Member Info for Cardinal3

I bought 100 shares years ago for my on board discounts but got rid during COVID as I couldn’t see me going on a ship any time soon after the quarantine catastrophes for people stuck in inside cabins on board for days or weeks. The PR was dreadful and even now there are tales of people catching the bug on board.
P&O has a loyal following but they are reducing in number as cost cuts reduce standards, as some see it, and ships get bigger (with fewer ports able to take them) for the family market which doesn’t suit the traditional clientele. Sailing from Southampton has its attractions when people see the state of UK airports so there are upsides. From an investment perspective I can see Carnival offloading it’s UK operations.

Rock
Good point. There was a statement at last year’s AGM though whether there will be anything new so soon after the recent update I’m not so sure.

Good to see signs of life in the share price. Onwards and upwards…please.

A firm will look to cut costs anywhere and advertising is among the first for the chop.
They avoid spending money and preserve cash flow.

IS

My concerns are firstly the distraction of the S4 directors from their day job and second whether this is a different way for Sorrell et al to enrich themselves rather than S4 on the back of S4 resources. It doesn’t stretch the mind that much to see in the not too distant future these investment vehicles will offload to S4 (at fair value of course) any successful investments.

LL

Couldn’t agree more that they need to get their house in order before pushing on.
Great example of the lack of attention to basics was the RNS today where they didn’t spell check the name of the acquisition. Embarrassing with something so important but unfortunately provides further evidence of the need for tightening up the admin.

LL

Sorrell may be a smart guy when doing deals but hubris has caught up with him and he will be forced to calm his instincts and build up like-for-like for a while. That’s no bad thing so we can get the visibility of revenues and profits.

Thank you Sanlorenzo.

It puts into context the delays and that blaming PwC was a smokescreen. It looks like the auditors have done a proper job, so credit to them for a change. There were always going to be consolidation issues with companies being brought into the SFOR group at such a fast pace. Chumba's post headline yesterday is a good one.
Next up we have the Q1 results which hopefully will give some clarity on progress and the slower pace of acquisitions due to the lower share price could give the governance arrangements time to catch up.

Pearls

I thought that last week!

I think you need to take into account the political context. If shareholders received a large hike in dividend that could cause politicians to look more carefully with eyes on a prize of a windfall tax on what they might see as excess profits.

I am pleased to see the governance and accountancy functions are being beefed up. PWC had good reasons to push back on publication. When a firm has been as hyperactive as SFOR it’s hardly surprising that admin systems and people skills can be left behind. Having a good audit firm will have helped identify the gaps.
Otherwise the business looks positive and the quarterly numbers at the end of May will be interesting.

Notice that the delays don’t complain about PWC but on their own governance which is being beefed up.

Haggis. Congrats on what must be a record number of posts today. I know most of them say more or less the same thing but you are enthusiastic, I’ll give you that.

The SP is going the opposite way I expected. Possibly the bears feel the write-offs as a result of a downturn in the economy will exceed the additional net interest income gained from rising interest rates.

JG.
My theory is that there was a stand-off with Sorrell about something in the accounts and whilst they begged to differ it wasn’t something that could be sorted straight-away. It’s the lack of any update since then which causes a vacuum and people like me slowly getting twitchy. Uncertainty is never ideal.

Ramping very well haggis. Except until PWC and S4 pull out their collective fingers that’s just guesswork without underlying evidence.
It shouldn’t be beyond their wit just to give a timescale update, following a month of silence. It’s possible the LSE will be having words if this goes on much longer.

On the basis of personal experience of inflation and being retired I have become very conscious of avoiding discretionary spending. I can see only a gloomy economic outlook at present.

Top hat

Many thanks for your most helpful comments

Rock
I had the same idea that the Q1 numbers and annuals will come at the same time. The longer the delay the more the annuals have to reflect on post balance sheet events, which makes life so much more complicated.

Hi Alamo

I’m not sure what a retrospective salary is, nor how you can be in an illusive circle.

I prefer the explanation of the retired QC. I am a retired former company secretary responsible for RNS sign-offs I agree with his assessment.