Member Info for Franalex

It is in exactly the same phase as all those other companies I mentioned got to, plus Flybe and Afren. It is a penny share where money can be made or lost on sudden bounces, it is those who hold to the end that take the hit. Thomas Cook is a great example. Just 5 weeks ago speculation sent the price more than doubling in a few days from c6p to 14p. The Board was full of rampers saying “fill your boots” and 30p coming. It is now at 4.5p and heading down.

I totally agree, your own research is essential an these boards to contain some very inaccurate posts.

Point is that some people are seduced by what they read. There were a couple of very sad stories on Debenhams where individuals lost more than they could afford due to what some were posting which was nothing more than wishful thinking and ignoring fundamentals. This business is currently cash negative and requires funding, those organisations who hold security care nothing for the PI and would happily wee them wiped out if needs be.

For any new investor, if you look back you will find exactly the same comment on Thomas Cook, Debenhams, Interserve and Carillion in the recent past. This is not an investment, it is a gamble where shareholders could be wiped out just as easily as making money.

Theoretically it could but looking very unlikely. Interesting to note that all those posters who less than 5 weeks ago were out in force suggesting a strong buy and saying it could not go under, seem to have largely disappeared. If what some were saying was correct, and they were “filling their boots” on the recovery to around 12p, the. They are sitting on some very large losses.

And all only 5 weeks since a number of deluded posters were predicting share prices above 20p, “fill your boots time” and “strong buy” conveniently forgetting all the fundamentals and corporate statements, and driven by greed and blind optimism. Just hope that, like Debenhams, Carillion and Interserve in the recent past, inexperienced investors did not follow their views.

As recently as July, Dan.p was predicting “way over 30p”. Clearly forecasts are not his strong point!

Or long established (150 years+) Lehman Bros with 60 billion dollar turnover.

My concern would be his limited sector experience other than a couple of years in the Dutch business. This seems to have been a feature of recent (last 10 years) of Executive Appointments and it has served them very badly. Renewi have under-performed most of the sector, both quoted and unquoted businesses for a long time and if you look at the executive Boards of these competitors you will usually find at least one executive Director with very lengthy experience; look at Biffa and Augean both of which are quoted. I have been a long term holder and believe it is a good underlying business that has been badly managed and I do have some concerns that a couple of their U.K. PFIs are well over halfway through the 25 year term.

How low can it go? Remember same question being ask at 60p with the same reason for a rise being given.

Amers, comment like yours were so common on the Debenhams and Carillion share chats. Whilst I would like to think you are right, as I have no time for shorters, I fear you are wrong. Just too much time has passed without positive news and judging by the funding requirements the business looks to be leaking cash.

Things go from bad to worse. Difficult to see how his reputation can recover and must be time to replace him as manager. Confidence seems totally destroyed.

Agree with you on smart meter. Do not know anyone who used it beyond the first week novelty. Last week I was visited by a meter reader. When I asked why this was needed he advised that they need to visit at least once a year to check. As you say, manufacturers and installers (often 3rd parties) of meters have benefitted but at our cost.

For information I wrote to the Chair of the Remuneration Committee a couple of weeks ago asking when shareholders were going to see a re-basing of Board salaries to reflect the much lower market capitalisation and dividend payouts of the business. No surprise that there has been no response. Suspect if dividends and share-price had doubled we would have seen a substantial upward movement in base incomes. It really is time for the large institutional shareholder to force through some more realistic income levels but all too cosy and full of self interest.

My experience of multiple buys by directors is that it is nothing to do with positive news coming out but rather that the Chairman suggests the directors buy to demonstrate confidence in the business. There is then some degree of peer pressure. Bear in mind that these individuals are now so overpaid, relative to performance and market cap that their purchases make little impact on their total wealth.

You were advocating a “strong buy” at 11.2p less than 10 days ago. Not a great recent track record. This is a very high risk share that in my view now carries a high risk of almost total shareholder wipeout and any inexperienced investor should be vary cautious about sinking more than they can afford to lose.

Some individuals who posted on this board must be sitting on some big losses since they were “piling in” and encouraging others to do so, at 13p+ as recently as August 6th.

Suspect we are at the point when technical analysis counts for little. Prices are being moved by sentiment, speculation and wishful thinking with the odd RNS thrown in for good measure. It has been a pure gamble for many weeks now and anything could happen. My personal view has changed from two months ago when I thought administration was unlikely to one where I think it has at least a 50% probability. Too much time has passed and when a company is in distress my experience is that the downside risk increases as days go by with no positive outcome.

Hopefully to an activist investor who will do something about the management of the business.

JJ. I had one of those sales directors once who could not see that a £5m sale that was going to lose us at least £100k, even on a marginal cost basis, and over £500k on a fully costed basis was not good news.