Member Info for Globex

Big risk when this delists and is outside of UK jurisdiction they will theoretically have ability to dilute remaining 18% down to 0.01% effectively assigning all equity to insiders. There will be nobody to stop them. That would explain their eagerness to delist.

If company money has been spent on this another poor show by our woeful board. Makes you wonder how much money they've been rinsing on other various consultants and corporate backscratchers. They can't have done even basic DD before appointing this outfit as they were in receipt of a compulsory strike off notice. Surely not the sort of firm you want to be associated with, especially when doing something as critical as engaging with shareholders.

Maybe most telling is they haven't been able to add any other significant shareholder to their yes table. They would clearly make a song and dance if they had, as they're including even directors' miniscule holdings again as part of this RNS. (Maris et al have a real brass neck btw, I would be so embarrassed highlighting such a small share count and ergo how little faith they have in all this.)

We already knew Kerogan/CA rolled over, seems no other big name has fallen for this. 55% still in play lads. Remember to get those votes in, closes Friday on 1pm so not long to go now.

It's striking (ahem) that Strike's share premium account has increased by nearly 50% in one year or £22m, or more than Purplebricks' entire market cap. Dunstone only major shareholder so looks like he is absolutely pouring money into that bottomless pit. Brave stuff, rather him than me.

Bonnier being gone from the register would certainly be a catalyst here but can you share evidence to back up claim of him selling?

Because according to this as of 21/04 he's still at 5.42% (via his missus)
https://audioboomplc.com/major-shareholders/

Not changed in at least 6 months
https://web.archive.org/web/20221127054704/https://audioboomplc.com/major-shareholders/

These upcoming results will be interesting either way. Normal strategy for an incoming CFO into a distressed company would be to absolutely kitchen sink things to lay blame at predecessor so could see fireworks.

Would normally be followed by a spiel about rebuilding, a new chapter yada yada, but Argo being CEO-less means nobody to make the big calls. Clock running down now as even PW's 3 month grace period is nearly up.

Kelso's shareholding is absolutely tiny, there are multiple institutional investors with more than them. I think we even had a PI on here with more shares than them. It's a bit of a mystery how they get so much coverage, they should be a bit embarrassed calling themselves activist investors and making these demands.

True sage, as per usual the big players will have the inside track and PIs in the dark. It would be very naive to think key information hasn't leaked just because the rules say that shouldn't be so.

Read somewhere when a company starts complaining about shorts, run. The mad part is THG only has about 3% short, so effectively 97% are long but he acts as if as he's a superhero against the world?

It's a free market, people can trade this in whichever direction they like. Thank god our media are free to say what they like too, pretty chilling his attacks on them, this isn't China, he needs to suck it up.

All for positivity but let's not get carried away, Amazon was in a different league of brilliance. Even if you wanted to, as you say Amazon was profitable after 9 years, THG is now in its 19th year. Revenue growth at Amazon in the early 2000s was exceptional and unique; not all losses are created equal.

I wonder if MM has issues with his emotions. Nothing wrong with that, I mean this in nicest possible way but he appears very fragile. Certainly makes him a colourful character, would probably be good on a reality program or something (ITV4 At Home with the Mouldings, could be this generation's David Brent?).

But as a PLC CEO his public temperament is so out of step with expected norms it's so jarring and this is why the media and city like to take the p*ss out of him.

One thing I noticed from the RNS today they appear to be nudging more towards the possibility of the so called Supplementary Dividend being paid via DCU, which would be another pain in the _rse.

The original offer document did cover it being paid either as a regular dividend or via DCU incidentally, but in my opinion there's a bit of a shift in emphasis today.

Would be another annoyance as this 1.87p is a big chunk, over double what Prax are fronting, and already "our money", therefore they really should endeavour to pay this as straight dividend where we all know where we are tax wise, rather than DCU and all their unknowns and messiness.

For me these contortions and complications are another reminder how woeful this deal is. I've never known a share with as many thought excerises required. I mean it's not hard, just pay a regular div like a normal company.

I reckon Strike are kicking the tyres now with a view to being first out of the gate if/when this goes to admin, no point paying over the odds for the equity now when they can get a pre-pack for peanuts. One thing's certain, they can't afford it as it stands, with just £113k cash as at last accounts if that's any indicator. Also possible Charles Dunstone has a thing for setting cash on fire so who knows.

They're not paying that amount upfront, worth reading the deal RNS with all the numbers.

The short version is the full 12.5p is contingent on various hoops being jumped through, Mercury being in retrograde and would take years. Share price not being close to the 12.5p max implies one or all of: market doesn't trust Prax, doesn't think those conditions will be met, doesn't like the length of time, doesn't like the delisting to illiquid instruments (DCUs) without any of the normal protection you get as a shareholder in a plc, etc. It's a complicated deal so there's a bit more nuance than all that though. Bear in mind I think the deal is a stitch up so am biased.

Millermanat70 that's a key question, there is so much opaqueness around current financial position a cynic might wonder if that's deliberate.

I've wondered if can it be a coincidence that to remain listed the absolute hard deadline for them to submit these accounts would be 30th June, while at the same time the deal wording gives Q2 end as stop point, same date. As in if they get this deal over the line strictly speaking we may never get to see those numbers, and they won't have broken any rules. Can't be right ethically even if not regulatory that we're batting in the dark here.

By not submitting them they also get to avoid providing outlook. Left wondering if we'll even get to know the cash position after this month's lift. They may be trying to avoid that too as it will surely show such such a big number as to make this deal look like Prax have been handed an open goal (all in my cynical opinion).

That wishlist of industry 'verticals' was pretty laughable. Maybe most shameless/desperate were their claims about addressable market value, take this from January RNS for example:

"The Board has focused Company efforts towards entering and establishing itself in seven strategic vertical markets having an aggregate value of in excess of £3.6 billion. "

That £3.6 billion figure is absolutely meaningless and it was bad faith to include it. It's a bit like me making a batch of cookies at home and then claiming my addressable market is now not just greater than McVities but if fact the entire total of the world biscuit industry.

Very good points Bubby, we PIs are notoriously laissez-faire when it comes to voting but Hurricane is pretty unique for a company of its size in that such a big proportion of holders are PIs - for example HL holders have 10%+ alone (Refinitiv data) - that's just one broker! OK it's the main one but collectively we could genuinely make a difference here.

Apart from the 2 majors no institutional investors have more than a couple of % of shareholding, so this is a genuinely democratic exercise where the little people (us) have a say.

Also worth mentioning again that the cut off is no time at all - 2 weeks on Friday. (The official record date in Hurricane docs is 2nd May, but to allow for settlement votes via broker need to be received by 28th April.)

It was so strange to go to all that effort to merge Arden with Ince, only to then punt off Arden at a giveaway price. Nothing makes sense with this firm. The company seemed to have managed fine before that merger, the fact name goes back 150 years it's pretty incredible the extent management botched this.

Everything so opaque, you get the sense investors don't know the half of what really went on here. Although it's now clear that when they said strategic disposals what they really meant was desperate fire sale.

Stunning, feel for holders here, major questions need to be asked about management knew and when. To go from delayed results to death is a p*sstake even by AIM standards. That fund raise last year was surely based on false pretences? FCA need to wake up and start actually scrutinizing these crooked outfits.

Challenge here is after the Charles notes is what if the BoE contract isn't renewed? They might find it hard to win next time as Bank may be reluctant to sign up to a firm with corruption charges hanging over it, and where auditors are warning about going concern questions. Loss of passports deal already shows sadly being British alone is no longer enough for these gigs, you have to actually be competent also.