Member Info for Dartron

I see on the 24th Aberforth Partners LLP increased to 11% (+1%). Nice to have some professional consensus.

Also note that The Company confirms that, the share buyback Programme has now concluded in accordance with its terms as announced on 21 January 2026.

A lot of the stock the company has bought back and cancelled has been sold by short sellers, now it is them that must conduct the buyback. I too am wondering what we have missed here, but the crowded short trade appears to lack conviction, with most firms around 0.6%.

Your price target shows a lack of understanding of Foxtons, which derives more revenue, margin and Ebitda from lettings now than it does from sales.

When you gave your price target FOXT was trading of 5.6x Ebitda, so ridiculous to think it would then derate by another 25%.

Declares an interim dividend of 1.40 pence per share ("pps") for the quarter ended 31 March 2026

The Group remains on track for its annual dividend target of no less than 5.6pps for the year ending 30 June 2026†

Dividend was fully covered for the quarter

Unaudited NAV total return for the quarter of +1.5%

Exane BNP starts Bytes Technology with 'underperform'

Exane BNP starts Computacenter with 'outperform'

Gervais provided an update on the future of the trust. Following the board’s consultation with major shareholders, it was decided to offer shareholders the option to roll over their investment or take a cash exit. Gervais outlined the proposal to offer shareholders the option to roll their investment into the Premier Miton UK Multi Cap Income Fund or take a cash exit of up to 100% of their shareholding. He explained how the rollover option provides continued exposure to a similar strategy managed by the same investment team. Gervais also addressed questions on both options.

DIVI winding up, another income stream gone.

Source - Edison research webinar.

The rns says "no earlier than" 30th April. We may have to wait a little longer.

Anyone taken a look at Redcentric? A similar situation of sale of DC, and focussing on managed services. Capital return expected.

They only raised money 6 weeks ago at 47p. I think the share price got ahead of itself.

gross proceeds of up to £10 million through the proposed issue of up to 21,276,594 new Ordinary Shares at 47 pence per new Ordinary Share.

Yes it is more likely to move 20% than 100%. I think there will be a trading update next week. We might see a buying opportunity sub £1.

However, id question whether there is enough stock to sell it down to 80p. Already 14% has been sold short to take the price to £1.

Is much more borrow realistically possible?, or financially worth while? (Stock must be expensive to borrow now).

Who is left to sell? Cobass asset management have absorbed a lot of the shorted stock, going from 3% to 10% in the last 9 months. I dont see them as seller, or other value investors like Perpetual. That is the trouble with such a crowded trade on the short side - seller exhaustion, and pesky value investors who start to get excited. Investors like Richard Penny describing buying Breedon as a 'generational opportunity'. I would be a buyer of any of those large operators currently, with a 5 year outlook.

Ibstock currently around 7.7x Ev/Ebitda, at 80p its around 6.6x. Would only take one whiff of a cement sack being ripped open, when building starts (and it has to start) to rerate to what? 10x, 12x even 14x? As I said, the key thing is the balance sheet, not the earnings so much. It still sounds like Ibstock have land they can sell, and less large adjustments for the current year. Energy is 80% hedged going forward. Even if earnings sag a bit more, the multiple is staying around the same due to short selling, but the upside on a recovery is then growing. If things do get in a pickle, I think the government may have to consider some tax breaks on Energy for companies required for national infrastructure, but we are a long way from that.

Ibstock is very much the Iran of the Ftse250. Just needs to survive to win.

What an apt title.

Adjusted loss before tax range of £(2.1)m to £(1.0)m

Net Debt in the range of £98m to £107m

With 120m debt Ibstock is still pricey today for a take over. As long as they can stay on top of their debt, then this is a good level to buy at, with a long term view. Id love the price to drop a bit more, to be able to take a few more. Not sure it will though. The short interest is part of the trade here, as soon fundamentals change, even slightly it will rerate significantly. As I say, the main concern is that Ibstock have to raise to cover debt payments. That might explain some of the short thesis, but I think most of it is factor driven. In that case, im happy to take the other side. Price will easily double from here, and outperform the market over the next few years.

Ibstock, just like Spire hospitals, is really a strategic asset in public ownership. Country needs both, but they cant pay their way right now, this might be a winner of the next general election, if we get a regime shift. Sorry, not as informative as our resident Gingy. Please keep up the Ibstock bashing, id love that 80p you have plucked out the air.

Fitz could have easily applied pressure for him to go. Although the AGM was not until January, his re-election would depend on their vote.

Short orderly handover sounds quite sudden, but the timing might just be mutually agreeable to all parties.

It didnt matter what the update was this morning with those shorts declared it was always going to go down. Sold mine at 175. Plenty of time to get them back. Lets see about the next CEO. Is he positioned for this to go private? Better still, they dont appoint one at all. That's a real signal.

It sounds like a new 'idea' from Reeves as of this week:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/apr/17/rachel-reeves-to-raise-windfall-tax-on-low-carbon-electricity-generators

Il profess to not be full yup t speed on this, but after I learnt that it applied to assets pre 2017 i did the following:

Found that 84% is based in the uk.

Then looked at the time line and extracted the MW values from 2017 to 2025.

I then pasted in the donut chart from page 35 of report "By Subsidy/Regulatory Regime"

https://www.nextenergysolarfund.com/reports-and-publications/

Then shared the answer.

Id appreciate any help on this, im trying to work out if the restated dividend is affected. Im guessing not, because its windfall earnings, which would have been helpful to NESF, but were not baked in when the dividend was reset ?

I use GPT as assistance, but the source info was provided to GPT from NESF website, digging in 2025 report. I always provide my own data to GPT or its a waste of time. To be fair, it spotted the 2017 angle, I had not. That sent me off digging in to the NESF report for asset breakdown.

A bit of research, not followed through

tax levy applies to assets built before 2017

For NextEnergy Solar Fund:

A chunk of the portfolio will fall into this bucket

But not necessarily all of it

And some revenues may already be: fixed (PPAs) or below threshold

So impact is: meaningful, but not “whole portfolio nuked”

84% assets in uk

looks like they had 650MW assets in 2017, they have 1015MW as of 2025.

Think:

“84% can be hit, but only part of that actually is”

So roughly:

16% → safe (non-UK)

~20–30% → relatively insulated (PPAs etc.)

~50–60% → main exposure

Good news

Not 100% exposed

Decent chunk in:

PPAs

diversified ROC bands

Bad news

Still heavily tilted to:

exactly the assets government wants to tax

Likely exposed to levy (high risk buckets)

- ROCs (1.2–2.0) → the big chunk (~60%+)

- FiTs UK (~6%)

- Possibly some “subsidy-free” depending on pricing

Older assets exactly what the policy targets (“pre-2017”)

Evaluating the 280p bid:

EBITDA ~ £50m. Ev 540 (based on share price which is up 10% over last 2 weeks 🤔).

Market - Ev/Ebitda = 11 times.

Bid value ~ £600m

EV/EBITDA ≈ 12x-ish

For:

Healthcare

Consumables / sticky products

10% organic growth

Strong cash generation

12x is a joke. 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡

In a decent market this could easily be:

13–15x = 320–370p range

Shows you how broken uk market is. 280p is 2022 price before the purchase of Peters surgical.

Obviously its a 22% premium to todays price, and over the last 12 months this has dipped below 200p - a hedge fund shorters favourite.

But that's woeful really. That said, we get these rumours every 6 months and other buyers walk away, so maybe the valuation is more complex that I am considering.

I have pretty much only held this for a take over, but have held it over 2 years, and its done nothing. Now a 22% premium, .. meh.

We are at that point in the cycle (just starting to re-rate), where take overs are now detrimental, to uk investors.

A 40% premium would be more in line with my expectations, so £3.30. If there is interest, lets hope it flushes out somebody else to counter bid.

I finally had to trim my position today, after it became over 8% of my SIPP. That was the only reason I sold. I trimmed 30% and banked a 50% gain on the shares. Deployed money back in the FTSE all share, seems the have the best performance - COST and ESNT.

LUCE is now my 2nd largest holding. I think its a great company.

Carbon price support removal impact

The preliminary assessment is that the removal of CPS will potentially reduce the Company's NAV by 0.8p-1.9p per Ordinary Share.

All renewables dumped today on this news.

£9 just paid. 😨 Shorts closing!