Member Info for horace678

Here is the "news": http://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/prices-and-news/news/market-news/market-news-detail.html?announcementId=10453915

I am sitting tight - Lord Ashcroft plays business hard ball and woe betide if you cross him ! However, if you are loyal to him, he will be loyal to you - he does *not * let down his shareholders, and I have been following him for over 10 years.

There's talk about Ashcroft needing 95% of the shares, but what if Ashcroft issues us shares (e.g. Impellam shares) in return for our shares rather than taking the company private. Does the 95% rule still apply? I've seen plenty of examples of companies being merged where the target company has its outcome decided by the majority shareholder, who could have considerably less than 95% of the shares. My bet is that Ashers will merge the company will Impellam and that he will issue us Impellam shares for our holdings. Notice how Cenkos is the broker for both IPEL and MVW and Andrew Wilson is involved with both of them. I remember when Corporate Services Group merge with Carlisle Group to form Impellam, there was a similar suppression of the share price of CSG, bringing it down from 9p to 2p, this time with Dresdner dumping its shares (rather than Cazenove). Whatever happens, let's wait for more news on Monday.

I wonder if there's a chance that Ashcroft will make us an offer that we can't resist, e.g. 3p+, as there seems to be a lot of resistance to the idea of relinquishing shares at 0.75p and apparently Ashcroft needs 95% of the shares.

In fact, he didn't buy any shares, he issued 1.06bn shares to take him from 57% ownership to over the threshold of 85% ownership, thereby triggering a delisting.

Thanks for the link. It's funny that there wasn't an announcement about what the deal would be for the remaining 13% of the shares, maybe this will come on Monday, and Ashcroft must have foreseen that the shares cannot be listed on AIM anymore owing to the breach of rules. Alternatively, Ashcroft could issue us with a load of Impellam shares (his services mothership), in which case surely he would have the final say as he has a majority holding in both companies....?

Just did a bit of research and from what I gather it's necessary to have at least 25% of shares in public hands (though maybe this is different on AIM), hence the delisting. Perhaps there will be more info on Monday. Oh well, I bought in at 0.81 and if I get 0.75 then I'm nursing a loss, but it's been a good soap opera and also fun. Worth the money for the entertainment value, I guess.

here is the news: http://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/prices-and-news/news/market-news/market-news-detail.html?announcementId=10453915 I think we'll be offered 0.75p per share, but that's just an educated guess.

Yes, Ashcroft always has a plan - he is very calculating - the thing is, you just have to wait, sometimes years and years. Unfortunately, most people can't be bothered to wait long enough.

Yes, the prospects for this share are great and it is almost guaranteed that at some point the shares will be worth at least 0.75p - however, I think the shares will open the same tomorrow as they are now, unless your own buys possibly push them up slightly. The placing price of 0.75p is merely indicative, based on the calculation of 10.6m shares being issue in return for £8m. The market decides the price however.

Yes, good post. The shares will almost definitely not shoot up to 0.75p tomorrow which means that Ashcroft/Geraldton would be nursing a paper loss immediately to the tune of £2m or £3m. However, Ashcroft with 87% is in total control of the company and must anticipate the fortunes of the company, be they in the direction of new contracts or selling the company off at a premium or something else. Given that Ashcroft would want to make an eventual profit on his investment, we can expect the SP to rise to at least 0.75 at some point in the future, but probably not tomorrow.

I can't see any reason why there should be massive orders building up. The price doesn't have to shoot up to 0.75p at all - it can just stay the same. All that is happening is that 10.6m new shares are being issued and Geraldton is taking all of them, so they will not be tradeable in the market.

I'm not so sure about a Tory govt - however, we must remember that Ashcroft is head of the marginal seat's campaign, so I guess he's planning for the Tories to win otherwise he wouldn't be doing that job. At any rate, when the election is over, Ashcroft will resign from being deputy chairman, win or lose, so hopefully he'll have more time to get back to business. Also note that Ashcroft has other deals in the pipeline after the election: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7052622.ece

Yes, the SP doesn't have to move at all and I think it will stay about the same. However, in the long term it will almost definitely be worth at least 0.75 as Ashcroft would want a return on his investment, either by selling the company off at a premium or getting some new contracts in from a new Tory government (or both).

As for the legality of issuing contracts under political influence, Ashcroft is due to resign from being deputy chairman of the Conservative party on the day after the election, win or lose for the conservatives. So MVW could win a load of contracts from the government and not be associated with the Tories anymore.

It's also an Ashcroft characteristic to not publicise his companies or court analysts, so the shares are typically undervalued. However, when he sells his companies off (which he nearly always does, having turned them round), the share price shoots up. Plus many people avoid Ashcroft because he loves sailing against the wind - however, if he didn't know what he was doing, he wouldn't be as wealthy as he is...hold on to these shares, I say.

Ashcroft wouldn't be worth over £1bn if he didn't know what he was doing...

I think quite a few people are sick of topping-up without much joy so far. I'm happy to hang onto my shares and hopefully wait for a profit one day.

Yes, there were talks last year, and I think Ashcroft was behind buying it. However, I don't believe Ashcroft will sell it off, instead he will merge it into Impellam (IPEL) which in itself consists of a merger of Carlisle Group (which he owned) and the struggling Corporate Services Group. Impellam is a support services business with a annual turnover of around £1bn, the same type of business as MVW (recruitment, office security etc).

Thanks. With Ashcroft in control of most of the company, the future now looks bright. I expect the company to be revitalised with business if there is a Tory government.