Member Info for Dartron

There is he is, with his rose tinted spectacles.

Anyone who has avoided this company since 2023 has saved themselves a loss of circa 47%. I learnt a long time ago not to believe a word written by BatM.

Imagine being invested here fore the last 4 or 5 years, watching your capital disappear. I can understand the resentment.

Https://www.lse.co.uk/rns/BYIT/holdings-in-company-vmkrwuw2x7y7tic.html

2.3% increase before Dividend funds were received. Puzzling how the SP is not moving, when CF has purchased 5% of the stock in recent times.

Https://cdn.janushenderson.com/webdocs/HFEL+Half+Year+Update+2025.pdf

If you read the last report for the previous half year, you will see that earnings were £9.5M, but they paid out over £20M in dividends. Each quarter dividend costs around £10.6M (based on the then share count). You can also see that gross revenue was £12.2M (giving the £9.5M after expenses). Of the £12.2M only 7.4M came from investing activities, another 4.7M came from 'other'. If you delve deeper, in to the accounts

https://cdn.janushenderson.com/webdocs/Half+Year+Report+2025.pdf

you can see that they raised £9.7M from issuing shares:

"The Company has issued 5.2m shares in six months to 28 February 2025. This issuance has raised £9.7m.."

So even with the extra income from issuing shares it doesn't cover the dividend. Someone posted below that it was ok, because they have a dividend reserve - that's ok to a point, but really you are just being handed back your equity, rather than making money. In August 24 they had £29M of distributable reserves, but then in Feb 25 they only have £18M. I suspect this accounts somewhat for the reduction in Nav from August 24 of 224p to February 25 216p.

I raised this point, as the EGM rns was the final straw for me, I already understood that the situation was unsustainable, and now they are proposing to issue a further 10% of the share count, so that dividend bill per quarter will be more like £12M. Am I only one who thinks that this is unsustainable?

Obviously a lot will depend on the underlying portfolio performance, but the returns need to increase by over 100% for the dividend to be covered. There is an element of smoke and mirrors with the triangular arrangement of equity, distributable reserves, and income from shares issued. i.e. you can say that the income goes toward investing in equities, and that distributable reserves are paying the dividend, but its still coming out of the same NAV at the end of the day. I really think they will cut the dividend, unless Asian equities multi bag (in which case you would make more money else where).

Still great to see so many happy to should down a post using factual inaccuracies like "the dividend is covered". It plainly isnt, just scan down page 9 for the £9M income figure and page 10 for the £20M outgoing figure. Its Rachel Reeves basic accounting, selling gilts to pay the interest on gilts. Same reason the yield is high.

PORVAIR PLC Saba Capital Management, L.P. 0.63% 0.10%

They may have taken this before the RNS yesterday. Be good to get a few more if the price drops.

Citidel reducing slightly. Makes sense to start buying, now they are competing with the buy back.

GB GROUP PLC Citadel Advisors LLC 0.59% -0.04%

Sometimes you just go to know when to stand aside, or go look at another stock. I never look at Ocado, but since you mention it, that's a screaming buy.

BatM has been in decline since 2021, various changes in senior leadership, and they carried these losers for all that time?

What it means going forward? Very little, as they said these were all but closed and written off anyway. You can only judge the performance of BatM by what has happened in the past, I understand that you see potential, but many long suffering share holders know the reality has not matched the story.

Why did they sit on these loss making businesses so long? Sounds like preparation for poor results.

I would not describe this as very positive, in fact rather concerning.

TA aside, Blackrock chose to borrow 0.2% of the stock at recent levels. Citadel also borrowed and sold stock. Im sure they are looking for more than 10p movement on the trade. They must really feel committed to the bear case IMO. You might get a small jump if another short closes before the TU, but I think there is more money to be made jumping in on volatility on the 6th August - either way.

Https://news.sky.com/story/buyout-firms-circle-escrow-arm-of-listed-cybersecurity-group-ncc-13400515

wed 23 july

Cap10 has expressed an interest in buying Escode, which specialises in software escrow and verification services.

City sources said that Platinum Equity, a US-based buyout firm, was also among Escode's suitors.

Interest from earlier bidders, including Bridgepoint and Montagu Private Equity, is said to have waned.

23-Jul-25 15:40:48 235.00 205,080 Unknown* 235.00 236.50 481.94k O

23-Jul-25 15:35:51 235.00 195,000 Unknown* 235.00 236.50 458.25k O

Lets watch if those shorts get taken in now.

High volume at £1.00, not all shown but some here:

23-Jul-25 15:55:12 100.00 125,000 Unknown* 99.80 100.50 125.00k O

23-Jul-25 15:51:33 100.00 1,501,526 Unknown* 99.80 100.50 2m O

23-Jul-25 15:51:57 100.00 259,059 Unknown* 99.80 100.50 259.06k O

23-Jul-25 15:52:35 100.00 192,500 Unknown* 99.80 100.50 192.50k O

23-Jul-25 15:53:22 100.00 1,185,000 Unknown* 99.80 100.50 1m O

23-Jul-25 15:55:45 100.00 700,000 Unknown* 99.80 100.50 700.00k O

Some kind of transfer, not buying on open market. Wonder if we will see a reduction RNS from another party.

Even with no bid, I think Saba capital are in a spot of bother here. They are still 0.53% short, and it seems that price is supported at current level. Have to wonder who would be selling stock at this price, when it seems the catalysts all point to the upside. We may see some movement now, as Saba have to buy that 0.5% back before an offer comes.

Interesting to note that Giorgio has accumulated 4% since last announcement, going from 21.010000% to 25.170000%. I think he only needs to declare when he crosses a 5% boundary as he is over seas?

Perpetual Limited to 12.026%

GBG group who are also moving to MM have announced a £25M share buy back this morning. They also have net debt of circa 1.6x which is comparable to Ashtead Technology. They say that "necessary workstreams are underway" regards moving to MM, and even so it will take until November.

I wonder if at some point, AT, will decide to run a small buy back. Being a buy and build company, it seems sensible that buying their shares offers good value currently. They could even keep them in treasury for a future acquisition.

Its probably a way to assure financial solvency in terms of auditors. They can now say they have access to 20M. Doesn't mean they want to sell.

Certainly lining up to be an epic battle:

Cobas Asset Management, SGIIC, S.A. have bought over 3% of the stock now. We dont know where they started from, but I was wondering who was absorbing all the short stock. JPM have increased by 0.45% which is quite large. We are now 3.68% of the company on loan. I have a bad feeling this is going down on results day, but it also does not make sense as the pertinent info was provided in the trading update.

Ibstock are no.15 in this weeks top 40 most shorted stocks. Results 6th August.

They are just fund investors, I do not think they will make an offer for Bytes. I think its great that they have mopped up so much stock, hopefully we get back 350 next week, meaning we have almost cleared the X dividend drop.

Https://youtu.be/Dij4zoGlrJU?t=3310

Chris Mills - £2 per share on break up.