Member Info for JohnLewis79

Of course your quite right Able companies with excess cash often return cash to holders via divs or share repurchases when available rates of return are unattractive. Improving eps is just one byproduct of share buybacks. Apple have a policy of buybacks and increasing div policy which has worked well for them. The ratio of dividends to buybacks is a whole new chapter but at the end of the day while we have a decent lump of cash I'd be disappointed if the board could not find an attractive home for the cash. Failing that we have options.

I'm not quite sure what to make of that Del....let's face it mm's can do what they want with prices to reflect their book/view etc...which is just a snapshot of yesterday which is why I try not to get too involved in the daily ups & downs. Of course a consistent move either way would be different if we ever get one going North, (which we might be on) if the 3 month graph is anything to go by..... hence 8 holding firm? But it's the same old problem no volume no bargains and no interest. Stuck in the backwaters of AIM I'm not sure we should expect anything different. Add the non sexy/exciting Healthcare sector to the mix of a start up company and your battling the odds from day one. Any prospective investor taking a look at the 4 year graph would run a mile unless he had a huge appetite for risk. So I guess I should stop bemoaning the lack of this that & t'other as it's part of the deal I signed up for. A very good morning to all.

Not long ago we were 9.5 mid now heading sub 8 on the good news re Philips. Couldn't be the Barrow boys playing games by any chance? Or perhaps it's in Sphere's DNA to ignore positveness, we have form in this regard. Holders have become immune to sp falls practically expecting any good news to lead to a lower sp. This ain't the way it's supposed to work in the real world. Investing in the London exchange can seriously damage your health & wealth.

The question of dividends / options & share holdings of Directors has long been a bug bear of mine. We will be generous when management are demonstrably doing a good job and need clear and satisfying explanations when results appear to be worse than they should be and to support the removal of unproductive managers. The fact that this rarely ever happens has allowed some managements to view holders as patsies while their interests are not aligned with ours. Dr Henry was 'eased' out a lot higher up the totem pole than where the notch is now! Our current board have had ample opportunities to buy in the market a lot lower than 8 and to date have resisted though they have been amply rewarded by options at 16. Should sales disappoint at the H/Y stage that might confirm their reluctance! I along with many other pis put most effort into buying a share, little into selling it and none into owning it and by that I mean keeping the board on their toes and reminding boards that i/we are part owners and require the board to manage our money efficiently. Dozy investors have given their companies free rein to overpay executives often for little worthwhile return or as I would prefer to say made themselves rich at my expense! Regretably the advent of nominee shareholdings makes voting at AGMs on resolutions difficult particularly if you wish to vote against a Director.Perhaps message boards are our only way to voice disapproval other than making a nuisance of oneself at the AGM which would be me excercising my rights as an owner.

Morning rugs....lse prices not worth the screen their written on...

Of oil expo stocks...Sound reveal a duster and tank but heh...get this! Shareholders equity £19m ...mrk cap c £440m! Go figure!

I suppose it would have to be unsecured as at current value what have we worth £4-5m he would want as security should the worst happen. Be a great vote of confidence in our ability to repay! Looking at some of his recent poor performers I'm thinking Woodford will keep his money in his pocket but you never know.....

Leischman 80's / Lingmerth 200's.

Fleetwood wins...Lingmerth.... t5. The Belgique freak double bogeyed his way round the back 9 finishing with the also rans...... having been only 1 behind leader. Tommy boy is on fire atm he's 25's for the Open. Having a small opening bet on him.

Vid accessible on Sphere home page Rencken on Philips tie up (phone interview).

Morning all...all your points are plausible Del but I still think Sphere will go for a cash raise now rather than later as to how much will depend on what revenues are coming in....new or repeat? I had not factored in any tax credit so we might get away with no raise. However raise or no, let's hope it's new monies, more hospitals more orders. Once P is established repeat business is a given unless they stop using the device and cont with b/tops and why would they do that? It would be interesting to know of hospitals 'sold' on P are they continuing with b/tops? Seems unlikely due to double the cost for starters. An interesting point made in one of the white papers over a 15 hour period, time away from the patient was 52mins using a b/top! (Not stated where it was placed). I wonder why you are anticipating strong demand this week? Is it more hope or have you any news? Distribution tie up? New territory sale? Take over?...heh heh heh!! We sure could do with it, last week only 10:deals on 84k vol.

My thinking is will I back a winner at golf before I'm in the black! Now that might be a close but forlorn (at best) hope.

What no do you 'need' to be in the black? If it's only a couple of p adjust your posts to suit. But look how long we have been at sub 11 consecutively. It's 36 weeks and counting.....

I'd agree those hospital no up takes seem reasonable. However given the nos of Hospitals in Europe are (Germany 2045 France 2317 Italy 1106 UK 942 & Spain 745) the scope is huge. For sure not all those will have cc centres or be suitable for P but if only 5% are that's 350 or so! These were nos from 2012 so they may be slightly +/- as of 2017. Also there are (27?) member states in Europe so those totals would increase to perhaps 400+ that could use P4 (+) in some capacity. The first 100 might come up in 2019? That would be a good milestone for Sphere!

If you were CEO of Sphere Sitting in your office scratching your.......wondering how your going to get the sp up to 10, what would you do given everything known currently? You cannot announce sales as your CFO has told the market. So your pretty limited! Get GOSH to approve P as per MCH? That would help. Announce a new partner for the Scandi / other countries could move the sp a tad. Upgrades to P4 are known and expected so no movement on the sp front. Funding 'sorted' is in the price (we know it's coming). Speed up presenting to hospitals not yet visited (if any). Advise on current production nos and security of supply and quality control going into 18 and could more be done 'in house' so as to cut the cost effectiveness of P? Current monthly spend reduced by £x? Enquires from the US/Japan are being dealt with by a task force and appointment of a distributor for USA would be a big plus pre any PMA /510K FDA approval. P4+ is going through the CE process atm but won't be on the market till....? I guess Rencken will address most of this at the H/Y so in the short term how do we get to 10+ outside of 700 bargains a week on the buy side?

When a Co cannot think of what to do with a cash pile of c £80m+ other than to return to shareholders then your in trouble. Able I think that's a long, very long shot indeed that monies will he returned to holders. I take it you mean a substantial payment and not a lousy 1p dividend! They may as well shut up shop. That won't happen. I take it we will have c 6 months of Pools / spb monies in this half's numbers when we need to know the bods intentions, hell they have had long enough to decide where the vat cash is going and we need to fill the cash flow/ revenue & profit hole of the Pools offload, anytime like yesterday!

0+0+1+0+0+0+16.

Lions best price 7/2 for final test, NZ 1/4. I fancy them now so am on. Tip come through for Seamour 3.30 New, had an ew interest at 6's. Given Fisher a miss.

Lions win 24-21.

More woe for Woodford as Game Digital shares tank 36% after profit warning no 3. The shares floated at 200 are now trading at a miserable 21. Woodford owns 19.5%.