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Boards
It might well have been Harry's if we still had someone's expense account to stick the bill in to, but as it is all P.A. these days a wine bar of somewhat less cachet I fear, & before you ask, no we're not going on to a lap dancing club afterwards, bit too OTT in the current climate
Wolf
Spot on, FD has a habit of calling this one right.
Over the past year the shares have fallen faster than the proverbial wh@res drawers, down 60% near enough.
Logically one would think that they are due a bounce but if it does it'll likely be a dead cat one.
I saw that, you can't make it up can you ?
As it happens the Tower Hotel is very handy for me but as you might recall Oct 19 (1987) was the day of the crash, & some of us involved in it are on a mission to remember it, hence my unavailability...
I note that today there is a RNS out announcing the investors day next week.
But to give shareholders 6 days notice only could possibly indicate the board rate PI's as a rather annoying encumberance to their lives ?
Well after posting that they needed to start spreading the word better with Investors I have just had an invite from AJ Bell to an investors event for 3 companies, one of which is MERC, at the Tower Hotel evening of Oct 19.
And to cap it all I can't attend as I'm already committed that night !
Scharnhorst
My sincere apologies, I thought I'd just taken your bait in the Norwegian fjord !
I am astonished, a few investor days might move the SP up a bit, considering the skin that management has in the game you'd have thought there would be plenty of puffing, but not.
Someone is bound to go bottom fishing & pop MERC in their keep net unless the board do start a bit of self promoting, as jollspec says, this is grossly undervalued.
Mein Fuhrer, I was fully aware of the xd date, but thanks anyway, it was the low price that attracted me, plus the probability of a further 0.5 p after Dec interims, last year they paid 0.3p twice so hopefully that double up formula will work again.
They certainly have the cash to pay it with, my real worry is that they paid too much for Northern VCT's (most of the old team from Newwcastle have gone hasta la vista, never a good sign) & Northern were great performers in their day but all of that came from MBO's which the new rules have outlawed, hence, I guess, why they wanted to sell.
I noticed that the Northern fund raise last year was a much more leisurely event than some of the more favoured vct's, Amati for instance was closed in a few hours, others in just over a week. That is my only real negative on the company though.
I felt 23.75p was too tempting just before divi pay date and the strong likelihood of another divi in the interims that I averaged down, aka topping up. They have plenty of cash, management have plenty of skin in the game, what they don't have is plenty of buyers of their shares, sadly.
You gotta be in it to win it...
FD
Indeed, it was the monthly divis that drew me to look closely at it, started buying 2 or 3 months ago & have been adding on weakness.
It certainly looks to be a good story and tightly managed too.
Funny your investments seem to be attracted towards dark liquids...
FD
Thanks for this, yes the Spoons announcement is very significant imo.
As you know I am in London & most pubs here are pretty dead, seemingly trade is dire.
I guess an ordinary pint at £6.40 can't help, even with the rise in interest rates we have just seen I believe those loans fixed by Findlay & co are still higher, though some have been paid down now I believe. Nevertheless a further facility up to £160m is welcome news but a bad half year could see that being eaten up.
On the bright side, at 35.5p the shares are little more than option money so for the brave yes, but much less potential loss than pre covid !
Me12345
You make an interesting point, my car cost me £263 last year and was offered renewal this week at £322, yet on a comparison site I could renew with a different co at £266.
I put the details into DGL platform yesterday and was offered identical cover at £640 !
I know this car market is a bit of a bear pit but I was shocked to see the offer from DGL.
eccles
You are right but the one caveat I see is that the carnage in UK bond markets this past couple of months could have a significant detrimental effect on reported profits for the year.
I see at the half year the average redemption date of their bond assets was 2.3 years, if I read it correctly, but with the movement, even in short dated bonds, much more than could reasonably have been expected at the half year does give cause for concern.
Any thoughts on that front ?
Morbox
I was just thinking this morning how pleasant it is not to be lectured on US tech & brexit, but back he returns although presumably having done his dough in US tech is now barking up other trees.
Like a broken clock he hopes to be right twice a day, not that I've seen much evidence of that, tbh !
Mala
I think you are correct, but this is AIM so I wouldn't bet the farm on it...
Until we have further clarification as to the actual issue and the fix for it one has to be aware that this company had an impeccable reputation for efficiency in handling other companies accounts, compliance etc, and that reputation is, until we have these details, somewhat tarnished.