Member Info for lordloadsoflolly

Looks like Adastra's finally got bored of pumping a share that continues to lose value pretty much every day at the moment.

Hawker - one problem with your theory - the share price HASN'T risen in the past couple of days. It's falling. Again.

Tom78 - suspected as much!

When it comes to NAV discounts, I don't think there is a "normal" unfortunately. Just a range - which in SMT's case has fluctuated between about a 5% premium and a 23% discount over the past 5 years.

At the moment, we're roughly in the middle of that range. So I guess you COULD call that normal. But I don't think it is really. The period when the discount was at its highest largely coincided with the period when interest rates were hiked substantially. Now rates look like they've peaked, my guess is the discount will continue to narrow. But it IS only a guess!

Tom78 - I guess it's all relative. At least a consistently rising NAV will normally lead to a stronger share price (eventually).

That said, if the discount to NAV widens, we could be back to square one.

But that discount has also been narrowing in recent months. From about 23% at its worst last summer to just a little over half that currently.

So for the moment, trends are positive.......

Thefrogster - thanks for that link.

Some of their points have already been made by posters here.

But I found the bit about an average holding period of 20 years interesting. Reiterates why the fund is more suited to investors willing to hold longish term (though I’m not suggesting anything like 20 years. Just not for those who might need their capital back in 1 -2 years).

Adastra - I presume you do know investing is about trying to MAKE money?

Here's your post from 25 January 2024:

"In all honesty mate if you loaded up yesterday or today at around 1.60 you'll be laughing.....spot on imo! Hat off to you."

Whilst you might be laughing eventually, you certainly won't be currently. IMM was 1.6p just over 2 weeks ago. And 1.35p (max) at close today. That's a loss of over 15% in 15 days. Cue calls for celebration. Very well done. Laughter all round.

Maybe Microsalt WILL take off.

Or maybe it'll go the same way as its closest non-potassium chloride-containing predecessor - Tate & Lyle's Soda-Lo.

Fact is, nobody knows at this stage. And it's kind of irrelevant, if TEK can't demonstrate how it proposes crystallising any value in its holdings & returning some of this to shareholders.

After all, Microsalt's value has already increased over 30% since its IPO on 1 Feb. That same day, Tek closed at 10.5p mid. And it's currently 10.5p mid, despite owning 77% of Microsalt. So to date, whilst the book value of Tek's SALT holding has increased, it's created zero added value for any shareholders wanting to exit now.

ICB888 - in theory, you can't argue with Simon Thompson's logic.

Except that he's been saying the same thing about TEK for well over a year now, during which time the share price has continued to plummet.

Problem is, most investors no longer look at the NAV here and say "gosh, look at that discrepancy compared to the share price". And the reason they don't do that is because they currently see no clear path to TEK releasing any of the value in its holdings. The biggest red flag for me recently was when Clifford started dropping AI into the conversation & talking about new AI investment opportunites they were examining. That would be fine if TEK had actually created shareholder value from its original holdings, had divested a fair proportion of these and was ready to move on. But that simply isn't the case here.

PGlancy - I'm not "attacking" or "trolling" elrico. There's no "hate or contempt" as you put it. As far as I'm concerned, it's a free country and people can say what they like (providing it's within the law & preferably retains a degree of dignity & respect for others).

If anything, I'm more criticising the Boards (especially Aim companies), some of which seem to like singling out individual private investors to use as their mouthpiece. To me, this is unprofessional, potentially also creating a conflict of interest. If a company RNSs something, it's out there in the public domain for anyone interested to access.

At times, an RNS may contain market-sensitive information. So it makes sense that a company uses an official channel like this, where it can control timing of the release (for example: pre-market opening / post-market close). Once you start using random individuals to communicate, you lose control over the timing. You also introduce an element of doubt & third party hearsay (unlike an RNS, which is down there in black & white for all to see and which could be used to hold a company to account if it published inaccurate information).

I simply don't understand why you find my reservations so puzzling, but each to their own.

Redred1821 - I think you'll find most people are ALREADY aware of the benefits of a low sodium diet.

Whilst Microsalt can help in this regard, there are plenty of alternative - & cheaper - reduced sodium salt options out there. So whether large supermarkets & fast food outlets will be "smashing Microsalt's doors down" any time soon remains to be seen. Admittedly, a few large companies have already made approaches. But global domination? Well that's another matter for now.

PGlancy - I'm sorry you sometimes find RNSs hard to follow, but doubt the majority of shareholders do. The point is, they publish facts rather than anecdotes & personal opinions.

I take your point about the overlap between share analysis from individual private investors & paid for publications. Which is why I treat both with caution.

Sure, they can highlight things you might otherwise have missed. But they're also often wrong & are occasionally highly misleading (whether intentionally or not).

I did occasionally listen to elrico's early interviews with SOH, but always found them far too cosy & unchallenging. So I appreciate your suggestion, but won't be chatting to him, his sons, or any other Opti tipsters any time soon thanks.

Seaman - Arm Holdings & Microsalt. Chalk & cheese.

I was referring to elrico the lemon, not you.

Thanks Giancotti

Interested to hear which major supplier to the fast food industry rejected Micro Salt - and how you know.

As I predicted some months ago when Microsalt's IPO was first announced, this really hasn't lifted Tek's share price significantly (unless you got in at the very low point, which I very much doubt many did, even if they claim otherwise).

All just a flash in the pan unfortunately, as the excitement subsides & Tek ONCE AGAIN loses the opportunity to reward long-suffering shareholders with a special dividend at IPO stage. It could have easily done this with EACH of its holdings. Instead of which, it has stubbornly hung on - only to see the IPO froth quickly melt away & the value of its residual holding erode as subsequent cash raises drain any significant value out of its stakes.

Easiest solution is to totally disregard anything any so-called special influencer / chosen private investor utters.

Sadly, Aim companies granting certain shareholders comms privileges seems fairly widespread (unless they're all making it up of course, which is a distinct possibility).

It's frankly appalling this is ever allowed to happen . And if proven, it reflects very badly on the Board of said Aim companies. There should be no special concessions for any shareholder, regardless of how big their stake might be.

RNS's are there for a reason - to make market-sensitive information simultaneously available to everyone. Nods & winks to the privileged few amount to facilitating insider trading & should be punished accordingly - preferably with imprisonment. That way, other Directors contemplating a similar old boys network might just think twice.

Aquae - how exactly were SOH's replies communicated to you?

Was it via video where you could actually see him respond?

Or was it elrico's reporting, in which case we've no way of verifying.

Pikeman - I think you’ll find Tate & Lyle’s Soda-Lo was discontinued years ago.

So it would appear your former “colleague” isn’t quite up to speed on developments.

To think anyone working in the processed food industry could claim there’ve been no substantial changes over the past 20 years simply beggars belief.

Nice try, but I’m not buying it.

Elrico - but aren't you still "featuring" Opti now (whatever that means), with a share price BELOW 30p?

Gotrader - Unless others can corroborate that ADFVN poster's HQ meeting, we've no idea whether it ever happened. And even if it did, it's just one person's interpretation & hearsay of the status quo at IQE. Of course any CEO would give out positive signals in such circumstances. They're hardly likely to say the company they control is going down the pan, now are they?

But I'd question whether Lemos was sufficiently naive to grant a single private investor special access to company info (unless it's all already in the public domain, in which case it tells us nothing new anyway).

Said private investor has been hopelessly over-optimistic about IQE's prospects for several years now, so I'd personally suggest totally discounting this particular anecdote.

In terms of today's RNS - a) it relates to the 2019 LTIP & b) "There is no change to the Group's issued share capital as a result of the Block Admission". I agree though that incentive plans should only ever reward success, whereas IQE's often seem to recognise failure.

Walp - I think tougher regulation will come, as there's mounting public pressure. And it has to be government led.

You could argue it's already arrived here in the UK, in the form of the Online Safety Bill. Though, as with any new legislation, we've yet to see the real proof of the pudding.

Time & again, social media companies have shown abject disregard for their members' wellbeing. And a laser-like focus on profit alone. They'll never change until the consequence of non-compliance is an eye-watering fine & a long stretch at His Majesty's Pleasure (or the overseas equivalent) for any of their law-breaking Directors.