sack the board, let the young 40yo architects run the architectural company. It is a 5m pa business at best. Team of 30-40: run by Architects is the solution. Unfortunately, most of the fee income is driven by Veretec, producing low profit, back-end documentation for other architect’s front-end design work. If those Veretec business winners go – UK business is over!
• Middle East 1.3m revenue, with 0.3m loss: Disaster, draining cash – needs to be shutdown, sell it off
• Europe 0.2m dividend – hugely over exaggerated, and costs more in management time to run, sell it off
• 200k cash, but propped up by 1.0m of loans and VAT & Rent not paid
• CBILS 500k loan + Overdraft loan 500k propping them up
• VAT, Rent, CBILS yet to be repaid!
• 9.2m to 4.1m, the business is half what it was in 2016, and shrinking fast
• Current Assets v Total Liabilities = Negative 3.4m
• Old Shareholders just want to sell – but who would want to buy this lot?
• Old CEO just wants to continue to extract an overly inflated annual fee, whilst making poor decisions! Middle East a disaster!
• WFH: who cares!
• ‘Penny Dreadful’
• 1m Half Year Loss
• Half Year Turnover Collapses to 5.3m
• 300k VAT Bill unpaid
• 140k Rent Bill unpaid
• 500k Gov Loan Scheme propping them up
• Cash must be gone
• 2016 18.4m v 2021 10.6m: Massive Decline in Revenue
• Four Year Cumulative Loss 3.6m: Massive Losses
• 2016 18.4m v 2020 11.3m: 40% Decline in Revenue, when AUK promised 100% growth
• Four Year Cumulative Loss 2.6m: Massive Losses
• Total Current Liabilities 4.6m < Total Current Assets 5.1m: Minimum coverage
• Minimal One Month of Cash in Hand: not much to rely upon
• 30% Collapse of Middle East Revenue in the year @ 4.1m: lost a fortune in the desert
• 50% Collapse of Europe Revenue in the year @ 0.2m: is this really worth the hype
• Further decline in UK Revenue @ 6.9m: despite multiple mergers, back to a #100 London small size practice
• 101k/FTE in UK; 50% of main competitors: Key Indicator Poor Result
• 79k/FTE in UK; 40% of main competitors: Key Indicator Very Poor Result
...and still going on.
Persistent buying of AUK been going on for a while now.
With the three year [2017-2019] losses standing at 2.58m, Aukett is now suggesting more losses in 2020 to add to the previous pile.
'Revenue less sub consultant cost' has dived 34% in recent years.
There is no indication whether revenue has crashed further, but with further losses in 2020, inevitably it most probably has. Revenue has most probably been also propped up by government hand-outs.
The concern that this is all set against leading competitors reporting massive shareholder returns.
With the 2nd UK Lockdown in full swing, no deal Brexit straight ahead, and a collapse in Aukett’s main offshore Middle East sector, things look decidedly bleak once again.
Three weeks worth of ‘net cash’, leaves the company exposed to any further down turn.
Shares at 1p – major institutional investor selling up.
Grim
Why did Aukett S****e CEO Nicholas Thompson take four years to tell the market this!!
‘Incorrect, misleading, inaccurate, unfair, and, in at least one case, knowingly untrue’ rings to mind……fraudulent!
Just released:
“Nicholas Thompson, chief executive officer of the Company, has informed the Company that Thompson & Newman Limited, of which he was director, was dissolved by Members Voluntary Liquidation in November 2016 with a shortfall to creditors of approximately £219,000.”
Fills you with zero confidence in this guy!
High Court Judge said of CEO Thompson in an earlier High Court Case regarding Thompson’s statement, “the details of his statement were incorrect, misleading, inaccurate, unfair, and, in at least one case, knowingly untrue.” Mr Justice Coulson, presiding over the case, said it was Thompson’s “wholly unreliable” testimonial statement that had persuaded him that the misrepresentation was intentional, and therefore fraudulent.
Ouch!
You would not want to be a creditor of Aukett – the CEO has ‘form’.
Major institutional investor ‘Broadwalk Fund’ now selling 5.3m shares – no wonder the price has crashed.
Broadwalk Select Services Fund Ltd looks to be the seller?
Broadwalk Asset Management: Cottam/Shepperd/Bastow 'bailing' on Aukett S****e
AUK finally hit the Penny Dreadful mark
Post Period End Trading Results must be due soon.
Perhaps the guy flogging large chunks of shares at low 1p prices, knows the answer already!?
Good to see the buys going through yesterday and subsequent of today, at AUK.
Minimal 2% Profit
New Instructions 'sparse' in UK in H2
Much Lower Level of Income in UAE in H2
".....it is impractical to predict with any certainty how the year will end" CEO
UK $4.09m H1 turnover
“…new instructions with new clients will be sparse for a while and it is that factor that will influence our H2 result”
Middle East $3.14m H1 turnover
“..there is a dearth of new and larger instructions. Given the steep fall in the oil price, little or no tourism and a potential exodus of labour once travel restrictions are lifted, we see this geography taking some time to recover and as such we have re-structured our three operations to assume a much lower level of income in the aftermath of Covid-19.”
A major concern in the comments out of the Middle East....
New Instructions Sparse in the UK....
AUK being nibbled at, these past days.
Almost three-quarters expect profits to fall, as more staff are furloughed
Nearly 10% of practices do not believe they will survive the fallout of the covid-19 pandemic, according to the latest RIBA Future Trends survey.
The May update has revealed that 73% of architects expected profits to fall over the next 12 months and that of those 8% think their practice is unlikely to remain viable.
The findings from this month’s survey also show that current workloads remain at significantly reduced levels – down 33% compared to May 2019.
According to the update 22% of architectural staff have been furloughed – an increase of 8% from April, while 1% have been made redundant and 1% have been released from a ”zero hours”, temporary or fixed-term contract.
It also said that 38% of projects had been put on hold since the start of March and that 23% of projects which remain active are at stages 5 or 6 of the RIBA Plan of Work.
Is the writing on the wall?
UK Gov’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme ("CJRS”) might assist the AUK UK workforce, but will AUK have enough workload to keep rolling when the CJRS ends? Will a massive 50% cull of the UK workforce be required with the added redundancy cost penalty.
The real worry will be in the UAE, where AUK does not have the ability to obtain Government assistance. If revenue fails to be maintained at the 6m level, losses will quickly mount, and cash will need be used to pay out redundancies to reduce the cost base.
Aukett's gamble in the UAE desert looks to be blowing up in their face. Year on year of substantial losses from UAE has drained the corporate piggy bank, and left Aukett UK with a debt and a headache. With oil prices in a complete slump, and no sign of improvement, there will be little free cash circulating in the UAE for major projects. The decision to begin purchasing third rate actors in the UAE has cost AUK dearly, and oddly AUK made that decision when the Brexit Referendum was a reality.
A trading update is overdue from these guys - what's going on?!
Aukett:
“…….we expect to be able to continue to operate within current banking facilities. UK state support schemes are being looked into as a matter of urgency and will be implemented shortly, as required.”
With both UK & the Middle East delivering further losses in 2019 [after an extremely poor $3m loss in 2018], a year living with Covid 19 will be a huge challenge for Aukett.
One can only assume that 2020 revenues in both major centres are falling fast, and cash will be under enormous pressure.
The ‘matter of urgency’ entry by the CEO, seeking government assistance is not surprising, but telling.
The overdraft facility is only 500k, less than 2 weeks supply of cash. That facility is reviewed by the bank in May 2020, only weeks away.
Of significant concern is that Middle East will need to replace the 1m of fee earning work from the large shed project earnt from one client in 2019, and maintain the 6.0m revenue stream to support the cash requirement. Failure to do that will present an immediate risk to cash flow.
UK will need to maintain the 7.4m revenue to support the cash requirement, whilst dealing with an increase cash requirement of the end of the rent-free period on their London HQ, along with repayments on the bank loans of 260k.
If these two main revenue streams falter in 2020, then cash will be under immediate pressure.
Other Loans might need to be sort, but with year on year losses over the past two years, it would be a brave bank that lends Aukett more, particularly when Net Assets are entirely propped up by Non Current Assets.
With 75% of the cost base being staff salaries or directors fees, it will require an immediate 'cull' of both, to enable Aukett to get through.
In the past Aukett CEO has shown a reluctance to act, as 2018 showed, raking up a $3m loss.
In 2019 they failed to cut their cloth to get below the revenue line.
If they do not take quicker and more direct action to reduce their cost base in 2020, things will look bleak, very quickly.