Member Info for CJohnSpain

CRV Capital HY to 30th November 2023

There have been no developments in the HY.

CRV Industrial FY to 31st May 2023 (These are the most recent results)

The published FY results are totally inadequate; they give no operational updates at either DLC Holdings or Craven House

Capital North America. There was a notional profit of $816k for the year, but this merely reflects the slightly increased market value of DLC Holdings.

There is no cash generation at either CRV Capital or CRV Industrial. As best I can see, the two Companies are being kept afloat by loans from the main director. The running costs are minimal.

DLC Holdings is trading at a marked discount to its asset value. And I suspect the balance sheet asset value understates the potential value of one or two of the various assets. However, no suggestion of any strategy for outing value. Indeed, no comment whatsoever on strategy.

A simple summary of the Final results is that the value of Craven Capital's investments in all the investee companies, except Biovitos Ltd, have been written down to zero.

All the web-based businesses have zero revenue and improbable business models and have made scant progress towards generating revenue, let alone profit.

The original thesis for investing in these web start up companies Companies contradicted the professed deep value philosophy of Craven House. And were in themselves poor ideas. None of them have got anywhere nor are likely to do so.

Honeydog, the 25% owner of the entity which owns the licence to manufacture and distribute the chemotherapy drug, SI-053, known as Temodex, has also been written down to zero.

Temodex has to pass through a series of regulatory testing hoops before it comes to market. The chances are these will not go well. Writing Honeydog down to zero is pre-emptive, but over-states the case. There is some value is Honeydog, in my view.

Bio-Vitos still has demonstrable value as the RTO into Hemcheck gives a quotable price on the Swedish stock exchange. . Bio-Vitos market cap is currently worth about 520k sterling. Craven own 24.5% of Bio-vitos. So CRV's share there is worth around 130k.

Bio-Vitos's omega oil business has been moved into a new entity, "Rosemonkey". Given that the business falls into a crowded field with intense competition, it doesn't surprise me that they've never actually managed to sell anything. No explanation ever given by CRV or the relevant investee company. The value of this investment is surely zero too.

So the Amigo deal fell through.

When the possible deal was first announced, this produced a brief spike in the share price.

In reality, the deal added no economic value to the underlying businesses, but would have allowed CRV to exit those investments.

The real problem here is that the relevant underlying businesses are very early stage, probably doomed to failure and therefore have scant economic value.

Well, it's currently worth 9.21m krone, which is about 680k sterling.

CRV holds around 22% from memory. So CRV's share is worth around 149k sterling.

HI bbr 391,

there is no equity left in Amigo. Any funds left are going to creditors.

It does have a Main Market listing, which will allow this RTO, if it goes ahead.

The $28m valuation was on a vey small issue of shares, almost certainly to an existing shareholder. Such a small amount at such an exaggerated valuation suggest that these were funds to stave off the companies running out of cash. T

The various companies currently have no viable "growth strategy". They have no sales whatsoever.

For example, CRV said almost two years ago now that Bio-Vitos would soon commence sales on Amazon. So far no products have been sold. No explanation given by anybody, let alone CRV.

It's not a "result" yet, because the parties are still in negotiation, as the RNS from CRV itself points out.

As you might not be aware, it's worth pointing out that shareholders in Amigo Holdings are being totally wiped out in the "orderly wind up". Amigo, a temporarily profitable company, was destroyed by more than two hundred million pounds worth of unexpected liabilities to former clients, who made justifiable complaints about the lending process.

Oh dear, that really doesn't give confidence in the capacity of the phoenix Amigo, risen from the shareholder value destruction of old Amigo.

CRV will be significant shareholders in the new Amigo. Given that payment for Garimon and Honeydog will be in Amigo shares, this would provide an opportunity for CRV to exit its investments in Garimon and Honeydog and get some liquidity on the balances sheet. that would be a real positive.

However, given the underlying assets at Garimon and Honeydog - absorbing cash, no revenue - I can't see the potential new Amigo having more than a derisory market cap.

Hi bbr 391,

I imagine you are referring to this news.

Amigo Holdings PLC (Amigo), a provider of mid-cost credit in the UK that is currently in an orderly solvent wind down, today announces that it has entered into an exclusivity agreement with Craven House Capital plc and others, ending 14 December 2023, to enable them and the Company to further explore transactions which could result in:

- Amigo (or a company in its group) acquiring the early stage businesses of music streaming service ONE Bas.com; worldwide digital magazine platform Magazinos; film streaming service TV Zinos, and payments provider Payzinos (together the "Assets") in return for newly issued shares in Amigo; and

- a cash subscription, expected to be at least £5m, for newly issued shares in the Company (together the "Proposed Transactions").

We'll just have to wait and see....

hi iosbyios,

yes, i'm very well, thank you. yourself?

this is the crucial point in the rns from craven capital:

the board of craven house notes the announcement released earlier today by hemcheck sweden ab ("hemcheck"). further to its investee company update released at 7:00am on 8 february 2023, which outlined that its investee company bio vitos was being acquired in a ************** transaction by nasdaq listed hemcheck, craven house now announces that whilst the acquisition by hemcheck has now been completed and approved by hemcheck shareholders, the prior approval application submitted to nasdaq stockholm, by hemcheck, has not been approved by nasdaq. hemcheck and bio vitos have therefore entered into a supplementary agreement that will enable current operations to remain in operation whilst an updated re-listing application is submitted by hemcheck to nasdaq.

so i wonder what the chances are of the re-application succeeding?

Recent RNS: Hemcheck's application to list on Nasdaq Stockholm has been rejected by NASDAQ. No reason given.

They are re-applying.

I'm happy to forward the accounts to anyone who wants them.

Would obviously need an e-mail.

Part 2

The principal assets of DLC are potential agricultural plots in Brazil and Argentina. These remain unexploited.

There is also the macadamia processing facility in South Africa, valued at about $300k. This too must be dormant.

There is more detail about the loans between the various Craven House stable of companies in the latest three monthly DLC filing to end March 2023.

"The Company - i.e. DLC - has loans of $171,600 (December 31, 2022 - $169,936) due to a company controlled by the Company’s CEO (“Related Party Loans”) which bear interest at a rate of 6%, are due in 2024 (extended by two years during the year ended December 31, 2021) and are unsecured. As at March 31, 2023, the Company has loans of $275,753 (December

31, 2022 - $271,133) due to a company controlled by the Company’s CEO which accrues interest at a rate of 6%, maturing

in 2025.

The Company entered into a loan facility, under which the Company was provided with a loan from KwikBuild Corporation

Ltd (“KwikBuild”), a subsidiary of Craven Industrial Holdings PLC (“KwikBuild Loan”). The KwikBuild Loan holds a senior

secured position on the assets of the Company, bears an interest rate of 5% and has a term of five years ending April,

2025 with interest and principal due at maturity. This is a related party transaction as the Company has directors in

common with Craven Industrial Holdings PLC.

So DLC is being propped up with loans from Desmond Holdings (majority controlled by Mark P) and from Craven Industrial. I believe the latter explains the interest receivable on the Craven Industrial Holdings balance sheet mentioned in my previous post.

As is to be expected, there's no detail on activity here, apart from the losses achieved on sale of quoted securities....

Full year Results to end May 2022.

These were lodged with the Irish authorities late April 2023., so nearly eleven months after period end.

There is a loss of $1,975,000.

This reflects market declines in the value of DLC shares on the date of the accounts and quoted shares held by Craven House North America;: together these total a loss of $997k.

Then there's a write down of value of unquoted assets of $936K. Unfortunately, there's no detail given of how that sum is made up.

Nor is any detail given of the various loans between related parties and subsidiaries.

Nor is any detail given of the activity of the subsidiaries.

Overall, the repost is totally inadequate for any shareholder hoping to read it as a source of information as to what's happening in the Company. This is a very unfortunate side effect of de-listing and the reduced requirement for reporting. This will undoubtedly impact for the worse on how the Company is run.

Is there any positive? Well, admin costs were kept very low at $98K. So dividends on the quoted shares - mostly US energy shares I think - should more than cover that cost.

There's also a $56k interest receivable. Given the Company has only a couple of $K on the balance sheet, this must be a loan to a subsidiary or Craven House Holdings.

The accounts are prepared on a going concern basis: That seems correct in view of the above. So CRH will limp on for another year.

The justification given for de-listing was to cut costs and escape onerous AIM regulation on new deals.

There have been no new deals since de-listing. And no indication that any deals have even been considered.

The best thing would be to realise the various assets and return capital to shareholders. Very unlikely to happen.

Hello penstock: here is what the RNS dated 5th of May said about the 2nd RNS:

"Mega HWM quickly identified another available highwall miner, unit 81, which they moved to the Company's site on Monday, 1 May 2023. The machine was assembled and tested by Thursday, 4 May 2023 and will be fully operational today."

So we do already know it.

But that's not the main point I'm making, directly or indirectly, in nearly all my posts: investors don't need to be and aren't wise to be be defensive about their company's progress. That makes no sense. Feeling happy and upbeat is not the same as being on top of ALL sides of an investment. You don't make money in the long run, by being blinkered.

Blinkered optimism is the default attitude on the majority of company boards; I don't believe that's helpful to investment. it's part of the reason most investors don't do well and give up.

PS You are clearly not a "mug". maybe, you were just a bit naive about the podcasts before.

Look, the Company is making slow progress; if it continues to do so, potentially it's worth multiples of the current share price.

But I just can't understand the excitement of being told by two jobbing PR men what you already know from having read RNSs yourself. Hearing it on Sunday Roast doesn't make it more real, or more likely to happen.

The earlier Sunday Roasts about Ben were totally uncritical; they could have done minority shareholders AND Adam a service by asking some very pointed questions about production projections, difficulties etc. But the two presenters are completely out of their depth.

Hello Erik,

My feeling is it's been a shambolic superb effort with a constant mood music of over-promising, when the complexity of the project should have urged caution from the start.

Realistic Company forecasts are always of the utmost use to serious investors. Serious investors don't want or need to be "happy". The fact I still have a large holding here is not going to stop me making factual remarks, for example, about the gap between promise and reality. Or the over generous option settlements. And so forth. Anyone with a holding here should welcome that sort of posting.

The Avani link is a big positive, reducing MBU is a very desirable side effect. The smaller the Concert Party the better in my view.

Let's see if we can now get to 80k per month by next month. On fulfilment of previous promised time lines for production, you'd have to be sceptical that they can do it.

That's an interesting point associating the change of strategy on HWMs with the arrival of the new FD.

Hello Erik9Haggy,

Delay has been the order of the day with BEN.

If you go back through the listing document and subsequent management forecasts, it's always taken considerably more time and expense than predicted.

This is a comment on the unrealistic optimism of management. It's difficult getting any mine up and running and Ben's Creek seemed deceptively easy.

I hope the Company is more realistic going forward.

Hello Pad,

just read your message of a couple of days ago.

I had a large holding here, bought at 25p, a couple of months after they listed. I sold about 30% of that in the 90s. Should have sold the lot, but thought there would be faster progress here.

I agree that all such start ups face obstacles. You're possibly right that going alone would have been even more fraught.

This is fantastic news: not only is it a clear indication of the prospects of the mine, it also reduces MBU's holding, which is to be welcomed.