Member Info for DavidHos

Bazzaman

That's what they used to do... The following might help explain what happened;

Mountfield Sells Operating Arms, Plans Fund Raise To Become Cash Shell

Mon, 15th Feb 2021 13:24
(Alliance News) - Mountfield Group PLC on Monday said it has conditionally agreed to sell its operating businesses in a management buyout and become a cash shell instead, planning to raise GBP3.1 million in a share placing and look for new investments.

The Wickford, Essex-based commercial flooring and specialist construction company has agreed to sell both Mountfield Building Group Ltd and Connaught Access Flooring Holdings Ltd.

Mountfield Building Group will be sold for GBP1.7 million to Mountfield Holdings, composed of GBP113,334 cash plus assumption of MBG intra-group debt. Connaught will be sold to Connaught Group for GBP2.3 million, of which GBP842,188 will be in cash and the remainder the assumption of a Connaught intra-group loan.

The buyers are owned by Chief Executive Andy Collins and Executive Director Graham Read, who will resign from the AIM-listed company on completion of the proposed sales. Cash received from the management buyouts will be used by Montfield to help pay off bank debt and trade creditors.

Mountfield's operating profit multiplied to GBP1.13 million in 2018 from GBP203,895 in 2015. While there was a GBP278,322 drop in 2019 operating profit to GBP850,851, the company had at the time viewed this as resulting from "problems with a particular contract which were unlikely to be repeated".

However, the first lockdown in March 2020 brought Mountfield's growth "to an abrupt halt" and it reported a steep drop in half-year pretax profit in 2020 to GBP80,605 from GBP719,056 a year before.

Mountfield Non-Executive Chair Peter Jay explained: "The company's trading position has not improved since 30 June 2020, with turnover, operating profits and the levels of secured turnover continuing to run at levels not seen since the recession of 2008 and 2009. The directors anticipate that the group's operating profits in 2020 are unlikely to be significantly above break-even."

This drop in profitability has hurt cash flow and it has becoming "increasingly difficult to support the costs of maintaining the company's AIM quotation". Additionally, company directors are no longer willing to keep providing personal guarantees for Mountfield's bank overdraft facility.

Should the current trading pattern persist longer than expected, or further deteriorate, Mountfield said it may not be able to continue as a viable business in its current form.

Jay said: "The directors, therefore, concluded that the solution to the company's present problems that offered an opportunity for shareholders to see value accruing to their ordinary shares would be for it to dispose of its two trading subsidiaries, Connaught and MBG, with the purchasers agreeing between them to assume all of the company's liabilities, leave it free of any debt and for it to b

I’m not selling any of my ORPH shares but have had a punt on MOGP with some spare cash too...

GLA

I think it's worth following the money here (MOGP) too. Two RNSs both buying nearly 5% this morning says something is afoot so worth a £5k punt for 1.5m+ shares and wait and see what happens...

My birthday present to myself! :-)

Chris Potts
Senior Consultant
Lane Clark & Pea**** LLP
I am a Senior Consultant within the Investment team at LCP. I help pension scheme trustees meet their investment objectives through clear advice based on their specific circumstances. I advise clients with assets under management ranging from around £200m to over £2bn.

And Open Orphans's investment company just bought nearly 5% too...

Time to take a punt I think!

News today would be a very welcome birthday present for me...!

03-Mar-21 17:09:07 2,036.08 103,499 Buy* 2,030.00 2,035.00 2m O

Trader_3 Re: Buffett quote - “The stock market is designed to transfer money from the active to the patient.”

Very wise words and I'm going to be patient with ORPH which represents around 60% of my portfolio but nice to see that HEIQ (which represents another 20%) doing well today!

And to finish on two more Buffet quotes: "Risk can be greatly reduced by concentrating on only a few holdings." and "Diversification is a protection against ignorance. It makes very little sense for those who know what they’re doing."

I just hope I know what I'm doing...!

GLA

This is just the big boys driving the SP down so that all us little people get scared and sell their shares. They need us to sell so they can buy so if you want to sell at a loss now then that's your choice BUT this will go back up once they start hoovering up all the sells and get what they wanted in the first place.

The day we'll all find out if we were right or wrong is the day the SoA gets approved or declined. If it gets approved we'll all make many times our investment and if it gets declined we'll all be licking our wounds. I just can't believe the likes of Bycroft and JP Morgan would invest the tens of millions they've invested over the last few days if they thought for one second that this gets declined!

DYOR and only invest what you can afford to lose...

GLA

shandypants2 - I'm sitting on them I promise! ;-)

That's a really poorly argued statement designed to make PIs feel scared and sell.

The fact is that us PIs don't have tens of millions of shares in Amigo (with the exception of Vinson!) so this remains an investment that will either make you several times your investment or, if they don't get the SoA signed off, one that will cost you most or all of your investment. The risk/reward here is high but I ask myself the following question; Why would JP Morgan and Bycroft risk tens of millions unless they thought there was a blooming good chance of us seeing Amigo 2.0 in April...?

Don't bet what you can't afford to lose BUT I think the potential rewards here are well worth the risk.

DYOR and all that jazz...

It was a buy...

I've been in and out or AML since last year when I bought in at 36p. I've bought and sold many times. Sometimes I wish I hadn't sold and sometimes I'm glad I did. I've listened to the chat on this board for almost a year now and I've noticed one thing...

Every time the SP drops you get a bunch of naysayers spouting all sorts of negative stuff but they are never around when the Sp jumps back up... Funny that!

We all know that the journey from South to North is never a straight line and sometimes means doubling back on itself. You either believe this company will ultimately be a good investment or you don't and discussion is good but negativity for the sake of it is only ever designed to get the weak to sell their shares and lose their money.

I find the best way to deal with the naysayers is to use the filter button and try not to engage.

For the record I bought back in today at 1915p

GLA

Unfortunately not all of us had the aforesight to buy ORPH shares at 5p a year ago DumbledoresBeard. Some of us have ploughed in recently at 25-32p and are waiting for something to happen other than ethics approval to see some upward momentum. I'm in this for the long run with far too many shares than I should have but some positive news on the many things in the pipeline would be gratefully received.

No criticism intended either just want CF to throw me a bone to chew on to keep me happy... :-)

Well let's hope the nominated advisor rules quickly as I suspect nothing much is going to happen until a decision is reached...

Did I read somewhere on the board that Cathal Friel wants to buy more shares and has asked permission to do so? And if that's the case, does anyone know when permission might be granted/denied and by whom?

All very well to criticise Canada.John...

Why don't you tell the board what's going on...?

Some big buys coming in after close...

01-Mar-21 17:08:40 1,974.00 750 Buy* 1,966.50 1,971.00 14.81k O
01-Mar-21 17:06:56 1,990.69 10,000 Buy* 1,966.50 1,971.00 199.07k O
01-Mar-21 17:02:18 1,998.127 2,000 Buy* 1,966.50 1,971.00 39.96k O
01-Mar-21 17:03:26 1,998.059 184 Buy* 1,966.50 1,971.00 3,676 O
01-Mar-21 17:02:18 1,998.127 2,000 Buy* 1,966.50 1,971.00 39.96k O
01-Mar-21 17:02:38 2,098.654 175 Buy* 1,966.50 1,971.00 3,673 O
01-Mar-21 17:01:31 1,990.69 10,000 Buy* 1,966.50 1,971.00 199.07k O
01-Mar-21 17:00:10 2,076.861 10,000 Buy* 1,966.50 1,971.00 207.69k O
01-Mar-21 16:38:12 1,990.6907 -20,000 Buy* 1,966.50 1,971.00 -398.14k O
01-Mar-21 16:51:20 1,974.00 280 Buy* 1,966.50 1,971.00 5,527 O
01-Mar-21 16:51:20 1,974.00 280 Buy* 1,966.50 1,971.00 5,527 O
01-Mar-21 16:38:12 1,990.6907 20,000 Buy* 1,966.50 1,971.00 398.14k O
01-Mar-21 16:37:37 2,069.87016 100,000 Buy* 1,966.50 1,971.00 2m O
01-Mar-21 16:35:22 1,974.00 68,112 Buy* 1,966.50 1,971.00 1m UT

Great spot! And very interesting!

On that basis we just need someone to buy another 24000 shares and we all double our money! ;-)

Here's the link for anyone else interested...

https://event.webinarjam.com/register/945/5vv20b3vp