Member Info for lordloadsoflolly

lemonade311 - OK, so I'm not shandy, but I share your concerns. BAR's recent trading makes for grim reading with two consecutive years of losses: www.hl.co.uk/shares/shares-search-results/b/brand-architekts-group-plc-ord-5p/financial-statements-and-reports. Not sure what happened between 2017 & 2018? Presumably they divested manufacturing or something? Weird how Mark Ward is out of the picture so quickly, having built up such a large stake in IDP. Not sure this merger will go unchallenged by shareholders (or Creightons come to that).

Not a sausage from Halifax yet.

Gotrader - I presume you're referring to "Tim Pullen-A-Fast-One" when you say "cut out the trivial things that are losing money"?

zebbo - I thought pumping made a share price RISE! Anyhow, TW is always best ignored IMHO.

As I mentioned a while back on another BB, I thought the chemistry between Tom Slater & Lawrence Burns was severely lacking in that presentation. Hope not, as I'm heavily invested here and a dysfunctional management team wouldn't be helpful. I just thought Tom kept trying to add to what Lawrence had said. Almost like he was trying to score points off him (particularly in the early stages of the talk). Did anyone else feel this or is it just my imagination? Still, at least 2 of my 3 recent top ups are currently back in the black, so I can't complain for now (the 3rd needs to hit £11.24).

I thought the share price would be clobbered far more after today's RNS. Perhaps it still will be over time, though I hope not as a LTH. I guess the one ray of sunshine is that IQE has, by now, become a serial disappointer. So its share price has already been heavily marked down. Dire though they both were, perhaps today's results & the short term outlook were in line with most investors' feeble expectations.?

I'm only a passive investor in SBTX (via my Opti holding). But to me, the latest RNS raises the sort of questions you'd get in Dragons' Den. i.e. Why run, when you haven't shown you can even walk yet? AxisBiotix-Ps hasn't even begun to impact the UK market. Yet already they're distracting themselves with the US (a notoriously hard nut to crack). And "management is currently exploring other markets, anticipating selling directly to consumer in other European countries and pursuing distributor opportunities for wider markets such as Asia". Basing your fulfilment operation in the Netherlands might make sense for an EU business, targeting EU markets. But it's a huge added cost at this stage, when presumably most of the sales (such as they are) come from UK customers. Sounds like a desperate, scattergun approach to me, lacking strategic focus.

Opti was trading at 32p immediately pre- Pro Biotix RNS & is 35p currently. So unless I'm missing something, the market currently values Pro Biotix "freebies" at around 3p per Opti share held on the register last Friday. But as others have said, all that matters is Pro Biotix' price 9+ months from now. Until then, they can't be traded so any value attributed to them is purely academic.

elrico - not sure what you mean when you say "unlike SBTX, ProBiotix is a core part of the larger group". When SBTX was spun off, Opti initially retained a 41.9% holding (which has reduced substantially over time to fund Opti's development). I agree SBTX & ProBiotix were at different stages of commercialisation when spun off. But investors still saw speculative value in SBTX. And they still do today, given its £72M market cap. Problem is, that hasn't fully been reflected in Opti's market cap, despite its still large SBTX stake.

Andrew7 - Post-spinoff, I think you'll find Opti will hold just under 50% of ProBiotix dividend shares. Existing Opti holders & new subscribers will mop up the balance. AquaeSulis01 - whilst you'd think ProBiotix' unlocked market cap would boost Opti's share price, it hasn't worked out like that with SBTX. But at least existing Opti shareholders will get a direct slice of the action this time via their dividend in specie allocation.

Shame it's making the price drop.

Apologies - 4th line of my previous post should read ".... in case there are other Opti shareholders invested via a Halifax ISA....."

Agreed - & something already HAS given. Opti's share price pre-announcement was a shade under 30p compared to around 40p currently. I may be wrong, but I suspect Opti will fall back after close on Friday 25 March once dividend in specie entitlement expires. On this topic, in case there are other Opti shareholders invested via a Haloifax ISA, here's what they've just told me: "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. This offer will be allocated to any share holder. In regards to the option for existing shareholders to subscribe via their broker for additional shares in ProBiotix Health by 23 March 2022. Regrettably as this is placing, we do not offer this to our customers. We could not offer any opportunity via the broker option as our working is different from brokers that are compatible with the short timeframe of the announcement." So much for Opti's RNS statement that "participation in the Subscription will be prioritised for shareholders in OptiBiotix". Not that I'd want to subscribe for any extra shares via AQSE anyway.

But you have to ask WHY it's so much cheaper to list on AQSE than AIM. I suspect wide spreads & lack of share price liquidity will prove to be the trade offs (even more so than AIM). No such thing as a free lunch, but at least SOH doesn't rule out migrating Probiotix to AIM later on.

Pacific Horizon has a good long term performance, but a dismal short term record. It has a heavy weighting towards India, China & South Korea. All of which are less regulated, higher risk markets (but potentially also higher return). To diversify a bit geographically, I invested a small amount in PHI (currently underwater) but am not tempted to average down. Too high risk. Have you looked at Fundsmith Equity? Less volatile than SMT/PHI, but with a good long term track record, assuming you aren't already over-exposed to the US. Its performance has stalled since 2021, which you either view as a good buying opportunity or a warning signal.

Andrew7 - I don't think the purpose of this exercise is to raise funds. Instead it's to unlock value (which to date the company feels hasn't been fully "recognised" by the wider investment community). Opti shareholders who remain on the register next Friday will own around 85% of ProBiotix in total. Part of this amount they'll own individually (the dividend in specie bit). The rest (slightly under 50%) will be held on Opti's books still. In a similar way to Opti's stake in SBTX was. However, this exercise differs from SBTX's spinoff in that 1) existing shareholders automatically gain shares in Pro Biotix & 2) existing shareholders have preference over any additional shares they may wish to buy in the subscription & placing. That's certainly progress. The main winners of SBTX's spinoff were those who bought shares in them early doors. Opti's stake in SBTX has largely been overlooked in terms of Opti's own market cap. I guess Opti shareholders benefitted directly in one sense from SBTX's spin off still. By subsequently selling down part of its SBTX stake, Opti has been self-sufficient in working capital without having to resort to any fundraises / share cap dilution. My main concern with Pro Biotix is that even the AIM market dwarfs AQSE. So shares listed on AQSE may be very illiquid &/or have a ridiculously wide spread. Also, not all investor platforms & financial wrappers seem to accommodate AQSE - or even know much about it. I've emailed my provider today (Halifax), asking why they haven't issued the usual prompt corporate action notification (given next week's deadline for additional share applications). That said, the concerns I mentioned above over AQSE mean I probably won't be applying for more regardless.

nick1978 - this article implies SIPPs & ISAs both OK (for A J Bell investors at least, though I'm not with them myself): hTTps://www.ftadviser.com/investments/2021/04/08/aj-bell-adds-aquis-stock-exchange-to-platform/

AquaeSulis01 - I agree, best to see how things settle. However, it doesn't take massive sells (or buys) to move the share price significantly, as Opti is fairly illiquid,

Andrew7 - my understanding is that existing Opti shareholders on the register at 25 March 2022 will automatically receive Dividend Shares. IN ADDITION, they can apply by 23 March to buy further shares under the placing and subscription scheme and will be given priority in their capacity as existing Opti shareholders. But it all sounds rather complex. And who'd even heard of the Aquis Exchange before?

Perhaps it's still digesting the full implications. Share price currently just over 3% down. Still hardly a ringing endorsement though, is it?