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Still a long way to go IMHO. See how the company (according to final results) still has debt of £69m. Ashcroft always sells off in the end, but I don't expect he'll do this till he has cleared the debt. Still, I predict £5 in 5 years' time, and £1-£2 in the next year or two.

The appointment of Cenkos as Nominated Adviser (the adviser that Ashcroft uses for his other companies) fuels my suspicion that Ashcroft is preparing to merge MVW with his services mothership Impellam (IPEL). It would make more sense to have the struggling MVW as part of his umbrella company. Ashcroft owns 57% of both companies so it's a neat fit.

Yes, I was wondering why the SP had shot up when the number of sells appears to equal or outweigh the number of buys

The RNS of 17 Feb states the Cenkos has been appointed as adviser to the company. Cenkos is the adviser used by Ashcroft (57% shareholder) for his other companies - it indicates that he is beginning to knock some sense into the company.

I wonder if that 4m trade at 16:00:45 is in fact a Sell. I seem to recall that Cazenove like to get rid of their shares on a Friday. Could this be it? Some optimistic soul just bought £10k worth, however.

I'm not convinced these can all be buys and that, indeed, there are that many people out there who suddenly want to buy shares in MVW. I think they are mainly sells instead and that it is Cazenove unloading the last of its shares. Only time will tell...

The screen has turned blue - could all these supposed buys be in fact sells? After all, the price is down today. Perhaps this is Cazenove getting rid of its final shares....

That is Jan 2009 news, not Jan 2010 ! Where have you been ?

I've been studying Ashcroft for 30 years and it's the same thing every time - buy a bad business, work it hard, turn it round, pay off the debt, don't advertise what you're doing because people think you're "dodgy", keep the share price nice and low, suddenly sell it off at a vast premium, everyone says "What happened there then?", then he has a chuckle to himself, takes the cash and moves onto the next one...

Plus they probably got rid of 2m on Monday, so that takes us down to about 19m shares. Anyone else counting?

See latest RNS dated 1-Feb-2010, Cazenove down to 4.67% of the shares - still got about 21m shares to get rid of...

This is what will happen to IPEL: http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2007/10/08/7903/michael-ashcroft-master-magician/ However, Ashcroft won't sell the company until he's turned round the Corporate Services Group part. Last time I looked, there was still a large debt and this is what Ashcroft needs to shift. One must be patient.

I suspect these are transactions by directors of IPEL buying up shares. Still a long way for the company to go. I anticipate £3-£5 within 5 years.

Lots of bigs sells last night and this morning. Is this the end of Cazenove? Also, does anyone know the threshold at which you don't need to publish a RNS, which might explain why there hasn't been one since 18-Jan?

Ok, thanks for keeping me up-to-date. I bought my holding at 0.80p so I'm looking forward to a price increase. I remember when the price was 10-15p (when I was a young man!)...

Cazenove still have 9% of the shares, i.e. 42m shares - could be a long wait before they get rid of them (if at all!)

I wonder if Lord Ashcroft will wait for the price to be really low and then put in a takeover offer - notice how Ashcroft has a 57% holding in both MVW and Impellam (IPEL), which I refer to as the "mothership". He could merge MVW nicely into IPEL.

Lord Ashcroft will underwrite the rights issue of £7.5m which means that he will snap up (cheaply) any surplus shares that are not subscribed to by other shareholders. Since he has 37% of the shares at present, he will probably end up having more than 50% of the shares after the rights issue and will therefore become majority shareholder and will have control over the company.

Ashcroft (57%) is shoring up the company via Geraldton and expects to get his money repaid. So the future looks bright...

I personally think the whole business is about to be gobbled up by Impellam (Lord Ashcroft's services company) on the cheap.