Member Info for BlahBlahDoh

My understanding is we have already had 2 announcements wrt spinoffs - launch of DIM and capital restructuring vote. They are not actual spinoffs, of course, just announcements regarding them, as stated, but they indicate that the planning is over and now we're really going for it.

Whole market is in pullback, so SP slide should be viewed in context - best opportunities occur when others are fearful?

A new loan facility seems counterintuitive to reducing debt. Their reasoning is to "optimise the efficiency of its capital structure with the free cash flows and cash receipts anticipated over the next 12 months". That seems to imply that the facility allows borrowing against future earnings? They must have an urgent need for more financial flexibility, presumably seeing market opportunities they want to seize. Struggling to see through the fog with this stock, but it feels like the sun will come out strongly later in the day.

I think you may have also misunderstood that this vote is not about an immediate demerger, just laying the groundwork for them. The vote is about agreeing to a change to the capital structure. IF the vote is in favour then they will go to court to ask permission for such a change. IF the court grants permission, then they will gain the ability to launch spinoffs. The successful elimination of those IFs could, in itself, affect the share price.

If and when the first spinoff goes ahead and successfully raises new money, I would expect the core SP to go up, because it would confirm and advertise the value, credibility, and imminence of further spinoffs.

Despite this, and the share price below what it was at launch, and the M&G funds performing badly, the M&G chairman still got a big bonus, another huge bonus on top, AND a massive hike in his basic salary. Begs the question, what are the remuneration committee basing their decisions on - do badly, still get massive rewards from all directions, completely out of sync with customers and shareholders.

9.5% voted against the remuneration report at the AGM, with both the old and new heads of the committee seeing quite a lot of votes cast against them being re-elected (7.1%, 8%). The revolt on remuneration was smaller than last year (17%) but still rumbling, with individual directors getting some negative vibes, including the chair. Overwhelming votes still in favour of everything, of course, but directors clearly under critical scrutiny by some.

"With so much potential it is brilliant to see the UK being a leader in utilising human infection studies to help end the pandemic. "
True, and just one aspect of their leadership, but somewhat disappointing that Vaccitech seem to have chosen to IPO on Nasdaq instead of London. They are behind the AZ vaccine and UK Treasury apparently has a stake in them.

Rim very concerned about you MORWENATRELAWNE: long awkward silence - U OK? Did you take some of those magic pills?
Anonymous Canadians dumped 1% of the shares today, but things are looking good here, imo, with revenue starting to flow.

Richard Beddard remains happy with this share, while noting it is "pricey" he likes it's resilience and long term prospects: https://www.ii.co.uk/analysis-commentary/richard-beddard-ftse-250-stock-prospers-through-downturns-ii515784

Meanwhile a massive sale by the Chair on Friday: 1.25% of the total equity for about £12.5M. Ker-ching.

They have already worked on them, we believe, wicky - specifically on materials used to detect the return laser. That possibly fed into the STMicro project picking up where Apple left off? LIDAR receptors essentially just one class of sensor really though, nanomaterials potentially add an order of magnitude more sensitivity to light detection, so there could be wide applicability if they can make it work commercially. Always an IF ( :

Withering attack by James Coney in the Sunday Times (summarised in Money Week), with M&G specifically mentioned:

"By M&G's own reckoning 38 out of 44 of it's funds were unsatisfactory, yet last year CEO John Foley's take-home pay rose by more than £1.5m to £3.88m. The investment industry gets rich by "building up assets, charging a fee that's almost impossible to find (the one you see on the main page of your investment fact sheet is not the real cost)" and there is zero incentive to do otherwise because "no one holds you to account". We rely on this industry to "set higher standards across other businesses that they invest in", yet the firms themselves are run by people who are "overpaid", "unaccountable" and take "bad" decisions . It's time the City regulator applied some "proper scrutiny". "

Agree Barny, despite all the complications revenue has climbed impressively - eventually that should translate into a very attractive balance sheet. SP action seems hard to fathom sometimes, I don't think institutions like the family control, but the underlying business looks strong and undervalued. Debt seems to be more of an issue now because interest rates are rising, but they are dealing with it.

Bagger - last year results were 13th May, ex div early July

Good call DarkArches - 15th December 2020. Placing of 1.6% at 80p. Seller was locked in for 90 days afterwards.
https://www.lse.co.uk/rns/AAF/completion-of-sale-of-shares-in-airtel-africa-plc-s7jk72meywcg5pe.html

Price fell from 90.3 to 73.6 that day, and had been crawling back up erratically ever since, until now. Suspect these placings have an outsized effect because of the small float. Market may now be wary of another one in 3-4 months when new lock-in period ends, and note the smaller price paid this time (75p). Hope the results are good!

Y'ole Developpements - is that a Steampunk name?

The technology moves on apace, the games afoot, but Nano's involvement is crystal opaque

Neither Berenberg nor Edison have changed their forecasts after the trading update: https://www.edisongroup.com/company/xp-power/751
https://www.sharecast.com/news/broker-recommendations-/broker-tips-gamesys-restaurant-group-xp-power--7870171.html

Berenburg point out that the SP has lagged the sector this year so far. Eschewing comparisons with last years skewed pandemicals, the two-year progression looks powerful.

One other thing: they declared a new dividend policy with the half-year results in October - somewhat disorienting just 16 months after the IPO, and adding to the general sense of uncertainty around this stock. Aim of the change is "deleveraging", i.e. reducing debt.

2.5 cents final dividend is expected, making a total of 4 cents. That's roughly 2.9p total. Although subject to exchange rate shenanigans, that's still a reasonable yield at current prices - something like 3.8%. There is also a progressive policy going forward, assuming they don't suddenly change it again! ( :

Tricky one Mary. Spun off from Indian company Airtel, it is largely owned by the Bharti family with a small float. Operating in 14 African countries, favouring West Africa, with Nigeria being the biggest market. Fast growing young populations who love phones with many dependent upon them for internet access. Banking services potentially a big moneyspinner. Not the biggest operator in some countries but competitive.

Trading updates quarterly, final results due in May. Pays dividends in US dollars. Last year's dividend was a generous 6 cents, but interim this year was only 1.5 cents (half of last years).

SP is all over the place, no real sense of direction but vaguely upwards. Main problem is understanding what is going on, despite exhaustive reports - too many changes in balance sheet, tax rules, currency, collaborations, etc. Look at the chart for range: unclear! They had to lower the price to get the placing away, but nothing else has really changed, so a recovery to previous levels around 80p seems likely. Results next month may bring more clarity? Not for the impatient, a speculative LTH, I'd say.

1. ORPH RNSs are under a witches curse. CF needs to kiss a frog or a stone or something
2. Don't feed the troll
3. Yoyo and FOMO gonna make you cray cray

Declined from Q1 last year etet, but improved since the previous quarter (i.e. Q4). That suggests the business trajectory has continued upwards during Q1 in contrast to the SP?

Q1 last year revenue was down due to partial Chinese lockdown, yet orders were up due to healthcare. This year it is the other way around. A sustained strong performance from the other divisions could outweigh the healthcare decline over the course of the year, and the improving book to bill ratio (from last quarter to this) suggests they are on track. With the semiconductor shortages and industry gradually returning to full production it should (hopefully) be a more even year, and if full production capacity is available across China and Vietnam they can put the pedal to the floor.

" speculation surrounding an early settlement is completely unfounded"
We have documents from the court: surely that's far more foundation than mere rumours about fruit?
Not saying he-who-must-not-be-named is wrong, just that his opinion is (typically) based more on conviction than evidence.

1. If approved, this technical balance sheet move brings forward the possible dates for ALL spin-offs. Without it we'd be waiting until the middle of next year for results to show enough profit to allow ANY distribution.
2. CF has thoroughly reimagined how to redeploy the assets of hVivo - three spin-off drug development companies, core services business, and DIM as the final version of the original ORPH data idea. We are in the execution phase now.