Good luck all - I'm out atm27 Aug 2017 18:27
I was on holiday last week enjoying a drink with family when I picked up my mobile and read the RNS on Monday night. I sold out the next morning and got an average of 1.48p for my 350k shares. Good luck to those holding.
I find nothing wrong with the way Woodford are approaching this but the actions of the directors and possibly Panmure are a disgrace. The RNS appeared to be rushed and their was information missing from it to make a decent decision. The fact that the share price was stable prior to the announcement suggests to me that the market wasn't expecting what transpired else one of the bigger holders would have been selling out.
There are/were a few things that concerned me, although the words whitewash agreement was enough for me to decide to get out if I could salvage anything. These were:
1. Whitewash agreement
2. The warrants on the convertible pref shares
3. The interest on the CPS which means the number of CPS is going to grow every year by 8%
4. The lack of any sales update since June. (suggesting there isn't any or the directors didn't offer any information
5. No update on progress on lactate or time frame for P5 (bearing in mind it was supposed to launch in Dec 2017 and it hasn't even gone for CE marking yet.
6. No commitment from the directors to subscribe to new shares (mind you they probably don't think they've got a job for much longer)
7. And finally I just couldn't see how £5m or £8m was going to be enough given their slow research progress to date. I can see £8m might last 18-21 months after some redundancies but I think there will have to be further investment then. I think I'd rather invest in something more certain even if I pay a higher price.
If they only get £5m that's only going to last a year. I also couldn't understand why it's capped at £8m.
So, I'm out, have lost confidence in the directors.
1. Lactate was supposed to be on the panel by the end of the year launched and they haven't given a timeframe. Maybe Woodford knows
2. No sales update since June. That's like 5 minutes work. I assume there isn't any but why should I have to assume.
3. I see SVB were given warrants on the loan in January. I kind of figured this out as the Sphere website did update but I see this as seeking to mislead by the directors.
The institutions don't like it either.
1. Octopus sold out. Trades 42 on Thursday and 40 on Friday 4,750,000+1,500,000
2. Ruffer sold out. Trades 126+144 on Tuesday 3,153,895+2,500,000
3. Herald sold out. Trade 121 on Tuesday, 2,009,262
4. Artemis sold out. Trade 120 on Tuesday. 807,091
I can't be bothered to trawl through any more as I'm out but it don't look good. Of course they could all be selling their shares to crystallize tax losses and invest in the CPS. Are the CPS EIS invest-able? - I have no idea but I didn't see any reference to it.
So, I three options right now.
1. Buy my shares back cheaper and cross my fingers for a few years
2. Buy £