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Has Alex D lost his touch since going to Devon Equity Management ?
Obviously others think so as the discount has widened to more than 10% despite a recent share buyback.
There was plenty of warning about Wirecard but he still missed it.

Addicknt and Fokurokuju
Thanks for your encouragement and views. All your points noted. Yes I am continuing to hold a good number of shares which have declined from about 100p, and I looked at a demand v. production forecast which shows production exceeding demand, which when combined with the postponed placing, explains my pessimism. However, it is only a forecast, and with demand for electric cars increasing plus the other uses for lithium batteries as storage for green power may very well have underestimated the huge changes happening in the industry. Other forecasts show an exponential rise in lithium consumption needed for batteries, which we know is a reality. I hope you are right over the Mexico factor and the production stays low cost. I guess all will be apparent by next year.

Reading all the posts and articles, it appears all this is hope rather than reality.
The facts of the matter are that BCN has failed to raise investment funds or a placing for shares. Hundreds of millions of dollars are needed. The start of production information is just a few preliminaries and may be smoke and mirrors.
Everyone is hoping for a spike in the Lithium price which is unlikely with China trade wars and a possible US recession next year.
I do not want to be unduly pessimistic, but I think unless a buyer appears we have a high probability of losing our investment in this Company unfortunately.

No adverse news widely published, or broker reports, but some people are selling.
Any nasties I have missed ?

Investors seem very wary of this share. Why? Graphene might be a success story but the shares certainly are not. It should be a great British success story but remains potential rather than commercial success, despite the material's fantastic properties. My patience is getting thin.

Anyone know what is going on? No news ?

At least Haydale had the decency to offer the rights shares to small investors. however, there seems to be a divergence between the bullish outlook given by Haydale management and the market view represented by low share price. It cant all be dilution, surely ? Is some group shorting this share, or is it general lack of confidence in Haydale management ?

Another promising UK company appearing to disadvantage its loyal small investors by a huge institution-only placing, no doubt at a large discount. I find myself investing more and more overseas, no wonder.

Have got so used to ALM SP going down or sideways, quite a surprise to see it doing better. Perhaps patience is a virtue when one has enough faith remaining to hold. Has anyone found any good reason for the improvement ?

Unusually for me, have taken profits and sold. Seems to be a good steady business worth keeping. Hope to buy in again on dip in a few weeks as market seems too good to be true.. Anyone else any views on this company ?

I hope an over-reaction by the market. Are the shorters involved ? New well qualified board and sales in all areas are presented as strong. Cash flow balance appears to be down due to development and expansion of the business and change to larger customers, all of which which has been explained exhaustively.. Worrying sign though is the resignation of Keith Butcher without explanation. Maybe he is staying with Matthew Peacock in a new venture? Has anyone picked up why he left ? Planning and running small publicly quoted companies cannot be easy with this kind of short term scrutiny and SP reaction to news which not all bad.

@doze. Again I have to agree to certain extent. This all is the story we are fed with, and it is partly true. We live in hopes that the managers find the new ARM or Microsoft but unfortunately rarely do and iven if they do its gain is submerged by duds and fees. Even though am dissatisfied have to confess agree that the up front tax rebate and tax free income kindly given by our friends HMRC is a good incentive to invest nevertheless, with the knowledge that a proportion of our capital is helping new industry in UK. However I think it is a convenient strategy by the managers to charge the fees high enough to make them very rich, leaving only just enough for the investors to keep them "on-board". Particularly important now we are coming to Brexit to perhaps look at this kind of practice again and if proved wrong address the problems. Am surprised there are so few complaints like this, as am sure many others are aware they are being grossly over-charged. It all seems like a cosy cartel.

@doze. Agree with you, better than bank deposit but only because of multiple tax relief, at much higher risk. Up front tax relief disappears in the discount if sold before wind-up and any capital gains in high fees.. I find it a convenient excuse from VCT managers that they charge high annual fees plus 20% performance fee for only doing their job which they would do anyway when managing small Co. trust or private equity trust. Am not convinced that VCTs are not a gravy train for the aready overpaid retail fund management Companies, at investors expense.

Again about the fees. The average VCT charges 2% per annum and 20% performance fee for a low hurdle rate. This can take 3 or 4% every year from the trust, compared to about 1% from a normal investment trust. On a simple basis, this equates to 30 or 40% decrease in capital and or income over 10 years, compounded, so is a lot worse and explains why very few VCTs at the end of, say, 10 years return the original capital, at best. The tax free income is the only bonus, but even this is devalued by the greed of the managers. Despite the generous tax breaks, I think investors such as myself get a poor deal unless higher rate tax payers. I just hope the Companies the VCTs invest in do better. Comments ?

Thanks fellas! I guess with small Cos like this their shares tend to be volatile without a stream of positive news, as buyers lose patience or percieve better opportunities elsewhere. Certainly widely spread geographically so should additionally benefit from £ devaluation, all being well.

Someone is selling. Or waiting for more good news? Despite glowing prospects and overseas expansion, SP down 16% last year and 22% in two years. This has not been the investment I hoped would do well, so far. Or is there just too much good news with this Company? Views?

as1983 - I agree that in the past it has been one of the better performers, but as I queried, what price tax-free dividends? Tax-payers and shareholders appear to be paying excessively for the fees and mediocre performance compared to other ITs. The directors are often on many similar boards but still get the same fees. I do not expect the capital and income of my long-term share based investments to decrease with inflation. Over, say, 10 years and more which is average holding period, we must be worse off. I think that like the so-called "absolute reutrn funds", VCTs are a very poor deal for investors.

I would imagine the many investors who bought BSV for around 100p were not too pleased when the share price dived down to 88p.. Another questionable director decision to sell one of the constituent companies, and rather than reinvest at least some the proceeds distribute all of it as a special dividend to shareholders. OK if the SP was over 100p and kept up with inflation, but it does not, therefore in effect these VCTs are like annuities with fixed price at a discount to 100p. decreasing every year with inflation. Quite frankly, purely from the shareholders investment point of view, in my opinion they are very poor. Tax free income, but at what price? An outrageous near 3% total fees per annum reduces the gains substantially in addition to IFA and platform sales commissions when purchased. I just hope they provide the services to industry to warrant the taxpayers subsidy of these questionable structures. Excluding the directors and managers who appear to do very well, can anyone say anything good about these trusts?

Unfortunately for most punters gambling is like smoking: they cant give up. In my opinion that helps to weigh the odds on this company succeeding (perhaps some people would say gambling on the share price!). With the high R&D investment and export ratio it is good enough for me.

Anyone know any reason for share rise in last week from 45 to over 50 ? Not complaining but no news published or RNS announcements. Admittedly they did seem undervalued - maybe just some people reallising that?