Member Info for Dartron

I sold most of mine yesterday, then the rest this morning. Agree administration / pre pack looks most likely.

Shame as the company has assets making it worth around the 8M. But there is no way PI's will see this. I realise that now.

I think the situation moved very fast, what I expected to drag on for 3 months, accelerated in to about 3 weeks. Its a binary gamble now, with v low odds IMO. There might be a spike, but I expect they cant afford bills/wages at the end of the month, this will be done today or tomorrow. There are regular 200k sells at any price. I took some losses, but fortunately I sold when I did, many of my purchases were around 2.5p which was the bulk of my exit. Willing to admit I got it wrong Neil. I still think Aurelius will be the buyer, but yeah, of little consolation being right about the deal, if you cant benefit from it. Another lesson from the market.

Got a few.

with cash at the end of September 2023 of £13.5 million, following investment in inventory.

That is about 15p per share. If you can sit on these for a year or two, probably multibag.

Yes read the history, Neil was adamant there would be a placing. I said no way.

Anyway, ill leave Neil to it, wonder why he is so keen to post here.

6M shares were short in September. OUCH.

For anyone else reading this - Neil has been wrong about everything else here. He has no clue.

The Sky report is referring to people who paid far higher for their shares. This has hit £3 previously.

The major II's will have averages above 50p, I think they are calling the shots. Directors bought at 10 to 12p.

Https://www.lse.co.uk/rns/SFE/response-to-media-speculation-los29tbnj7cz12p.html

In 2016 this company did make £20M PBT.

It is well capable of generating that type of profit, if anything they have improved many things since then, including the factory which came on line in 2017. I have consistently said that there will be people out there who will want this. I have a few ideas. Many I have already posted. When economy improves this should do well. Especially if we see the DIY boom, from people improving rather than moving. I doubt it will be a PLC at that point, lets hope for a buy out very soon. Directors bought between 10p and 12p - a line in the sand IMO.

Https://news.sky.com/story/london-listed-safestyle-opens-door-to-company-sale-12981794

https://www.lse.co.uk/rns/SFE/response-to-media-speculation-los29tbnj7cz12p.html

Hope they got that short covered.

I think those SWS articles are not very useful IMO. They are kind of AI generated, just looking at some key numbers. If you are going to invest in small caps and AIM stocks, you need to go deeper than a few headline numbers. Yes it has got a lot of debt, but sounds like it has headroom. Below is info from the RNS regarding the debt.

The debt facilities consist of a £70.0m senior finance facility and an undrawn revolving credit and overdraft facility of £25.0m, both maturing in November 2025 but with an option to extend for a further 12 months. Including cash balances of £36.6m, the Group had access to £61.6m of combined liquidity at 1 July 2023.

Nice spot. I do monitor Castings, but not seen the update today because they are on the main market. In terms of geography:

The group operates two iron foundries – Castings P.L.C. (Brownhills, West Midlands) and Wm Lee Limited (Dronfield, Derbyshire) – together with the CNC Speedwell Limited machining operation which is also based in Brownhills.

You never know..

Sounded ok to me. The TU did not provide the previous EBITDA margin, which proactive are reporting as 20.5%. Bit silly to say 'lower' but not quantify by how much in the TU.

Adjusted EBITDA margin was just over 17%, compared to 20.5% in the previous full year, which was attributed to reduced average utilisation, partly reflecting quieter summer months.

https://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/1029202/alpha-fmc-says-more-positive-market-sentiment-is-returning-1029202.html

Yes it all looks very positive, -7% today. Enjoy your war.

I was scanning down my stocks of an evening. Not followed the news that much, but in between these posts have read up on it. To be honest, I have tried to block most of it over the weekend (on Twitter), as I cant stand horrific images of human suffering, who ever they are. I am really troubled by any kind of suffering, be it war, torture, starvation etc.

As an outsider I have a feeling where your ideals lie on this matter, and I wont discuss it further, other than I feel all war is ultimately futile and not in human kinds best interests. There will always be wars unfortunately, it is just too convenient for certain ideals, or perhaps too easy to misuse under the guise of certain ideals.

To your point, no the USA did not declare a war after 911, where as the Israeli prime minister has. It sounds like the trouble is not contained yet, so these issues are on going. The Israeli shekle has dropped about 5 or 6%. The UN are trying to intervene now. Until stability exists there will be extra risk to this investment - pretty obvious I think. I would expect the Israelis to regain control fairly quickly (though im no military expert). It does not sound ideal with Netanyahu on corruption charges either, but I deliberately do not follow news in that area of the world, as it seems way too time consuming for how depressing and frightening it is.

My point perhaps back to BVC is that this risk was perhaps always there, and has now manifested. You can use it as a chance to slander me if you wish, however your insults pail in comparison to what is happening over there.

I have been questioning why several foreign companies are listed on the London market. What's in it for the UK?

Clearly this is a set back for the investment, how ever you spin it.

-7%. That's what you call regional risk.

I was aware of the blog, and a few others.

It is just a waiting game now, to see what the financing looks like. Then we could have a meaningful discussion of how far that money will take them, and what effect on the NAV it will have. Assets are not even in the price currently, so plenty of upside IMO. I doubt the losses would be that high personally, they are well attune to minimising the losses. BOD even forgoing payments. The period you are basing those losses on, dont forget all of the exceptionals they had: Cyber attack fall out, paying off Misra, Moving from Duraflex to Liniar (caused payments due at different times). Made redundancies. TV advertising etc.

I don't think you can model the cashflow from the previous 12 months. I do think the new financing might give us a clue, I would expect them to need money to make it through at least another 6 or 7 more months of this environment. In that time frame it would give them time to explore further restructuring, possibly even a strategic review.

Dof, if your interested, the differences there are:

1) Greater than 50% ii ownership (at far higher prices).

2) Property assets worth £15M vs £3M mcap.

3) Company has previously been very profitable. Contraction is temporary due to economy.

4) New lending in place, just being agreed - no placing confirmed by last RNS.

5) DP has had many more years in charge as CEO to buy shares. RN been CEO for about 12 months - He will have to buy on market as placing has been ruled out.

EQT has never been successful, has never had positive earnings per share, has never paid a dividend - SFE has.

Its a fair train of thought if you don't know the details, but there really is no similarity between the companies or their situation at all. I have also only been in SFE for about 5 weeks, so not seen month on month decline either.

I was once an EQT holder (around 1.3p down to 1p). As you say, things have just gone from bad to worse over the course of 3 years.

What gets me, scanning the RNS is that David Palumbo does not even own 1% of this company, if you need any evidence that even he is not convinced there it is. Everytime you consider buying these shares, just remember David Palumbo doesnt think its worth buying them, other than for a token show to steady nerves whilst the II clears off. I expect there is a nice carriage clock or picnic hamper somewhere for this. I do not think EQT has a future, maybe there are bits that might work if someone else ran them, but as a whole EQT are not going anywhere - and it looks likes no one is interested other than mug punters (v little II ownership here). My advice would be to sell, and if this is your largest / longest investment, have a serious think about what you did wrong here.

I have added PHP to my new income portfolio today. I like the sound of the listing on the JSE, and the general steady nature of this enterprise. Also bought in time to get the next dividend. Looks like some of the stock was short in September, but it seems to be reducing. (Also took SREI, LGEN and KGH). Aiming for 7% return to next October.

Well Nutmeg is in good company here then.

I do miss bluerill, has he sold (or been re-assigned?)

Did Resistance get the promotion, because Stock-sensie has such a daft name?

Can you really be the 'real deal' if you only post on Easy Jet?

I think I have a wet patch from laughing.

Oldbutnowiser, when you get to a certain age, the 3 way has a lot of appeal. Helped get the old boy up, to above £4.