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Davethechef, the power and logic of your post below is overwhelming. Yes now that the company has less than £200k of cash and a monthly burn rate of £200k is the perfect time for it to enter a hugely competitive market like the UK.

Not necessarily. Not if the implied dilution is modest via a mezzanine loan as opposed to a pure equity issue.

Clearly EI is unlikely to get a senior secured loan from HSBC or Lloyds at 6pct. Clearly it will have to have rolled up interest as opposed to cash interest. And yes clearly it is likely to have some kind of equity component.

This material uncertainty note is no surprise - the WH Ireland note highlighted this in November 2022. And today results show a cash position inline with the WH Ireland note.

TP have 18.8m shares or 5.6% of the company.

TP is not an investment company. TP acts as a nominee for individual several investors. Some of these individual investors decided to sell hence TP sold shares on their behalf.

The WH Ireland note from November shows they need precisely £2.3m to see them to profitability. Keep in mind they were forced to build up significant inventories because of COVID and these will be turned to cash in the coming months as they are run down. So it may actually need a bit less than £2.3m.

Once again I remind people how quickly businesses in this sector can grow. Below are revenue figures for Fevertree for 2008 to 2018:

2008: £2.4m
2009: £3.7m
2010: £6.7m
2011: £11.8m
2012: £16.3m
2013: £23.3m
2014: £34.7m
2015: £59.3m
2016: £102m
2017: £170m
2018: £237m

The WH Ireland note from November 2022 says the company needs £2.3m in 2023 and 2024 to fund it through to being cash flow positive in 2025 and onwards.

If the company issued 150m new shares at 1.5p each that would raise £2.3m. Such a fundraising would reduce Tony Burt’s (CEO) stake from 18.7% at present to 13.0%. I do not see the problem with that.

In 2022 the East Imperial generated £3.2m of revenues.

WH Ireland has the following forecasts for East Imperial revenues:
2023: £5.9m
2024: £15.4m
2025: £23.1m

These forecast are very doable given Fevertree did it. Below are Fevertree’s revenues for the period 2008 to 2018:
2008: £2.4m
2009: £3.7m
2010: £6.7m
2011: £11.8m
2012: £16.3m
2013: £23.3m
2014: £34.7m
2015: £59.3m
2016: £102m
2017: £170m
2018: £237m

If East Imperial achieves the WH Ireland forecasts for 2023 to 2025 the shares are likely to rise significantly.

The problem is that the company has not generated an free cash flow for some years. So it needs to borrow from the banks to pay its interest bill. That is not a great position to be in.

When a company needs to go to its banks to discuss the covenants associated with its loans it is never good. What if the banks decline the request for a covenant reset?

Just in case people have forgotten how big the opportunity in front of East Imperial truly is:

https://drinksint.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/10443/Growth_ahead_for_mixers.html

Latest ME Group pre-tax profit forecasts from broker FinnCap in the wake of last week's strong results:

2023: £59m
2024: £66m
2025: £74m

The business looks to be gaining very strong momentum

I do not understand the obsession among some investors regarding East Imperial moving into the UK market. The UK market has an abundance of premium tonics (which is not the case in the US and Asia) and is also a tiny market in terms to size when compared the US and China (where the company already has agreements in place with top distributors).

Very upbeat article - I cannot see how any upcoming trading statement will be anything else but super positive!

Cannot get access to the full article because it is behind a paywall but can make out what looks to be a quote from the company:

"We are only a couple of weeks into the new year but we've got a real sense of momentum......"

Surely any upcoming trading statement from East Imperial is going to be positive!?

https://insidefmcg.com.au/2023/02/01/why-premium-new-zealand-tonic-brand-east-imperial-is-taking-off-in-asia/

Article from today. Does anyone have access?

I do not understand this need and obsession with updates from the company and news flow. The company has put out its forecasts via the WH Ireland note. The forecasts are:

2022 Revenues: £3.1m
2023 Revenues: £5.9m
2024 Revenues: £15.4m

The distribution deals are in place for the most important markets in the world (US and China). Now management need to focus all their energy on hitting those targets. Not doing interviews. Not putting out endless press releases about the minutiae of the business. Just delivering on those 3 numbers. If they get close to making those targets the share price will soar from current levels.

Commenting on today's purchase of Filipino rum brand Don Papa by drinks giant Diageo, Simon Hales, analyst at Citi, said: “The super-premium rum category has been highlighted by many industry observers as the next exciting growth category in spirits".

Late last year drinks giant Brown-Forman bought super premium Venezuelan rum brand Diplomático.

Surely super premium spirits need super premium mixers!?

To be clear, the company are not importing bottles from NZ into the US and once the bottles are received they are being filled with product in the US.

Both the bottles and product originate in the US.

Right?

RNS 24th Nov.

Says who?

For some context to my earlier post - here are Fevertree's historic revenue figures from back when it was starting out. These show that the forecasts in the WH Ireland note are achievable:

2010: £6.6m
2011: £11.8m
2012: £16.2m

Keep in mind Fevertree only expanded into the US in 2013! East Imperial is already in the US with the second biggest distributor in the country and a local bottling set up.