Member Info for EasiWynns

"... to predict that this tragedy will draw a line under Michael Richard Lynch's appearances in court proceedings would be foolhardy in the extreme."

(M. Cross, The Law Society Gazette, 20 Aug 2024)

"Software giant vows to chase Mike Lynch’s family over £3 bn damages" (Telegraph, 02 Sep 2024)

Any thoughts on how much the UK courts might award to Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) against ML and and his former chief financial officer and convicted criminal, Sushovan Hussain?

To start with, all of the family shares in Darktrace, perhaps.

In a Stocks and Shares ISA, Lifetime ISA, SIPP, and Fund and Share Account, according to their website.

Just looking at the 10-year share price total return of 4.87 % p.a. (Morningstar), he's not wrong, never mind how it's been run by management.

ANDREYAAA, Were you able to watch Navalnay's funeral today live from your hotel in Egypt?

It seems that market cap is updating in (near) real time on this site under 'Fundamentals' - currently at £2.65bn.

With a total return 10-year gain of 4.08% pa annum (on yesterday's prices, according to Morningstar) this has been a dismal long-term investment.

Russian traitor dead?

If so, all the anti-Putin and pro-Putin supporters who dislike traitors can - for once - celebrate together.

This may never happen again.

According to Reuters (yesterday) "Ukraine and Poland called in the ambassadors from each other's countries" - which clearly doesn't mean "recalled".

"The European Union in May allowed Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia to ban domestic sales of Ukrainian wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflower seeds.

After the Russian invasion blocked Black Sea ports, large quantities of Ukrainian grain, which is cheaper than that produced in the EU, stayed in Central Europe due to logistical bottlenecks, hitting prices and sales for local farmers.

The five countries want the ban on grain imports extended at least until the end of the year. It is to expire on Sept. 15.

Poland's prime minister said this month that his country would not lift the ban on Sept. 15 even if the EU did not agree on its extension."

Down to a 20% increase over last year (still too much?), without even asking them to reduce it - guess they were just trying it on again!

Renewed with them, as still substantially lower than other quotes.

Tried a new car quote with them online - premium was virtually double what I've ultimately paid. It makes no sense to me, unless I put the details in wrongly.

It's the car insurance quote lottery!

Just had my DLG car insurance renewal through: +60.0 % (no policy changes, no claims, etc.).

Underneath a generic statement:

"You have been with us a number of years. You may be able to get insurance ... at a better price if you shop around".

Looking on the positive side, premium increases are probably good for their business - and hopefully the share price in the medium-term!

From QCM's Twitter feed:

"Today, we've released a statement on the EY probe of Darktrace's financials. The findings, deemed 'immaterial' by Darktrace and its board, only validate our initial concerns. We're calling for full transparency. More in our press release:"

QCM have also disclosed they still hold a small short position.

Another way of looking at it, perhaps, is that surely DLG now wouldn't dare to undervalue total loss claims.

It does seem that DLG's got itself into a bit of mess recently.

The the main question in my mind revolves around whether I think the future is like the recent past, or whether I think it's likely to be more positive.

At the moment it's the latter, but more missteps and I'll be less forgiving.

There was an 'ideas' review of DLG in IC at the beginning of June that rated it as a 'Buy', and the price then was around 163p.

They have forecasts for FYE 2023 as £291m PBT, 16p EPS, and dividend per share of 8.4p, and for 2024 of £438m, 24.1p and 17.1p respectively (sources seem to be from FactSet and are 'adjusted').

If (nothing is guaranteed in this game) any of this comes to pass then the future seems to be more positive than the recent past, with the dividend yield in 2024 being over 12% on the current share price (though unfortunately less for me, as I bought at a higher average price).

"... where he may or may not fall out of a window."

"The Wagner group chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, will move to Belarus under the deal brokered by the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, to end the armed mutiny that Prigozhin had led against Russia’s military leadership, the Kremlin said on Saturday night."

Even the insurrections are shoddy - just like pretty much everything from Russia.

Even Russians are seemingly squeamish about killing other Russians and "spilling their blood" (up to a point), but delight in killing children and women in Ukraine. A nice, principled, bunch.

Looks like Prigozhin may be returning to Ukraine to illegally kill more innocent Ukrainians after getting within 200 km of Moscow.

Two things that EY are up to in my view: firstly, is making the most of their engagement to obtain a "reasonable" level of fees fron a company desperate to establish it's credibility (will the total cost ever be disclosed?), and secondly, to use the extraordinary privileged opportunity they have to snoop around Darktrace and ultimately to make a bid for future audits (they have form here).

EY are also no doubt engaged with Darktrace's lawyers, discussing the contractual remit and what EY can and can't disclose in their report, while EY must be cognisant that their regulator, the Financial Reporting Council, would likely expect them disclose anything they find out of the ordinary, whether disclosed in the report or not, to the appropriate organisations and/or authorities.

Just my guess as to why they (EY, and not Darktrace, apparently) are taking so long. Let us not forget how long it took Darktrace to refute the claims - wasn't it less than a day?

ShortWhacker - Whether by design or luck (it sounds like a bit of both), your position in WTI futures certainly paid off handsomely. Who would ever have thought that they could be negative - certainly not me!