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Let’s be very clear here. A lot of people (staff as well as Directors and ex-Directors) have made a lot of money out of UTW over the years. That’s fair enough (leaving aside any specific points around sales tactics and revenue recognition policies etc for the time being). What I find shocking is that the ex-CEO and ex-CFO have both gone on to setup businesses whose business models are predicated on slating the very type of business that made them multi-millionaires. Where’s their dignity and self-respect? It’s all very well them lauding it up in their big houses but what about the staff who are now out of work and desperately scrabbling around for work? Many of them have only ever worked in this sector so where do they go to find employment to pay their bills and feed their families? Meanwhile they have to observe their ex-Directors taking the proverbial! Shame on you!
Back again Mr Richardson? Your username would never give away who you are.
How is Troo Cost doing? The revolutionary energy broker after you made your millions at UTW?
The questions about revenue recognition at Enterprise were known for some time. There was always more value in the *profit making* EIC business than was recognised, even by current management. Quite ironic that that's where the remaining value is, although with the loss of customers and key staff over the past two years, it's not what it was.
I feel for all PI's I really do. It has to be said that the core of the staff that remained (the grunts not upper management) after others left to continue to write fantasy business elsewhere gave their all writing clean, recognisable. and compliant business, Never let it be said that the workforce was never less than 110% committed. Troo is correct, who's going to want 20m of debt when you can pick off the profit for a fraction of that from the administrators.
Nope. It’s game over. Staff out of work with immediate effect. I suspect the offers they received weren’t big enough as they would have had to take on the company’s liabilities.
He did but it obviously wasn’t good enough. EIC, T-Mac and Icon are still trading (look at their website).
The company is apparently in administration as of today. I can’t believe they couldn’t find a solution to save it
I think they mean this - http://www.utilitywise.com Very sad for the decent hard-working members of staff left unpaid and out of work. This will hit the North-East really hard.
Doors closed at 4.00pm today!
Enough said
I agree that it might be what's best for the company, but any proposal would most likely lead to massive dilution of already next-to-worthless shares. The banks hold all the cards and have no interest in existing shareholders.
Certainly does Peaky - sure I read somewhere they aren't taking claims against them
Leaves an interesting dilemma for Business Energy Claims doesn’t it, Anon321?
I’m in two minds about this news, on one hand he was responsible for the company at its most profitable state. On the other the things and practices that got them there can’t really be applied to the current market place with the SME data universe shrinking under GDPR regulation. Unless the outsource lead generation to an overseas country and close in the UK maybe. But that max uplift max term ideology doesn’t work on micro business with an online comparison tool.
I disagree - I do think it’s what is best for the company and many are hoping this comes off so that it can be saved. Also sure it will deliver shareholder value
Wonder what the critics who accused him of the accountancy issues etc have to say now......
Very kind of you to say so. Something else to consider is that for all the criticism of GT, he built the business up and would not want to see it collapse. Which makes this particularly interesting: Utilitywise founder Geoff Thompson makes bid to rescue the business https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/business/business-news/geoff-thompson-utilitywise-rescue-bid-15820397?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar
This might not be the best result for existing shareholders and the management team that have overseen the decline in the last 2 years, but might be a hint of optimism for employees.
Thank you Redkite4 that’s given me some perspective on a few points that I was unclear on. And I agree with you about April salaries, it’s nice to see facts discussed
Couldn't have F88ked this up as bad Mr F and his yes men have
I very much agree with redkite 4 I’am being given this information through my broker and notes put out via the company to corporate shareholders, frankly from a serious analyst point of view I’am being advised any value has sadly gone,
The difference between recognised revenue and cash has been long debated on this board.
When a is recognised as revenue, it does not give you the cash to pay salaries until it is paid by suppliers. The question whether recognised revenue will eventually materialise as cash has caused numerous debates about the fair value of this business.
We know that the business took cash advances from suppliers, based on expected future consumption at an agreed commission. The three challenges listed in the RNS are that:
Some of these contracts under-consumed leading to restatement of revenue, and repayment of cash.
Some contracts terminated early (industry processes exploited by competitors).
Suppliers are limiting the level of commission.
We know from the RNS that there is a £25m debt facility that needs to be refinanced in April.
We know the banks won't refinance without further investment.
We know existing equity holders have no appetite.
We know from the Sept trading update that debt was £17.5m, that order books were down and that management were blaming last year's failure to publish accounts and resulting suspension for affecting 2018 H2 sales – “The operational and commercial impact was greater and more far-reaching than the Board had expected”
Has this impact continued into 2019 H1? How will this year’s suspension affect 2019 H2?
If you were a supplier, would you be keen to pay cash advances for new business? Would you be concerned that under-consumption and early termination of existing contracts might require you to claw-back cash?
There’s a lot we don’t know, but based on what we do, in the absence of significant investment which existing investors are unwilling to provide, the business needs to find £17.5m (+- change since July) that the banks are no longer willing to finance, by mid-April.
You’re right, people are jumping to conclusions that the company’s failure to confirm that salaries will be paid in March means that they won’t, and there is no information that supports this assertion.
April, however, is a different matter entirely.
By recognised I mean paid, if a contract is paid and recognised as cash how can that cash then not be used to pay a salary?
You can't pay salaries from recognised revenue.
I fail to see how you can all jump to these assumptions based on limited information provided by a local rag. Most likely based on wild speculation from competitors to cause panic and chaos. I find it hard to believe that they will struggle to pay wages in March or any other month due to continued acquisition sales from their field and telesales division. The revenue recognised from field alone would be able to pay the salaries left to pay.
Someone mentioned this must be a terrible time for the people that work there, I absolutely agree with this and many of them will be looking to this chat to try and get perspective on what actual share holders think of the future of the business. So try and base your opinions on actual facts and bare it in mind before posting utter shite rubbishing the reputation further
Even Chris Grayling wouldn't have made such a mess. For staff to be told that BF is in constant negotiations with the banks is a bad sign. They have told him they need new investment, so BF is only trying to keep the business on life support. He should be seeking new investors (unlikely) or trying to salvage some value from the business. EIC should be worth more than the market cap. While claiming that H2 trading was affected by last year's share suspension is most likely just an excuse, the longer this uncertainty continues, bigger consumers who read the trade press are unlikely to sign or renew, and what value is left is being destroyed.
The company note are still totally out of there depth, crying out for investment in bad strategy after bad strategy, the company, in my opinion is almost worthless, I have a few long standing friends who now are employed or been employed by this company and they say the managers still quite bad, the recent newspaper about February pay maybe a bit of false information as from what I here some departments have been total, no investment or sale and that means no pay.