Member Info for Franalex

Looking as if they are pushing the November date for issuing the results to the wire. Surely they will not announce a further delay.

Time will tell but it does not take this amount of time to produce accounts unless something is amiss. Would not be remotely surprised if a balance sheet reconstruction is announced. Not a chance of a PI claim, I have seen much worse and the auditors will hide behind behind the directors Letter of Representation.

They did say November and I checked they added 2020. They are leaving it late so there must be some bad news they are trying to resolve?

Described as a “real character”, sadly one without the skills to identify major shortcomings in corporate governance. No doubt just a bit of a jolly, attending board meetings and drawing a significant fee.

Thanks, wondered if you were talking pence. There have been a lot of falls like that over the years. The next thing we know they will be proposing a share consolidation because of price volatility caused by the low share price.

What movement are you referring to? I have seen nothing other than a continuation of the 10 year move downwards.

Only conclusion is that there are some historic adjustments which will damage the balance sheet which may then need some reconstruction. Would also like to think there will be a complete clear out of all directors, including non-execs who have been in place during this period of unacceptable governance.
On the positive side, Pendragon’s RNS today was fairly positive.

Correct, just as it failed to do at RBS where the same justification was given.

Consolidation helps disguise the fall in share price as eventually people forget the conversion ratio. Never better illustrated than with RBS/NatWest. Many have forgotten that the current price is little more than 10p based on the pre consolidation price.

Likewise, with every day that passes without news you just wonder how bad it can be. They will surely have to clear out all the directors and non-executive directors that have been in position during the period which would appear to include the Chairman. I find it slightly ironic that their website still includes “5 reasons you should invest in Lookers”.

Surely it is time for the governing body to introduce a requirement for Boards of suspended companies to issue updates on at least a monthly basis during suspension. Something must have happened in the last month, even if it is more bad news. As time progresses with no clarification, the suspicion is that something is very seriously wrong.

Well, another week and still absolute silence. The Board and their advisers seem to be taking self isolation to a new level. Something must have gone terribly wrong for it to take this long to clarify what their finances really are.

For the really old timers, it was 255p, in 1999 and the fall under £1 was seen as a buying opportunity.

I assume you are talking about the 2000 £200m acquisition rather than the recent merger. This followed on from the Belgian acquisition and I think there was resentment that Shanks, who were mainly a landfill operator at the time, did not adopt the more modern Dutch approach to waste management. They also had a very strong management team in the Netherlands. Shanks then led the way in UK PFI contracts for Waste and disposed of its landfill and power business to Terra Firma who promptly merged it with WRG under the management of a former Shanks Director (now Chair of Augean). I think things started to go wrong with the retirement and departure of key executives but always believed it had good assets, some good people and a growing market that a strong Board would capitalise on. Sadly I have been waiting a long time for this team.

Very few Uk staff now and even before the merger the Netherlands and Belgium dominated the Group. The U.K. staff are largely in the PFIs and the large ELWA contract has relatively few years to run. Have not understood for years why they carry the cost of a UK listing. Got to give the new CEO a chance but he has a big job. Remember this was once a FTSE250 business with share price above £2.

Agree weakness at top has existed since Mike Averill (now a non-exec at Biffa) retired. A sequence of appointments lacking sector experience in a business where this is important. Current CFO has been in job for years now and suspect has still to report a successful year. Augean, with former Shanks Director as Chairman has also performed well.

Pendragon results out today which, as a comparable competitor, gives a good idea of Covid impact Lookers will have experienced. Although reporting good recent sales, like for like on prior half year is 43% down which will have damaged the balance sheet and suggests Redwine may well be correct on the capital raise prediction. Clarification RNS needed urgently, it is irresponsible to leave shareholders in the dark for so long.

Over a month since the last update. This can not be good news. With the external resources being thrown at it it should have been possible to completely reproduce the prior year’s accounts by now so must be requiring a detail review of many years.

Yes, invested for the long term in around 2008. The Board rejected an offer from Carlyle Group of 120p in 2010 because it “under valued the business” and it has been down hill ever since with ridiculous amounts paid to the Board for continual value destruction.

Hope you are right but there are a couple of flaws in your argument. Firstly, Pendragon’s share price has hardly moved for weeks. They are a direct competitor and would have participated in the sales boom. Secondly, we have no clue over their asset position. It has taken so long to produce the accounts it is quite possible that there are major asset write-downs or a balance sheet reconstruction. The fact is that until we get a clarification RNS and comments are just pure speculation and these boards have been full of individuals predicting massive share price increases for troubled businesses and most were woefully wrong.