Member Info for Dartron

An interesting update, though not a bullish one. Interesting that work was sub contracted out when Pitreavie was shut down.

Packaging 5% adj operating profit (this includes Pitreavie), Manufacturing 10% adj operating profit.

Packaging sounds to be the problem "..profits were significantly below 2024 as the business experienced weaker-than-expected demand, delays in new business...". Manufacturing sounds the better part, "excluding Pitreavie, performed well. "

"We expected Pitreavie to be a significant contributor to the Group in 2025, but its performance was well below expectations, mainly due to the impact of the tragic incident.." I think we can infer that the acquisition may have been sub optimal, now that further investment is required "£1.2m investment in new equipment will return the business to full operational capacity in Q2 2026". I cant help feeling that due diligence was poor on this acquisition. Though they do have a long record of other acquisitions.

So its currently trough earnings, against poor macro, with a slightly blotted copy book IMO. Lets hope things can improve through 2026. The lack of financial guidance, and wildly fluctuating earnings does make it hard to put on a multiple on this right now. The yield is currently 5% if we assume no dividend growth, the Buy back really isnt making a material difference here, with a hand full of purchases per month. Aberforth recently increased +1% to 12%, which tells you there is deep value on offer here, even if their might be a long wait before it is realised. Its a hold for me.

I thought the pension scheme may have progressed further than a "possible buy-in". Seems most things at Macfarlane are fairly slow to progress.

The Board proposes to maintain the final dividend at 2.70 pence per share, amounting to a full-year dividend of 3.66 pence per share paid on Friday 12 June 2026 to those shareholders on the register on Friday 15 May 2026 (ex-dividend date 14 May 2026).

Using a share price of 71p, that is 3.8% return. (if you overlook the 12 month 34% decline in share price).

Miton and Lombard are just asset managers, managing other peoples money. They are not in the game of take privates etc. I have no idea why Lombard is still bag holding this. There isnt any one on the register remotely activist. The other thing to watch out for is that Herald inv trust, is proposing to let most share holders out of the trust at NAV, so they will be selling their 4% stake. No idea how they will sell 4% of this without cratering the price. Looking on Market screener, I see that the current FY is forecast to be loss making. Net income -4.2M. I dont think there is much for anyone to buy or take private.

Had to laugh at his credentials, I guess he follows the science.

Alex is a former military commander and No.10 Director of UK Covid testing, with deep expertise in intelligence, strategy, and large-scale crisis operations.

I can read on Coronations website about their returns, stock picks & investment strategy, but you have no credentials to speak of. Who should I listen to?

"Global Emerging Markets
17-year track record" or "forum troll with 700 posts ?"

No point in talking about 2021 valuations iron, very little is trading at 2021 valuations. How can they with so much net outflows and short selling - neither of which are the companies fault. I think the London market is the donkey upon which the companies are forced to travel.

Between 20 March 2025 and 16 February 2026, a total of 3,478,173 Ordinary Shares in the Company were repurchased on the London Stock Exchange at an average price of £1.44 per share. All of the repurchased shares were purchased for cancellation.

So the 5m buy back has completed. During which time the share price only seemed to go down. I will interesting to see if there are still sellers, and what the price does now the buy back is not there to support the price a little. I doubled up at 124p before Christmas, if price goes near there again, im having some more. My long held thesis here is a take private. I base this on a deep forensic investigation into actions rather than words.

Its just some general background about the guy, for people not as clever as you James. I thought it was interesting his past posts, I didnt know the PE angle at Kantar, and I wanted to establish why that position was relatively short. To be fair, there isnt much else to talk about currently, and I think we have all heard enough of what you think.

Some GPT musings..

Ian Griffiths, His background:

Ex-CFO / COO ITV

Deputy CEO + CFO at Kantar

Market intelligence sector experience

Media + data monetisation exposure

That’s not a random NED promotion. That’s sector-aligned capital markets experience.

a) Kantar overlap

Kantar sits adjacent to YouGov in data / insights / panel analytics.

He understands: Panel economics, Data licensing models, Margin structure, Buyer universe

That’s extremely relevant if the board is thinking about:

Commercial acceleration, Partnerships, Spin-offs / asset monetisation, Or… a sale

Deputy CEO and CFO of Kantar from 2020 to 2022”

…that’s basically a ~2-year stint at best. In board-level finance roles, that’s short. Not red-flag short… but short enough to ask why.

Let’s sanity-check the possibilities before we go full conspiracy spreadsheet.

1) Kantar context matters (big time)

Kantar isn’t a normal corporate operator — it’s a private-equity-owned carve-out.

Timeline backdrop: Originally part of WPP, Majority stake sold to Bain Capital in 2019

Multi-year transformation + separation programme followed

So 2020–2022 = peak carve-out integration / restructuring chaos.

That environment tends to produce: Fixed-term transformation hires. Integration CFO roles. Systems separation mandates. Cost-base restructuring. People come in, do the heavy lifting, leave once stabilised. It’s less “career tenure” and more “mission deployment”.

I am still long here, but I would like to say that - I think Sky news are not helping things by front running the story. Its a pity there isnt some regulations to stop journalists posting these unsubstantiated stories.

See I said they would be trading and front the shorts. Well played.

Coronation Fund Managers back up to 26%.

The buy backs will go a lot further at these prices. GBG features in the IC screens column last week. This means that you get a recent 'Fact Set' data for the company. Bear in mind share price was 220p at the time - forward looking PE = 10.7. If I adjust that for fall in the price we are now looking at 9.75

GBG is actually the cheapest of those listed with a PE. The screen is not one I would use, as it looks at high intangibles, and actually that could be perceived as a slight red flag. The screen actually does well picking take over targets due to the mix of high intangibles / unloved companies.

Last year it had Spirent, Deliveroo, Spectris which all got bids. This year they included Pinewood, which nearly got a bid!

Been through the RNS since start of February:

Buy backs in February (not in date order)

800962

797018

702406

667952

660983

645517

597066

579167

438167

=======

5,889,238 shares (1.92% of todays 306m float)

Other players:

Vanguard slight increase to 4.77% (direct)

Spreadex 4.23% (direct & indirect)

Slater Inv. Slight trim 1.46% (direct)

River Global Slight trim 0.899% (direct)

Lombard Slight increase 2.27% (direct)

Harwood Slight increase 11.678%

Griffiths increasing 16.53% (direct & indirect)

First Trust 2.5% (direct)

Dimensional 1.36 (direct)

Blackrock 5.3% (direct)

Aberforth partners TR1 10% (direct)

Aberforth Partners on behalf of clients slight increase to 14.38% (direct) - not sure if this includes the 10%, think it must.

Axa slight trim 1.93% (direct)

Total long holdings found from Februarys data scrape = 67.3% (counting Aberforth as 14%)

Total declared shorts = 4.64, the long term trend is down, but a few have increased recently by fractional amounts to take advantage of the recent weakness. With NFU mutual and Welcome Trust showing at around 4% each, according to Market screener the stock is 80% institutional. It also looks like NCC is a candidate to be relegated from the FTSE250 currently, which may also explain the extra shorts pressing, as leaving the F250 will generate some liquidity. NCC Group (NCC) has announced a dividend of 3.15p per share, with an ex-dividend date of March 12, 2026.

AGM 3 March 2026

Ex-dividend date 12 March 2026

Record date 13 March 2026

2026 half-year end 31 March 2026

Dividend payment date 10 April 2026

2026 interim statement June 2026

2026 year end 30 September 2026

2026 preliminary year end statement December 2026

Please note that these dates are provisional and may be subject to change.

I dont think the employee size are the problem, in a world of AI, the people are the differentiator. Some AI musings from my last discussion.

The data in early 2026 actually supports your "anti-commodity" view: while the market is shorting the "middleman," the actual revenue flow for Bytes (BYIT) is shifting heavily toward services precisely because large corporates are finding that generic AI tools like Copilot are too risky to deploy alone.

The 52-week low of 288.8p today reflects a "thematic panic," but the company's internal shift from generalist sales to specialist-led segments is a direct answer to your point about "deep tech expertise."

1. The "Complexity Moat" vs. Copilot

The short thesis assumes a large corporate will just "buy Copilot" directly from Microsoft. In reality, February 2026 data shows that as AI moves from "experiment" to "everyday essential," the complexity of governance and security has skyrocketed.

Specialist Value: Bytes reported that its Services business saw gross profit grow by over 40% in H1 2026. This indicates that corporates are paying Bytes for the "expertise" to wrap security and compliance around AI, rather than just buying the license.

Inner Circle Status: Bytes was named a Microsoft Inner Circle Partner for 2025/2026 (top 1% globally). This gives them a "seat at the table" with Microsoft’s leadership to shape product roadmaps, a level of access a generic buyer cannot replicate.

Hi Chillphill, I am really pleased to see this rise, especially as I am taking a beating in other tec stocks. Still no plans to sell any. Nice to have something green, doing the heavy lifting in the pf.

Saba are short here themselves, so not only do they get to arbitrage the discount on Herald, they also get to profit from the sale of GBG. Explains why they have been short here for over a year.

Even the buy back managed to buy 300,000. Somebody sold, and shorts dragged it down low to where the bulk of the transaction occurred. A similar thing happened on Bytes (BYIT). No TR1 in either case, but somebody liquidated. I think I have found one possible seller on GBG:

Following the blocked vote on 5 February 2026, the Herald board is moving toward a "backstop tender offer". Asset Choice: The board explicitly stated they will fund this by selling "readily realisable" holdings. GB Group is a confirmed major holding for Herald (approx. 4.7m shares).

Will announce its results for the year ended 31 December 2025 on Thursday, 26 February 2026.

People getting positioned before hand..

Ah, there it is, another contrarian 'buy' indicator, Avocet (The Mystic Meg of LSE) is back.

Persimmon up 5% today, obviously not got the message.

The attraction here is buying the asset under NTAV, and Gleeson being highly geared to the sector. If it ever does re rate, this will be the high beta play. Sell off a little over done IMO, since other Housebuilders saying spring started well. Also, cant discount Gleeson being targeted, if its NTAV is above £5.00. Your describing buying momentum, people buying today are buying discount / value.

Large volume printing. circa 2M in blocks of 250k. bouncing now.