Member Info for Fevertreeman

I couldnt have expressed it better myself. That is my concern as well, that there is no coherent strategy and AN is winging it. That said, Baillie Gifford are no fools and hopefully have forensically interrogated the business plan etc, but AN is persuasive (god knows he persuaded enough off us that FDA approval would unleash the flood gates etc), so they may have also have swallowed te AN kool-aid.

What is clear to me is that AN needs an experienced chairman/ mentor. He needs dragging out of his ivory tower, and sitting down with some other cutting edge listed R&D led businesses who have successfully put the building blocs in place i.e
1. Strong chairman + experienced NEDs who back the co with proper cash
2. Clearly articulated commercial strategy
3. Total transparency regarding milestones
4. Management bench strength
5. Proper financial strategy
6. Excellent customer focus etc etc etc

I suspect I have a tad more experience of these type of companies than you my "special idiot friend", investing in them professionally, on the management team of a couple professionally (and importantly in teh US), and funnily enough backing AN with my own hard earned cash for over 5 years.... so yes I am a special kind of idiot. It is is not about the profitaiblity of the company you idiot, it is about building the blocks for future success....and AN has had a long time to think about this, and has not strengthened a woefully underpowered board where there is little support shown by the NEds to but the stock; no evidence of substantive progress on strengtehning managemetn team, the one person they brought on board quickly jumped ship (probably because as is often the case with these types of business, AN thinks he can walk on water, and there is insufficent push back internally)...oh and for good measure I have actually met AN...

It is a rubbish market for long duration stocks , just look at Nasdaq. (i.e. profitability not yet established), however AGL seems in a league of its own. I now am of the view that Newlands needs either to be kicked upstairs or asked to leave so a competent pharma/medtech sector executive can take over the reins.

1. After a decade + of being supported by s/holders, Newlands has the coveted FDA approval, and nothing else of note to show for the millions poured into the coffers of the company. He seems clueless about his obligations to s/holders and God only knows why we have had no major announcements beyond the usual smoke screen of scientific paaoers, which are all fine, but dont pay the bills
2. Company failed to strengthen the Board ahead of teh FDA decision, and have done sod all to boost the bench strength since, and we are left with a board of NEDs woefully out of their depth
3. Just what is the commercial strategy? Lab testing is all very well fine but is that the commercial future/? Partnering, yes, but knowing how slowly this industry moves, if Newlands has not moved beyond conversations with the scientists & got nowhere near the decision-makers by now then, potential partners will just sit on their hands, play hard ball & wait & watch as the cash burn accelrates, and AN gwets ever more desperate for deals and ends up signing rubbish ones just to keep lights on and financial markets happy.

Contrary to what AN may think, next week is going to be incredibly important for his credibility and that of the company. If he fails the test, then he has to go.

So so true Ben. Angostura Bitters has marched us up the funding hill so many times over the last 5 years that it is a wonder we have any leather left on our boots. Mr Market is rightly sceptical of him, given his appalling stewarship to date , not to mention smash n grab attempts to get cash bonuses, lying about funding etc...When the money is in a (secure) bank and the conversation has gone beyond security, resettlemetn, utilities etc....which of course has been a repeating comment for alst, what 5 years? At that point mebbe s/holders will make some money, but I doubt those that swallowed this carpet bagger's patter back in day will get a decent return. its a casino this one -all on balck or all on red. Binary bet

God I hope not but Page is so lacklustre. Sooner or later there will be bid speculation around this because any one else could make a better fist of it than the supine managemetn team that have sat contentedly and watched this sink

Now below a pound. All the result of a disastrous presentation by Page , who seems tone-deaf to the concerns of shareholders! it is as if we dont exist! If it were a satirical sketch it would be hilarious...slide 5 of presentation entitled: Strategic Review to Enhance Shareholder Value.....Share price down 25%+ since this shambles.....Page you should go!

Shareholders have been punished for disastrous management of these assets over an extended period of time. It is clear the board is only interested in proloinging their tenures, and have no clue how to deliver value to shareholders. The market has spoken and I for one totally agree with the reaction. Please please Private Equity , make your move now so we can salvage some value from this group

On August 31 the day of the disposal announcement the share price closed at 133p. It is now 100p. Could the Board please explain why we have lost 25% of teh value of this company in 20 days, since a supposedly transformative announc ement. They should hang their heads in shame! What a total disaster in terms of reputation, managing market expectations , and the future of this company. The Senior NED should be shot and the rest of teh board should be asking serious questions over their sdisastrous stewardship of our company. I lwould love to hear what the defenestrated former CEO thinks of this management and board.

personally, I think it is beyond them, as amply demonstrated by the presentation, and the subsequent sp reaction. There was
1. No vision, no enthusiasm from Mr Page. More crucially there was absolutely sense of energy or urngency, rather the feeling that yet again teh BoD is justifying their sinecures and trying to manage decline
2. Nothing her to reward long-suffering shreholders: no special dividend, no share buy back, no acqusition....absolutely SFA to convince s/holders this management team is looking after our interests
3. So light was the presentation on growth prospects or new opportunities, or why the engineering business sits with specialty ag that Mr Market is clearly worried that the BoD and managemetn is not competent to invest the proceeds wisely
4. Shriniking to get bigger only works with acquisitions. If not s/holders' money is dead here for years to come

At this rate, a private buyer is going to step in and take out the whole company,

Yes.....and it doesn't exactly fill one with enthusiasm....where is the vision? where is Page's enthusiasm? where's the explanation of why he took the ceo role? Instead we got a pedestrian gallop through the deal.
- there should have been much more detail about the opportunities he sees
- a proper explanation about why a specialist agricultural products business sits with a nuclear engineering business and why they chose to keep them both
- why will making decisions be any easier with 2 totally different businesses & models? Who will get first dibs on capital?
- woefully light on vision
- nuggets like setting up an engineering academy in Carlisle with some of the proceeds...what the hell have they been doing to date to nurture talent?

Just look at the figures!
- Market cap of a mere £24m but subtract latest cash fig of £17m as at end July, the business is valued at just £7m
- Even on reduced estimates for this year - c£80m of turnover and £3 -£3.4m EBITDA - the business ex- cash is valued at 2-2.3x profits...
- Value of inventory carried at cost according to AR = c£16m.....crazy
- Average transaction value c£39-£40, so not a big ticket item, less than a pair of shoes
Sooner or later this massive valuation gap will get seen, and if I were Mike Ashley I would be salivating....

One would have thought so, but the haplessness & incompetence of the board and management team is there for all to see etched in a falling share price. Appalling stewardship of shareholders' funds, in stark contrast to Wynnstay, which seems to be firing on all cylinders......

Normally one would expect a +ve reaction when a company offloads a large chunk of its business for cash, and claims to be left with two businesses with better prospects and higher margins. But not at Carrs. Yesterday we plunged another 7%....just what on earth are the management team and board up to? What about a share buy back programme? What about some BoD members buying shares once out of close period,....where is the management alignment with shareholders?

because the board of the company appears to be utterly hopeless. As I have said before, a 21 year armed with a business degree from a university none of us would heard of could have come up with this answer and it would likely have taken him a few weeks of due diligence not almost 9 months. One has to question also whether they got top dollar given there was it appears one obvious buyer for the assets.....and now what? Are we to have a proper debrief on the strategic review? Where is the forensic analysis for shareholders around the opportunities? How have they come up with the capital allocation , what triggered those figs.etc.etc.etc....Shameful frankly !

Erm the reason wh ythe price has dropped so much in last year or two................well (1) this is a company still in development stage and s/prices tend to be event -driven (2) the small sector is out of vogue (3) Liquidity is tight, so doesnt take much to move share price (4) There has been s/thing called Covid (5) SP peaked in last 3 years on 29 Mar 2021, at 78p, so down c35%...that isnt much of a drop compared with many AIM companies

First bought when the company was in the low 20s, and have continued to add on weakness ever since. Market to my mind has still not grasped what a gem this company is, as Mr Market clearly wants to see evidence that they can scale the operations successfully. While the market waits, those of us already invested can continue to build our holdings. Itas a pity James Anderson isnt still around at BG as this fits his type of business to a tee

1. Technical superiority in a specialist niche sector with great long-term prospects backed by superb R&D & robust IP
2. Excellent relationships with a core customer base that is global by nature & has high supplier barriers to entry
3 . Unflashy, honest, dedicated, & driven management team who manage the business for shareholders and treat their main stakeholders respectfully
4. Superb BoD led by a great chairman who walks the walk and supported by a clutch of NEDs with blue-chip credentials,which speaks volumes for the company. They are clearly enthralled by the prospects for this little company,
5. Sober, regular, transparent reporting - not shouting from the roof tops but consistently delivering and bringing their shareholders with them every step of the way.

As I predicted the market barely reacted to the news of the divestment. Rather than reward long-suffering shareholders with a special dividend or announce a share buy back, they've gone for the pension funding option, which does sod all for me....We are now looking at a much smaller business in reves terms albeit with better profitability BUT Mr Market will now have to wait ages for proof that Mr Devro can deliver - hence the dreadful s/p response to the £44m exit. And that is why in my view, shareholders would be better off with a full cash bid from a private buyer.

Poland's wealthiest guy for good reason methinks. Pointless gaming his motives, but with a 6.5% yield he has got a dividend stream of £1.5m a year at the mo, whilst he decides his next move. He clearly sees this as woefully undervalued at this price - cornered the market in specialist tiles in the world's 6th largest economy....good for him