Listen to our latest Investing Matters Podcast episode 'Uncovering opportunities with investment trusts' with The AIC's Richard Stone here.
Good to see a positive video about recent AFC progress, with further growth expected. Not many subscribers but every little helps.
https://youtu.be/muYyFO0fgoE
Garonne, nobody can predict the future but I would suggest the following:
- Without Schroders selling the SP would be a lot higher, especially after the news yesterday.
- The fact that they have notified at 5% suggests that they have stopped selling for now.
- Numerous people, including Schroders and RA have sold large holdings at far lower prices but this didn't stop the rise in the end.
Given this, I think that the market will finally be able to price in the good news and general positivity around the sector next week. I also expect that AFC will be looking for innovative ways to demonstrate that there is lots going on, especially as the new head of communications will want to prove his worth.
Personally, I will be glad to see the back Schroders. Whilst they helped keep AFC afloat years ago, they have caused a lot of the drops in the SP that we have seen in the for the last couple of years by selling into rises and then reloading with cheap placing shares.
I agree with Chippy that these days are almost certainly over so once they are gone the SP will be free to move up if demand continues.
This explains the constant recent supply of shares, especially the incessant 25,000 share blocks being offloaded the last couple of days. I hope that they sell the rest and move on.
A 1,217,226 uncrossing trade at 77.7p. Not even a hint of manipulation going on!
I really do wonder much longer the SP can be kept down. It has been almost 3 weeks since it first reached this level, during whcih time over 200 million shares have been traded on the 2 markets and there has been a very posiitve RNS. Yet the SP has ended up lower. It makes absolutely no sense but life goes on. No doubt, somebody is making a lot of money out of this.
I remember writing a while ago at a much lower SP that it looked like AB was putting out the strongest possible hints that all the pieces were coming together for a serious rerating. Since then, there have been:
- Extreme E
- Acciona
- Jullich
- Hiiroc
- ABB
- Ricardo
- A significant fundraising
Quite frankly, even though the SP is a lot higher than then, I get an even stronger sense than ever that the pieces are all coming together and that there are even more hints than ever before that AFC is on track to become the leading fuel cell provider that it claims to be.
It would be good to see some updated broker forecasts etc as we await further updates but the point is that all the developments are gradually derisking the investment and the fact that the market has yet to price them all in simply adds to the potential future gains to come. It is becoming more a "when" than an "if" after each announcement and it doesn't really matter if it takes 1 month or 1 year to get there although I suspect that are going to be gradual rises for quite a while as the market slowly wakes up to the potential.
AFC wouldn't be the same without the impatient falling over themselves to sell into any rise. However, with the SP still under where it has been several times in the last few weeks before this RNS, my money is on the patient coming out on top again!
I think they are all too busy fighting to get ITM shares which are at over €8.47 now. For AFC to be under €1 still is absurd!
Tremendous news today. Tradegate's slow response reminds me of what happened with the ABB announcement. It then took several days even for LSE to wake up. We were, from memory, back in the high 30s then and look where the SP is now. GLAH!
I see that the deramping continues. ITM and CWR are both up today and setting new all-time MCap highs at multiples of AFC's MCap, not the mention the US companies in the sector that are flying. The only thing stopping AFC from doing this is fear of history repeating itself after previous false starts and there are plenty of peoole tying to make money by stokign this fear!
It does look like famous last words on my part, Haggis. How they get away with doing this day after day is beyond me.
I am surprised, after weeks of high volumes at these levels and numerous treeshakes, that there are still shares available. However, it feels like the tree has been shaken so many times that the big shake over the last 48 hours might be the final one, leaving the rerating to continue once the market realises this.
Add in some decent newsflow and it could get very interesting.
Aim, wind your neck in!
It really is a head-scratcher as to why AFC so often seems to get worse treatment from the market than ITM/CWR. The trading today yet again looks very suspicious, with the SP being walked down steadily after yesterday's walk down but with there being no real selling off to justify this.
Whether this is shorting or not we will never know but the way that the BB has been today, as well as the strange share price decline, gives me a sense that it was.
Either way, the sure way out of this is timely, clear and regular communication from the company and I am hopeful that those concerned at AFC will start to make this a reality very soon rather than leaving the share price to continue to be so vulnerable to manipulation.
On a separate note, it is interesting to see on this lower volume day that Tradegate is still just in the lead for volume today. No idea what this could mean, if anything, but I still remember last year when Tradegate did the same to LSE and it gave us something to talk about as we awaited news! Hopefully, they will remain bullish and push us into the blue by skuppering all the games on LSE.
Sorry, typo on the Acciona one. Still in 2020 mode!
- HiiROC update as the prototype was due to be delivered in 2020.
- Extreme E unit as this was due to be delivered in December 2020.
- Acciona unit as this is due to be delivered in early 2021.
- AlkaMem update as, from memory, we have been promised this for a while.
- Investor Day update as this has been promised since the last AGM was effectively made closed door.
As we enjoy ourselves debating (to put it politely) whether AFC are communicating as hoped or not, this would seem to be an opportune moment to put together a list of expected newsflow items. Depending upon whether you are a glass half full or half empty person you might said that this news is either due or overdue!
- HiiROC update as the prototype was due to be delivered in 2020.
- Extreme E unit as this was due to be delivered in December 2020.
- Acciona unit as this is due to be delivered in early 2020.
- AlkaMem update as, from memory, we have been promised this for a while.
- Investor Day update as this has been promised since the last AGM was effectively made closed door.
Feel free to add to this list as these are just the ones that jump into my mind.
My hope is that IT will take the time to look at these and any other previous timelines that we have been told about and make sure that they are not allowed to slip in the future. If this is the case then we could be due quite a lot of newsflow soon. As ever, time will tell!
Let's hope it is a subliminal message to watch out not just for the Extreme E delivery but also the Acciona delivery. Afterall, we were told in June last year that the tests would start in early 2021. How time flies when you are having fun, lockdowns aside!
Garonne, it looks like the usual afternoon recovery is being hampered by the mild carnage on the wider markets but we will need to see what happens once the US gets online.
It wouldn't surprise me either but I don't want to tempt fate!