Member Info for Fevertreeman

The man seems incapable of not screwing up each and every communication. Results last week with the analysts he managed (just about) to get through it with no damage done, and then boom today, he again creates a rod for s/holders backs. Wtf are the advisers doing to prevent this happening.!!!!!!!!! Can only assume they have a similar view of Nero to many of us

Our brilliant CEO continues his one-man destruction of shareholder value. Amati can't be the only institution he has shafted, with the connivance of a board and chairman who have been so clearly captured by the executive, and are completely out of their depth.

God knows what the Board is up to (or the advisers for that fact), but putting out an RNS after months of no news for a deal that contains no financial information smacks of complete desperation. How on earth can analysts model anything Andrew if there is no financial data provided. Obvious to any one with half a brain, that the revenues are either nil or miniscule. Hence share price defeating again!!

Board is quite rightly due a total roasting at AGM for lamentable failure to (1) provide proper guidance (2) Allowing Newland to hype progress at time of equity raise (3) Failure to properly manage relations with key shareholders as big holders continue to exit the story. Why an omnishambles the Board is presiding over!

The scale and duration of the selling pressure on the stock has to mean that another institution or institutions are following Aegon out the door. In these circumstances, normally the brokers are on the phone to the fund manager concerned to provide feedback to management. Newland needs concrete news to arrest the decline, shore up investor confidence, and vindicate the commercial strategy. Even he must realise that vague comments about progress n 20 conversations doesn't hack it. The sp fall has been totally self-inflicted, a series of appalling mis steps exacerbated by a board totally out of touch with investor concerns.

The biggest culprit here is SELVEY the chairman who has presided over a total collapse in confidence, and has been there as chairman for 16 bloody years!!! He will be in the cross-hairs at the AGM to explain to us all how he has lived up to his responsibilities & duties as chairman as laid down in the QCA Code and set out in the Corporate Governance section of Angle's website :

"As Chairman of the ANGLE plc (ANGLE) Board, it is my responsibility to ensure that the Board is performing its role effectively and has the capacity, ability, structure and support to enable it to continue to do so."

In particular, shareholders are fully entitled for him to explain the following:

1. Why has he held chairmanship for 16 years, and why has he not stood down to ensure proper independence of the chair and refresh the board? What value has he brought to the role?
2. What evidence can he show that as Chairman he proactively sought to strengthen the board to ensure it was fit for purpose especially in the period coming into the final stages of the FDA process? (2 panicked appointments in Jan this year don't count).
3. Why did he and the board approve the LTIPs RNS when it was likely s/holders would disapprove? What advice did the Board receive from its advisers on the LTIPs? Was this advice followed? Were soundings taken among the major s/holders?
4. Does he believe that the Board has the appropriate skillsets to oversee the Company and Newland on behalf of s/holders? If so, why?
5. What do he and the board intend to do to turn the ship around?

GIven the relentless selling volume, all points to another institution throwing in the towel. Newland should be asking himself very hard questions as should the rest of the Board about how their actions have cratered the share price. Newland has 100pc responsibility for the complete and utter mess he has made of things. In this he has been ably assisted by one of the most useless craven boards I have come across in many a long year.

I hope you're right, but this shower couldn't run a bath based on the experience of last 12 months.

Simply staggering the level of incompetence shown by the Board, especially the Chairman who seems to have washed his hands of any adherence to proper corporate governance oversight.

Caesar Newland's b/s comment in Jan 5th RNS...

"It has been a breakthrough year for Angle, with both FDA clearance and excellent results from the ovarian cancer study....
Whilst we have not yet seen the expected acceleration in revenue, the pipeline of opportunities is growing strongly and we are encouraged by the level of engagement with pharma companies, including major pharma companies, medtech companies and clinical laboratories globally.
Angle has the resources in place to deliver on its strategic and commercial plans and starts the new year cautiously optimistic despite the challenging market."

Since which we have had zip, nul, nil, rien, zut news updates of any forms bar the outrageously stupid self-serving LTIPs disaster.

Notwithstanding the well-documented challenges of getting traction in the US market, and the shift in investor sentiment post-end of QE, the degree of incompetence, ineptness, and arrogance exhibited by the Board and management here is breathtaking. The unfolding disaster of last 12 months, has to be put in context of longer-term history of the company:
- History of consistently under delivery vs timelines & business plan
- Co has raised tens of millions from investors on investor case that this break thro' technology would revolutionalise liquid biopsy
- Newland's consistent message to investors - commercial planning well in hand, discussions with potential partners well advanced should FDA approve the device.
- Board led by Selvey made no attempt to refresh membership despite obvious lack of US expertise and up to date knowledge until this Jan i.e. after wheels came off
- Management bench not strengthened in run up to FDA approval
-

Guinness Book of Records Award for fastest rate of value destruction goes to CS Suisse with Angle a close second
Guinness Book of Records Award for Arrogance goes to A Newland
Guinness Book of Records Award for dereliction of duty to shareholders goes to G Selvey
Guinness Book of Records Award for tin-ears goes to G Selvey and Borad of Angle for LTIPs decision

I just want to point out that all shareholders, not just private investors, have seen value destroyed at AGL. The deep anger felt towards Selvey & Newland is not confined to private punters I can assure you.

It is truly farcical that the only significant RNS s/holders have been treated to since Debacle One in early Jan with profits warning, has been Debacle Two, the LTIPs RNS that promptly caused another run on the stock.

So much for their statements on website regarding communications with s/holders:

"We seek long term relationships with our shareholders based on transparency, honesty and clarity. Through this site we aim to keep both institutional and private investors up to date about our business."

The ludicrous LTIP RNS shows Newland's reverse Midas touch. The sp since the announcement is down. Closing price on March 9 was 25.75p. Newland has managed to knock that back another 14/15% meaning that his shareholding has lost 14pc in value. He own c7.3m shares ; now worth a mere £1.6m, which doesn't get you much these days in the Guildford property market.

Theranos -where Elizabeth Holmes the founder and CEO modelled herself on Steve Jobs, only wearing black, and speaking in a deep monotone. A seriously strange woman who was courted by the elites like Kissinger, Clinton etc...She was using traditional blood testing devices and passing them off as her revolutionary Edison devices, until the whistle got blown. Newland has gone to great lengths to ge the device peer-revierwed and used in multiple centres of excellence so I dont think there is a comparison. Whilst I dont believe for one moment he is fraudulent, he does appear to suffer the same God-complex that Holmes had, hence his ludicrous statements. if only he had an ounce of her charisma and salesmanship we might actually have a business that actually had momentum, instead of which he is hunkered down hiding in Guildford, hoping that s/o somewhere will give him a deal

Having convinced all and sundry that he Newland was in total control of the Angle vehicle and was sterring s/holders to some proper rewards, he seems to have decided that Beachy Head is his best bet, and has single-handedly put his foot on the accelerator aided by his co-driver Selvey to send us all over the cliff.

Because like many here I believe in the potential for the business ; the limiting factors has been and continues to be a Board that has failed to challenge the executive and a CEO hell-bent on driving the business into the ground. Answer your question smart ****?

having absolutely decimated shareholders wealth, Messrs Selvey and Newland, the architects of this disaster are proving to be utterly without scruples with an LTIP that is tantamount to theft and a communications strategy that is based on that well known device of charlatan CEOs of putting their fingers in their ears, ignoring demands from s/holders, and hiding in the bunker in Guildford. Utterly shameful lack of transparency from Selvey & Newland about the business.

The real management disaster here is the governance-free zone that is our hopeless Board of Directors led by Selvey! The role of the Board is three-fold to challenge the Exec; ensure that shareholders are properly represented ; and adhere to best corporate governance. Our board has failed to meet its obligations on all of these.

1. Categorically failed to challenge Andrew Newland, about the commercial strategy, milestones, timelines, etc.. they seem collectively cowed by Newland, who has presumably done what he does best i.e. waffle or bully or a combo of the two when challenged. Does anyone know what the commercial strategy is beyond the vague nonsense spouted by Newland?

2. Failed disastrously to protect & uphold shareholders' interests. The LTIPs farrago, is utterly incomprehensible and makes a complete mockery of the purpose of the Remuneration Committe, which I might add, makes its recommendations to the whole Board for sign-off. The fact that this saw the light of day is simply incredible.

3. Ignored best Corporate Governance rules by having a board whose members should long ago retired by rotation. The unseemly scramble to hire two NEDs to plug the yawning skills chasm post FDA approval proved tehat teh Board was not fit for purpose and hadnt been for quite a while.

I pity the advisers having to deal with a supine unprofessional board and a belligerent executive. We the shareholders have been completely shafted by the crowd in Guildford. Newland has very little time left to rescue his reputation. Selvey/s is already shot. THE AGM will be an absolute s*** S*** for the Company, and quite rightly.

Today's LTIP RNS was breathtaking in both its content, timing, and corporate implications. Shareholders have been given a grandstand seat into just how rotten things are within the Company, as the Board, CEO & CFO have effectively shoved two fingers up at their shareholders. The fall-out will be long lasting, as a result of what we have seen today:

1. Board of Directors: absolutely not fit for purpose. Selvey should have been kicked out years ago, and has proved to be a complete patsy for Newland. The Board is not equipped for the next phase of development, have shown nil respect for shareholders, and their role appears to be to provide air cover for Newland and to enrich him. In South Africa they talked about State Capture...here the Board appear to have washed their hands of their responsibilities.

2. Corporate Governance: the role of the Board is to effectively protect shareholders interests and present appropriate challenge to the Exec team. The Board's consistent failure to hold Newland to account over a long period, has finally culminated in today's utterly shameful exercise in greed.

That the Remuneration Committee would consider this level of "rewards for failure" is incomprehensible given the utter disaster Newland has presided over since the equity raise a mere 8 months ago. To insult shareholders in this way is the final straw for many.

3: Reputation of CEO & CFO: in a phrase "shot to pieces". As exercises in greed go, this takes the biscuit given the epic scale of shareholder destruction that Newland is responsible for and for the length of time that he has helmed this business.

4. Reputation of NOMAD & Brokers: "shot to pieces". Do not be surprised if either Jefferies or Berenburg or both chose to resign the account in protest at today's announcement. Wouldn't be a surprise if they are preparing resignation letters given the scale of reputational embarrassment Newland has caused them since the equity raise., with this being the straw that potential breaks the camel's back.

5. Commercial Future of the Company: the terms of the LTIPs raise serious issues about what Newland has been telling shareholders since pre FDA approval. Either he has been economical with the truth about the Company's prospects or he is just plain incompetent , or he is Walter Mitty. Whatever the reason, today looks very much like he has effectively thrown in the towel and is hoping for one last big pay-day.

Share price opens up a blistering 3% !!!! The market just does not trust anything that Adams announces any more. If it did and the announcement wasn’t caveats with more conditionals than a Playboy Bunny pre-nup, may be things would be different, but the fish aren’t biting on Adams lure any time soon

Exactly - we have learnt from bitter experience with Adams never to take the news he puts out at face value. One can appoint advisers to investigate listing and then as easily
Unappoint…..look as this as a project a feasibility study and no more dressed up as a game changer….