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It's the 2nd anniversary of GB's appointment to the Board of Integumen and he's hinted that he hoped to have some good news by close to then.
What is the significance of 6th?
Indeed Paul, let's see if GB is able to have his anniversary party in the style he wants to :-)
Retireby40,
I agree entirely with you. I just wonder why the old executives don't speak out, just silence from Simon Humphrey. I think he'd find a lot more tolerance if he was open to some discussion. We've trebled our shares in MWG in the last few months - I bought originally because of the sentiment you express - water is going to be a critical commodity.
You can’t deny the poor performance under the CEO’s tenure and it’s understandable why some want to see the back of him. That said, I feel the changes that have been made is not another false dawn. Time will tell but a more collaborative approach makes sense given the cost and difficulty of going it alone. The tech is clearly superb but the commercialisation and devising a sustainable business model lacking which means shareholder value can not be created/sustained which is of course a CEO’s primary objective. I’m looking forward and assuming this current turnaround (there have been a few) pans out how I expect I’ll continue supporting the co. Money was raised earlier this year at a massive discount with warrants because of the dire financial position the co was in but the new vision with lower costs, more collaboration and monitoring being key looks good so it’ll be interesting to see in Sept how much cash is left on the balance sheet and whether the co has reached cash flow BE and then can finally post a Q of profitability and not need a cash call for working capital.
Given the tech, the money spent on it and the current turnaround I think it’s the real-deal. Water scarcity and the need to manage it is only going to get more acute. Assuming the turnaround is working the current market cap of some £10m will hopefully be a thing of the past. The market rightly needs convincing so I hope to get some good H1 2020 commentary.
And gerry Brandon is leading them now
Newuncle, the management team had little choice as the group was a few days from going bust. They failed to sell the testing business and they had little option. Two of the main subsidiaries went bust anyway - hardly a triumph of management.
I rather think that you have missed the point Retire. The same executive team are running the company now as were running it then
The financial results for 2019 are known and the new team came on board in 2020 so the FY19 audited results are really about the post YE commentary and hopefully we get a fair amount. Given the tardiness due to Covid and disposals I think they owe us some decent commentary on H1 2020. Let’s see.
At least they had the sense to bring in gerry Brandon.
I think that there is pretty much universal acceptance that the 2019 management team were poor. Understandably the company is trying to distance itself from that record. While the addition of 2 new NXDs are welcome, I doubt that, on its own, a couple of new NXDs represents a new management team without further fundamental change. We are left with the CEO who is the architect of the historical problems running what is supposed to be a 'new' company. Until that changes I expect that the market will be rather sceptical. I am surprised that there are some on this BB who seem to think that this is not an appropriate forum for a discussion on this fundamental point.
The forthcoming results for 2019 will be an interesting indication of the strength/weakness of the current executive team.
Unfortunately scientists are great at what they have been trained for , but on management level they lack experience , look what happened to Intelligent Energy the brainchild of scientists at Loughbourgh University .
Hi Muggins
Thought I'd give you the perspective of someone who has recently invested. First of all, I agree with just about everything you have said which is all pretty factual and can be gleaned from any of the results, graphs etc. My sole reason for investing here is the tie in with Integumen and hopefully the future production of the realtime analysers; the revenue of which will be split and I just cannot decide who will get the lions share. So basically i'm hedging.
The management appears to be made up predominantly of scientists, great at science but not so much at commercialization, sales and marketing. Enter Gerrard Brandon who has a far better track record and now seems to be heading the marketing and commercial side of the operation for MWG and his track record in this field is to date is pretty impressive. As I understand it, his fees from MWG are taken solely in equity and he has also dipped in and bought a tranche of shares himself as well ................. maybe he's hedging too.
The management's record at MWG to date has not been commercially great although to be fair the advance in their scientific development has been impressive recently culminating with the top prize in China for their latest offering. My hope is that they are letting GB take the lead in the commercial side of things whilst they concentrate on the science development at which they do seem to be pretty handy at.
Either way, I believe both company's are in a good position to do well
All IMHO of course
C
I am afraid that I really do not understand what you are talking about.
Really? Don't **** on my shoes and then tell me it's raining buddy. Everyone knows why you are posting here. Let it go.
Interesting. I was not aware that you could not ask entirely legitimate questions of the management on a BB. Seems to me to be an extraordinary level of censorship. Silly me to ask a few questions about the shocking performance of the management team over many years. Obviously to even suggest that the failure of the current management team is in any way pertinent to the future of the company is absolutely absurd and I can only apologise from the bottom of my heart.
What harm does asking these questions pose? I certainly don't understand the purpose of a share chat if it is not to ask questions such as these. I don't understand why you object so strongly. You don't have to read them. Am I just missing a trick here altogether?
Sorry!
I don't understand your comments. I've tried to get hold of Simon Humphrey but he does not return phone calls. I believe it is legitimate to ask these questions and I don't think the format matters too much. I appreciate Gerry Brandon's involvement on this site, also that it is much more than most chairman would do and applaud that. I don't think it is unreasonable to ask these questions given that so much disappointment has happened - I just want to understand the situation as best I can. I don't believe there is a list of topics that can and cannot be asked on such chat sites. It may be more appropriate to air at the AGM but I hope it does not come to that. I'm just puzzled (and antennae are up) because of so little attempt to explain the past. I would like it aired, out of the way and move on to better things.
I do now also have a concern that the membrane division is not considered important. I would like to understand the thinking there a lot better. Most of my investments are in private companies - maybe that explains the difference in approach - where I can ask pretty well what I like - in some cases I am expected to.
I agree with Simmo, the endless questioning of all things MWG to Gerry B is really not appropriate for a PBB. He takes the time and effort to keep as informed as he can within AIM regs which is adman sight than other Chairs of PLCs on AIM do. Instead of appreciating that you seem to want to call out/question/criticise MWG at any opportunity. Not fair. Suggest you keep those for the company AGM and you can air all your concerns/moans with all the directors.
My question was for muggins..
Very little, that is not my concern. I want the right person to lead this company and want a discussion as to who that is - perfectly happy for Simon Humphrey to be that person provided he can demonstrate it and persuade shareholders. Ignoring them is not the way forward.
So how much did you lose to make you so bitter mugs?
Ima, you make some very good and valid points. It is quite true to say that the CEO has been with the company for many years. As such he is largely responsible for the numerous failures of the company including failure to land the Gib contract, the constant flip flopping between strategies (including the previous strategy of selling the testing business – now the focus of the company), the financing crisis (including the collapse of 2 of the main MW subsidiaries), the failure to capitalise on the great technology, the failure to build on a range of partnerships, the failure to build a robust management team and the failure to build a sales pipeline.
Over this time he has presided over a company where the SP has collapsed from 119p to 2p.
It is simply not possible to argue that there is a new management team when the architect of the previous failures continues to run the company. The lack of action by the new NXDs to resolve this is in danger of undermining their credibility.
Gjbrandon,
Thanks for your response. I think on reflection, there are a few points to make:
1. You said that all the old board had gone. Was Simon Humprey not previously on the board as CEO?
2. Simon Humprey doesn't; seem to want to return phone calls. Could you please ask him to come on here. I think it would do a world of good for him to address some of these issues from the past and for him to put in his own words what went wrong and why that won't happen again. I think in terms of shareholder relations and investor confidence, it would do a world of good for a tiny amount of time. I'm sure most people will want to listen to him and discuss a few points in an intelligent way.
3. I must take issue with the idea that chasing things like Gibraltar is a big boys' game. I've been involved with a business that was smaller in revenue than MWG, probably employees also, yet beat a major multi-national to a contract worth 20 times their annual revenue and with good repeat potential as well. They did this through superior technology and superior responsiveness - a serious weakness of most major businesses. I would have thought there was a lot to play for in Gibraltar. Are you saying that that side of the business is of no or little interest?
For the sake of boring everyone, I want to stress again that we have trebled our shares recently. We believe in MWG's future. However, there is a big gap in credibility and I think Simon Humprey could go a long way to filling that gap without it taking much of his time.