Member Info for Globex

I do feel for shareholders here, tough break when a clanger like this drops out of nowhere, nobody could have reasonably seen this coming.

Couldn't help but notice Applied intention to float RNS stating their intention to join the equity shares/commercial companies category (aka the artist formerly known as premium segment), and enter the indexes pretty much straight away.

Seems they're well advised, probably helps having a few heavy hitters like Peter Cowgill and Andy Bell on board. Meanwhile THG has been dithering about same move for 4 years now.

https://www.londonstockexchange.com/news-article/market-news/confirmation-of-intention-to-float/16700974

Https://www.lse.co.uk/rns/SFOR/s4capital-announces-merger-with-zemoga-feb2elsxp0pyqhz.html

These share issues to pay for past acquisitions shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, they're all detailed in annual reports

Father/son? Could simply be an Dad trying to show a bit of support to his son while he's working at such a distressed company.

Both were directors of this which went insolvent https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/07953134

Good to see this grant going to a worthy cause, being public money after all. With OBD would only have been used to keep the gravy train for directors going a bit longer. With such a large amount no doubt the MRC would have done stacks of due diligence - they're not stupid and wouldn't have taken long to spot some of the red flags here.

Https://www.jupiteram.com/uk/en/individual/media-posts/jupiter-asset-management-builds-scale-emerging-markets-acquisition-team-institutional-assets-origin-asset-management/

Ubisoft now livening up on reports of potential buyout. Interestingly its suitors include Tencent, who also have a stake here. Could be there's life in this old dog yet.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/04/ubisoft-shares-skyrocket-after-report-tencent-guillemot-family-considering-buyout.html

Two trades totalling 13.5m going through - over 10.5% of shares in issue could only be PMI or Dowgate really (for it to be Rosenblatt would be too much of a plot twist you'd think). Whoever it is, seems they want out at any cost. Just 1.65p will be a massive loss, it was only earlier in the year the company placed at 9p. Can't beat Aim for this sort of drama.

It's now been given the rollonfriday treatment, rarely a good sign.

According to them board backing CEO. Can't see Rosenblatt accepting that quietly, could get messy.

https://www.rollonfriday.com/news-content/boardroom-chaos-rbg-share-price-plummets-under-3p

Looks like this is at a crossroads and could either do an Ince and fully crash the car - or be more like Knights and (sort of) recover.

"Have you just arrived or woken from a long sleep?"

Stupid post Oculusprime but here's a serious answer for you re cash flow positive.

The company had a golden opportunity in 2021-22 ecommerce boom. All they had to do then was increase prices enough to match the increased demand, like most companies did pretty aggressively at time hence we had that broader inflation surge.

Get the cash flow sorted when volumes were surging and balance sheet would be far stronger today. Company needn't have been put in position of facing uncertainty around bond maturity cliff edge and potentially having to make drastic decisions in next 12 months.

So no I wasn't asleep for any for that.

Instead though the decision was made selling things at a loss would be a better idea. Or Moulding-speak 'supporting customers' with 'price protection'. Now they're playing catch up when nutrition volumes are dropping. Nice one Matt.

Don't give Moulding any ideas! Already looks like he's going for record of longest rebrand in history.

Even the promise to be cashflow positive this year is looking pretty precarious based on the numbers we've seen so far.

When you think about it, what a ludicrously low target to reach anyway. Even your corner shop is cash flow positive. Does raise basic question of how is it that after 20 years and god knows how much investor cash pumped in is this still not happening.

Management's main interest is in the warrants they granted themselves.

At end of the last financial year the warrants outstanding numbered 10,298,584,962 - or equivalent of more than 86% of today's share count. Majority of those have an exercise price of 0.04p.

They couldn't have created more uncertainty if they tried.

"different ownership setting than allowed for as the sole business of a listed company" = pretty brazen euphemism for taking it private on cheap as a final FU to shareholders.

New car market in a bit of a state at the moment. Stellantis and VW Group both putting out pretty dreadful results recently, and even at premium end likes of Mercedes issuing profit warnings. A lot of that down to Chinese now buying domestic brands instead but within Europe too sales similarly down. EV transition not going as smoothly as expected, people holding onto ICE cars for longer.

The challenge for Vertu is much lower volumes sold today will filter down to the used car market in 2-3 years time when it's trade in time. Like most car dealers Vertu's margins are tiny, so being dependent on volume becomes a problem when looking ahead the stock levels they are accustomed to simply won't be there.

Dusty

I think you should buy more of these shares. If you don't have any money left you should borrow and put that in. Everything looks all set 👌, you are bound to make up your losses any day now. That fleeting share price increase the other day could just be a taster of the riches that await. Nothing to worry about from this share price, a very normal year-to-date performance. A very healthy company with an excellent trustworthy management team.

The biggest issue with geopolitical instability as it relates to S4 is risk it'll be wheeled out again by management as a reason for underperformance. To me that seems more likely than this latest news having an actual impact on the financials.

I'm not sure if Sorrell himself even truly believes everything always can be blamed on macro any more. He's still astute enough to be well aware of the strength of the US economy and how industry peers never seem to be as impacted by whatever faraway conflict is happening this time.

The thing is that won't necessarily stop him using it as a reason for missing targets. Mindful he's an adman at his core and presenting a picture he wants you to see.

At same time my hope is he recognizes that it's operational deficiencies that are the crux of the problem - and that he's dealing with those things that are actually fixable, even while he's publicly always going on about the macro stuff.

Fwiw Applied Nutrition's numbers here (for accounts made up to 2023 at least)

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/09131749

£500m way too rich for me too also but to be fair the revenue growth underlining profit % are decent and prized metrics like this will help the IPO. In a less tangible way it won't hurt their CEO comes across as investor friendly and humble, at least from what I've seen interviews anyway he seems to say all the right things.

As the first time THG will have a listed peer for nutrition will definitely be an interesting case study. It shouldn't do THG any harm as could well increase management pressure by cementing the idea that the company doesn't have any excuses left for not making a decent statutory profit by now - if even a tiny player like Applied with a novice CEO can do it.

Seems like an open goal for an activist to agitate for a boardroom revamp. Even if Sorrell is too sticky to be unseated, the rest look pretty expendable so wouldn't be surprised to see one or two restless shareholders pop up over next 12 months.