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What a joke and what useless management - I said they were incapable of managing a business and would use consultants to decide to sell off the 2nd leg of their, sorry our, business, and they will in time sell the remaining agriculture bit because they couldn't find their way out of a paper bag. Oh well at least the money gets returned to use elsewhere, and it will be more than if they carried on trying to manage it themselves....
10 years ago this was a fantastic business with the strength in its different operating arms.
Very disappointed that the management didn't do something earlier - its all about confidence and whats known.
i.e. to sell property it would be at a huge discount as everybody knows its a fire sale - so not really on, especially if already collateral. A share raise is now a disaster as the more the price sinks the lower the price needed for any interest, again especially as the institutions know this. What price here - could be 5-8p.
A historical precedent as usual is available - e.g.this happened to mighty Segro some time back when poor management overstretched it, and didn't believe Capital Economics telling them interest rates looked set to plummet - it then offered millions of virtually worthless shares as the price dropped over 80% - then hey presto - has a huge share consolidation so that existing holders (including staff - and I was one!) were wiped out, but the new institutions rescuing them were quids in on the cheap price and subsequent phoenix rise. oh, and the CEO - he went off with his gold plated pension after huge amounts of the staff were made redundant! This involved going from £10 to a penny share and then back to circa £2.50 again with many forgetting that the £2.50 should be divided by about 20 for the true share dilution price destruction.
Can't believe I was daft enough to think these managers knew what they were doing - part of their job is to read the market, prepare for hard times and unexpected events.
I'm afraid this is near wipe out time if you either sell out at a huge loss or have to shell out for a massive dilution.
Not pretty and after much procrastinating I'm still unsure which option to follow even now!!
Agree with the good news, but still think the weakness is 2.74 billion shares issued which means profits have to have a stratospheric rise to really propel this upwards. It will otherwise need a big boost from current commodity prices.
Mmm...that may be a little too optimistic. It will need to rebuild the cash position and be able to start regular dividends again, whilst the political situation is still awkward in that part of the world. Long term hopefully yes!
Bit mean to mark the shares down when the ceo is finally leaving - although to call it a 'leadership' change may have been a stretch. Also still don't like that Harworth is acting like a glove puppet, so don't expect shareholders to be the main focus when you have a hand up your bottom!
Still it will be worth keeping a watching brief to see if they can successfully re direct the company....
Thanks Fevertree re time to sell the other half - I have put it amongst Monty Don's 'jobs for the week' with turning over the compost heap!
Did try and say everyone possible should vote against all the Directors - their Trading update did say '...thereby freeing up key resources to focus on priorities in the remaining businesses'.
I presume this means engaging more costly consultants to help them free up (sell) the other 2 businesses so that they can concentrate on...ohh we seem to have nothing left.
Fortunately I did put some of the previously sold monies into NWF who have similarities - but with some management as well!
Good luck those remaining here, it seems the best option is to wait for a takeover or breakup but much capital may be destroyed before that happens, as it's not exactly an AI type opportunity. For that reason I'm out....
KLK has a big enough holding to stop, and did so last time, the buybacks, for whatever reasons it had.
Therefore unfortunately any buy back has to also be cleared with them even if just unofficially.
It is very undervalued but has been for years.
Palm oil price has gone back over $1000 dollars probably due to Russia's terrible assault on Ukraine's seeds, but this should help MPE's profitability, if not it's share price!
I agree that captainof the ship should walk the plank if he doesn't explain just a statement, as it's pointless noise on a discussion board.
There is though some downside risk to this share despite the positive moves to date.
The £20m impairment losses it has booked on disposed business's, with even on adjusted basis a slip in margins from 6.3 to 5.5%. It still has an 86% debt level and it is hard to assess forward numbers given the businesses being offloaded.
For years it was succesfully built up by adding lots of small players in a hands off way to management acquired - that used to work well and was referred to some years ago by then chairman (former Clarksons man) as the 'James Fisher way' - but clearly the more recent management before Vernet has lost hold of the tiller. It's a disparate set of companies that could become a value trap if not correctly directioned.
I am acting as devils advocate having held these from £1.47 about 20 years ago!
The fundamentals of the company are good - but it's whether the muppets on the board do further damage - has left me having already sold 1/2 some time ago, but similarly unsure as to stay or go on the rest!
(have held these shares some 15 years - were great, but now slipping mainly due to the mgt vs NWF or Wynnstay as closest somparators)
I think you will find it is MCE - announced early in the year as a big business win, it then went into administration causing hire numbers to drop by 27% at year end. This cost money to set up for the anticipated demand and further money being lost flowing through numbers being hit going through 2023 as this business is now lost and gone!
...more like us as shareholders to blame - how can 98% of those voting, vote to keep the directors
Answer because so few of us vote. (I did vote against all directors)
It can be done - I remember at Lupus some years back all the directors were voted out - the company saved and morphed i to the now Tyman.
C'est la vie..!
Bit generalist yourself baron - the share price was £2.50 in 2018 before the wheels of over expansion fell off, and reached a nadir of 97p in 2020. Since then the business has been refocused and is up to £3...that looks ok to me, perhaps even fools can run this?!
Just look at Harwoods dealings with Fulcrums share price...as somebody commented on their board - like having a pile of horse droppings on you.
Some musical chairs on the board, but I would still like a far more radical shake out!
Absolutely tiger, I bought a few JLP but no more largely because they willy nilly issue shares that dilute performance. Often find it makes for slightly gung ho management style...like their prospects if they tightened up.