Member Info for Dartron

Market was very strange today, AIM down in general. Not fair to point fingers at BOD just yet. Im willing to keep an open mind. Before there was a bid, we hit 95p and people were pleased. Some stocks have sold off a lot since then. There is certainly weakens in the wider market. Hopefully an offer and we get +30% funds to deploy elsewhere.

Soundman, ok thanks perhaps they are. But I quite often see non execs buying before a big drop, like they were not in the know. From my understanding, this type of non exec has appointed themselves to the board as they have enough votes to vote it through. They have unlimited access inside the company, but need to ask rather than be told. So I therefore thought they might not know the ins and outs of the deal. Being non exec they cant really influence the deal.

To be black and white about it, they cant have much info and 'executives' as they are non-executive. The non exec is only there to represent shareholders.

I am wondering why Kestrel are not buying more? I think they have room to buy some more, and are only non-executive directors so would not be bound by any closed period? Not really followed this much recently, but the price is now back to the level before the offer was made.

Browsing that site Rivaldo, you missed one:

https://www.insidermedia.com/news/midlands/liquidation-confirmed-at-ai-driverless-vehicle-company-business-hit-by-funding-issues

This one made me laugh, the absolute clown show that is RBGP could not even appoint administrators!

https://www.lse.co.uk/rns/RBGP/update-on-intention-to-appoint-administrators-uxk57bvb2vtpq39.html

And for those FRP fans here is one where FRP got the job:

https://www.lse.co.uk/rns/ZYT/conclusion-of-sale-process-and-asset-wind-down-wdme2vy0em4orvl.html

Tennents, I agree. Its just madness to think that 17% will be dumped in the market especially after the RNS. They could have started selling before today if they had wanted to. I wonder if they will do a book build / placing to the other II holders. If that gets away at £1.60 then this will be an instant bagger. Worth having a hand at the table I think.

Weichai Power could increase their stake from 19%. I am not expecting all 33M shares from Bosch to be sold on the open market. If that was the case, they would have already started selling prior to announcement (assuming they are not locked in). Anyone got any thoughts on this.

Off topic, I would say this was semi public news and shorts have piled in here, be glad to see the back of them now and the bogus posters.

i had to look them up. another firm of yank quants. perusing the website i see some odd (woke) boasts:

we have a high-performance linux environment. each technologist has their own office with a window.

charitable contribution of $25k annually

direct access to founder-president

merv-16 air filtration

gis a job. go short yougov. lovely **** and balls forming on the hourly.

iv not heard back yet.

'They' are going to need to close their short before results. IMO. That was a shakeout, hopefully break £4 now.

But you never know.

Doesnt really affect Begbies. If firms make redundancies. Also I think if firms do get in to difficulties with HMRC, they will have a fair period of grace, meaning HMRC escalate things slowly. Beg are just one of many in this sector, so I am not expecting a wave of work to suddenly appear for Beg. Could be different in another 6 months, but will Labour take it that close to the wire?

Im not keen on capital return via tenders.

Crazy idea but what if CAPD split itself in to a 'start up mining fund' and then an industrial company. Do you think both would be worth more? I do.

Well cone Carl.

as previously announced, the Group remains on track to launch this asset finance/hire purchase capability during H1 2025, giving it access, through its existing dealer customers initially, to adjacent markets several times larger than the Group's existing core lending product and positioning the Group firmly as a multi-product lender in its chosen markets.

They would be better off if customers left. They must act now, and not prolong the inevitable. Some customers they may be able to move transparently, although each customer knows the location, so would have to be told. IOM have their own dark fibre network linking most of the major centres (that cost a few million in circa 2012). So connectivity would not be an issue. I think the Atech (Microsoft) and Broadcom license arrangement + services will help keep customers. That is the point, they want better customers who then use the services.

Yes they had an offer, and maybe at the time it did undervalue the co. The issues are post covid (to use it as a time line). This is when the large data centres ramped up, and 'ate their lunch'. It took them a while to realise, and they began to pivot away. Obvs, Covid didnt help and probably slowed them down doing this. I think they probably hoped that the decline would be a bit slower and pay for Atech, or reduce the debt a lot more. Is what it is now, but they need to cut the data centres immediately.

(my own point of view, I could be wrong of course. I am an amateur investor buying aim stocks!)

My opinion is that the recent acqs are a very good idea. They need to pivot away from the data centre model as they just cannot compete with the hyperscale's. In a way that part of the business is fast becoming obsolete.

The best thing they could do, would be to get rid of several data centres, there are some old and quite small ones. The buildings are leased. They should just write them off - I doubt they will be able to sell them. Reduce opex immediately (and staff). Ideally consolidate 12 data centres in to 6. I know this sounds drastic, but the business case has completely changed in the data centre world. Much like it did 10 years ago, when IOM were riding the boom on the way up. The Cavendish broker note does hint at this, so I expect the co have mentioned this already. If they did this it would be immediately EPS accretive. (Surly they can move customers to other centres?).

They need to pivot to being a services company, which they are with the past 4 acquisitions (all look v promising). A journey that was started by the previous CEO (who appears to have been sacked in favour of Lucy?). Ironic that the Atech acq, came from Marlowe PLC, who were in the same mess when they sold it. If they could tidy it all up, perhaps a bigger fish can then take the 'people business' + 'remains of DC' - something likes Byte IT plc for example, who do a similar thing. Otherwise this could be quite cash generative if they can stop the bleed, and may achieve a higher multiple with EPS growth etc. (After a complete reset!).

I dont think they have another business that they can untangle fast enough to sell, but they need to reduce the opex more than the balance sheet debt IMO. The web of businesses that they own and operate is quite vast, when you look in to it. Trust me I spent hours on this so far, and decided to cling on, mainly because there is about £50M of assets on the balance sheet (they own freehold to their flag ship centre in Marlow) I think Angus McSween wont let this go down. He is the founder who stills own 15%, so he has lost around £10M in last 6 months. You could argue he doesn't need the money, as he already exited this in 2013 when he sold a load for £11M. I hope he comes back fighting, he is a non exec here now but retired as ceo.

I am undecided about Lucy, the current situ, is not her doing, but we have seen no leadership from her towards the market. We need PR, share purchases, decisive action.

Target, we can simplify this much more.

What we need to see here is director buying. Specifically - LUCY DIMES. Buy some shares.

If Lucy really believes in bigger bolder better, then she needs to put her money where her mouth is.

IF she wont buy, why should we. Lets hope this isnt Schroders selling out, but it might be.

24.00 130,000 Unknown* 23.50 24.50 31.20k O

Someone got a worse exit than i did.

Hi Everestingly, are you a subscriber to this? off topic, is the service any good?

I cant really see what case they could make for AGFX right now. I dont want to sound negative, this is actually my largest holding, but as staveley said...

Do you know about this website - https://www.sqcresearch.com/ Im not a subscriber, but you can at least see what is being suggested. Not sure its worth subbing to small caps stuff, they only seem to regurgitate info from the RNS. Who really knows what is going on under the bonnet of a small cap, except the insiders.

Most fund managers who owned this are looking for growth. That growth is not there currently, hence they sell. If you listen to the fund manager interviews, what comes across is that they have to focus on their best ideas. They will be judged on how they have performed over a 12 month period. Companies like Beeks, Yu energy group, etc are easy choices for fund managers, as was Yougov 3 years ago. I think its much easier for fund managers to sell a stock like You than it is for a PI. With the price so low, it has bought in the speculators (most of us on this BB). The difference with speculators and value investors is that they have to wait much longer. This wont wash when a growth manger reports that nothing happened with Yougov for 12 months, but an activist did write a letter...!

I expect there are some who still feel the valuation is high here right now (given some of the story as well). Again some professional will sell at a 20% loss if it means not taking a 25% loss next month. Not something I can do or need to do personally. I would suggest reading as much commentary from fund managers as possible, you get an insight into who else you are trading with. I think applying technical analyses to this on any time frame above an 30 min chart is pointless.

followed you about 80%. yes i did buy on a spike (18th july 2024) (i did way worse on a euro denominated trust last year 14th may). i think some of your reasoning assumes no change in hefl during the period, but of co**** that has moved around as well. the monthly fact sheet tells you what has moved the nav up and down. fair play for taking a position based on reasonable assumptions. i have read various posts where you have traded in and out of other trusts. did you consider just going long the dollar full stop (what is the best inv trust for that)? i focussed my equities to dollar earners, and did some spread bets on gold, but its not really in the pension like this. i actually found trying to follow the macro on a daily basis was much harder than i expected. my point this morning was that i dont think trump has effected this trust much, obvs the tariffs and trade war, but so far its not changed much. despite what people say about the fund manager it is his job to navigate these obstacles.

im not sure what else your expectation of nav discount was based on, but of co**** we had an interest rate cut as well.

Ok, he has a few shares. I dont count Harwood, its almost a problem having him at 29%. He has veto over everything.

Not seen Baines buy shares, if life's so easy and he can run another company...?

They seem to clutching at all sorts of straws to boost revenue, they did an RNS for a analyser for pets once!