Member Info for Dartron

Centaur are in takeover talks. The stock closed up 25%.

Nice one Harry. That is how you show the market and the shorts that you think the discount is too large.

Director purchase - Harry Hyman - £68,862.40

PCA - Claire Murphy - £19,887.41

Director purchase - Mark Davies - £136,650

PCA - Claire Murphy - £236,340

Close to half a million over the last month - £461k

Milkwood voted down the B share scheme. DSM opted for dividends: of 30 pence per share, equivalent to £13.98 million, with a further special dividend of at least £3.7 million (which would equate to 8 pence per share) expected to be made by 30 June 2024. The First Special Dividend will be paid on 26 April 2024 to Shareholders on the Company's register of members at close of business on 12 April 2024. The Company's shares will go ex-dividend on 11 April 2024.

The bit that was interesting for me is this bit:

Following the payment of the Special Dividends, the Board intends to consult with as many Shareholders as possible in respect of the future of the Company.

I think Milkwood built this stake, after some of the holdings were already sold. So which of the remaining holdings might they be interested in. Assuming the dividend was expected, then where is the upside for them.

FLO Having another good day. What a nice set up FLO was. I missed that.

I would say to keep an open mind about the CFO. This company has been on life support for many years, and he has managed to keep the lights on. This company has virtually no money, it had huge debt, pension deficit... While we are not out of the woods yet, I think we should not be so hasty to say he hasn't achieved anything.

I cant say the same for Kevin, and I had no idea that he was here before it all went wrong. Unbelievable that he would keep his job this long. I honestly do not know what he has contributed in the last few years?

The issue with the old board is that no one else would buy shares. Even Kevin Price wont buy any. That tells you all you need to know about the company. CFO leaving is concerning. Large sell may have been connected. The RNS should have been the other way round. CFO leaving is the big news. Typical Chamberlin burying things again. To say the board are a drag on expenses, maybe it is the other way round. Perhaps the CFO can earn more else where. I mean Chamberlin doesn't have any money to attract any talent (see above re Kevin).

I really wish the news flow had been otherwise, and I was able to sing his praises, after all I have paid his wages.

It is expected that the last day of dealings in the Ordinary Shares on the Main Market will be 2 May 2024. Cancellation of the listing of the Ordinary Shares on the Official List is expected to take effect at 8.00 a.m. on 3 May 2024, and dealing in the Ordinary Shares is expected to commence on AIM, at 8.00 a.m. on 3 May 2024.

Company has no bank loans, Only liabilities seem to be lease liabilities and wages. They are only short by a few million.

Why would they not strike up a RCF or bank loan. Maybe even a CLN. I expect they will continue for now, and this may only be an issue toward the back end of the year if the sales do not materialise. They have at least 80% cash by my maths (factoring receivables and payables).

Ha ha, the heat is the main ingredient.

I hope William Black Can start to put some pressure on these guys. The BOD's lacklustre performance and treatment of share holders has crashed the price. Glad to see the largest non connected holder to keep buying, hopefully to have some clout at the AGM etc.

Finally out of ITM and back in here.

I bought and sold a few equities and trusts today. I wanted to be out for longer here, but it hit the target that I stated in my previous post. I like the trust, I banked 2% of my 6% profit, so decided to buy back. Im not planning on posting every time I buy or sell, but the post demonstrates the volatility here, especially when the S&P dropped 5% today because of weak Tesla sales. Buying back in was probably a bit rash, I think it goes lower.

That sold for less than half the value of the placing 12 months back, I am referring to the 3p placing in May 2023.

So the stock is down 50% in 12 months.

Well I got back in at 874, helped by the Tesla news. I only bought back 2/3, could get choppy over the next few days.

5.1M treasury shares cancelled (circa 10%) total share count now 46.6M.

This is good if the fund were to continue.

General meeting tomorrow...

I sold a decent chunk late on Thursday @894 (my entire holding) Having made 6.6% in 14 days. I think it might well pull back, in which I case I might consider a re-entry, but Im planning to buy another IT on Tuesday with the proceeds. I think its the sector that will re-rate so im not sticking with specific trusts. I know its slightly different exposure, but I like Rit capital RCP, and HHI which goes ex on Thursday next week. I doubt we will see another 6% here over next 14 days, if anything a 2.5% pullback would be my re-entry down to 875.

yes the notice came out late last night. a 7.2m legal claim (assuming gbp as it is held in uk), which curiously dates to a period from 2011 to 2019. worst case, i would say the holding is toast. a loss of about £1.3m based on price had the sale gone through. therefore a reduction of about 4.3% of the funds nav.

had the secretary of state not stepped in, this sale would have long gone through by now. one wonders why the legal action has been bought at this point in time, nearly 5 months after an offer was agreed. why didnt the claimant wait for the sale to go through and sue the private entity? i would expect the buyer to walk away now. if the claim is successful, then the company will surly be would up (as they don't have the money), so who would stand to benefit from this claim being successful. is it a method to push this in to administration, then to buy it.

a final point, i am not clear on what bearing the 'acceptance condition' from the buyer would now have? i think they essentially got 6% of share holders to agree to a deal in advance (back in december). it is possible the purchase of these shares will have to be honoured by the buyer. so my question now is did downing agree to sell any of their shares in this offer, and what does it mean? (reading that fa. chat board, it seems those who agreed cannot now sell). i dont fully understand the mechanics of the sale over there.

one final point, the fa. share price dropped by 40%, but on £6000 worth of sells. it will be interesting to see the next nav announcement to see what damage has been done. the discount to nav here had already widened back to 10%, i expect mainly due to milkwood. therefore, if the fund continues, a loss of 4.3% might not be so catastrophic over time. however, no loss is ever a good thing. i very nearly added to my position here yesterday. glad i didn't now, but will watch for weakness and may add if the discount becomes significant. i think milkwood, makes this a more interesting options, though of co**** usually retail investors end up getting rinsed, so will bear that in mind. a decent offer for eqls could help rectify the situation.

snippet from relevant rns over at fa.:

in accordance with rule 17 of the code, ise announces that, as at 6.00 pm on 30 november 2023 (being the last business day prior to the date of this announcement), ise had received valid acceptances of the offer in respect of 18,647,361 fireangel shares, representing approximately 6.16 per cent. of the issued ordinary share capital of fireangel, which ise may count towards the satisfaction of the acceptance condition.

i have not really followed fire angle, (i am aware that broadly it has been a poor show). however, i am a little confused ab

More good news from today:

https://quoteddata.com/2024/03/newly-enlarged-henderson-high-income-beats-benchmark-2023/

Henderson High Income says its NAV total return for 2023 was +9.8% compared with the benchmark return of +8.1%, an outperformance of +1.7%. Unfortunately, the emergence of a discount meant that the share price total return was +0.9%, with the share price ending the year at a discount to NAV of 7.7% having started 2023 at a small premium of +0.6%.

The dividend increased from 10.15p to 10.35p and this was covered by earnings of 10.39p.

continues...

Need it lower, need back in...

Norma Broadbent impresses with FY results, the stock up 30% (last known 2% of NAV here).

Richard Grithis is buying Centaur Media Plc, he is up to 4.4%.

Journeo plc have received another order.

The Works is delisting from MM and moving to AIM (which should save costs for the company).

SPEC looks the only bad stock currently, making new lows, though reaching strong support.

Now up to 28.02% an increase of 12% (all owned directly). Where has this stock come from?

This is the last snapshot I can find of the register, not sure how correct this might be (WRT downing themselves).

Have Milkwood cleared out Premier Miton?

Note the Foresight group acquired their stake when they acquired some downing VCT funds, they could possibly have offloaded, although their remit, would suggest they too would prefer the fund continues.

I would say, regards any vote, that it appears that Downing themselves have at least 11% of the vote, but Milkwood now have 27%. Very interesting.

Foresight Group LLP - 10,388,813 22.29 % 8 M p

Milkwood Capital Ltd - 7,780,412 16.69 % 6 M p

Premier Fund Managers Ltd. - 5,220,253 11.20 % 4 M p

Downing Strategic Micro-Cap Investment Trust Plc - 5,025,819 10.78 % 4 M p

Downing LLP - 4,291,022 9.207 % 3 M p

Asset Value Investors Ltd. - 3,300,000 7.080 % 3 M p

Rath Dhu Ltd. (Isle of Man) - 2,220,000 4.763 % 2 M p

First Equity Ltd. - 1,500,000 3.218 % 1 M p

Downing Ventures - 743,750 1.596 % 583 301 p

Wesleyan Unit Trust Managers Ltd. - 325,000 0.6973 % 254 888 p