Member Info for barchid

Agreed
But whilst a 20%performance fee is good why were Northern the only major vct supplier I can think of that did not have a fund raise in 20/21?
Might it be because MERC paid a full price for what was the highest rated vct provider under the old rules (MBO's for bteakfast/lunch & Dinner) which came to a juddering halt a few years ago & the punters knew why but not MERC ?
Their last issue, previous year, first under MERC took at least a few weeks to fill whilst previously they went so fast that punters drove to Newcastle to deliver their form before Royal Mail would arrive.
Compare & contrast to Amati vct which opened at 09.00 on a March Monday online in 2021, closed at 10.20 and we were mostly given only 40% allocation.
Food for thought

I must confess that I love it when a board starts to have a plethora of negative views being expressed on a stock I have identified as one to follow (& indeed already have a half decent holding in), not because I like an argument, I don't, but it often gives a LTH another entry point.
I am not saying it is right to be buying them but my gut feel is they have got a lot of things off the table now & with their dominant online presence will soon start to do better than many expect.
My views only always dyor, but it seems a pretty safe tuckaway to me.

Boards & Scharnhorst
Being serious for once there is a very good article on website of International Biotecnnology Trust, this months factsheet for investors.
If you read this it gives a very good idea of the difficulties an operation like MERC has in gaining real traction with start ups or microcaps. The points they raise are specifically for biotech, but they equally apply to the type of stocks MERC holds on its balance sheet.

eccles
I understand you but do bear in mind that the buy/sell labels are allocated on the basis that if you trade above the mid price shown you are a buyer & if below you are a seller, but I am sure you have sometimes bought stock below the mid price, thus lse board shows your trade as a sale when in fact it wasn't ?
These blues and reds are an indication but nothing else, in reality.
Nevertheless I also fancy we will see a special divi but not really sure of how much.

@Boards
It seems that the elastic is just about working after the excitement over the weekend behind that "crypto hedge", it would appear to have the same characteristics as the previous lobster pot ?

Fairdealer
Many thanks for that, food for thought (or not if only half english!).

Fairdealer
Very interesting, certainly I have not been impressed with the Marstons room offer but that could be because I was looking in the wrong places though does indicate their standard is too variable.
On the bookings front though they do seem late June early July to be very busy which augurs well.

Trent
Some good news, after reading the weekend press tips on Spoons & Premier Inns I thought I would check the availability of rooms in Marstons pubs with rooms, on their websites. I picked 10 at random which were reasonably close to, or in, a tourist type of area & always for dates pre the school holidays & it is fair to say that the rooms available appear to be about as rare as rocking horse manure. I pub I had booked to stay in a few years ago had 1 room only available at £120 pn. Having been allocated this same room those years ago it is fair to say it was not at all nice, so if it fetches that price for the next few months it has to be a good sign indeed. I was alerted to the firmness in room prices by a contact who often uses air bnb & he told me their prices had doubled or tripled in some places he often uses so our heavily booked estate backs up his air bnb story. Hopefully MARS can find enough experienced staff to work in these places & we might receive a pleasant surprise.
Especially pleasant after our esteemed board kicked Platinum's offer into touch without a by your leave.

steve
My guess is the twitter crowd descended like storm flies on this and no one else followed them, so they lost interest (and money) ?

leas
I am in London and their stores here are busy.
My guess is many investors acould be awaiting on the first set of clean numbers, after the sales/special divi/share reduction so they can see what the yield is settling at and a "clean" p/e ratio.
I suspect that by waiting they are missing out on a cheap stock, I bought a few more at a tad under 227 this morning.

Boards
More weeding again today, I see Capability Brown must have sore fingers these past few weeks.
Or as we used to say in the stock market "falling faster than a scrubbers drawers".

Don't look bad to me, bank is down, (no surprise should be sold), ROI down, no surprise there given the non working protocol.
Bookers showing just what could happen when hospitality finally gets going properly. Fear of inflation probably good for Tesco
All imo

Fairdealer
I fear the poster whose name rhymes with Tesla (a clone perhaps ?) is a fine example of the old proverb "empty vessels make the most noise".
WRT his shrink I fear King Crimson beat the shrink to it with their 21st Century Schizoid Man, which sums him up a treat.
I did promise him to keep it comedic but he does it for me.

Evening Gents, good to see the Musketeers are back.
Certainly there have been some remarkable sales in vc land but only one of mine has come through post Oxgene and not one Merc holds either.
My gut is they have a couple in their balance sheet which are coming close to a sale, but as we know in these vehicles it can be all or nothing.
Meantime the 35p recently is looking somewhat distant, even through Scharnhorsrs naval 8x30's.

adv
Oh come on, a lively discussion, hardly an argument, I just wanted to make sure I hadn't missed something....
We all have differing views on the divi, ultimately time will tell.

Royc
I understood what you said and that you did not mention 7p, sorry am I missing something ?

Claire
The point that appears to elude you is that we are now a very junior partner in the brewery and a 100% owner of a rather disparate estate of decent to pretty low level premises.
Carlsberg are indeed impressive owners, but not if you are under 50% owners as we are as was Kronenbourg, Holsten Baltika & Bosman etc as examples.
Are you naive enough to think the Danes like us enough to treat us differently ?
Marstons has some good premises and some pretty poor ones, I've done the rounds of a few and there is zero equivalence between them. Pitcher & Piano, Cornhill London, is in their upper league, read the google reviews on them, it might enlighten you.
Can they improve their standards, of course, but it takes time to change perceptions.
Can they make much from selling on Amazon, I guess you know that answer.
Ditto Tesco etc....
Findlay seriously outlived his time at the top, we shareholders need to look to make our premises better & within the constraints of our banking covenants, imho.

Royc
I did read that RNS but my question repeats, where does 7p come from, or 28p in the old form, what are the distribubale assets worth per share ?
Baby Dee sang a great song, "let me be your fantasy", do you really think those shrewd managers in T Wells still go to house venues and dance to it ?
Or do you think their maths drives them after reviewing the balance sheet ?
If you think the former perhaps you should be investing elsewhere?
Well we shall see soon enough, but frankly I prefer reasoned arguments to throwing a dart in to the board and tout that as the answer.
But again, perhaps duke is Mystic Meg in disguise ?

duke
What in the accounts makes you pick 7p as a special we have extra distributable reserves yes, but are they going to distribute everything or prudently hold some of it back for a rainy day ? What do you think our distributable reserves are worth, per share?
7p is 28p in the old form, optimism is a wonderful thing but what facts do you have to back this up with, & if you do why is the rest of the AIM universe not picking this up ?
As a LTH of over 5 years so far I am most interested to hear your reasoning please.

Diaryman
You do indeed give me every reason to stick with the humour, how could I not with your posts?