The latest Investing Matters Podcast episode featuring Jeremy Skillington, CEO of Poolbeg Pharma has just been released. Listen here.
SYME did 1700% in 3 days, so why not?
Because:
- Market trust - AZ has destroyed market confidence in SYME by repeatedly releasing news with no follow-up. There are too many cliff-hangers and open-ended initiatives to list.
- PI holdings - the vast majority of investors in SYME have averages much higher than the current share price. There will be a mass scramble to sell at the first sign of a spike - the +40% days would appear to be behind us.
- The volume of shares in issue has increased dramatically, such that an increase even to 0.10p would give a market cap of £61 million, which would need significant revenue to support.
- It could be argued the WL tie-up with BPM is significant and could drive revenue, however WL % earnings are lower than traditional IM/other models. There are a number of unfinished initiatives, including Shari'ah which to all intents and purposes from the RNS given was ready to go with a willing funder over 2 years ago and has yet to come to fruition, so why should this latest WL announcement be any different?
26th May 2021 - Parzival Partners were confirmed as "introducing and supporting" Supply@ME Capital's acquisition of Tradeflow.
Parzival Partners website describe themselves as "a team of executive search consultants working directly with tech-focused and PE-backed firms. We specialize in talent sourcing and headhunting for specialty and hard-to-fill roles across the Healthcare and Technology sectors."
Why are a recruitment firm getting involved in a Fintech acquisition? What expertise did they bring which justified the payment of 100m shares (for which us investors were diluted for, plus another 400m).
A director for Parzival was especially bullish, quoting share price targets "much higher" than 3.5p. Do they still hold those targets?
Did Parzival input into/provide the £31m valuation for Tradeflow? How was this valuation arrived at, given that the subsequent financials in Supply@ME's trading updates would seemingly not support this, even with significant allowances made for IP and multiples for innovation.
10th August 2020 - MOU signed with SYME to facilitate the expansion of SYME into the Middle East market. Khaled Almass mentioned in RNS (MD).
3rd November 2020 - The strategic launch of the Shar'iah product.
20th January 2021 - The Shar'iah platform was approved. (You'd think approval would be needed before launch, but minor details like this don't seem to stop our enigmatic entrepreneur Alessandro).
23rd November 2021 - Shar'iah funder confirmed in the form of Intessa Sanpaolo.
What's the hold-up? Why aren't the SYME trading updates announcing hoards of cash from Sheikh's monetising their Bugattis in dusty UAE barns?
Seeing as iMass was arguably genesis for the SYME hype, with the infamous 1700% rise starting 3 days after the MOU was announced, this seems quite a critical detail. Then over the following 3 years, albeit with a few twists and turns, the 1700% rise has slowly but surely been eroded...
While I have huge concerns over Parzival's involvement in the acquisition of Tradeflow, I think I'm right in saying they weren't responsible for the valuation - I haven't the will to trawl through the RNS, but I think I'm correct in saying that:
1). It was an undisclosed third party company
2). They were a Singapore-based business.
Yeh, it's just the last few transfers, ii's closing their shorts, AZ's friends taking their positions, and whatever other guff can be offered up to explain the cataclysmic depression in the share price for 3.5 years. Next you'll be telling us American's online soon and you wouldn't want to be out of this over the weekend....
Jones Richard is that you?
Why should no news come as a surprise? There's no timelines offered in the previous RNS, for all we know finalisation of terms between all parties could take another 12 months+. Everything else with SYME has moved at a snail's pace, why should this be any different?
The LinkedIn messages and share price movement ahead of news is a massive red flag - we can reference MAR all we want, but the moment AZ started making outrageous misleading statements during ProActive interviews, firing carrot-dangling LinkedIn messages to investors or even purportedly posting on this board, all bets were off in terms of proper Director conduct.
I've reduced my holding significantly, and remaining shares hang by a thread - I'm doing a deeper retrospective this evening, but my inclination is this is a non-starter veiled by a series of misleading news releases. How did the US pilot go? Where are Storm Harbour? How much Shar'iah compliant monetisations have we done? What are Lenovo doing? What are ISPB doing? What's Tony Brown up to in the States? What's the state of play with Tradeflow? Are we still on track to secure a Captive Bank / Fintech Bank? What was the purpose of the Open Offer? How much have we spent on RNS to announce £3.50 worth of warrants converted? Who valued Tradeflow at £31m considering their revenue, and were they qualified to do so? Why is the identity of the valuer kept secret?
I think it's time the true long-term shareholders started making a noise - something does not sit right here.
Well and truly been had on this one - looks like the bears called it right all along. I'd been invested since August 2020 but the last 2 years things have gone from bad to worse, such that nearly four years after listing I'm still unconvinced whether there's actually an underlying business here, or if it was a ploy for those in the know to trade shares. The listing of RTOP also makes me suspect the days of the random unexplained spikes and "this is it" moments are behind us now as well... The bad news RNS followed by vague carrot of promise has grown tired - even in the last AZ, the carrot felt a bit half-baked.
£15k in the red on this one, could have been a lot worse given I had nearly 50m shares at one point, but fortunately some clever (crazy?) averaging down allowed me to get out with more modest losses. Ironically, I first invested to help fund a weekend old Jap car purchase. The weekend Jap car would have cost about £15k.
I hope AZ antics don't go unpunished - sharing insider info on LinkedIn, posting on here, crazy interviews, RNS' with outrageous promises and critically massively overvaluing Tradeflow... I've raised a complaint with the company but been stonewalled by the company (14 weeks and counting). I was tempted to escalate with the FCA, but SYME/AZ aren't even registered...
Maybe, but that's part and parcel of working for any company - I work for an established FTSE company and we're trying to deliver too much change, have disagreements and are sometimes tired, but we wouldn't present to investors in such a poor fashion (I'd hasten to add, not me - I don't envy those presenting, but if they're not up to the task they shouldn't have been thrust in front of potential new investors, and you'd like to think someone who's job is to drum up new business can exude a bit more charisma than simply reading a slide).
I've been very positive about SYME for the three years I've been invested, but today has really ****ed me off, and I'm not quite sure why - I think combination of lacklustre presentation, rehashing of old material and a few silly bullets (e.g.: mentioning acquiring new companies), all of which makes me think solid, repeat, revenue-generating business is further away than I had "envisaged".
Perhaps - Albert's joining has been a positive and we've seen a more mature approach to the communication.
However, my disappointment is not from a lack of rampy soundbites or hyped-up promises, it was the lackadaisical, lazy presentation - Nicola and Mark in particular seemed disinterested, Nicola was very obviously reading the content. I'm far from a Tony Robbins'-style presenter, but as the leading lady of our sales team I would have expected much better when courting new investors.
I've laughed at previous criticisms of body language, but today did not feel like a company about to launch into a trillion dollar market and had recently achieved major business milestones. I normally love an AZ interview, I wasn't necessarily expecting an RNS or big news ahead of today's session, but I was expecting a more engaging and polished presentation.
Tech issues delayed start, AZ had no camera so couldn't show off his new barnet, then we had an uninspiring presentation telling us how big the opportunity is and projecting ahead, without any tangible delivery (there wasn't much shouting about inaugural transactions).
Nicola / Mark were very unconvincing, uninspiring presenters. I suspect the sell-off is that the recent SP movement gave hope that some of the promised initiatives including WL were imminent, whereas the presentation gave the impression they are further (months if not a year) off.
Because that performance is not going to attract new investors. The presenters, with the possible exception of Albert, all appeared hesitant, unsure of their subject and completely lacked the polish you would expect from a professional company when addressing external investors. Even AZ was off his game - admittedly, it's not an easy thing to do and tech issues didn't help, but I would have expected after such a long period of silence in terms of Proactive interviews etc., that AZ would have been dying to address the market and put on a show.
Ultimately, it was a regurgitation of slides/stuff we've seen before about the business model. Opportunity missed for me...
It's 10:30am on a Monday morning, I'm surprised LexLugar hasn't arrived to share his daily musings on a share he's not invested in... Must have finally found a worthwhile hobby to pursue! Good for him!!
Good job his wife is interested in micros if her husband takes after her father....
Lots of squealing tonight, it's almost as if SYME has released a succession of well-written and very promising RNS', supported by a sound, rational and sensible prospectus...
I'd like to see IM finalised this week (I'd have liked to have seen it finalised in 2020 tbh!), but somehow the "due course" wording of the previous RNS and the timing of the Open Offer makes me think we may be waiting a week or two longer yet...
That said, not knowing the order of events to finalise IM (i.e.: what's the necessary steps after client approval?) it's difficult to say. Still, we all wait for baited breath - would be very nice indeed to see update on other geographies / funding streams simultaneously.
Excellent work Steve, the fish gobbled up that bait and fell into that hook, line and sinker....
From a personal perspective, some of the detractors have done me a huge favour as a holder of 2+ years. I had just 2m for a long while up until suspension, am sat on more than 10x that now thanks to the low prices. Interesting the narrative has changed from "IM will never happen / it won't be signed off from Big 4" to "OmFg LoOk HoW sMaLl ThE fUrSt TrAnSaCkHtShUn Is!!11"
Interesting few weeks ahead!!
I'm pretty bad at football accumulators. I managed 4/17 on Saturday, a truly miserable effort, but as predictions go I think @Johnbri4 easily trumps me for worst prediction ever:
Thursday 28th July:
"If AZ produces nothing tomorrow this stock will be worth Sweet FA. Even his most loyal followers will begin to doubt someone who promises on a regular basis and then takes the p!ss."
After this prediction, and the subsequent RNS, I'd have thought you'd have been swinging from the chandeliers to not only still have an investment, but one that's nearly doubled since the time of writing.