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Personally am disappointed to hear the news of the exit from battery materials, more from a British science, technology and manufacturing viewpoint. The CEO departure was not surprising considering the deteriorating performance.
JM has great technology positions , perhaps more living on its past glory. The challenge today is all about chartering the company through turbulent times of the energy and transportation transition, being able to create plans and execute change through people.
For me the worrying sign is the leadership churn. While I am sure each of the senior leaders are capable and competent, otherwise they would not have been hired. Executive churn in JM seems to be too high.
Of the leadership team - 1 joined in 2021 (the CFO) , 2 came in 2020, 3 came in 2019 . With Covid restrictions on travel, that's a really short time to really come to grips with a realy workings of a science and technology company with over 10000 employees. To execute change they will need to align and work with the masses. Not sure how some of these leaders have built relationships and walked the floor to understand what needs to change and how to enable enterprise wide change with the trust of the workforce.
When previous CFO and CTO. join a business and move within a few years its perhaps an indication that something is amiss.
Fingers crossed that the new CEO is able to turn this around. On the upside they have a new team with no sacred cows.
After all it would be a shame to a company with a rich heritage like JM be broken up.
I agree that the poor leadership is the biggest issue here. Putting rich heritage and science to one side, which no doubt JMAT has in volume, perhaps years ago when I was a bit more of a tempestuous investor with an appetite for risk, I would have dived in yesterday.
It's complete about turn and that lack of strategic vision is deeply troubling - for years they have been holding up the battery division as it's main future revenue driver. It doesn't take a highly paid CEO to know that new technology will become commoditised over time which begs the question if JMATs technology was unable to achieve economies of scale and compete, why it ever got past the drawing board.
This Board is in a complete state of flux and there is further fall out for sure.....
I'll TRY and refrain from this becoming a rant.....but to qualify the Boards breakdown here - only in April they announced a deal to build a second factory in Finland for nickel cathode production AND announced a strategic review of their Health division.
The latter, highly profitable, but unspectacular growth. The former, huge investment with the promise of jam tomorrow.
The Board in their entirety signed off on this so for just the CEO to go is an indication that they've not gone to the root of the problem.
As a share holder in Bayer also, from whence the new CEO cometh - their statement last week indicated he left in something of a cloud as head of their underperforming crop division. This summary indicates he is a pharm man through and through https://gb.wallmine.com/otc/bayry/officer/2094236/liam-condon so potentially they've decided to stick with health but they will have to invest heavily to turn this into a future driver when they are up against the giants of Croda, DSM & DKSH!
I worked in JM for 9 years till late 2017. I saw the writing on the wall in mid 2017 with management changes. Millions of funds were diverted from Clean air to battery materials. The implementation of SAP was a train wreck. Many good directors left the business and still leaving now. I do not think Robert Macleod is retiring. He is being pushed out.
As far as eLNO is concerned, my view is that they went for delayed perfection rather than continuous improvement. By that time companies like LGChem, BASF and Umicore penetrated the market, while JM top leadership team was still bickering about how to make eLNO work.
The battery exit is a disaster for JMAT.
It raises serious concerns about whether JMAT has the management skills, tech expertise, and scale to compete in future new markets.
It is also a huge blow for the British automotive, tech, and stockmarket industries, which are in steep, steep decline.
The exit is a major blow to the JMAT brand.
It feels like the beginning of the end.
Wouldn't be a surprise to see this drift down to the £10-15 range, get snapped up by (say) an American, Chinese or Indian firm, and any remaining valuable bits carved up and shipped overseas.
JMAT sliding ever closer toward that £10-15 price target!
well you are NOT edging your bets are YOU £10-£15 what a ridiculous statement to make.
if you have nothing constructive to say -say nothing stupid statement.
by the way i am not in yet but i will be before your predictions .
JMAT looks ready again to retest its recent lows around the £16.50-17.00 range.
What a pessimistic lot you are here! You will be licking your wounds when JMAT corners the market in Green Hydrogen .
I expect first RNS on this subject fairly soon. They have not made all these alliances for nothing.
Possible upward Platinum price pressure on nearly a million oz deficit.
https://www.ft.com/content/01352385-372f-4b79-9446-a03c518ba28a
As predicted, yet again -- 2 years ago -- JMAT is plunging down toward the £10-15 range.
Charts look very bearish here. Plunging an astonishing-60% in 5 years.
The battery mess in 2021, mixed financial results in 2022, and soft EBIT guidance for 2023-24 are weighing heavily on the shares.
As predicted -- 2 years ago -- JMAT is plunging under the £15 threshold.
All eyes now on the £10 level.
JMAT's journey here looks probably like a takeover from the US or Europe, shift the HQ abroad, close the UK factories, and outsource production to cheaper Asia.
We can but hope Skier1……so many solid institutional investors holding most of the shares…. Hopefully one will make the move before too much longer.