The latest Investing Matters Podcast with Jean Roche, Co-Manager of Schroder UK Mid Cap Investment Trust has just been released. Listen here.
Well I didn’t see that one coming. That’s a tie up with a rather large group indeed. I’ve spent quite a lot of time in India and they are brand leaders in multiple categories. Let’s see what they can do with Dermatonics brands. Also very interested to see what other areas they collaborate on. All in all that appears to be a good start.
Excellent balanced update. Points out the highs and lows. Journalism as it should be.
I think that the death threat to Elric is quite sickening and people need to calm down here. Aquea and Disco are bang on , the positives are all still there and the constant trolling and bullying is just driving sentiment lower. We bought into this for multiple reasons and need to hold our nerve rather than this frankly childish behaviour calling for peoples heads. I’m informed that someone even set up a fake LinkedIn profile to try and discredit SA. Really! It was a pretty pathetic attempt too. GLA
Toyin, I’m genuinely sorry to hear that. I may not always agree with Elric but he does a valuable job for sure. He has less vicious rants than TW and is usually quite balanced. Some of the vile comments on these boards directed at decent people are unforgivable. I would ask the moderators of the boards to be more vigilant and delete the trolls to protect us all.
I think the bulk of the damage done here is by Tom Winnifrith. SA was told to stop doing paywall interviews by his NOMAD and TW basically attacked SA and I would say it was very uncalled for. The bulletin boards then jumped all over the stock. As the announcement on the acquisition was made TW then called for widespread selling of this stock whilst continuing to hold his own shares. Croda is still very much alive and they are investing more money in the trial that is running. SA cannot (nor could anyone) influence a FTSE 100 billion £ company of that scale. In the meantime he’s building revenue and roots to market. I think we all know that if he pulls all of that off sins will be forgiven but if he doesn’t then his position, and indeed those of the entire board, will be untenable.
Totally agree Cliostock. This is getting tedious now. Croda is still very much there. SA is building revenue generating business to prevent continuous fundraises. Croda will simply add to that. The RNS clearly states it is a pilot run. These announcements have to be fact checked by the NOMAD and lawyers before release . No reason at all to doubt the accuracy of the content.
Good RNS this morning on Dermatonics results for FY24. I can see the rationale for the acquisition now. If we can get to break even with positive and rising revenue with additional routes to market that would be a real achievement. Croda still to come too. Interesting to rewatch the IMC presentation and focus on MediBiotix comments and the link with diabetic foot ulcers.
Nick1978 I think you got all of the blame for the report to AIM and maybe a bit prematurely as surely there was more than one complaint about paid subscription interviews to cause such an uproar from TW? I also think Oelrics departure and sell off is badly timed but I guess that only time will tell. For those that think I'm SA's cheerleader, I am most certainly not, but I think the outright abuse he is receiving is frankly ridiculous. I believe that he has a year to deliver on multiple fronts and they are all areas where he has control (other than Croda which is out of his control but with the money they have spent is just a matter of time). I believe he is offsetting the Croda delay by introducing accretive bolt-ons that gives us both revenue and routes to market. If he is wrong and these acquisitions turn out to be dogs then he will have written his own exit but let's let him deliver what he's promised. If he resigns or is pushed out the fallout will be huge and we may never truly recover from that. I am sure he and the entire board of directors knows what is at stake here.
I agree Leapfroggy, the products look good and I think there could be some leverage for home grown products too. Not sure about the synergies as we don't know how many staff they have and what their functions are.
Phat, you are trolling again. You have sold all of your shares (or at least that's what you told us ) and you keep chirping on. Off to filter land for you!
I'm very interested to see the forecasts for the acquisition that SA talked about in his presentation on Friday. It is critical that they contain 23/24 numbers in detail. Given that their Financial year finishes on Wednesday this week that might be a stretch. We also need to see a forecast for the next 2-3 years that includes some transparency on profitability.
Phat, we've had this silly little spat of yours a number of times. I reiterate I am not Stuart Ashman, I am also not a personal friend of his. I have met him at AJ Bell / Shares Magazine presentations and at a presentation on OPTI at the NED in London when he had just joined the company. You argued this last year, that was before you sold all of your shares and became a keyboard troll. You ramped the life out of this stock for months and months and then did a Tom Winnifrithesque u-turn. You invested because of Croda potential and that's still there, the delay not caused by SA at all but at Croda request because they found significant upsides that they want to measure. How is that his fault? You're advising a sell, are you a qualified Financial Advisor? All I can say is that I am holding and topping up where funds allow. This is currently cheaper than my first buy (although I did some mopping up in the pandemic at 7p & 8p). I with you luck in whatever you invest in next but I'm staying put, I think the wait will be worth it for Croda alone, and there's so much more now.
Thechief1, I agree with some of your points. comments on the others;
- SA trying to positive.....I thought he was pretty balanced, firm where needed and quite humble in places. We have to remember that he's had an absolute kicking from TW recently through no fault of his own. He's been stopped from doing interviews behind paywalls (which he openly addressed) by the NOMAD and the regulators. he didn't make that call, they did.
- "a lot of it felt re hashed, same potential" I guess the same projects are still live e.g. Croda and he was simply giving us an update. If he had not mentioned it we would've questioned that too.
- SP to 20p - Well he had to pick a number, I'm sure we would all like to see considerably higher number, including him! I think it was just a line in the sand.
- SA has significant share options that have been announced publicly on his appointment. They are all milestone driven and most of them, from memory, are on significant share price increase. I recall he achieved one tranche at 40p and all of the others are above and beyond that price. Not sure if Manprit has any options at this stage. One would like to think that any he does receive are driven by similar metrics.
I liked the closing comments, he seemed very sincere and driven. He does have a point that those of us who invested at anything above the current share price for Croda alone would be foolish to sell at these levels given that the project is still very live and as he rightly says, probably more valuable than it's ever been. I don't think Manprit engaged much at all but neither did the guy before.
That was a solid interview by SA under difficult circumstances. I think at this price the stock is an absolute steal. Croda still very much there (in fact more valuable than previously) and good explanations on AxisBiotix and MediBiotix. Analysts forecast due next week on the acquisition that clearly brings new routes to market and access to some massive retail chains etc. Explanation of the adjusted EBITDA made total sense too. Cash in the bank for working capital for 15-16 months. If you already have stock then why sell? Tom Winnifrith advices all to sell but says he's still holding......... really? The same guy that said Croda alone would make this a 10xbagger, so at 11p why sell when it could make £1.10p on Croda without any of the above.
Well said Farris, I agree. I too hink everyone needs to calm down. I also think we need to let the dust settle and see both what comes next and what SA and team do with this asset. They clearly haven't bought this company without reason. Calling for Ashmans head-on day one is just silly.
I agree with djframboise. TW will be playing both sides. Here’s a few facts.
1. Stephen O Hara can’t have closed Croda deal as he has resigned from the board of directors in July. SA announced the deal as he’s the one that closed it.
2. SA announced the WINCLOVE deal as he closed that too.
3. TW regularly throws his rattle out of his crib and regularly comes back in support
4. The Croda opportunity alone is as TT correctly says “ out of Ashman’s control” but that alone is worth the current share price
5. Super influencer singing the praises of the AxisBiotix product because it works.
6. Today’s acquisition has real potential in Woundcare and in retail sales.
7. SA is doing a presentation tomorrow that will undoubtably shed more light on the strategy
8. If you pay peanuts you get monkeys
Good luck to all fellow long term investors. We’ve been here a long time and held through rougher storms than this. SA navigated us through COVID and this year is a cumulation of many years patience. Why sell now? At these prices it makes more sense to level down. IMHO, DYOR
Ashman wrote the strategy, landed Croda and launched AxisBiotix. This is derisking and adding revenue and routes to market. Makes total sense to me , clearly not to Cromwell! No dilution and moves us closer to break-even. What's not to like? We are not using the CLN for cashflow but to add value. Simple! I too am loving the link to MediBiotix and foot ulcers.
Couldn’t agree more! Well done indeed. Let’s remember that we have plenty of cash for the next 12 months and croda launch due this year. The CLN is significantly better (IMHO) to a £5mill placing and subsequent dilution. Adding revenue and profits at each acquisition is the way forward. Well done team SBTX.
As usual oellric you’re wrong. That’s precisely what he said.
"lawyers" .... apologies for the typo