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It's quite likely Skindle and it may well be that he has been tasked with overseeing the process. Given his background it would make a lot of sense.

Skindle, knowing how headhunters work and the confidentiality required, this has a strong air of a leak. On the question of timing, it suggests that they now feel comfortable enough with MA's involvement to approach suitable candidates which was not necessarily the case at the beginning of the year.

Below is the latest report from Sky. Both excellent candidates and David Shearer caught my eye with his involvement in Speedy Hire who just happen to allegedly be looking at a merger with HSS and Toscafund are playing an instrumental role. This was reported in The Sunday Times Business section yesterday. ShareCast News) - Mail-order retailer Findel's advisers have approached former Argos and Homebase boss Terry Duddy about becoming the company's chairman, according to a report. Duddy was among several people being sounded out by Findel's advisers, Sky News has reported. Findel last month rebuffed an attempt by Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley to become chairman. Findel has been seeking to resolve an alleged issue over the influence of Ashley, whose sports-goods chain is its biggest shareholder. Sky News' report added that another potential chair for Findel was David Shearer, a specialist in corporate turnarounds who had also been lined up as the independent chairman of Speedy Hire. That tool-hire company has been caught in a row with one of its leading shareholders. Other candidates were also understood to be in consideration to replace Findel chairman David Sugden, who has planned to step down.

Wise words Skindle and noticeable that SPD's rns today looks like they have been pressured into a major re think on the corporate governance side of things. It looks like MA is attending his first class in being puppy trained, whether or not he believes in it is a whole different ball game....leopards and spots comes to mind! Nice to see us ticking up gently of late, another 100 days of 2p a day gains will do nicely......

Skindle, I don't believe we have jeopardised the deal by spurning MA and his back door effort at gaining control. Mr Sugdens continued involvement intrigues me as to why he wants to stay on? Going back to his robust defence of MA's choice of director joining our board before Christmas and how he orchestrated Kitbags sale lead me to think it is perhaps a tad personal and he sees this as unfinished business which will only annoy MA further as the timing of all his efforts, in my opinion, have been geared around his retirement....I am beginnining to think Mr Sugden is made of strong stuff and may well have stood up to some of our larger shareholders at a moment when corporately it is easier to strike. The Edison valuations, I thought, were a rather weak statement of our value but you have to question why this would have been sanctioned by the board? Have you ever seen anything similar done by another listed company? I think our Chairman is doing his bit behind the scenes, just a hunch but interesting to hear others thoughts.

I just have a feeling that as we haven't heard anything for a while now, a commercial agreement is possibly more likely to happen than not. This is based on nothing more than if MA didn't like what was hearing then he would have walked away a long time ago but with just under 30% invested in Findel, it really is in his interests to make it happen. There is always the possibility that discussions may have widened to talk of a full takeover....

The results will be one element but the outlook in the Chairmans statement will be another. The time difference between now and then gives the opportunity for more rns' on conntract wins and for the likelihood of moving into profit. There is always more of a risk when a company's financial position is wedded to an individual such as here and what I would like to see next is repayment of our debt without compromising our future, at that point the market will catch on and we will see the sort of valuations that you referred to previously.

Having asked for an update in my last post, as I feared Brexit would be blamed for trading conditions, I couldn't have been more pleased with the latest rns'. Eyeguy, you have made many good and sound points which I would agree with but as Vanhalden has mentioned before, please do be careful as your occasional strong positivity towards the company's prospects could be construed as ramping. Please take my coments in the spirit to which they are intended as I thoroughly enjoy the overwhelming majority of what you have to say. There is no doubt the potential here is excellent and we appear to be on a roll with contract wins which can be built upon. However, the market remains cautious in rating us higher at the moment and as has already been pointed out, we have some debt to pay off to Gordon Watt and a profit to be announced before we receive a significant re-rating, but I believe Mr Watt's enthusiasm that comes through in the rns' which will undoubtedly translate to the employees and his personal financial committment in the company, keep me very comfortable and safe in the knowledge that this will fly at some point in the not too distant future.

100% agree Skindle.

Columbo, do you think we should be embracing MA and giving him what he wants? I cannot see any benefits to our share price with his involvement unless we negotiate hard with SDI on the commercial contract. His track record is one of buying distressed companies at knock down prices and all I can see from what he has done with Findel, is opportunistic. Yes he has invested money but even he knows the downside is limited as with the passage of time this will come good. What surprises me is that no one else has seen the potential but then with MA owning just below 30% it has probably put them off? If he really believes we are of benefit to SDI, then do what David Sugden said before Christmas last year, pay a good price and do what you want afterwards.....

Personally, I am very pleased with the decision not to appoint MA as Chairman. What the board now need to do is negotiate mutually beneficial terms for a commercial tie up but we should not be held ransom to allowing MA to sit on the board. At a commercial level, I am firmly of the belief that SDI stand to gain more through accessing our database of clients and it should not come at the cost of a troublesome directorship. As a thought to the appointment of our new Executive Chairman, how many would put their hand up knowing that MA will be sat at the same table....not many at all I suspect. To quote Crispin Odey...'he is difficult to house train' and 'his authority over SDI is dangerous'. Unless you are a serious Captain of industry who enjoys street fighting and a potential daily clash of ego's, this appointment is not for the faint hearted. I think it's fair to say most Executive Chairman prefer a united board and to give credit where it is due, you have to applaud David Sugden for staying on. As for the trading update, it looks like a bit of a balance between the positives and the negatives but thankfully not a profit warning.

It has been two months since we last had an RNS which at the time led to a collective feeling of optimism that we would be hearing further and more regular positive updates. Sadly, this optimism seems to have been misplaced although it is possible that Brexit may have delayed some decision making on pipeline orders. Personally, I would appreciate a trading update as I believe it is important for us to understand how our new manufacturing environment is perceived by management.

It apears my daughter pressed the post button on my unedited reply to 1GW when taking control of the tablet last night. Sorry everyone, but I think you got the gist....!

1GW, you are, in my opion, spot on with your thoughts within your first paragraph. This has been assembled behind the scenes over a period of time. My concern, and I believe we share the same concerns, is what you state in your second paragraph. We must not allow this back door approach to gaining control of our company. I make no apologies for what I believe, both personally and from what people closer to SPD/ MA have said to me, in that we have to express total caution over how they wish to do business. Yes, there is upside to a commercial agreement with them, but this absolutely has to be on a mutually beneficial basis not lopsided in their direction. Can you imagine for one moment Findel trading as a listed company with MA as Chairman and in control of agreeing/ authorising all future decisions with regard to our success? It is utterly riduculous to think that he would be acting in our interests unless it benefitted him or SPD. We would be, in all but name, a subsidiary of SPD which is exactly what he is seeking to achieve. MA is only seeking one thing, gaining control and then using Findel as a subsidiary of SPD. If he realy wants us then he needs to pay a fair price, however, this is not how he does business. We have a weak shareprice and he is playing on it, which I can understand, but we need a strong board to resist. Timing is everything and he has clearly waited until Mr Sugdens departure. I am putting my faith in the fact we have a replacement lined up that will see our future fortunes are not intertwined on an exlusive basis with SPD and we can become a cutting edge etailer of the future. That is why I am a shareholder. so this whole posturing game is just smoke and mirrors to getting complete control of what is and will be a valuable company. He knows it and is excercising opportunism to he difference here is that he really needs us so I hope our major shareholders

...and all the while SPD's share price continues to fall (Morgan Stanley have downgraded their guidance today) and their outlook remains negative, the pressure will build on MA to execute his chosen path of an online offering through us. This can only strengthen our hand around the negotiating table and put us in a strong position to negotiate a good deal and if he is encouraged to buy us by his advisors, then we should also achieve a good takeout price.

Hello 1GW and thank you for your post. Always happy to be challenged although I wasn't proposing to be as precise as the research you have put forward, more adopting the approach of talking in the round. I think the CFD position might muddy the calculations a bit but also happy to agree with you that the numbers are stronger than I suggested and more aligned to yours. Ultimately, though, the sentiment is the same. I also accept that there is potential upside to a commercial arrangement with SPD however, where we will have to agree to disagree is the trading of this deal being contingent on a position/ Chairmanship of the board. Both sides need the deal as much as each other, so to suggest that MA becomes Chairman is not a price worth paying in my book. I would be chuffed to bits if the ultimate plan is as per your last paragraph 1GW, but I am sorry, it is too much of a leap of faith and doesn't pass my sniff test.

I seem to have run out of space on my last post as it chopped off the final sentence, which you might have thought was going to say something different....! However it should have finished: Not for me....

Good evening everyone. Well, the corporate talk behind the scenes I have long suspected has come to the fore. I have paused to reflect rather than posting instantly, Skindle, as whilst I welcome the rise in the shareprice, my default position on MA, and as has been confirmed by someone I know well with top level business experience of him, is that he is an out and out asset stripper and this move to install himself as Findels Chairman, really concerns me. He pays lip service to corporate governance, so effectively buying a place on the board seemingly with the backing of Schroders and Tosca, smacks of a coup rather than anything dressed up as a commercial alliance. No surprise then that Mr Sugden has elected to look at this move with caution and talk of protecting minority shareholder interest. To me this all stems from the sale of Kitbag. MA wanted it and some pesky, very well funded American chaps who are going to make his life more difficult, got it. It was reported by Columbo at the time I think, that SPD personnel visited Findel HQ whilst the sale was progressing and were impressed by what they saw, so in the here and now, and with the need to fight back, no doubt SPD feel that they can exploit the same Kitbag customers on our database through a 'commercial alliance'. What has it cost to do this? Well, the simple answer is, not much. A 30% shareholding is very roughly double what Fanatics paid for Kitbag but MA gets the client database, the upside to Express Gifts, a fabulous new warehouse distribution centre and no wage bill. Simple but very clever. I think we now know why the Edison report was released....it was a defense of our so called value versus the shareprice at the time and no doubt designed to be put in the public arena before MA got his teeth in. So, what is MA's agenda? I am sure he wants us, BUT we should be extremely wary of his soothing words...a wolf in sheeps clothing comes to mind. MA's track record speaks volumes. I also cast my mind back to Mr Sugdens previous comments when MA was looking to appoint one of his cronies onto our board, which was along the lines of 'if he wants to gain control, he should make a fair offer for the company'. Being ultra cynical for a moment, I can imagine MA's first day in office as Chairman. He arrives with his brother who is the IT expert at SPD, downloads the whole database of our clients, pings it SPD HQ, says thanks and then sets about downgrading the business so he can pick up the tangible assets on the cheap....not a bad investment for a 30% outlay, but always falling short of a bid....but then why would you when you know you can buy it cheaper later? I would like to see the commercial allliance in place as I do believe it makes sense for both parties but absolutely NOT at the cost of MA becoming our Chairman. After all, he admitted to the recent Parliamentary Committee that his empire had become so big he couldn't run it properly.....is this the man we need at our helm? Not f

I am flummoxed as to why this had to be released. Very, very unusual and I come back to my previous post..... why don't our board buy shares to demonstrate their confidence. If they truly believe our shareprice does not reflect the company's actual worth, which can surely be the only reason they would authorise such a release, then go ahead and buy as many shares as your financial position allows you to? Under SE rules, if they are in possession of price sensitive information or have been approached about a bid, they are not allowed to trade which may be the reason this hasn't happened and to further speculate for a moment at the danger of putting two and two together to make five, skindle's reference to the IC article and how our Chairman avoided the question of SPD making a bid, it is quite possible something is going on. I have long advocated corporate action behind the scenes and I still remain convinced conversations are going on, however, I am disturbed by todays RNS. It just makes no sense other than, a party has said something along the lines of.....'Mr Sugden, look at your shareprice, clearly Findel is going nowhere, here are our thoughts about a 'big' premium to what the market believes you will deliver and our magic number is £2' Let's just assume this is a true reflection of where we are for a moment and I know it is a big assumption, but I for one hope this isn't a rather limp 'defence' of our position, because if it is, we have just set a figure that seemingly our board are happy to believe is fair market value. I do not wish to sell out at a distressed and irrational price, so I am happy to play a longer game and see our shareprice head well north of £3 together with a dividend reinstated if corporate action doesn't add a premium to this price. As for our major shareholders, I would like to believe their thoughts are alligned with mine otherwise their investment or ultimately loss will need to be explained away.

I have read and re-read the results and have concluded that whilst the exceptionals are very frustrating we are well positioned for the future. Two principal things stand out. Firstly the management structure. It appears clear to me that the two remaining income streams are being left to very separate management teams and these have been strengthend with hiring certain individuals where appropriate. This of course can be challenged by anyone as being overly excessive/ a lack of top quality board management....and I think there may be a point to be made. However, we could also say that it is concentrated management that has an eye on day to day mangement that might also one day wish to consider an MBO or indeed are considering doing so already. This applies to both business streams and the seemingly expanding financial division which has hitherto gone largely unnoticed or discussed. Secondly, I cant help but feel Mr Coumau's digital fingerprints are all over the last report. Everywhere you look in Mr Sugdens end of term report is about how we have invested, changed, moved forward in our IT offering/ understanding of our clients and how we are seeing the benefits moving forward. What would I like to see? If our board believes in the future as much as Mr Sugdens signing off statement, please buy in at this ridiculously low share price. We would all then be reassured and believe too and any doubt over the future will be mitigated. If I was being particularly generous, perhaps they are waiting for the announcement of the new replacement for Mr Sugden but this really is being generous, as if they truly do believe, then they should be buying now as I did today. I am convinced of a positive future and if someone doesn't come in and take us out, then we will look back on this low point and see a sensible and reflective shareprice of our company's true worth. One final (and possibly controversial) thought. As much as I truly dislike/ distrust Mr Ashley, he hasn't got to where he is without knowing a thing or two about retailing. With the ability to reflect on the past nine months and how he has sought to invest in Findel, I think he has adopted the JDSports model of recognising what is a good business /management and investing in a cheap share price. He has cashed in on a chunk of his JD investment and didn't bat an eyelid at doing so...it's all about money for him with the obligatory ego attached. He is probably annoyed as much as us with the shareprice in that no doubt he would have been asked to stump up more cash to cover his CFD position and is almost certainly ruing the fact that he could have bought in cheaper. Putting aside the attempted hijacking of our board before all the media attention he has had to endure I think with recent events he knows he can't get away with such blatant tac tics as he might have done before. He has taken a position and doesnt want to lose what is most important to him...