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Note Wilsons sons going up in Brasil..now over R14..results on Nov 14…should be news regarding strategic review..OCN NAV circa £24 at current Wilson’s price.
NAV a mere £20.50, £7 in near cash and a yield of 5.5. Why does anybody need to invest in anything else?
if one of the concert party bought shares that would trigger a bid for the company at the price paid! what fun..
This company has vast tax losses, cash in the bank of £1m and some technology. This deal is utter grab and smash. The existing shareholders who have been through the wringer end up with 12.5% (at best) of this company while the "saviours" get a free 5 year ride,Vote against the proposals at the EGM.The Board has few shares and I do not think there is anything in the statement suggesting they have any proxies in favour. We can stop this and must do to stop this kind of stuff.
The price dropped dramatically because their biggest holding Luceco, had an accounting issue..and the Luce price cratered, and dragged ESO with it. the FD left because there were issues about stock and margins from China. Now fully resolved and share price of both around all time highs. As has been pointed out previously the current SP is covered by value of the Luceco holding and they have a lot of net cash. A discount to NAV approaching 30%..but there is the question of where the Luceco SP should be. Luceco holders should arguably switch from LUCE to ESO, but there are liquidity and dealing spread issues. Question has to be what do they do with the cash? More share buybacks or actually buy another business? They are always looking for a good deal..but there is a lot of fund money looking for good investments...
Quite a lot of trades, and another step on the path to a sensible price. Has there been an article or comment somewhere?Year end March so "normal" managements might be expected to make a pre-close statement, especially given the year we have had, However this business has tended to adopt the Marie Celeste style of communication .. no one aboard to explain what has happened. it will be interesting, given the new CFO, to see how long the company takes to produce the accounts.
The Board only met 8 times last year(19/20).so not too busy..and of course they sacked the entire exec team between December and March which must have taken a few meetings..and now the Board has only one exec Director on it. So no time to explain anything to the owners of the company...
The year end is 31 March, so there could be a pre close statement at some point in the next few weeks..although this company regards shareholder communication as the Chinese government regards democracy...something for other folk..but encouraging that there is a bit of interest. As noted elsewhere there are very few shares available outside of the 3% plus named shareholders.. arguably less than 20m/93m, so even a few shares bought can move the share price. It is possible that the company, which is very rare in having to rely on the 2 largest shareholders, Lord Ashcroft and Lombard Odier for banking facilities, which is grossly inefficient, might consider selling their Australian business. They valued this on the option exercise of the last 25% last year at A$$16m..which is £9m. That is the current market cap at 10p! Oz Should be worth more than that. given the growth profile.
There is a bank facility of around £8m, which is fully drawn but the cash in the day to day account is presumably £1m+ to allow "normal" banking on a day to day basis (hence the gross inefficiency of having no offset between cash and debt). Good old Barclays who manufactured a crisis in summer 2019 which nearly cost shareholders the business..so thanks to Lord A and LO.
But a banking situation that should not, and cannot, endure in the long term By selling OZ the company could refinance the bank loan, have net cash and perhaps even find another bank to operate with. Quite difficult to find intelligent helpful banks these days..an indictment of the clearers and a challenge to the post Covid recovery, but that is another subject!
Am holding my breath in expectation of some positive news from Jaywing..but it has been a long time waiting.
The thing to remember about Hansa is that there is a double discount, or arguably even a treble. Largest holding is Ocean Wilson..and the NAV reported just reflects their market price..currently 675p. but Ocean report their own asset value..which is still around £12 a share. As well as a diversified and conservative investment portfolio, the largest holding is Wilson Sons..the Brazilian port operator..which is quoted in Brasil (currently 28 Cr) years high was 50. And they are modestly valued as a comparison to other port assets. As markets recover, the NAV should rise markedly, and the current discount, which is wider than historical should narrow. Not that William Saloman ..the largest shareholder has spent £250k buying shares in the last month or so. Buy them and go to the beach...
If you dont think there will be a deal by June 2020. there is an accrued sum in the balance sheet of around £2.5m that will come back and be available to shareholders.
However, if you do not think that the thought of missing out on a bonus of at least £600k, and currently £3.4m influences executive behaviour then I think you should be giving up on investing.
and the problem is with the extension is that they get £600k just for doing a deal.. at any price. There is a dsconnect between the interests of shareholders and the exec, and arguably given the rather poor performance over the years, the Board too. I accept that the Chairman has a strong and committed position that should provide a rather better self interest influence than if he was just a non exec with few shares, but it still seems odd that there were no penalties for granting a "free" extension. It is akin to re-pricing options because the share price has fallen..which has largely now been disallowed because of the prejudicial non-alignment of interests implicit in such decisions..
page 23 of the report and ac
On 2 June 2016 two Directors were granted a cash settled share-based incentive award. During 2017 both the maximum
and minimum amounts payable to each Director were reduced by £0.2m. The awards vest if a controlling interest in the
Company is acquired by a third party prior to a revised date of 30 June 2020. In these circumstances a minimum amount
of £0.3m is payable to each Director, which increases by reference to the sale price achieved. The fair value of this award
has been calculated at £3,464,000 using a modified form of a Black Scholes model. The fair value has been spread over
the assumed vesting period, with a charge of £775,000 (2017:£969,000) recognised in 2018. The key assumptions used
in the model are disclosed in Note 30.nd accounts
Has anyone noticed that the Remuneration report shows that the "special" bonus for the CFO and FD,,currently accrued at a mere £3.4m has been extended by a year with no explanation, no reduction in benefit for the "free ride". The deal was that that the bonus was payable of there had been a change of control by 30 June 2019. That has just been extended to 30 June 2020. Why?
Suggest that is anyone is going to the AGM on May 2nd that the Chairman be asked to explain. If they price is going to be higher in 12 months time, then that might be OK..but the management is incentivised to sell at any price rather than a higher price..otherwise their benefits is completely lost. Clearly they get more if the price is higher, but "a deal is better than no deal" for them, but not necessarily for the shareholders. The least that should have happened is that the scheme should have set a new benchmark to account for the extra 12 months. The shareholders have been waiting a very long time for a reward from this company. Nit exactly the same for the executives....