Further thoughts18 Dec 2021 05:17
I feel, now, that MW's position is no longer tenable. Why?
1) Shareholder trust has been severely eroded, at least as far as I'm concerned, by the frankly callous timing of yesterday's 5pm RNS. Nobody will be able to sell on Monday. It will immediately go NT, and then you're at the mercy of the MMs. Plus, it's now obvious someone has known about this all along, which explains the relentless selling over the last few weeks (despite hitting historic lows). One might have reasonably expected the SP to bounce at some point, surely?
2) The cash burn in the last 6 months (a whopping 1.4m quid) is out of control, especially as MW must have been aware of the precarious financial position the company was in. Prudent husbandry of the finances was surely the order of the day, but no! MW seems to have been splashing the cash here, there, and everywhere. Totally irresponsible.
3) The good news from yesterday - the possible deal with Standigm Inc. - I feel may now be thrown into some doubt. Who in their right mind is going to sign an agreement with a company for which "without further cash resources", will "have to re-evaluate its strategy and outlook"? If I was Standigm, I would either pass on the deal (at least until DMTR's future is clearer), or try to renegotiate better terms (i.e. a better price).
4) It's also obvious that institutional investors are not convinced either, with no one willing to fund DMTR going forward, except at some ridiculously low price (who knows, a 50% discount?). "The Directors have engaged with existing and potential institutional investors over the past six weeks. However, there has been no conclusion as yet reached in relation to the amount of funds that can be raised or the pricing of any new equity issued. The Group believes it may be possible to secure a material equity investment, but that this would likely be at a significant discount to the current share price." This suggests to me that we either accept some huge dilution, or we cease trading, and what message does that send out to potential clients?
5) I used to be a fan of MW. I felt he came over well in interview. He knew his stuff, and seemed genuinely excited about the technology DMTR were showcasing. His appointment to the chair of the Industrial Advisory Board (IAB) at Imperial College I thought was great PR for DMTR, a chance to network with the likes of "AstraZeneca, Bayer, BASF, GlaxoSmithKline, IBM, The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, Mettler-Toledo, Syngenta, and Pfizer". But now I think that that appointment has been, at best, a distraction, and, at worst, all about MW - raising his personal profile with the big boys, networking, not for the benefit of his shareholders, but for the furtherance of his own ambitions.
With all this in mind, I feel that MW is no longer capable of steering the company forward and should immediately hand over to someone with the business acumen to right the ship and realize greater value for the sharehol
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