888 touted as a potential takeover targed in Shares Magazine, which is fairly obvious at this valuation tbh. I'd like to think this can make a recovery and go it alone. Only thing is, who would be willing to take on the debt that's crushing this company right now?
I still hold and believe in the long term story here, just very disappointed 6-12 months we've had on what should have been a really great acquisition. I am firmly of the mind that 888 can handle what they've taken on and continue to grow despite the bleak wider macro outlook
Next stop is around 0.36p in the short term, as we've seen a few times over the past year. Hopefully this time the news comes along for the trip to continue much higher!
Agree with you jamrock. I've learnt my lesson here though to never be optimistic, even cautiously aha. But I do eagerly await the forthcoming results & presentation at the end of September. Not too much longer now.
Hopefully the board & Penny are gonna deliver a smashing forward-looking view of the company backed up by COVID revenues which continue to be strong.
Source: https://www.eurogamer.net/amazon-planning-to-buy-ea-report
Bungie, Activision Blizzard, EA.. who is next
As I did last year, I have submitted a few questions on the investormeetcompany site for the upcoming presentation of results. See below for those.
https://www.investormeetcompany.com/investor/meeting/half-year-results-25
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Question 1:
Does the company have any estimate or projections of when non-COVID wellness-test revenues should exceed revenue from COVID tests?
Question 2:
Are the board in conversations with any retailers (online or high street) to stock the new wellness tests?
Question 3:
How are the board looking to utilise their enhanced cash position from the last two reports? Do you think any further acquisitions can be expected within the next 6 months - 1 year?
Question 4:
When does the board expect value to be returned to shareholders who have seen fantastic growth from the company but unfortunately the complete opposite reflected in the share price over the past 1-2 years?
Between Trustpilot & Amazon it would seem that the new tests aren't exactly flying off the shelves yet. Figures around sales from their own site would be interesting.
I wonder if an RNS announcing the publication of interim results will come this week?
It really does feel though that this company is always being judged on the next 6-12 months of COVID revenue, then when results are published and they beat the expectations the analysts go "oh.. well okay it was still up this HY but let's wait until the next 6 months to see again" then rinse and repeat. Feels like that's whats happened the past 4 HY to me anyway..
On Acquisitions/Takeovers:
- MHC have completed 2 takeovers in recent times, both of which seem to have been fairly successful on a whole. I'm not sure ABDX is a smart choice for MHC though.
- There may be much better placed private equity firms that MHC could buy out and take on their product range to boost revenue diversity immediately.
- However, on the flip side MHC will be wanting to preserve cash as much as everyone else during these times, so I'd hope the board are making the best with what the assets they have acquired so far
Key Items I'm waiting to hear about:
- Next batch of products [what, when & where]
- Revenue breakdown for COVID/Non-COVID (obviously when enough data is gathered)
- Getting these in physical healthcare shops [Boots, Lloyds, Holland & Barrett]
- Supermarkets[?]
- Updated investor presentation & timeline along with an investor Q&A like we had last October
- Another director buy, preferably Penny
More directors buying in before or after results time would be nice, particularly seeing Penny buying more to show her commitment to the long-term vision here.
This has deffo been quiet but that seems to have helped in a weird way ;)
Jtan, lots have people have called it for a very long time. This has been the #2 most shorted UK stock for a long while now. I mean, the simple fact that they had debt, that if called in they literally didn't have the liquidity to pay, which should have said it all to anybody thinking about putting money in these shares.
But I really don't think now is the time for gloating.
Easily under
The Wall Street Journal reports that the Cineworld Group - the second largest cinema business in the world - is preparing to file for bankruptcy
https://twitter.com/SkyNewsBreak/status/1560602430919921667
Looks like a £7k buy (400,000 shares) today 20 minutes before close?
CFO leaving may actually be a bullish signal. From my brief 1 hour or so looking at this company, the biggest red flag I've seen on the balance sheet so far is that administrative costs are taking 30%~ roughly from the revenue. and are about 2.5 times larger than the other operating cost (distribution).
If new CFO can streamline these numbers then that would be a great first step in reversing this company's awful time.
I don't hold but have been watching this story for a while. Imo the Greidinger brothers need to be investigated.
Feeling for all of the shareholders. I don't see Cineworld surviving as we've known it for much longer.
Nice digging Wolf. I do think the weak exchange rate has hit 888 hard here, along with other factors. The exceptional items (fines, tax settlements etc) mixed in with the management's focus being on a major takeover may have caused a poor first half. Hopefully, things can now start to refocus on the 888 business as a whole.
Forgot to add to previous... William Hill revs could (or even, should) be enough to swing this into a FY positive compared to last year. Annoyingly as the balance sheet is from June, the debt isn't listed but is probably the number 1 biggest concern for me here at the moment. Financing the WH takeover would've been fine even a year ago, but with the macro economy and borrowing becoming more & more difficult the board must ease the concern regarding the leveraging ASAP.
This is a pretty disappointing set of results in a company I have firmly believed in and defended for the past few months. I don't think 888 is a bad business, but I also don't understand how you get -37% Y/Y revenue growth.
I'm assuming that a mixture of focusing on the WH Takeover & a really bad USD/GBP has had it's impact and all despite the pretty impressive growth into new markets.
If it means I can get much more for much less then that's fine by me. I still think the William Hill takeover is a good move, I just hope the company can keep it's eyes both on 888 and the takeover at the same time.
Feel for those who are still stung at the £3-4 range. Definitely going to be a long ride back up but I think it will go back and much higher at some point in the next year or two.
Publication of the William Hill revenues should put a lot of investors at ease if they are as good as the company has been saying, which I believe they are.
Tomorrow could be a great day after some pretty dreadful months. Love the price action this week.
Bit of flirting with the Government, in particular with key members who claim to be anti-china and you'd have a strong case for collaboration on bringing this kind of manufacturing back to UK.
But at the end of the day money talks and it won't be cheap to get this done