Member Info for Lesville

I am quite happy to see that my last post has proved to be wrong. Keep going and maybe patience is at last being rewarded.

Let’s hope that you are right Rivaldo. I’m getting fed up of seeing these share going nowhere and as soon as they go up a few pence and the spread narrow then they are marked back down again. A takeover would be nice but probably too much to expect.

We were beginning to recover until Deutsche Bank put the boot in especially after two big buys by directors. Probably see more shorts now.

A very interesting response Thumper. Interestingly we booked our Rome holiday several months ago flying out with Jet2 and returning with Wizz Air. Due to an unfortunate accident in Rome my wife spent a week in a well renowned hospital, a long story not relevant here. Our insurer arranged the assisted return flight to Birmingham with EZJ paying for 4 seats, three for my wife and one for me. The irony of it was that my wife could have had three seats in order to raise her legs with the insurer only paying for one. I know that this is mostly irrelevant to this board other than that I was unaware that EZj had only been running that route for two months. Good luck with your monitoring of load factors.

I am not currently a shareholder here but have been in the past. Today I and my wife flew back from Rome to Birmingham with easy Jet, six rows of three seats behind us were empty and looking further down the cabin the plane was no more than half full. I don’t know if this is indicative of easy Jets load factor in general but I have never flown on any carrier with so many empty seats.

Routledges bakery chain appoints liquidators Begbies Traynor

Bit of a market over reaction first thing this morning. It is not as if the market hadn’t already been guided to lower profits this year hence the previous share price falls.. Should rebound from here.

It takes a share buy back of £25 million to get this moving upwards again. Hopefully back to £16 and beyond.

I agree a frustrating share to hold. I think that the only way forward for the share price is an agreed takeover which the company has alluded to if its value is not recognized. I will continue to hold as I know what will probably happen if I sell. The economy under Mrs Reeves is hardly likely to improve any time soon so expect further business opportunities for Begbies.

Taken from Rockwood final results dated 18 June 2025.

Van Elle 3.8% Net Assets

Cost: £3.98m, Value as at 31 March 2025, £3.63m, IRR to date -0.4%

This investment is now five years old having been initiated during the COVID-19 crisis. The company is the leading UK provider of ground improvement, foundation and piling services to the construction industry, with a bias to infrastructure and housing. During the five years the new management team have professionalised the business and converted losses into profits, whilst sales have grown significantly. However, financial targets have not been met with a lack of progress on operating margins and some modest m&a which has not delivered value to shareholders in our view. Whilst end markets have clear growth dynamics, particularly the opportunity in sectors such as water and energy transmission (albeit housing remains weak) this asset intensive, c.£37m market capitalisation business, is struggling on AIM. We have increased our stake to support our engagement initiatives with the company to unlock value for shareholders. Despite having net cash and considerable fixed assets (the fleet of well-invested 'rigs') the shares are valued on a discount to book-value.

Yes, it will be interesting to see how quickly or not the share price recovers after ex dividend. What we can say is Marshall Wace will have pay the lender 3.6p per borrowed share. I suspect we will breach the £1, hopefully soon, as long as the market in general behaves itself and of course Trump.

Unfortunately there is not a lot of interest in this small cap share. Bought in at around the current share price last November and don’t expect much of an increase for another year. Too much to hope for but a bit of bid interest would put a rocket under the share price.

Like many others I am not entirely happy with the current share price and the relatively low PE on which Card trades. However I do not think that share buy backs is the answer, decreasing the number of issued shares is no substitute for earnings growth. Perhaps selling cards and gifts is just not exciting enough for many investors, moonpig aside. We know that the half year figures will not be reflective of the full year out turn so hopefully a bounce in the share price before that. Not sure what more management can do but a reduction in debt should be a priority.

Increased their short so probably explains yesterdays fall. Not sure why they think that Card Factory are a short at the current share price. Even if as part of a long/short strategy I do not understand their thinking, yet Berenberg have a 150p target - buy.

I know what you mean especially as we should be expecting a good full year results next week. There was an ideal opportunity a few weeks ago for shorts to buy back in the 70’s. The last trading update was well received so hopefully same again next week.

Yes exactly so, good trading update and the share price goes nowhere. I suspect we will have to wait for the full year results for the market to wake up to the fact that Card Factory is very undervalued.

Berenberg initial recommendation 3rd July 2024 154p target and I believe updated on the 5th November. Price at the time of recommendation was 94p.

Stach, contacting the FCA and your local MP regarding market makers and short selling practices, good luck with that. Remember Market makers are obliged to make a market to both sellers and buyers, furthermore short selling of borrowed shares from institutions is permitted and legal. I haven’t read any complaints when Card Factory shares rose from 35p to 140p. Shares go up and down so just buy more at todays prices as I intend to do and hope that the current downtrend will reverse at some point.

BetterCallSaul, sad but true. Perhaps more stock is on the way. I didn’t even like the words. That apart, wonder where this will go after ex DIv and Moon keeps on rising. Low 80’s would seem a bargain price especially if the short closed.

Very pleased to hear that Alnwick. Just for comparison small store in Atherstone yesterday had very poor selection of Christmas cards, only one wife Xmas card. One till, and no customers except me who didn’t buy. On the other side of the road was a much larger independent store, much greater variety of cards, gifts etc and plenty of customers. Of course they have circa 1000 stores so this might be totally unrepresentative. It would be good to know the average size of stores throughout the country. Maybe posters here can provide some insight.