The latest Investing Matters Podcast episode featuring Jeremy Skillington, CEO of Poolbeg Pharma has just been released. Listen here.
It all just smells like a bit of a boardroom plot to take control on the cheap. Firstly the CFO 'retires' with almost immediate effect, then he's replaced by Ms Dissanayake who I assume was made aware of the perilous financial position prior to joining - who joins a ship due to sink 2 weeks later unless the company has a rescue plan? But alas, the next day, the very bearish Corporate Update suggesting PI's should brace themselves for £0 return and administration.
When one looks at the shareholdings of the BoD, with Pat Elliott on over £14m at much higher levels and Steen on nearly 2m at much higher levels, surely they'll be looking for solutions which safeguard their position (ie MBO and replacement shares in NewCo perhaps) but I don't think there will be any place for us PI's at the new table.
We have been misled at best and, once again, AIM demonstrates that it has no regulation whatsoever with every positive or negative RNS announcement in any company preceded by a huge volume and swing in the sp the day before - Insider trading is rife but not enforced.
As stated before, AIM stands for All Investors Manipulated. I hope I'm wrong and that a solution for all parties is reached bearing in mind that the MCAP is now only £450k and our stock and plant must be worth several times that, even without IP protection, so where's the buyer??
I wish all LTH's luck on this and hope that this is the one AIM stock which bucks the trend and tries to look after the shareholders as well as themselves to repay many years of us supporting them. GLA
With the MCAP only just over £500,000 this is surely overdone. Yes, I understand about them running out of cash imminently but are you seriously telling me that for the sake of half a bar, this will be allowed to sink into administration. Unless there is a bit of sharp practice afoot, ie cheap management buyout planned, the sp isn't realistic even with the cash shortage. GLA
It looks as though the doom-mongers may have misunderstood the news yesterday re costs as confirmed here now. Maxwell can only claim court costs and not attorney/legal fees which would have been much more significant had that been allowed.
No Placing which should/would surely have been mentioned today if true and order book slightly ahead of same time last year.
Fingers crossed but yesterday’s fall looks massively overdone. GLA
The crazy thing is, without the Court case ever having come into existence, the sp would be 2x or 3x this on pure fundamentals alone so, whilst this short term trashing of the sp is regrettable, it's also a huge opportunity imo. I am genuinely not ramping but the MCAP is only just over £5m and that doesn't even really cover the book value of the ex-Murata production line which is now operating at a good capacity. I have averaged down today (the 200k and 300k are both buys BTW) and it will be only a short while before we bounce and then begin a more measured sp recovery imo. GLA
Cavendish Research note out post-Court decision reiterates a 7p Target price (from September 2023), even without the patent award, is funded through 24 even with court costs making it 'tight' and also suggests the Tesla counter claim is years away from being heard so should not be a distraction. If you are a LTH who still believes, then the broker suggests this is a 10x bagger in time - note, 'in time' - so not for the get rich quick brigade but, long term, should get there. GLA
OK, as we all know, the case went against us, but where does it leave us......
1. MCAP is around £6m this morning - we've probably got more stock value than that sitting in the warehouse
2. Whilst obviously not good news, is this in fact, a slight blessing in that we can and should all stop thinking/worrying about the Court case and get back to fundamentals
3. If we had won, Maxwell would most likely have appealed and kept us legally tied up for another 12 months, draining legal fees and, with that still hanging over the sp, it would not move much if at all EVEN if we'd won imo
4. This may sound strange but, as a LTH and given the above, I do not feel we should pursue an appeal. Winning on appeal is a) doubly difficult and b) would require a complete rebuttal/reverse of the points of law on which Maxwell won - I can't see us proving that and therefore would rather move on, especially as we are not protecting future earnings as these patents are already finished - we were claiming historical royalties
5. Fair value target sp WITHOUT the court case has recently been reiterated by the (admittedly slightly biased) brokers as around 4p
All things considered, it's a very disappointing day of course but these are lows in which to get in/average down and then focus on getting back to sales and fundamentals. I do believe that an appeal would be a major error on behalf of the BoD because, even if we won in a years time, please see point 3 above!
I wish all holders well. GLA
Captain, don't rely on LR - we did that at YGEN and look how that turned out for those shareholders. I'm in here because I believe in the Yourgene tech, specifically Ranger, but I thought long and hard before investing in another company in which LR was involved. GLA
Simply Wall St is a waste of time on AIM stocks as it's basically algorithmic and, whilst i share the sentiment that CPX is undervalued, their article doesn't even mention the court case in their SWOT analysis which proves my point. There is no background circumstance insight into their analysis just numbers so it can never tell the story. Here's to a huge settlement! GLA
Simply Wall St is a waste of time on AIM stocks as it's basically algorithmic and, whilst I share the sentiment that CPX is undervalued, their article doesn't even mention the court case in their SWOT analysis which proves my point. There is no background circumstance insight into their analysis just numbers so it can never tell the whole story. That said, here's to a huge settlement! GLA
Simply Wall St is a waste of time on AIM stocks as it's basically algorithmic and, whilst i share the sentiment that CPX is undervalued, their article doesn't even mention the court case in their SWOT analysis which proves my point. There is no background circumstance insight into their analysis just numbers so it can never tell the story. Here's to a huge settlement! GLA
A nice bit of BS there to start the morning mucker - in what world does the share price rise when ‘big investors’ and ‘institutions’ are ‘selling large chunks of shares’.
If your theory was correct, the sp would have plummeted this week and not the reverse.
It's a simple maths equation - financing costs v takeout price - the nearer the date gets, the closer the sp gets to the offer. GLA
I think with LR comfortably looked after in new company, he will not be looking for a new offer but if one comes, he has to put it forward.
Basically, all LTH’s have been royally goosed and are walking like John Wayne!
If only Mer - sadly, same old, same old imo, succinctly demonstrated by PC.
Still, i remain a LTH and optimistically speaking, the one difference between those TU's and now is that AK is no longer writing them and perhaps Lars has a plan. GLA
Bakky 07:36h
My post from January 25th with the BoD's averages:
Going through all their trades pre- and post-Placing, these are the BoD's holdings, averages and total investment to date:
Bill Chang - 302,920,142 shares @ average 2.22p - c. £6,725,000 invested*
Lyn Rees - 85,371,235 @ average 0.521p - c. £445,000 invested
Adam Reynolds - 39,807,106 @ average 1.33p - c. £529,435 invested**
Stephen Little - 33,393,402 @ average 1.08p - c. £360,650 invested**
John Brown - 33,685,783 @ average 0.448p - c. £151,000 invested
Barry Hextall - 6,500,00 @ average 1.76p - c.114,500 invested
Hayden Jeffreys - 3,827,482 @ average 2.13p - c. £81,350 invested
So, yes, Bakky, 0.52 is LR's average - funny that!!!!!!!
The key is to get out of one of the World’s ongoing politically unstable hotspots - never a good metric for investment. With that in mind, very happy to pass on that geographical risk to another party whilst retaining the sales pipeline within the region.
I believe this is a good move and hope it goes through as planned. GLA