Member Info for Hindhead

The red lights started flashing when the problems appeared re the former CFO. Whether he was directly to blame or his predecessor I have no idea. However my experience has been, that if there is a problem with the CFO, or areas within their immediate control, it can be indicative of deeper routed financial and / or structural issues. Why wasnt the CEO in better control? What have the non execs be doing - they have responsibility to hold the executive BoD to account!

I kept the faith, believing that an FTSE250 co with all the compliance checks required of such status, together with the pedigree of WG would ride the turbulence. It doesnt seem to be doing that well!

Ride profits but protect capital. Having previously made good profits on WG I am now focussing on the latter - currently still invested but have reduced holding by 50% - as do not want capital tied up whilst stock is suspended as the opportunity cost lost outways the +/- 35p bid.

AIMHO & GLA

@Longfell I am inclined to agree with you. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck etc then there is a fairly good chance that it is one. I'm still invested but have reduced substantially. Want to believe that this has just been a black swan event for WG (a company with undoubted history, technical strength, quality workforce and good revenue streams) and that recovery is possible with a capital infusion / restructuring, but beginning to recognise that there might be more to the catastrophic demise of the sp over recent weeks, the reasons for which we have still perhaps not been made fully aware. I am still at a complete loss to understand that the non-execs have been ignoring the downward spiral considering that there are some strong and experienced ones on the BoD eg David Lockwood (CEO of Babc$ck). What have they been doing or is the demise of the sp simply panic and sentiment? The next weeks will be interesting. GLA & AIMHO & Happy Easter

@multiplier - thanks for the link. Brilliant!

@kando - much appreciated your insightful and well reasoned comments and thoughts today.

would separately add how extremely disappointing the non-execs at wg have been. what have they been doing here? included within such is david lockwood obe (for services to industry!) ceo of bab****. if he is running bab**** in a similarly shambolic fashion, thinking i should go short on them? gla & aimho

Excellent news today on profits and sp now over 100p.

AIMHO & GLA

Agreed @icecool. And if Sid dont the Australians will see this as opportunistic. £350m gets you a decent business with £6bn of orders and 30k quality staff . Such opportunity doesnt present itself that often. All this with a beautiful back stop of "drill baby drill" and carbon collection - both specialist areas for WG. The only irritation is the dithering and dancing, resulting in opp cost lost iro of other investments that I would like to make. AIMHO & GLA

Excellent post @bandit. Thank you. Which ever way this goes, medium term things look good.

IMHO & GLA

Hey Froggy think you should call him Sid

Https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lP8BZcyoEQ

Woulndnt it be nice

Market knows best :)) Look at the volume. Insignificant. Tree shake and opp to add

This used to be a be a decent board with interesting comments. Following the recent developments we are swamped with rubbish. If only could just filter to read the better comments

Sidara are interested in WG because of their market leading expertise etc. Why are they market leading? Because they obviously have great staff. Many of these will be senior and have built up decent personal stakes in wg. Probably pension relevant. Their stakes, (built up at potentially much higher cost than the current sp), respectively what such total represents, are inconsequential to the bigger shareholding ownership, but if Sidara low ball, the very staff they want to retain ie the reason they are buying the company, will be duly frustrated and potentially clear-off to the competition eg HTG and others. Low balling wont happen because in doing such Sidara would seriously damage the asset, that was and is the reason for their interest in the first place. I agree with earlier posters that some of the executive BoD might be potentially superfluous going forward but Sidara will want to manage this themselves once the dust has settled. AIMHO GLA

ken g has in excess of 1m shares @ cost of £1.5m+ he may not be steering the ship but he retains considerable influence and he is not going to role over and swallow a sale @ 60p ie a personal loss of £800k without a fight. other captains of industry on the board eg non-exec david lockwood, although only having a minor investment are not going to support low ball pricing unless the company is about to vaporise and that looks extremely unlikely, particularly as they the bod recently rejected much higher offers. reputations are to be lost on such performance and lockwood (ceo of bab****) wont want that. personally, i have no idea what the final t/o price will be but i hope its much, much higher. aimho gla

Much has changed in the world since this interview. Net-zero, referred to by Ken several times is not yet a dirty word (at least in the UK), but give it a year and it might well be. However carbon management is not going away and WG look well placed to ride the opportunity, as one of their considerable revenue streams, as it inevitably grows. Ken has considerable personal skin in the game, his own investment being in excess of £1m and as such he is undoubtedly aligned with shareholder interests. Is he secure as CEO, probably not. He is looking a little careless having lost two separate billion $ suitors, watched the sp be decimated and lost the CFO, whom he would have had oversight in recruiting, all in the space of a long year. I think change is unlikely at this precarious moment where the sp is being pummelled as much by sentiment as the dynamics of their industry sector and the geo-politics currently causing some upheaval.

Perhaps ii's, the board (and there are some big-hitters on it) or potential "partners" will be having a quiet word re a safe and reliable pair of hands re the CFO, steadying the ship, before the CEO chooses to "pursue other interests" outside of WG creating the opportunity for the solid and proven CFO to move up. The underlying business of WG looks decent and the return to favour of O&G augers well for their business model and us pi's. Just my thoughts. AIMHO GLA

I'm averaging 2.8 atm. Lowest add was @ 2.22 in Nov 23. The sp was trapped in a trading range of between 2.17 and 2.70 from April 23 until end Dec 23. Over the last few months the frailty of relying on green energy has become transparent and need for the "ghastly" O&G has become more apparent. Some are still living in denial but O&G remains, I believe, unavoidable for many years / decades to come. That GS have moved to sell and downgraded the sp is seemingly following a masters order! With strategic reserves at all time lows and consumption at all time highs, the current price of oil is an contradiction and probably an opportunity. Happy to keep adding at these levels as feel that when the pendulum swings back, that the sp will positively exaggerate upwards.

AIMHO and GLA

Yesterday NFU declared their increased holding and today its Schroders upping their stake by 10%. Things are looking good.

AIMHO

Strong vote of confidence from NFU.

@mountteide, great summary and appreciate the focused comments. thanks

As you say English, "punters" looking for a quick 10%.

I'm happy with the resultant volatility as it creates opportunity for me to keep adding.

AIMHO

As reported by Alliance News this a.m.: "Arrow reported a total cash balance of USD19.1 million at January 1. Results for the three months to September 30 were Arrow's strongest quarterly figures on record.

Arrow shares fell 9.9% to 23.87 pence each on Monday morning in London".

Good reasons to keep adding and buy the dip.

AIMHO

Me too. Hopeful of an ASX listing in the near future. GLA AIMHO