Gordon Stein, CFO of CleanTech Lithium, explains why CTL acquired the 23 Laguna Verde licenses. Watch the video here.
The article strikes me as a smear piece on Sir Martin. Hopefully it offends him sufficiently to galvanise a positive reaction. A strong H2 is essential because the company, and Sir Martin's role in it, are too vulnerable to attack at the moment. It's one thing the market harbouring negative sentiment and quite another becoming a laughing stock in the general press.
Out of all the headlines in the results that they could have used, this is all that Reuters could see:
LONDON (Reuters) - Martin Sorrell's S4 Capital cut its annual forecast again on Monday, saying like-for-like net revenue was now expected to fall year-on-year and its operational core earnings margin would be 12% to 13.5%, down from 14.5% to 15.5%.
This is what companies are up against.
The results are looking back on the last 6 months. Considering where the world is, we performed very well. Nearly a £billion of invoices sent out in the first half ( the weaker half) made me do a double take. No shortage of work then!
Looking forward, which is all that really matters, 2024 looks like being a transformative year. Very exciting.
No jam today I expect, but any dips from here are going to be hard to resist.
Try not to let the paper loss break your spirit Robina. I think most of us have red ink on our portfolios this year. We are living through extraordinarily turbulent times. Covid knocked the world for six and then, just as we came up for air, Putin went directly insane. The resulting negativity is understandable but remember, humanity has emerged from darker episodes and has always bounced back.
However Monday's results go, there are worse places we could be than in front of our screens. Be thankful for that if nothing else. :)
We will have some clarity on Monday. The share price dropping no news and low volumes is frustrating, but only the board can do something about that.
The whole UK market is under-valued at the moment. If we are close to the peak of interest rates then we should be through the worst of it hopefully.
Good luck all. Let's hope the results don't only dwell on the negatives...
After overthinking it for days, I decided to buy more this morning. It just seems like a bargain. The share price shouldn't be here. I believe anyone who buys under £1 will look back in a couple of years and wish they bought more.
I think most of us are underwater here. But talking to other traders who live locally to me, they are underwater on their investments too. It isn't just S4. The markets have been in a bad place since Putin decided to revealed his actual IQ and there are plenty of other idiots stirring the bad news pot to boot. It may get worse before it gets better but remember, you haven't lost a penny if you haven't sold at a loss.
For me personally, I will hold S4 and wait. This isn't trading advice of course. I'm as liable to an error of judgement as the next chap. But in 2008 I woke up one morning to find my portfolio had been silently assassinated in the night by something called 'A Crash'. There was nothing to be done so I sat on my paper loss. And sat. And sat.
In the end, the stocks I held bubbled back up to the surface and slipped just as silently, into profit. I think S4 will do the same but we need to be patient.
I do plan to buy a few more to average down at some point. I wonder, does anyone know where the bottom is?
The drop can't possibly relate to a 1% drop in EBITA. There has to be more behind it. I expected the share price to rise steadily from the morning lows but it hasn't. The worry now is that brokers will use the trading update as an excuse to short and downgrade the shock (in that order) and send it lower and lower...again.
Well, JCJ, the thing that is staying my hand is the promise that things will improve next year. I have been underwater on shares in the past and more often than not, they have turned round and made me a profit. This one should, but it's far bumpier than I expected. I wish SMS would share the chair with his understudy now instead of clinging on alone when he obviously needs to ease up to get well.
This is yet another profit warning after SMS's illness scare a few months ago. To me it seems obvious that the market are nervous about his leadership or else why the massive over-reaction? Revenue growth down circa 4-6% while EDITA down just 1% doesn't on its own justify a 26% crash. But add those numbers to the bigger picture and the waning confidence is justified. I'm in catch22 now. Well in the red here but can see potential in the concept. Do I top up or try and recoup the loss elsewhere? I want to top up but I worry that SMS isn't the potent force he was.
I have never seen SMS be anything but cavalier about S4. He really does champion the cause and you have to love him for that. However, the share price chart does not lie. Mistakes have been made under his watch and we have taken the brunt of it. Meanwhile, S4 management have received their bonuses which first diluted our shares, and then, to make us feel better, the dilution was mopped up at the expense of profits. Not really a win-win.
I don't believe the share can justifiably drift much lower though. It will eventually turn. Any uncertainty about whether Sir Marten is immortal or not is surely priced in!
Are the markets reacting to this story?
https://www.reuters.com/technology/eu-antitrust-regulators-charge-google-anti-competitive-adtech-practices-2023-06-14/
Thanks guys, all valid points and very helpful. So I guess this painful crash is just an exaggerated reflection of the general 'risk-off' sentiment that has permeated the markets so far this year, further compounded by SMS's unfortunate malaise.
Any other reasons you can think of?
Https://uk.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/bumble-shares-fall-on-news-president-tariq-shaukat-will-step-down-432SI-3037930
News just out of Bumble's President resigning. The shares went down 6%.
Ours have fallen over 50% so far after SMS health scare. It is crazy.
Unless the crash isn't only based SMS's health. (I still wonder about A.I. hurting us)
CEOs have come and gone in companies in every sector since the stock markets began. Why is it such a big deal for S4? Do the markets think S4 will go bust without him? Are the other 9,000 employee's useless? As things stand, are we are dropping like a stone because SMS hasn't resigned????
If Terry has had the good sense to short this down from £2.50 to now then personally, I applaud him. As you know, I bought back in at £1.75 thinking I had a bargain. That falling knife, I did not catch.
I think what I'm trying clumsily to say, is that a variety of opinions make for a healthy debate and may challenge over-optimistic thinking. Or worse, over-optimistic trading...like mine.