George Frangeskides, Chairman at ALBA, explains why the Pilbara Lithium option ‘was too good to miss’. Watch the video here.
Well Nero is so lacking in self awareness he convinced himself that he could manage everything - look where that has got us!
Totally agree....CFO made a big play about it. Other critical issue is that Bundred resigns and we get a competent plc chairman who can actually kick t5his into shape and hold Johnson's feet to the fire.
The key phrase in your post is "as a new investor". Well good for you, but those of us who have been invested in Newland's business have had to suffer through disappointment after disappointment interspersed with Del Boy this time next month we'll be millionaires -type interviews from Nero. You may not be aware that he did a fund raising at 80 p to institutions post the FDA approval, and within months issued a profits warning creating the strong impression he hads no idea what he was doing. Nothing has changed since apart from the hopeless chairman sneaking out the door , some tiny deals, and shutting down the lab in US which had been pushed as a key plank of their US commercial strategy. international
The lack of NED purchases is scandalous!
Because quite simply, Newland hasn't issued any news that would move the needle for his investor base! Where are the commercial tie-ups we've been led to believe were oven-ready? Where is the positive commercial newsflow that Newland clumsily tried to hype in the US investor call... or is this it? Newland has spent 10 years and millions of pounds of shareholders monies and still hasnt delivered a single commercial contract of real commercial value. That is the problem - the facts run counter to the promises made
Remember that Newland has not delivered a single commercial deal of any magnitutde, and we have had nothing, nicht, nowt in over 6 months since May 25th Artios deal which was so inconsequential as to have no number attached to it. Over to you Andrew!
And Nero Newland has built himself a dire reputation for ramping over a number of years, so Mr Market is wise to his shenanigans. Would like to think that he has finally learnt his lesson and that his powerpoint to US investors hails the advent of a change in fortune, but his track record is lousy.
If this is such a steal, why is it we have had zero directors purchases to date
My dream scenario is as follows:
1. Oversubscribed placing this month
2. Successful EU capital loan this month
3. Directorate Change -Bundred to leave , experienced plc Chair to replace him
4. Strategic shareholder/PE takes stake
Time to change the CFO? Nero at least shows some degree of energy & enthusiasm, whilst Griffiths looks like he's got one foot in the retirement bungalow in Broadstairs for all the enthusiasm he could muster on the online presentation.
Nero as usual evasive over customer conversion. Vague comments about big announcements ...where have we heard that before....In short, Nero said we've focused on the small cap Biopharma sector, but they don't have any cash (Ed. duh...), and now we're desperately banging on the doors of Roche, Baxter, Bristol Myers et al coz they've got tonnes of cash to see if we can work with them. (Ed. But they take years to make decisions Nero). Trouble is we run out of cash ourselves in 2025 (Ed. So you're desperate, and will mean that BIg Pharma will absolutely screw you to wall on commercials)....
That old chestnut....
Yes, Nero has a fabulous powerpoint and media studio track record....scores highly on puffery and hot air! presume the Yanks have fallen for the bluffer Cambridge academic spiel " I'm just someone who is passionate about the world and have spent 10 years & millions of dollars of my shareholders monies failing to commercialise the product"
Well, well , well.....it was only a matter of time before the management team came under sustained pressure to pull their fingers out and do something more productive with £17m sitting there in the bank account. The Board had been warned but chose plod along instead, using the excuse of the markets....
Presumably just before he takes Pinocchio's passport back
who knows? but it says something that (1) these are potential risks and (2) one doesn't know if that includes the **** kit that had already broken down in qs 1,2,3
Fair comments - would have to go back through Report & accounts which might take a while. My point is that a fair chunk of the monies raised (and look at the share prices) has been clearly wasted......
Very much my take too...... CFO and COO critical to regaining credibility. The presentation by Johnson was extraordinarily poor for a CEO fighting for his company's future. When asked by s/o about management bench strength, he was hopeless. We need granularity on the issues and all we got was "We hired new CFO and COO (why they didnt get one before is beyond me) and then some guff about broadening training and 4 managers being promoted/repurposed/
Staggering figures! £72m raised over last 21 years. Market cap is £28m. Management has been disastrous stewards of shareholder capital
Sept 2002 1,446,757 @ £0.90 £1.3m
April 2004 4,142,859 @ £0.70 £2.7m
Aug 2007 5,000,000 @ £0.20 £1m
July 2009 4,516,580 @ £0.10 £0.45m
Dec 2009 800,000 @ £0.10 £0.08m
Nov 2010 7,538,094 @ £0.17 £1.2m
Feb 2013 6,293,902 @ £0.08 £0.5m
Nov 2013 3,843,498 @ £0.085 £0.3m
Dec 2014 8,210,136 @ £0.13 £1m
Apr 2015 2,692,309 @ £0.13 £0.35m
Mar 2016 34,375,000 @ £0.16 £5.5m
Aug 2017 23,725,481 @ £0.155 £3.7m
June 2018 9,000,000 @ £0.17 £1.5m
Mar 2019 12,303,600 @ £0.155 £1.9m
Apr 2020 18,499,303 @ £0.13 £2.4m
Jan 2021 40,000,000 @ £0.50 £20m
Oct 2022 44,963,739 @ £0.40 £18m
Nov 2023 82,918,660 @ £0.10 £8.6m
Total: £71m
Underwhelming presentation for me: overall thoughts
1. No contrition, just slightest hint of apology from Bundred for the disastrous f+++ ups of last 12-18mnths. Quite surreal
2. Neither Bundred or Johnson seemed that bothered by events that have cratered the sp by 60pc, destroyed balance sheet & led to an emergency fund raise....
3. Board change desperately needed to show they mean business - Bundred must go!
4. CFO appears a steadier pair of hands., but I was unimpressed by her answers - a fair amount of hot air, and quite unforensic approach to unpacking (1) what she found on arrival (2) what went wrong & why things will improve
5. CFO seems quite confident about signing commercial loan which she pointed out was EU backed and gave them a fair degrees of flexibility over when it gets drawn down (has to be w/i 2 years of signing)
5. Lacklustre presentation that only increases my view that SCE lacks the management, money and skill sets to go it alone independently and that the only viable option will involve a takeover by PE or an industry player.
Individual points:
1. Focus seems to have shifted to 2025. With Johnson saying new business not a prioirity given their focus is fixing current clients etc, it sounds like s/holders will be treading water in 2024, as I can see no catalysts for rerating. Disappointing if true
2. Extraordinarily , there was no admission of the lousy way they handled the announcements. Didnt answer why interims Sept signed off by board then lead to emergency fund raising 5 weeks later! Clear there were questions about this but Bundred wouldnt answer them! That is a huge issue as its all about TRUST
3. Johnson fitness as CEO remains major issue.... evidenced by bizarre answer to legitimate question about why they overpromised and underdelivered rather than other way round. Johnson's response was worrying imo: he indicated that they has got themselves into a corner by dint of their first prioirity being to their customers who needed to be assred SCE could meet their demands & deadlines. Effectively he seemed to be saying that " We told the customers what they wanted to hear because they are our most important stakeholder and we didnt want to disappoint, so that's why we got ourselves into position of overpromising to the market."
A very troubling answer as it shows he does not understand about the relationship between company and its owners (the shareholders) and his responsibility to his owners in terms of providing credible forecasts that crucially decide the share price and hence the value of the company.