Member Info for Kooba

When I spoke to the company pre new ceo ..it very much felt there was one infringer they had previously identified in display that had now built sales to a level that was worth pursuing ..I think you would want a build of sales as happened with Samsung to pull the trigger. I doubt it’s Apples new Mac screen or certainly not Hansol who supply Samsung under their licence agreement.

Probably the correct thing to do would have been to give an update when they announce the later results announcement as with the silence and share price movement some clarity around the process being ongoing might have calmed things down…I imagine some pi’s have jumped ship seeing the price spiralling down when maybe there has been no reason to ..just a seller who is not price sensitive . The company is now in the close period so silence will likely continue until the results…I did buy more some slightly below 6.5p hoping not good money after bad but with the directors putting good money in at 14p only a few months ago and listening again to the results presentation I consider it low risk. As you say Sammy if CDX were no longer engaged they would have to announce…so we should hope that the positivity on finding a buyer remains the case!

Fingers crossed for another month!

Value for money..TR1 forms are not an automatic process.

If you look at the prints over many mant sessions there are large sell prints in 100k and 250k blocks ..most of the selling is a large holder and likely the same one.

Most of the shares here are held by private investors who don't often deal in the manner seen or dump in such blocks…so there being a single large holder is a natural assumption if you follow the prints.

Agree Flyinghigh rather difficult selling the operations and the IP at a huge discount to where they have just valued it …but is it worth that to anyone else. If you take the £46m plus existing cash would have 30p to distribute…certainly not behaving like that !!

Possible but it’s surprising how often the market is right !

The fact the company’s valuation has halved after the finals update and presentation and the director buying at 14p level and telling shareholders that the value of the business was significantly higher than the market value and that the process was well engaged and that the CEO believed there was strong market interest it would be disappointing if they delivered nothing having once again secured shareholder votes in a GM on delivering a good outcome!

Difficult to know the reason for the interims being put back…but probably just trying to buy time.

But i do agree if they have sold most of the holding and are just dumping the balance they they wont necessary care what the price is…when the seller clears though there should be a decent bounce assuming there is no new news!

That is possible but they would be seriously breaching disclosure requirements…and no they cant back book percentages of a company and book it out weeks and months later …for that matter they wouldn't be able to deliver the stock sold if it was not booked out to the client as well as deliberately subverting the rules. If Milkwood suddenly announce they have sold below 3% it will be very moody because the volumes wont stack up.

“Only other obvious candidate is LOAM selling out of their final holding”

Loams rump holding was sold you could see the print ..Milkwood took the stock at 9p .

There has been ongoing selling over the past few months ..with what appears a single main seller…they would have to have a significant holding to keep going week in week out.

But no major holder has disclosed anything.

I find it very odd looking at the pattern of trading and volumes that what appears to be a motivated and persistent seller is not notifiable ..there are regular large prints really since the start of the year which has now halved the price but no disclosures.

There are 194.6m shares in issue and not that many individual declared holders over 3%..

The 2 obvious ones would be Milkwood (8.22%) and Cable Car (3.33%) where they each hold declarable but if either moved below a percentage barrier they would need to disclose..Milkwood ..428K shares or Cable Car 642k shares sold would prompt a holding in company. The sales racking up seem to go well over those amounts.

That last paragraph is think was envisaging paying funds out assuming a sale was forthcoming..i doubt very much if they pay a penny out if they go it alone as have realistically only 2 years working capital let alone any funds to chase infringers.

Having looked at the last Shop note post results in Nov 24 they had dropped financial year end to July cash forecasts to £14m from opening £20.3m ..that might incorporate costs of reducing central overhead but still estimate is lower than i thought. If one looks at the year end results there were some targets set out ..might go through and tick any off that have been achieved in the second half.

A clear strategy to maximise value and deliver returns

· Having received advice following the commencement of the CDX process, the Board remains confident that the Group has commercial potential and inherent value

· The Board has:

o appointed CDX Advisors to explore an orderly sale of the Group's trading business (including IP);

o significantly reduced the Group's cost base;

o determined that surplus cash reserves will be returned to Shareholders; and

o appointed Dmitry Shashkov as CEO, bringing a track record of driving shareholder value through transformational business development

· Christopher Richards will retire as Non-Executive Chairman of Nanoco at the Annual General Meeting in January 2025 and will be succeeded by Jalal Bagherli, bringing his commercial expertise and track record to the leadership of the Board

· Cash will be progressively returned to Shareholders as the CDX process progresses and the Board gains more certainty on the execution of a potential sale process and clarity in the Group's working capital requirements and the surplus nature of the Group's cash balance.

Think the burn is more that £5m a year …what the business is worth is up for grabs…the company seems convinced there is great value in its operations and IP but if no one else thinks so it will be again down to them to prove it by actually building a sustainable profitable business …something they have failed to do in over 2 decades.

So at the end of July forecasts are for around £15m…about 7.7p per share..but will have an ongoing burn of 2.6p per share a year.

Hence in the absence of any progress in disposing of the operations or gaining any source of regular income the shares are probably just reflecting the cash position.

Bought 50k today just over 7.5p having dotted 30k out at over 15p on 5th Dec…figure the risk reward is back in favour of the buyer as they trade down or slightly below cash…or should be!

And buying almost halve of what the new CEO and Chair paid in Dec seems that at least i bought some at a far better level than them…would happily flip some on a bounce back into double figures unless there was a basis change.

All those prints are buys not sells but the market either have a fair few on the book or are working a seller.

So can you evidenced any this “transformational business development” ..he’s hired a mate he use to work with ..both were looking for “new challenges” when Nanoco employed them . I think they were attending a conference.

Any new business I would guess would have multi year development work before commercial sales as before ..the exception might be display work where they could customise existing recipes over months I understood…but that has been the situation for years and no takers.

Difficult to get excited about turning things round commercially …unless they want a few years and therefore use the remaining cash to try to get there.

I think you need to go back to the results of strategic review that was board approved and i am not aware that has changed. CDX were only appointed to seek buyer really ..so that was the conclusion of the review…to sell the operations , although i understand they were paid a modest retainer their fees were based predominently on a successful sale…i don’t think it was a they were thinking about it and might go it alone at this point however phrased otherwise the investment bank wouldnt have taken it on ..there was a clear mandate probably with parameters that all must have thought could be met.

A go it alone or delist or whatever else would be if they couldn’t sell …it’s quite possible they have rather over estimated what the business is worth to others …but time ticks on and the business becomes less valuable through cash and IP duration month by month..unless something happens!

“The Board has therefore concluded that it is in the Company's best interests to appoint advisers to review the options for the Company's business and assets, including the potential for a sale of the trading business (including IP). The Board has appointed CDX Advisors LLC ("CDX") as its financial adviser. Work with CDX has commenced with a view to achieving the best possible financial outcome and to secure the long term future of the Group's IP and operations.”

The timetable is posted earlier and the evidence that formal sale process should be in the 3 -6 month range though does make this look an extended process ..i was looking forward to an update at the end of the month ..they could hardly report and not comment as its their primary business plan…and now they have kicked that down the road ..now it could be to tidy up a sale to coincide , but as i said earlier that kind of choreography is a dangerous game…so i think they are buying for time, the accounts should not be that complicated especially counting revenues..so a relatively simple process you would think. I think they are just either hoping something turns up or how to explain why they told shareholders to back their plan and not deliver anything.

Guess we will wait another month to find out…i presume they are working on a new go it alone plan to try to sell to holders …might take some selling with the number of times this has been reset. Maybe they are trying to get what would be a small litigation case funded …that will keep them all employed for a few years.

Sammy confidentiality, secrecy and quiet periods like we have seen so far this year have not served shareholders well in the past as often have just covered up when things go wrong.

By now they should be down to one maximum two parties who are in advanced due diligence..let’s face it its not a complicated business and they are really just buying and IP portfolio ..with only some being key ones.their revenues are tiny and from one r and d agreement giving less than $1m a year.

If there is no interest when do they clarify ..their formal sales process where they had no acceptable offers ( though rumour has it Samsung did make an offer) lasted less than 4 months before they cancelled it ..maybe more because they decided to sue Samsung but also because they deemed that offer unacceptable …shame it might have saved years of non delivery but worked well for the management I guess.

Hansol…damn you spellcheck

Hanson a ‘related’ company to Samsung produce the cad free quantum dots and I believe always have since product launch . So making QDs for Samsung would fall under the licence agreement …if they produce cad free QDs for others it might well be breaching the licence and Nanoco IP. I don’t know if they do.

Going back to 2015 when Nanoco partnered Dow chemical to produce QDs I found this article that indicates much of the situation where Samsung dropped Dow/Nanoco and started to infringe was around price. They don’t mind charging consumers big premiums for performance enhancing tech ..but not the innovators!

https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/tech/2025/03/129_176411.html

Also at what point does a company if they have received offers and the process moves into a DD phase do they need to inform the market…there is some protection from doing so in a formal offer period for the whole company …but if the company has recieved offers or is progressing they need to inform the market as it would be price sensitive..no update over such a long period when the company has presumably been hawking its wares to all and sundry with no update on whether there is any progress is wrong.

The idea they may be delaying results to tie this up in one go seems odd..why would they delay historic reporting of their regulatory results in case they have an offer for the underlying business? What they are doing is delaying the results from previous years to put off having to update on progress …or lack of it. Its not a good thing trying to choreograph regulatory announcements and sit on the results.

Not quite in the close period and many companies including Nanoco pt out a trading update before going closed.

‘A closed period is usually 30 calendar days before the release of an interim or year-end report.”

I disagree on time it has taken when they ..if there was a formal sale process it would not be allowed to run to this length of time without shareholders being updated.asked ai on this ..amazing stuff. Nb 3rd OCT CDX already working on mandate. “The Board has appointed CDX Advisors LLC ("CDX") as its financial adviser. Work with CDX has commenced with a view to achieving the best possible financial outcome and to secure the long term future of the Group's IP and operations. The Board reasserts that whilst this process will be undertaken at pace….”

The formal sale process, often used in M&A deals, typically involves several stages, including market research, identifying potential buyers, conducting due diligence, negotiating the purchase agreement, and ultimately closing the deal, which can take anywhere from 3 to 6 months.

Here's a more detailed breakdown of the timeline:

1. Pre-Sale Planning & Preparation (1-2 months):

Market Research & Target Identification:

Analyze market trends, identify potential buyers, and assess the company's strategic fit for potential acquirers.

Strategic Investment:

Implement a strategy to increase the company's value and attract potential buyers.

Data Room Preparation:

Gather and organize all necessary information about the company for potential buyers to review.

2. Initiating the Sale Process (1-2 months):

Engage with Advisors: Hire investment bankers or advisors to manage the sale process and identify potential buyers.

Develop a Marketing Strategy: Create a marketing package to attract potential buyers and outline the company's strengths and opportunities.

Targeted Outreach: Contact potential buyers and gauge their interest in the company.

3. Buyer Selection & Due Diligence (2-3 months):

Receive Indications of Interest (IOIs):

Potential buyers submit initial offers and outline their interest in acquiring the company.

Select Finalists:

Narrow down the list of potential buyers based on their financial strength, strategic fit, and offer terms.

Due Diligence:

Potential buyers conduct thorough research into the company's financials, operations, and legal matters.

4. Negotiation & Agreement (1-2 months):

Negotiate the Purchase Agreement: Finalize the terms of the deal, including the price, closing date, and other key conditions.

Secure Financing: Buyers secure financing to complete the transaction.

5. Closing & Transaction (1 month):

Complete the Transaction: Finalize the sale and transfer ownership of the company to the buyer.

Transition: Implement the transition plan to ensure a smooth handover of the business.

One might question with the share price performance whether the new leadership team have brought any confidence back to the stewardship of the company.

The silence during crucial periods is very reflective of past events …none had a good outcome .

I was rather hoping the new brooms brought a new approach to keeping their shareholders informed..it appears another month to wait for any update on the strategy given in early October and whether all the talk of undervaluation when the shares where 14p has any justification …the attempt to sell the business ..in the best interests of shareholders started almost 5 months ago …and was to be done at pace. The shares have now almost haved. As said before the market is normally right of these things so I guess what is leaking out is not leading anyone to think there is a happy ending anytime soon!