Member Info for aadvark

It’s all positive, but the strategy of hoping the market ‘picks up on it’ is not working. If Sean stopped being stubborn and just committed £2m to a ‘hands off’ buyback he could get this monkey off his back in short order. Frustrating! (with apologies for being a broken record).

The written Quarterly Update is a positive step forward, but a bit bland and ‘corporate’. Probably more notable for what it doesn’t mention than what it does. Nothing on the buy back programme (or non-programme), Minstarters and its path to launch, any progress at the royalties business, developments at First Class Metals etc etc.

I hope there’s at least one media interview to give us a bit more colour and hopefully add questions on a couple of these unreported topics.

Good explanation! Looks like HL participants got nearly double the % allocation of II and AJ Bell - it certainly isn’t always that way round - but a bigger than usual differential.

Through II it looks like I got about 9% of the requested value. Anyone else similar?

With just £290k of shares for the Retail Offer it will be very interesting to see how they choose to manage things. With the current price over 7p, you would imaging the level of 'over-subscription' is very significant. Assuming they don't increase the total volume shares available I hope they give every applicant a set amount in full and then allocate everyrhing over. that. An unusual problem to have!

Looks like 12-15% of the company will change hands today. That's crazy! Will be an interesting 10 trading days before the new shares are issued and even more interesting immediately afterwards!

Interesting developments as FCM ‘monetise’ an asset and POW’s stake is reduced to below 5%. Looks as if it could have been a suitable opportunity for Minestarters if that was far enough along. Any thoughts or insight?

Based on the Rick Rule interview, buy backs generate somewhere near an instant 100% return.

So if capital is being retained for other types of investment, they must be pretty spectacular opportunities. Let’s be positive about that prospect!

There are positives - amongst them First Class Metals starting to rise from the depths - but the absence of a meaningful share buyback remains a huge disappointment.

Just £1-2m on a buyback would get Sean and team a really good chunk of time and enhance NAV/share simultaneously.

I guess we’re due the second of the new-style quarterly updates in 8 weeks or less, so a little more patience required!

For the avoidance of doubt, there have been plenty of errors - at least my fair share - but Alba was one of the worst three.

For those holding now, things may prove different - I hope so - and this isn’t the place to be over-negative. The GROC holding is an increasingly solid underpin to Alba’s value.

Marc001 - to be fair GROC is at, or close to 52 week highs and rightly so. They have consistently done what they said they would do, have non-dilutive funding and credible management.

I retain a meaningful holding and am positive about the future. Ironically I came to GROC through Alba which I would rank as one of my three worst investments ever. My hope is that the gains from GROC will ultimately cancel out the losses from Alba.

No. GROC IPO was 10p and the price only dipped below 5p in 2023. So needs to more than double to be an ‘ATH’.

100k of shares a day will ‘move the needle’ quite quickly if sustained every day. It is sufficient to tilt the balance between sellers and buyers and will give confidence the downside risk is minimal to buyers ‘on the fence’. All good!

The re-start is indeed very good news. Hopefully it will be a sustained daily programme. If that’s not the case, perhaps will get comms this time around about the ultimate scale of the intended buyback - that would be an useful alternative.

Overall I really like the way the company is evolving with an increasingly diverse portfolio. But not executing the buyback programme definitely shows a management ‘blind spot’. It can be done consistently every day, regardless of upcoming news, results etc if set up appropriately.

So I’ll take another ‘patience pill’ and make some small top ups whilst this share price range persists.

For me

The company broker(s) execute the buy back. That would normally be considered ‘arms length’ and able to continue regardless of background activity. So unless there’s a £10m+ deal in the offing and the cash is needed the current situation is indeed baffling.

Apparently not! I remain a solid believer, but surely some explanation or update re the buyback strategy is long, long overdue. Even if just ‘ we’re looking at other options for the cash which may offer better shareholder value’. Come on Sean!!

The Company made the case for the buy back very clearly and strongly. Rightly so. What has changed? That’s the RNS I feel we’re owed.

I hope there is a plan - it isn’t obvious! My primary concern is that the most effective buyback programmes are typically consistent - purchases at a modest but consistent level, day in, day out.

Getting very frustrated about the unexplained and now extended curtailment of the buy back programme. The buys are done on an ‘arms length’ basis, so upcoming news is not an explanation. Anyone have some insight?