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Who knows. Would have thought they would have got all the bad news out with the very delayed annual results but delaying the half year results suggests we have not been told everything. Shocking way to treat shareholders but since Lookers took over my Mercedes dealership I have gone elsewhere after 25 years and at least 15 new vehicles as they have destroyed the customer service. Leads me to suspect the treat all stakeholders badly.
Certainly the financial hit is not as bad as I feared but the range of issues is shocking and the FCA will have something to say on the distributable reserves issue. Given that KPMG got a large fine in the summer on this type of issue, suspect auditors are also a bit worried.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.