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Fair enough. I think the critical points now are around the FY18 numbers. They are already late in publishing their final results. This doesn't bode well. It's clear that the customer volume targets they shared with Investors are totally unachievable. They have cut-back on their Outbound Team Managers and suggest that their strategy will be to focus on inbound lead generation. I find this baffling. Trying to engage with prospective Customers and persuade them to contact UTW for energy, insurance, etc will be REALLY difficult. It's hard enough for the price comparison websites and they spend £millions on advertising. So how do they drive that inbound traffic? MakeItCheaper were successful because they provided the back-end service for the likes of Gocompare, etc. If UTW can become the preferred Partner to an organisation like that then maybe they stand a chance but how likely is it? In my experience, when an organisation initiates a large redundancy programme just before their annual results it's a means of softening the blow in terms of their numbers (ie "we are behind target BUT we are taking steps to deal with it").
Proudnelad- who's 'crucified' anyone? Ultimately if a former Director/owner dumps all his shares, it is going to be discussed! You claimed all that the info I provided was "inaccurate and nonsense" yet when challenged to back up your 'attack' you have changed the direction of your argument. As for BF and his team they have had over 2 years now and things have not improved. They recently announced they have linked with "netpay" a merchant service provider and will also be offering insurance. I believe the 'netpay' deal is a last ditch attempt to manage cash flow. Deals for merchant servives go live significantly quicker than utilities. Netpay will pay out these deals weekly and they will average about £400 per deal. Issue is they will be referring and not actually brokering as their staff are not trained in this field and it is FCA regulated. I also believe they are in danger of becoming a "jack of all trades" outfit. I have already gone into great detail as to why they are experiencing cash flow issues in light of the way they now get paid by suppliers, read my previous post(s) if you want!
Peakyblinders - if you read the thread it was speculated by another poster that working capital was needed for the claims business. It was also 'speculated' on this thread and on several over the last week that the funds were required for financial reasons. I was merely stating that we can speculate as to why, but it is not for the above reasons. If I were to speculate as to 'why' it would either be to possibly remove all links as you state. It could also be to destabilise even further, in tandem with setting up a claims company - that has no teeth - the motive to destabilise could be to delist or just bitterness.
I thought this forum existed to assist retail investors make appropriate decisions not to crucify people who can’t defend themselves. These personal comments don’t assist. Surely the real issues are:
- does BF and the ‘new’ team have a credible strategy
- is the strategy being successfully executed eg as measured by customer volume targets
- is the business generating cash and paying down debt despite huge increases in ineffective central overhead
And more
These are the issues that should be discussed
Who said anything about “propping up” his son’s business? My personal suggestion was that selling-down his remaining stake could have been motivated by a desire to remove any remaining links to UTW (emotional or financial). I wasn’t suggesting he needs the money. As you state, the money he’s made thus far is already in the public domain.
Proudnelad - could you please elaborate which part(s) are inaccurate? The share sales are public record as is everything else.....I agree it is irrelevant - but if you bother to read the thread it was in direct response to speculation as to why Geoff Thompson dumped his remaining stock at £0.10. As I say if you believe it is inaccurate state your source(s) and correct me.
And completely inaccurate imho dyor
Wow you certainly do talk a load of nonsense handofjohnson
Interesting the research you’ve done but all completely irrelevant
at these silly valuation levels the income from closing up shop alone is more than the value and debt.
it must be on someones radar
5 percent up on the day...yeehah...only now need another 495 percent increase to breakeven
Hi Handofjohnson. May I say, that of all the posts I read on here, that sadly yours make the most sense.<br />I've always been a bit cavallier with my investments and tend to back one or two shares rather than a portfolio.<br />I am one of UTW's big losers. On sellling my house, I bought approx �325K of these donkey shares at roughly �1.80. This isn't going to destroy me financially but it certainly has been a gut-wrench watching them plummet for the last two years.It seems fairly obvious that Slippery Geoff (as some people are calling him) has presided over a company that has used a very suspect accounting system for a very long time to inflate figures and drive up the share price of what is basically a glorified call centre.He has jumped ship a long time ago as you so rightly say but shouldn't the accounting methods which he so readily approved of, be the subject of an investigation? How can he get away with it?
Still, it's gonna hurt when you sell a bunch of shares that were once worth £25m for less than £1m.....
There's speculation and there's nonsense. The Thompson's sold the majority of their shares back in 2014. I believe Geoff Thompson had over 13mill shares and Adam Thompson had nearly 4mill selling at over £2.50. Adam Thompson effectively 'retired' in 2014/15 with about £12mill buying a premier league footballers mansion. Geoff Thompson must have made over £25mill. I do not know what the son "callum" that has set up the 'claims' business had but it's fair to say he's ok! The amount Geoff Thompson received for his sale recently is a drop in the ocean, not forced and not to "prop up" the younger sons business. He has invested about £2.5 mill in South shields fc paying salaries for former premier league players. Now the son's business, this is a completely unregulated business sector, so there will and can't be any huge PPI type situation on the horizon, there is a voluntary code of practice, that is it. Brokers do not have to disclose commission(s) so I have zero idea how any case can be upheld. The only way would be fraudulent contracts which will account for a very small %. The running and set up costs will be fairly small, I believe they have a small office in a shared business center. A phone and a laptop should cover the rest! What is speculative is the motive, I believe Thompson was forced out as CEO, was given the position as "chairman" to appease, realised it carried no weight and left. This new venture is just there to cause a few ripples and imply to those that do not know any better, there could be trouble (more than UW are already in) ahead with a wave of claims. Seems a little bitter, but then it was his company. All this info is available on google
Or if it’s not going well Dad would need to pony up some working capital. All speculation as nobody knows the truth. It could be that he can’t stomach the risk in UTW anymore
I like the potential here on the recovery. They are still well within their revolving credit line and have identified the areas where the problems have arisen and are addressing them. 68p a year ago and now 10p so would say it is all factored in. Need to shift the line of stock which the MMs have from Mr Thompson and it will start moving.
Because they need the money. Can be a divorce or cash flow problems.
They can't be 'forced' to sell. If they own the shares then it's entirely at their discretion if / when they buy or sell shares. He will have sold at a significant discount in order to get them away but I guess his view is that he'd rather bail-out than wait for the price to drop further. Also, if he has no link with UTW then he can aggressively target their customer-base via his son's business (Business Energy Claims). I assume that they would have had to agree a timeline within which they can't contact UTW Clients. After that time it becomes open season.
LONDON (Alliance News) - Utilitywise PLC said Geoff Thompson reduced his holding in the consultancy firm following a transaction on Tuesday.
Thompson cut his holding to below notifiable level, having previously held a 6.0% interest.
Shares in Utilitywise closed down 15% on Tuesday at 8.80 pence each.
By Evelina Grecenko
Number nine as I type......I’m a prophet..... wish I was in profit.....lol
Gla
Lookout guys the Ask is almost double digits.......it would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.....
Who knows, hopefully something soon but I guess it will be at the beginning of the week not the end as the board will need to time it with their road show in London. Also, some nice buying today , three trades of the same amount went through one after another... I wonder if the buy key got stuck... lol
I hope they release their numbers this month....
If we hit the risers board today? Might need a TR1 form though....gla
I suggest you look at the last set of interim accounts and the trading update for the year ending July . Also, a stake building exercise seems to be going on. I’m not that confident to pace a value on the business but I kinda think it’s upwards of where we are today... imho of course...gla
That said these shares were bought by someone so perhaps we will get a holdings announcement in a day or two...
Be interesting to see if we have a new investor on board...gla
Explains it all....