Member Info for h4mmered

Laurence was based in Guernsey?

Having been very critical of the company's failure to raise more money earlier and drive themselves into a brick wall of lack of liquidity, I do think the shares now represent decent value. I don't think shareholders should be selling shares today in anticipation of the delisting, given that this is still subject to a shareholder vote at an EGM and that will require a 75% approval. There is still time for alternative solutions to be put forward, and any that are would almost certainly deliver more than the current share price. We are where we are, selling now makes no sense.,

Ouch, £180k into TSP has got to hurt

How would we ever know who sold shares in a market? That's the nature of a market. It looks like there was a sale of 612,000 shares on 19th at 0.61p and then Geoff Miller picked up 500,000 on 20th at 0.75p. I guess that the remainder maybe filled a short position the market maker had. What's the mystery?

How is buying in the market "under the counter shares"? I was a purchase reported through the market yesterday. I am struggling to see how this is anything but quite promising news.

The RNS suggests it was an open market purchase, so separate to the fund raise.

Sounds like they've been reading posts on here and decided to sort the 2023 AGM with all Directors standing for re-election and not skimping on standard resolutions.

£400k raised at 1.5p, looks like possibly another £1m to follow…

https://www.aquis.eu/stock-exchange/announcements/4515334

So the NEDs who understand the space have left and a rent-a-NED Lord looking for a pay day steps up? Not a good day.

They may have won last time but since then the stock price is down another 60%, even more debt, little progress....

Why couldn't a vote be won?

I'm guessing that their promised fund raised has evaporated, the Board know they have zero support from existing shareholders, who all want them gone, and it's just a desperate attempt to buy more time in the hope that an eventual FDA approval will allow them to raise money at a higher price.

In reality, they have so undermined their own credibility that any fund raise in the future will now have to probably be at a discount to the current share price, rather than a premium.

Agreed, more jam tomorrow and implying that the FDA approval is almost in the bag, when the FDA can still turn down the application up to the very last moment. It's LS desperately clinging on as his company runs (ran?) out of money and depends on more and more debt to limp on to insolvency.

Desperate.

Investments other than CDT, even with the recent fall of CDT, represent just of 50% of NAV, and some of that is real @!$* so the remainder really has to motor to have any impact.

Looking at CDT trading today, the thing that really stands out is the way that volumes have completely dried up. It's mid-afternoon in New York and just over 2,000 shares have been traded. Even if Vela wanted to sell, they couldn't at anywhere near the current CDT price, because there are literally no buyers, let alone for 1m shares, and selling just a few would just alert the market to a big seller.

I think Chris Cooke believed he was buying a stock at a huge discount to NAV, but as CDT falls so the discount is ever narrowing, and the chances of anyone seeing the company as something that is worth doing anything with are diminishing...

With CDT performing so poorly the tangible NAV is somewhere around 0.03p, versus over 0.04p were the CDT price to be back above $5. The problem that the Vela management face is that they need to realise CDT to allow them to invest elsewhere (and to cover running costs) but realising at this price just crystallises a big loss on their investment against where it was when they exercised the option. If they don't get on and realise the investment then they run out of money (or have to realise other assets and become more dependent on CDT), but if they do realise CDT it just locks in terrible decision making.

The problem with CDT is that now it is less than $200m market cap it is a tiny UK-based company listed in the US that no one has to own. Why would any US institutional shareholder jump into an unproven foreign entity, when a lot of the US life sciences sector trades at a discount to cash on its balance sheet?

It's a disaster of the Vela management's own making.

It is pointless to speculate about global events when discussing a very small E & P company.

I am reminded of the great gold fund manager Julian Baring, who back in the 1980s and early 1990s always said about the macro economic and political risks of South African mining companies "the risk is always the same, "awful", it is just that at times it is more awful than at other times".

Mongolia has been fought over by Russia and China for centuries. A hundred years ago they aligned themselves with the bolsheviks, to protect against the Chinese, only to be subsumed in Stalin's time, before regaining autonomy. It remains closely aligned with Russia militarily but tries to balance its economy between Russia, China and the outside world. This inevitably means that the risks in today's world are substantial, but that is unlikely to change any time soon.

I completely agree that the NEDs will be key to ensuring the company is stabilised and moved forward. Having a majority independent Board will be exactly what is required.

Why would what happened historically give any indication of what is happening now? The fact that FB paid MU some money in the past surely is more of an indication that MU is not involved any more, given that FB is most certainly nothing to do with the company any more.

If you're saying that MU is someone to be avoided, and that he is connected with FB, this would make sense, given FB is the only one that is a convicted felon.

It doesn't pay to have one's head in the sand; I think this is a company with great potential but it does seem to be running headlong into a brick wall, and I think it is perfectly reasonable to question the strategy of prioritising the long term when in six months there will be no company without a fund raise. Shareholders should be clamouring for management to deal with this issue, since not doing so will inevitably lead to an outcome far more dilutive for existing shareholders. Look at the share price - it is drifting lower as the money runs out and thus the cost for existing shareholders is growing.

However, if you wish to ignore the funding wall and praise management for accelerating towards it, please feel free.

I will remain cautious until there is some prospect of funding through to the company being cash flow positive. Until that point it is absolutely impossible to know whether there is any value in the company's shares, since we do not know what the cost of the funding will be.