Ryan Mee, CEO of Fulcrum Metals, reviews FY23 and progress on the Gold Tailings Hub in Canada. Watch the video here.
That’s all you can do- rely on your own judgement – as I said I was involved in the finance of hi-tech propositions from the mid 80’s on – the starting of a science park in a famous university city but won’t say which as I would like to stay anonymous.
Some we got right. e.g., a tiny company at the time that has since grown into one of the UKs largest semiconductor listed companies.
Some which we didn’t back which was a mistake – one, a couple of boffin types approached me for finance – placed in my hand a sandwich of two bits of cardboard 1cm x 2cm – thin, but had some electronics inside – they advised me they managed to save one song in it and were looking for finance to increase capacity to 3 songs – to be honest, it was simply beyond my capacity to understand what it was all about – I struggled with DVD’s at the time! – I think Sony bought them out..no doubt some of that technology is included in every phone in the world!!
You pay your money and take the chance – but never invest more than you can’t afford to lose – Que Sera, Sera as the song goes – Have a great weekend!
Katstrangler – Just thought I would mention that my ‘switch on’ comment wasn’t just based on the fact he just bought the shares.
I use a ‘thing’ on my computer called a search engine – if you put his name into this facility and London - then press the search button (the looking glass symbol), it will then come up with more details about him – investments, FB, twitter, LinkedIn etc.
Drill further into those you can see he attended a prestigious school, St Pauls (my uncle attended there and ended up a head solicitor of one of UKs top retailers, living in Notting Hill) and studied at Imperial College. He is 64, a business investor and seems experienced.
I’m not saying he knows for sure where this share is going, nobody does, but I take comfort that someone of this standing has also invested.
Now, it will be interesting to see if he increases his holding which indicates long term – or reduces which indicates short term profiteering.
Whilst the RNS was issued today, it states the threshold was crossed on the 17th April, the same day as the placing – I guess he was one of the privileged investors!
We wont know if the entire 3.3% was acquired in one go or just added 600k + (.33%) to take him into reporting territory – still, good news as he seems to be a switched on type of fellow!!
Maybe, and don’t get me wrong I think this will be an extremely good share with huge potential, but if they must do another placing, it simply demonstrates the lack of financial planning driven on wing and a prayer basis – most businesses will do P&L, cash flow forecasts, covering several scenarios.
They will know what the maximum orders they can take on without running out of cash or have pre-agreed facilities in place before taking on new business. As I said before, half businesses fail when expanding as they run out of cash – yes, it’s great to taken on huge orders, but if you must wait 30, 60, 90 days for payment, and your suppliers want payment up front as you are a new business, well as I said, the funds run out. Perhaps they are not as naïve as it appears on the surface, have done all the necessary excel spread sheets and have a master plan?
I think most on here can see the huge potential, but the company still has to offer discounts on the share placing – maybe there won’t be any more placings or they will keep getting away with it, but it’s not an ideal way of giving shareholders confidence.
I guess up to now the LTH are having to pay the price – or perhaps they will sell the businesses at a huge profit, and we will be all laughing and patting them on the back? – or must flog one off on the cheap to raise cash…who knows!
Don’t get me wrong, I trade for entertainment these days, used to be in hi-tech corporate finance myself for 30+ years and keeps my hand in, but could do without unnecessary avoidable risks! As I said, I’m sticking with my holding, if nothing else for the ‘roller coaster ride’..keeps the old ticker going!!
Agree - The problem they are facing is they are expanding quickly which needs funding.
Normally businesses expand at a slower rate and therefore fund expansion from retained profits over the years.
There is a higher-than-normal risk of expanding this quickly, due to lack of information e.g. profit margin data – then it comes down to gut feeling, boarding on a gamble.
Normally a finance company/bank insists on annual projections, so not to be ‘bounced’ into further funding a few months down the line + tying in directors in by personal guarantees etc. – this placing is boarding on impatience/laziness.
Having said this, if we can believe the directors, all the products seem ‘hot’ and of the moment – so could be a very good thing?
A lot of people don’t realise that a lot of businesses fail when they are expanding, not losing business – they simply run out of cash as funds tied up in o/s debtors/production costs etc.
Having said this, all finance costs money, so I suppose giving new subscribes a discount is probably the same a s paying lending fees/interest? Also, they didn’t seem to have a problem raising these funds.
I do have faith in these directors, but these boffin types do seem to have a lack of basic finance reality…longer term financial requirements would be good to save these regular placings.
I probably won’t be adding but will be keeping my holding…after 40 years share dealing, I don’t know, there still is something I really like about this one…gut feeling and all that!!…although it does test the nerves!! Get the feeling other on here feel the same!!!
Funds raised from last placing 20th February was to be used as follows:
- £0.6m to build commercial inventory of MicroSalt Limited
- £1m to purchase autonomous shuttles for Guident's Remote Control Monitoring Centre clients and for fabrication and testing of their regenerative shock absorbers for prospective clients
- the remainder of the funds raised will primarily be for additional working capital.
Perhaps demand has been higher than expected and maybe its a good thing – who knows, they need to publish some hard figures to calm LTH – whilst the directors seem top notch fellows, trust only extends a certain amount!!!
Who are these existing shareholders? not me!!
Not surprising oversubscribed, the cashpoint that just keeps on giving! – there must be some notices re major shareholding on 21st April so we should find out, although the 16p brigade from last subscribe have probably flogged off their holding and used the booty to make a fast buck here again?
Still, I suppose the purpose is positive…not sure if that’s enough to hold price or see it downed again for another yard sale – 14p?
TC Yes, all done as far as this share is concerned! I was going to do it after 5th April, but the recovery in the far east/India made it worthwhile doing it before - it will be a more relaxed today as trading the ftse large ones and at my level barely registerers! - It was vaguely annoying yesterday, as the bank trading company I use, thought that due to the number of trades, there was some sort of fraud going on, kept logging me out!
Baf3 – you are right..the shares are very tight around 17p – ideally I would of wished to move larger amounts around, but had to sell x amount, wait about 30 seconds for them to register and then buy x amount back as they simply were not available unless I supplied them – that’s why there were so many trades – had to do it over a short period and keep quiet, otherwise others would have nipped in and beaten me to it!
Hum -- sounds like some more good news – that should make the share price plumet! Sorry, sarcasm is the lowest form of wit!!
Also, no sign of major shareholder notice T1, so if it was one taker of the new shares, they must of flogged off at least 9m shares to get them below the 3% (4.9M) reporting level – so hopefully the bulk sells may slow down?
Idiot may be a bit strong, but I’m of the view that the older a person gets, their perspective on life changes. When you are in your 20-40’s, just hungry to make the cash, but at 60+ you’ve made your stash and the priority is about leaving your mark – Max is clever guy, but as I said he needs to understand that he is using other people’s money, most of whom are younger and want a quick good return – Its all about trust – personally I think he will do both in his own sweet time? – here endeth the lesson according to St. Bigbang!! :)
23rd February will be interesting when the new shares are issued. Maybe there will be a new major shareholder? – they will have to issue a T1 form if they hold more than 3% (4.942K shares), which will be another RNS…or have whoever sold enough to get below this figure? However, they would have disposed of 10m shares, if it was just one holder…or will existing major shareholders increase their holding? – again they would need to submit T1’s if their holding goes up by more than 1% - I suspect things will become clearer if this is the case – Ill have to catch up in the afternoon of that day as indisposed again, but will read your comments – As I said before, reasonably laid back about this, as relatively small % of issued shares and in any case finance costs, even if it borrowed from a bank! – and if the money raised is for the right reasons, could be a positive and the price will then recover as investors digest information – time will tell!! Also, Max is doing OK, but perhaps needs to focus on a return for the investors, rather than producing stuff for the good of mankind – both would be good!! - I would hope the share price will recover quickly?
Maybe that’s what all the larger sells were about over the last few weeks – whoever, forward selling their placing shares in advance and making a fast buck? And you are right, the Pis get the raw end of the deal – Having said that, 16p isn’t too much of discount…at least it wasn’t 6p! and even the most successful businesses need capital to expand at speed – so maybe things will settle down?