Ben Richardson, CEO at SulNOx, confident they can cost-effectively decarbonise commercial shipping. Watch the video here.
Agree ref takeover, nobody knows what to do with a banknote printer laden with debt trying to sell a commodity in an over-supplied market with uncertain future volumes. Authentication business should have some value but they seem to have stalled on new growth, with no new contract wins announced they are just milking existing contracts
Even at 80p its 27% down on the 110p equity raise in 2020 which should have been the low point. Shareholder value has been destroyed.
There is literally nothing positive here. Currency order book up, so what, it will be down again next year and the cycle will begin all over again. You are right to ask about margin, banknotes are a commodity and any idiot can stuff an order book if you slash the price. Banks have cut the RCF so that doesn't inspire confidence that they are willing to continue funding, or see any positive longer term direction. Authentication is living on existing contracts, where are the new wins that will drive further growth? And all the congratulations on a good set of results? against a breakeven expectation in H1 and £20m for the full year, even the idiots in charge should be able to hit that target, just hope they won't get a bonus on the back of it. What this zombie business needs is change at the top and corporate restructuring.
Only a small proportion of cash is used in transactions (less than 40%) and plastic notes last a lot longer than the old paper ones so the printers don't need to produce as many (great idea to convert all your customers to plastic notes huh?) so a few more people using a few more pounds to buy their groceries is not going to revive this dead duck company. Time for a change at the top, bring in someone who takes their duty to uphold shareholder value seriously and will realise value from the bits of the business that are still worth something.
Nothing new in the AGM, same exec team struggle on re-confirming £20m profit target for the year and congratulating themselves that net debt is only rising to £100m with no plan to bring it down. Having reconfirmed H1 will be breakeven look out for the traditional January profit downgrade as £20m in H2 is a stretch for these jokers. This really is a zombie company but given no buyer emerged when the share price was 20p I don't see anyone coming forward now. Should I sell and take a big loss or hang on for something better?
I understand that the chair comes from a retail and funeral background but appointing Brian, yet another retailer, to the board doesn't make any sense. This is a manufacturing and technology company with a global government customer base which has nothing at all to do with UK high street retail. I'm waiting for Clive W to replace Clive V with a new CEO with Mothercare experience, surely only a matter of time, and let's face it, probably couldn't be any worse.
As to those looking for a bounce in the shareprice, we are approaching end of the first half of this company's financial year so look out for the inevitable "trading update" when they all come back from holiday and realise its all gone south.
This is an odd move, Charles Andrews looked like a good fit so something significant and sudden must have happened for him to leave so soon. Could be the Chair consolidating power as he has worked with Dean Moore in other roles, in fact Moore left the board to became Interim CFO at Dignity for a rather astonishing 2 years and 5 months before rejoining the board. When will the chair act and get rid of Vacher? never known a CEO to be able to destroy sharehoder value so comprehensively and get away with it while continuing to pocket >£400k salary.
If you want to know how broken it is check the para on Enabling Function Costs in the report. Its up 7.6% year on year at a shocking 9.4% of revenue vs 8.1% last year. This exec team (and please note they are all still in place despite destroying shareholder value) can't even get HR and Finance department costs under control. On the plus side, if the chair has any guts, bringing these bloated functions back to the right size for this shrinking business will deliver some upside.
tragically with no sign that the business can generate cash any time soon its another zombie company which must surely be bought or die. Hope its bought as I didn't sell when I should have done :-(
So (see today's two RNS) just before results announcement two CFD brokers have >10% of the shares tied up in financial instruments -- someone is making a significant bet on the price moving tomorrow and presumably these positions will be unwound pretty quickly
..... and what they say about future, if its another "turnaround plan" led by they same exec team + the retailers/funeral directors on the board I would be surprised if that gave enough confidence for a material upwards movement in the share price.
Https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/contractfordifferences.asp
Surely not :-o must have been something else driving that late rally, anyway only three days until we see results....
Why does the board think people with experience in UK based retail and the funeral business are suitable to run De La Rue. Its a manufacturing and tech business with a government client base outside the UK, couldn't be much further from a UK retail environment. Dean Moore, appointed as NED today to plug one of the holes on the board, has worked as CFO at such success stories as Dignity (eventually rescued by a takeover after halving profits despite increasing number of funerals), Cineworld (shares down 99% in the last year), N Brown Group PLC (shares down 85% in the past five years), T&S Stores (sold to Tesco). On the plus side, he currently holds four other NED positions so he probably won't even have time to learn how a manufacturing, export, B2G business actually works.
Results this week, should be interesting, hoping to see an exec clear-out and a willingness to seek a buyer for the business.
Its not a great look when every week brings news of another NED's departure with Catherine Ashton last week and Margaret Rice-Jones this week. Is this Clive Whiley recognising he needs new blood on the board or the NEDs trying to distance themselves from the inevitable collapse that is surely on the cards? How long will Clive Whiley hang onto the exec team, it is surely time to act as this current lot clearly can't run a company.
With the banking covenant torpedo heading towards this damaged ship, even the NEDs are leaving (and who can blame them). When will the execs face up to their responsibility and make way for new leadership - in just the last five days the shares are down 8.6% on a flat FTSE all share, there has to be a limit to how far a bunch of execs can erode shareholder value and keep their jobs (but apparently its not 54% in six months). Surely the FY results pres can't be another Turnaround Plan with the same people in charge?
It will be very interesting to see what happens when they finally announce results -- new board chairman took Mothercare through a CVA so I wonder if there is something similar in DLR's future? Guess it will depend on whether the banks agree to relief on the covenants. And will new chairman want a new CEO?