Member Info for lordloadsoflolly

I should add that I see SMT as an IT to trade periodically. So I sold parts of my holding between £14 & £16 when I felt prices were starting to look a bit stretched, before buying back in between £9 & £13. OK, so the re-purchases are currently underwater. But if I hadn't sold at higher levels, I wouldn't have bought back in either. So the net effect is I've averaged down and am largely happy to sit on the sidelines again for now and wait.

walp - I'd go along with that. Though high inflation & interest rate rises ultimately impact all shares, not purely the tech sector. In terms of whether SMT eventually bounces back - and if so, how long it takes, let's face it nobody knows. But I firmly believe it will, so have topped up further on the way down. The majority of my holding was bought between £3 & £4.50 though. So I guess I can afford to take more risk, riding out what I see as temporary bumps in the road.

Thought I'd just take a look at recent ProBiotix Health share trades on Aquis . Well, I guess company news there must be sparse. There've been NO trades whatsoever since 6 April. That's right. Zip. And before that, a "grand" total of 13,612 shares were traded. I realise Opti holders are locked in for the first 9 months, but would still have expected far more dealing activity than this from other investors. I guess we now know why Aquis is a cheaper exchange to list on. No-one's ever heard of/used it. At least SOH is on record saying a transfer to Aim could be on the cards later if Aquis proves too illiquid. Things are often cheap for a reason!

Compared to the previous transaction in own shares on 18 Jan 22 (1,767,544 ordinary shares at a price of 1,117.64p), this latest purchase of just 3,731 ordinary shares at a price of 956.98p is meaningless. Less than 0.2% of the value previously purchased.

liquid1 - you do realise that analyst's report - & the sharesmagazine.co.uk link - are from 2017! A lot has changed since then, (including the share price from 50.7p to diddly squat).

One other thought. Perhaps they think capital's better employed hoovering up more tech shares at current "discounted" prices. In a way I'd rather they did that, as it would be more a vote of confidence in their powers of stock selection.

Perhaps they kept timing it wrong? Or felt markets were just too volatile currently (we all know THAT feeling!) More seriously though, could it - in recent times - have something to do with the closed period?

Resipsa - I agree. Also, totally pointless saying "if you strip out Tesla over the past few years the performance is pedestrian", a) that isn't true & b) if you strip out the good performers in any fund what's left is dross.

FOR INFO re: ProBiotix Health - share distribution. Equiniti advised shareholders as follows on 18 March 22: "DISTRIBUTION IN SPECIE OptiBiotix Health plc has announced that it intends to seek admission of its wholly owned subsidiary, ProBiotix Health Limited, onto the AQSE Growth Market with an associated fund raise by ProBiotix Health by way of placing and subscription. The Company has proposed a `dividend in specie` of ordinary shares of ProBiotix Health to OptiBiotix Health plc Shareholders who are on the Company`s register as at the record date. The final number of Dividend Shares to be distributed will be determined by the amount of funds raised through the placing and subscription and the need for OptiBiotix`s shareholding in ProBiotix Health to be reduced below 50 per cent. to meet the HMRC EIS requirements. The Nominee will hold the Dividend Shares on trust for each of the Qualifying Shareholders for a minimum period of 9 months following admission to trading on AQSE of the issued share capital of ProBiotix Health ("Lock-up Period"). The Lock-up Period is intended to contribute to the creation of an orderly market in ProBiotix Health`s shares for a period after admission to trading. At the end of the Lock-up Period, the Nominee will be entitled to execute stock transfer
forms to transfer the legal title to the Dividend Shares to each Qualifying Shareholder (as appropriate)." Equniti added the following on 4 April 22: "Further to the message sent on 18 March 2022, the Company has confirmed that OptiBiotix shareholders on the register as at close of business on 25 March 2022 will receive 0.554673 ProBiotix shares for every one OptiBiotix ordinary share held. Further information may follow in due course."

One thing's for certain, Opti's current share price ain't great. That's really down to SOH giving investors timescales & guidance which was over-optimistic (though it does eventually seem to be proving correct - albeit with a timelag). But it's important to remember investors now have a stake in ProBiotix Health too. Impossible to know how valuable (or otherwise) this will be, as a) most brokers currently seem incapable of allocating investors their entitlement and b) even when they do, we're locked in for 9+ months. So we won't know the value of our ProBiotix Health shares for some time. But if SBTX is anything to go by, it could prove to be quite a bonus. Eventually.

If you're the "leading global supplier" as so frequently stated by management (increasingly hard to believe), you should have decent pricing power. So how about raising your prices & only concentrating on your core profit centres? That's how you make any"market-leading" company profitable. Not rocket science. Shouldn't be beyond the capability of IQE's Directors, given their fat salaries & endless free share options. Sadly Drew never got it. Let's hope Americo does.

Who knows? I was surprised by the relative share price resilience on results day, as nothing was announced likely to have much short term impact on the figures. And as we all know, IQE excels in messing up long term execution. So despite Americo's sensible strategy on site rationalistion & new customer acquisition, it's far from a given he'll actually deliver. Maybe investors are fretting that IQE is more vulnerable than most in a general market downturn (like today's)? Hopefully not, as I'm still heavily invested here. But I gave up averaging down some time ago. That's a mug's game IMHO when IQE's sales have been static (& profits pre-"exceptionals "non-existent) for much of the past 5 years.

Might be a red herring, but could today's 10%+ fall suggest a leak from within & an imminent (none too positive) update?

They couldn't even spell Optibiotix right!

Not a sausage from Halifax since their original reply to my query saying: "You will be notified as soon as we receive all the information regarding the dividend in specie i.e. new Probiotix Health shares to holders of Optiobiotix as of close of business on the 25th March."

basscadet - yup, there are always risks & SMT is certainly volatile. But according to the FT, Chinese exposure is just over 14% of the fund, so it's not like they're betting the house on it. Their unquoted holdings are probably riskier & plenty will fail. But as they point out, you only have to get one or two right to produce stunning overall returns. Past performance isn't always a guide to the future, but it's probably the nearest we've got. And if you look at SMT over pretty much any 5 year period you care to pick, they've almost always excelled. Rather the reverse with IQE, particularly since 2017.

Da_Matser - I agree. The £0.6m professional costs have already been provided for, by the way: RNS states: "This has been fully provided for in previous accounting periods."

Surely Creightons will try again now? The market has spoken on this proposed BAR merger. And it's a resounding NO.

Speaking as a long-suffering IQE holder, I'd find a different share to buy if I were you. So many times, it looked as though we were really turning a corner here. So many times, a touch of bad luck - but mostly bad management - snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Have you considered SMT instead? Totally different animal as it's a tech-heavy investment trust fund with exposure to China. This has caused it to fall significantly in value over the past few months. But its long term track record is first rate, its management costs are low and - unlike IQE - it even pays a small dividend. I know which I'm more comfortable with. And it sure ain't IQE, even at its current beaten up price.

Call me a cynic, but for BAR to fund this merger largely via its own shares, just before announcing a swing to interim losses looks opportunistic to say the least. Some might say just plain dodgy. They may tout around an acquisition premium versus IDP's share price on 30 March (i.e. pre- merger announcement). But they then go & report interim losses themselves, causing BAR's share price to tank over 26% at time of writing. So much of the so-called acquisition premium has evaporated before it even began.