Member Info for AIMOilking

US closed at equivalent of 4.69, so we should see a rise tomorrow.

The other problem at the moment must be stop losses, many must of been triggered by the drop since 10th Feb and that can cause a bit of a snow ball especially if the shorters are active as well, but the risk for them is the sudden bounce that does not retrace and that can certainly happen with MCRO.

What we need is some good news stories to bolster a basically good set of results, I would like to see Directors' buys, new contracts/partners etc announced, let's say £250m moan paid down and announcements on forward strategy possible sale of surplus assets to core business, if there are any, a share buyback and even some surprise for holders such as a special dividend or discounted script issue which could also further pay down debt etc.

We have had drift in sp following a good run and for steady sp growth we need good news stories, otherwise we'll just be waiting to any hype over the next set of results and dividends in six months.

Added again today. I am not worried about the right offs as with a software company what is important is the IPR and long term contracts that generate the 40% margins and free cashflow. Debt is higher than I would like but is manageable but then 15-20% is already covered by cash in the bank and another 15-20% will be covered by this year's free cash flow. Plus given the cashflow, refinancing again before 2024 should not be an issue. If MCRO sold an asset, more of the debt could be written off. My only interests now are margin, free cashflow and growth of revenue and dividend.

Good news but when is the fund raising coming, Bell must be running on air by now??

Answered oen question - recoding date 12th March and dividend payment date 15th April 2021 and a total 11.3p per share.

Anyone spotted when the dividend will be paid?

The market is spooked by the right down but the underlying business is strong. During the year the debt has been refinanced and reduced. Cash in the bank has increased by $381.5m, free cash is being generated and margin under the global circumstances has remained strong. The business has and is implementing a clear strategy and has $1,100m of cash and finance available which is plenty of headroom. The dividend has been reinstated. The market is digesting the data, the shorts are considering their position, there won't be any fireworks today but I am sure we will end blue.

Added.

Markbell,

Under the current circumstances, I think those figures would be good, but I am hoping for that profit figure after any exceptional items etc. Another interesting measure will be free cash generated and how much cash in the bank.

Broker has actually downgraded MCRO from 650 to 630 - Oh no! I would be happy with 630p anytime soon - thank you.

Currently equivalent to 4.38 in the US that is a decent 16p ahead - tomorrow could be interesting.

I agree, 480 prior to results and a 6% dividend over the year with further pay down of loans.

Post results, almost certainly higher but who knows how much given current market and global economic conditions, but MCRO should be better positioned than most to succeed. As I have said many time before, the underlying value in MCRO are the long term contracts with many companies across the globe.

I would hope the cash position will be good, from memory there was 1.1bn in cash and finance facilities available.

I agree, I will be truly surprised if these don't buck up a little with the approach to the results. With a decent set of results these will then rise, it all depends on the balance between free cash generation, loans being paid off, margin on turnover and dividend policy and that is not saying that some further right down will be included in the mix but nothing like last year's £1bn.

Although these have bounced back from the £2 low, they have a very long way to go to catch up with the rebound that many other shares have experienced. I added yesterday and today DYOR.

Don't wish to hard, we don't want another Hewlett Packard!

CFO change - any comments?

What I thought was interesting and actually relatively unusual was that in addition to the usual Chairman's thanks , the CFO was given his own paragraph which seemed very up beat and attempted to justify that now was the time to go between completing the rationalisation and now generating lots of shareholder value or words to that effect.

Is this good or bad for the sp or do we need to wait until the new CFO is appointed to appreciate the impact - comments?

I have to say, with the current market rise, I had thought we would have been back at 500p.

Dividend is nice when everything is rosy in the garden and also helps to get the institutions and funds on board, however, paying down debt keeps the value on the balance sheet and the sp should remain higher than if a dividend were paid. Reducing debt has the additional benefit of removing concerns over size of debt and practically also increases flexibility if required or management of financing is required to reduce costs. Administering a dividend also has a cost, so if we are into cost savings there is an easy one. A 3% dividend woulod send a good signal and an additional 100m (balance of unpaid dividend) of debt paid off (plus perhaps another £250-400m paid down) would also send a good signal, plus a message of a dividend growth strategy. The BoD needs to strike a balance of keeping everyone happy.

But we will just have to wait until the 9th, 24 working days away, but a good news RNS in the meantime would also help.

With the date of 9th Feb being RNS'd that has removed another uncertainty i.e. when and could have been later in February.

I think that RNS will help reduce the downward drift with the lack of news and 25 trading days to the report is not very long in the scheme of things.

I also believe that the earlier the announcement in February the greater the likelihood of good news, companies generally delay bad news as long as possible.

Given what we have seen in recent months - quite optimistic.