Member Info for Davius

Well perhaps I should have reread it before I clicked post and I'd have noticed that I put rights issue instead of placing, but the principle I'm getting across is the same, raising money for the company and diluting the shareholding. If anything, a placing is worse because you have no option in it, your holding is diluted regardless, at least with rights you have the option to buy in at the (invariably) lower share price. Fat lot of good that did me with SGP though, biggest bag of shite I've had the misfortune to take up a rights issue on :)

2005 figures indicate turnover of £3.8m and profits of £1.84m, but with cash, securities and short term assets of £111m! Interims to June 2006 showed a big improvement in turnover to £3m but profits of just £75K. Assets listed at £185m though which is staggering. If the full year figures show a further growth in assets then the share price will undoubtedly rise from the current level, which values EIIB at £187.12m. However, I'd need to study the accounts in detail to find out where the heck all these assets have come from.

The management have taken advantage of the rise from under 3p in December to over 7p in mid February by making a rights issue at 6p and raising £1.63m cash. Invariably a rights issue holds the shares back for a time, we've seen it on several 'popular' stocks such as EME and SEO, but eventually trading gets back to normal. Good to see the announcement in November that the losses dropped from £2.3m to £1.1m although the turnover falling 12% was not so good. They also raised £2m by placing 60m shares at 3p at the time. They look like they have an interesting range of products with future potential. I'm not convinced that I'd point a new investor here though, the spread is a little wide, you need a 10% price rise just to break even. It's the kind of stock you'd take a small punt on and come back in a year to see whether you've doubled or halved your money.

Trade mag Microscope had a write up of the £15m working fund loan, but the last line of the article caught my attention: One systems integrator believed it would only be a matter of time before Torex Retail became an aquisition target. Perhaps just a glimmer of hope for beleagured investors then.

Not particulary heavy trade, but with lack of further buying interest it looks like a bit of profit taking, 14 trades for 43K shares, all sells. Being quoted 94.26-98p at present.

Linktone Limited - no intention to make an offer for MonsterMob Group plc Following the passing of the relevant resolutions at today's EGM, Linktone Limited ("Linktone") confirms that it has no current intention to make or participate in an offer for MonsterMob Group plc ("MonsterMob") or to acquire a shareholding in MonsterMob which would trigger an obligation to make an offer for the shares in MonsterMob. Under Rule 2.8 of the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers (the "Code"), this announcement will prevent Linktone for a period of six months from today from, inter alia, announcing an offer or possible offer for MonsterMob unless there is a material change of circumstances or there has occurred an event which has been specified in this announcement as an event which would enable the statement in the asterisked paragraph above to be set aside. Linktone reserves its rights under Rule 2.8 of the Code to announce an offer or possible offer for MonsterMob and/or to take any other action otherwise precluded under Rule 2.8 of the Code within six months of the date of this announcement in the event that: blah de blah de blah. It 'ain't over 'till it's over? Well it's over!

ho hum, threatened, not theated, and meet, not meed, lol. Oh for an edit facility.

ho hum, threatened, not theated, and meet, not meed, lol. Oh for an edit facility.

At 50p MOB is valued around £33m, but they have high debts because of the earn out obligations taken on when they bought up other businesses. Those obligations threated to dilute shareholders to practically nothing because they were due to make some of the payments in shares. The ZED deal gives a £34m cash injections which will be mostly used up to meet the obligations, but in doing so enlarges the market capitalisation to £68m or so (at 50p a share). Linktone suggested an offer of 65p but purely in shares, it made no financial commitment, other than to provide cash to meed the earn outs in the same way ZED has effectively done. With ZED taking a majority stake it now means no one else will bid for MOB, so any increase in the share price has to come from recovery and growth. The SP was at around 40p despite the ZED deal being on offer and could end up back down there now it is going ahead. 48p looks to have been a decent price to have taken, we're now at 44.44-45.52p.

SP down today, comment on Working Lunch that this is a prospective takeover target. When asked, the commentator said 'defintely'. Keep an eye on it...

I'm not using a site Jonty, one of the live feeds I get from my broker shows the London Stock Exchange top 30 risers, fallers and traders. I also have a scolling news feed (I'm running a two screen system) and spotted the MOB report as it scoll past, simultaneously seeing the MOB price flash red to 50p (from 55p). Ultimately the deal should enhance earnings, but I think we're looking at a 2-3 year recovery so I too won't be back in unless the shares head back towards 40p. Very happy to leave this cash in TAN and let that one run.

I sold the last lot around 46p, this time I'm out around 48p. Share price moving between 47p and 49p at present. If they do drop more then perhaps a buy back opportunity, but I think it will be a long road back to decent profits and a substantially higher share price. This morning MOB made it into the top 30 risers, now they are at number 4 in the top 30 fallers. In my imaginary utopian world there are a few directors being lined up against the wall just about now ;)

SP crashed, down over 10 to 45.5-46p at present. Heading below 40p soon?

The friggin resolution passed! Doh.

One spectacular share price crash, they were at 776p under a year ago. A couple of directors bought shares at 167.5p this week following the recent news that they will make a loss this year. That appears to be mainly due to restructuring costs as well as the previously announced drop off in sales. Their real estate assets are quite small so I'm not convinced that private equity would find this company of particular interest. Of couse high property assets are not the only reason why such companies attract private equity bids, but I think it's more likely that a competitor might be interested. Northern Foods have been struggling for a while now and they have huge debt so I can't see from where they'd get the funding. This could be a good share to tuck away for recovery or the possibility of a bid, I will be keeping an eye on it for now though.

Mob up 5.45% is at 26 in the top 30 risers this morning, now 57-58p. SIT (another popular chat on LSE) is one place above it up 5.56% and FLX up yet again with an increase of 13.33%. Top gain of the day so far though is CEPW up 58.82%. Give that company a CEE-GAR!

SP now up to 56.5-58p. Quite a wide spread, buys of 163K and sells of 62K so far. Meeting starts soon and I suspect the ZED resolution will be at the head of the agenda (if not the only item on it after apologies). I did not advise it, but did anyone speculate on these?

It is at least partly true that you can't teach an old dog new tricks, the old bones won't always take it. What seems to be completely true though, is that you can't convince an over enthusiastic investor to turn off their caps lock! I see MEH remains static on no trades today. There was a Notifiable Interest report on the 24th January of an increased holding, which allowed me to calculate the market cap of MEH as £551K. They don't come much smaller (without going bust anyway) and they are well below their placing price from the end of September. I suspect that the only hope for a company such as this is a reverse takeover (see NAD) but this is so unpredictable they could be long gone well before then. NAD constantly issued new shares to keep them going and make up for their losses, it would not surprise me to see MEH do the same. I do wonder that the market regulators allow such companies to be listed. It seems that if you want to line your pockets at other peoples expense, get a bit of cash together, buy a small house then float on AIM as a property investment company. Pay yourself a fat directors salary and make some efforts to dabble in property from time to time and the regulators leave you to it. Just an opinion, no advice intended.

Read through the board and see what other people recommend, but you have to do your own research. Personally my top tip for medium growth would be TAN, and for a (very) speculative punt ULT (short term) and SEO (medium term). I've not gone wrong with GOO so far, but timing the lower price can be difficult. Am in FEP but not sure I'd recommend it at present, news of progress is still awaited. I think SKP is good for a modest recovery in the next few months too. I plan to keep an eye on GTL, if the 2008 targets look to be achievable then they will go up, from what base is hard to asses though.

There were two trades cancelling each other out at 16:23 of 1.575m shares, and then another 'bargain conditions' trade of the same quantity at 16:38. It just means that a transfer of shares has been made under certain conditions, although the trades is nominally at 10p we won't know the real value unless we are given the terms of the conditions. However, I would think any trading at this level would not look too promising for shareholders.