Member Info for David7015

Billy Bunter/Aberystwythi

I am sure you are both correct in the views you have articulated. Let’s hope this is good news

Sorry to post a contrarian view, but I thought a large number of posters here were not at all happy with Parker after the Riverfort fiasco . Now we learn that he is moving from non exec to exec chairman. Is this full time with an enhanced salary? Is Tim taking a drop in salary to reflect his new part time role? I only mention this as the company does not have unlimited funds and needs to use what cash they have, very wisely.

The RNS also states that the company intends to look for a new CEO at the appropriate time. These appointments take time, and as someone has already said, we need to make sure we get the right person. So, it could be many months before an appointment is made.

Bailiff: All I wanted to do was join the RAF & fly. My future father in law was station commander at RAF Changi in 1946. Failed the medical in 1970 at Biggin Hill due to my colour blindness.

Very disappointed at the time, but didn’t want a ground crew job. Joined a bank, passed my exams and 10 years later became a partner in a private equity company.

Didn’t realise it at the time but one disappointment opened another door for me.

Have absolutely no regrets. Good luck to your son. He has ability so that door will open for him, just as it did for me.

Profit before tax and adjusting items of £716.4m (2022/23: £453.3m1).

· Statutory profit before tax of £672.5m (2022/23: £475.7m).

· Food sales up 13.0%; adjusted operating profit £395.3m (2022/23: £248.0m) and margin of 4.8%.

· Clothing & Home sales up 5.3%; adjusted operating profit £402.8m (2022/23: £323.8m) and margin of 10.3%.

· Ocado Retail JV; share of adjusted loss £37.3m (2022/23: £29.5m).

· International (exc. ROI) constant currency sales down 1%, adjusted operating profit £47.7m (2022/23: £67.9m).

· Adjusted return on capital employed 14.1% (2022/23: 10.6%).

Nicely, your posting makes no sense. You are substantially down on your purchase price but think it will fall from 27 p to 20p

You should sell, if you feel this way unless you are simply seeking attention with your contrarian forecasts. Perhaps you should be posting on ADVFM as you might find more support over there.

Could really do with a short message from M & S providing a brief trading update ahead of full year results next month. Share price is surprisingly weak given reports of very positive trading

Accept there are macro issues which will have a bearing on the share price & market confidence generally

Fort: I don’t see this in quite the same way as you. At the moment Stackhouse is under water with the previous options although may still make a handsome sum of money once the final chapter in this long running saga is written.

If had purchased 3M shares at close of business today, (at less than the strike price of his latest options) we would be applauding him knowing that some very good news was coming our way.

I look at it like this. If Stackhouse is going to make some decent money from his options, then so are we. That’s good enough for me. The fact that he hasn’t paid for his 3M shares is purely academic as far as I am concerned.

There is nothing illegal here. Just opportunism & greed - Like in most of the Small Caps.

As for the next AGM - is there even going to be one?

Does anyone know whether the introduction of Sareum to Riverfort attracted a commission payment of any magnitude. If so, has it been disclosed and which party, if any, benefited from such an introduction. I accept that a commission may not have been paid but introducers, underwriters etc all receive some payment for their work. That’s how it usually works in finance

Thank you Quady for your response. Last night, Novicehunter stated as follows:

“Have you guys seen the TSX price this evening ? I think someone is having a tin bath with us here so expect all of today’s losses back tomorrow and some icing on top I believe”

I couldn’t see the price rise that Novicehunter was alluding to, so thought I would check his source.

Novicehunter: could you provide evidence about the TSX price as I cannot see what you see

Again, no mention of PH at the bottom of the RNS

What I don’t really understand from all this is that we have been able to complete a capital raise at 10p when the share price is around 14p when the company is in a much worse position

When you consider the discount this offer is to the share price, why on earth could we not have had a raise when the share price was 100p. Surely we could have got that away at a higher level than 50p.

Parker has to go in my opinion. No credibility left at all

After seeing a multi million pound drop in his company’s market value, the CEO, Mitchell is putting in £5K towards the fund raise. This is a man on nearly £200,000 per year salary.

You couldn’t make it up. Absolute disgrace. Sell some of your shares and inject the proceeds into the company by way of a director’s loan.

Aberystwyth: I share your pain in holding for many years believing in the science and directors expectations. Unfortunately, whilst you and I might try to take some positive steps by reducing salaries, particularly in light of the very supportive comments on this board to provide some bridging finance, this is AIM where survival of directors and large pay & rations seems to be more important than anything else.

Give the dire state of Sareum’s finances, the directors are probably already in the life rafts looking for another pharma to take on their life’s work. This will only happen if a takeover is tabled which will require shareholder approval as all assets & patents are owned by Sareum Hokdings Ltd.

So the directors are not compelled to take any remedial action as there is little risk to their livelihoods. But, they need to issue a statement very soon providing a meaningful update, or the share will continue on its downward trajectory, particularly with Riverfort continuing to unload shares into the market.

Jima: I think that your point of view is evidenced by the substantial number of purchases over the last few days. A large number of people believe that the short term finance will either be put in place or an opportunist bid could be made.

Any offer for the company would have to be disclosed by RNS. In fact after the last RNS, the directors should be notifying any material news relating to to company’s finances by RNS

Andy

You are right in that the directors could borrow money but any loans would probably need to be taken in their personal names, secured against their homes. I do not believe that the directors have any great personal wealth with which to bail out the company even on a temporary basis.

The last share option excercise was funded by sale of shares to take up the new issue of 95040 shares - not a huge sum of money.

The immediate answer to the funding problem lies in directors selling at least half of their shares and injecting the proceeds by way of a directors loan into the business. Then obtain agreement for a fresh batch of options to be awarded which will be at a much lower price. So they will have the opportunity to build up a decent number of shares.

I cannot believe that large pharma isn’t already looking at buying out Sareum. But these people are like vultures. They see weakness in the share price and wait for further weakness before pouncing. They will know exactly what compounds Sareum has and will want them at the right price.

I just hope big pharma haven’t already made representations to the directors offering large salaries, benefits and share options. When you see the offers made personally by private investors on this BB, to financially support Sareum it is extremely humbling and I hope the directors will take the opportunity to support them by quickly injecting funds to see them through the next few weeks

Presumably, the intellectual property rights and research material, patents etc is owned by the company and will have a value to a pharma wishing to take this forward, as they will surely wish to do. It would be a travesty if 13 years of research was abandoned.

I believe someone like GSK might be prepared to provide some financial assistance, given the potential that lies in the drugs. As someone mentioned here, this morning. £15/20M is nothing compared to some of the big pharma research budgets. I presume other people feel similarly, hence all the buys.

The BOD must have been aware of the death spiral finance facility that Riverfort provides. Sareum weren’t their first client and GDR’s share price, to name one other, suffered as well. So who was responsible for the introduction to RGO and was any commission paid to a third party as is usually the case. What was director Parker’s role in securing this line of finance. We are told that he has a city background so doing some research on RGO would have raised a number of red flags.

We aware told that a traditional placement would have only taken place at 20p. How to the BOD know this and with hindsight that would have been better than the mess we are in now.

There is no doubt that the directors have been naive in their understanding of capital markets and their actions have destroyed over £50M of the company’s market value.

I am not hopeful that we will be able to borrow money on decent commercial terms. All we have is jam tomorrow. I have said this before, but the directors need to inject some cash into the business for their own share sales to tide us over

By all means, sign up to new share options to replace those recently awarded, but even those are now under water. The directors need to take pay cuts as well. If they don’t then they are showing no leadership when it is desperately needed.

Ajithoth - the directors had sell shares to take upstage last tranche of options. They probably don’t have the money to purchase shares. They need to make some sacrifices or the company will run out of money leaving them with no legacy at all.

I know what I would do

I believe the directors should consider selling up to half their shareholding so that up to £750K can be injected into the company by way of directors loans. This will send such a strong message to shareholders and allow time to arrange other lines of finance.

If they do not do this as a measure of good faith, then why should shareholders support a possible cash raise, should one be proposed

I just do not understand how the directors passed the examination of the AGM so easily given the Riverfort debacle