The latest Investing Matters Podcast with Jean Roche, Co-Manager of Schroder UK Mid Cap Investment Trust has just been released. Listen here.
Hi Brand, good to hear your thoughts. Unusually,on this occasion,I disagree with most of them. The suggestion that ONLY investor hype is the reason for raised expectations here,is misleading in my view. Many current PI`s were not only attracted by the Cascade premium buy-in but ALSO GT`s very bullish statement in terms of the company`s improved financial status (at that time) and ability to fund potential new business.Add the developing Mobileye relationship into the mix and the foundations were there for this to look like a potentially rewarding investment. If we roll the clock on a few months,GT has spent all the Cascade cash and is going cap in hand to YA for additional working capital support and Cascade appear none too keen to dip their hands into their pocket again,at this stage.I accept that is an assumption on my part and I am very open to hearing your reasons as to why we are doubling our debt with YA rather than call upon Cascade. IMHO GT now has to restore confidence in the business model by A) Generating some new business of substance B) Reducing overheads thereby improving margins c) Restoring profitability. I am also still invested here and keen to see how this positively develops although I will call it as I see it,good,bad or indifferent. Cheers Brand.
Yes mate,that`s how I`m reading this at the moment. When the original package was agreed with Cascade there must have been some thought and planning as to when the various tranches would be needed ie married up to the business plan projections for 2017.I assume GT was aware from the cashflow forecast that he would need $1m (options monies) in or around October and will have given his reasoning to Cascade. It may be that Cascade thought that the business plan would have been progressed further at this stage, off the back of the intial $2m injection and when he has approached them re Oct options in Jul/Aug they have had a re-think hence YA. The problem now is that we have to find another $165,000 every 2 months (6 payments) commencing 1st October 2017.Where`s that coming from ? If Cascade take up their Oct option and we have no new revenues,then arguably,a large chunk of Cascade`s cash will need to be used to pay off YA rather than develop the business. We need some results and quick or Mobileye to jump in. All imho and speculative.dyor etc etc
Fair shout Ahmir....will need a stonking last quarter though ! Not to worry though....the pipeline "still" remains strong.I must have missed some recent strengthening when on hols ha ha.How long is it though GT ? Let`s hope he has something up his sleeve.......oooops don`t tell me...he only wears short sleeves.......
Agreed Wonderer.Can`t get my head around this one either. Why are we going cap in hand to YA for $540,000 at 12% plus £40k fees and being squeezed on warrant exercise pricing when Cascade has options on $4m ? I thought the idea was that they were going to support growth and working capital requirements.I can only assume they are not happy and have said get the cash from elsewhere,no more from us until you deliver some contracts of substance. GT needs to deliver and cut out the psychobabble I have heard in interviews and which filters its way into RNS`s.Also Gary Higham in Manchester,racking up costs at a fair old rate,where are the UK contracts ? Plug that deep black hole which consumes cash quicker than it can be printed.Neverending pressure on working capital ? How much working capital do you need to run a company with a handful of employees,a couple of offices and tech that nobody seems to be ordering.This is dire. I`m staying put for the time being until it becomes a bit clearer as to whether Cascade were sold a pup or if the Mobileye situation develops further following the Intel t/o.Bloody frustrating share though !
I`m not holding my breath on winning sufficient high value new business to make serious in-roads into our losses.Our margins are not great and it will take some humungous contracts. If there is any light at the end of this ridiculously long tunnel then It would be that Mobileye are introducing us to their partners and, presumably,do not want their face plastered with scrambled eggs.The assumption being that they like the tech and see value in it......hopefully enough to warrant some concrete interest.
Morning mate. Thank god for supercapacitors elsewhere ! Cascade need to start making some serious noises here.....same old...same old and GT collecting a nice $200,000 a year off the back of increasing losses. Who is driving through/monitoring the business plan and controlling/reducing costs in Israel and Manchester ? Do we actually have a business plan ? Where are the material results on our supposed sales-drive ? Seems to me that we just chug along eating cash with a year-end review to tot up our losses and heyho. Sorry,spouting off but someone needs to grab this by the balls .
Crap although a few other expletives would more accurately describe the position here. Cash hungry and sweet FA coming in by way of new business from ``supposed`` tenders. There are only 3 ways to improve your bottom line,increase revenues,reduce costs or sell an asset.Seems to me that GT doesn`t have much of a clue on the first 2 as he can`t turn a profit on the business model,high cost base and margins squeezed,which leaves 3 as the only hope......fingers crossed that Mobileye are feeling generous. Assume that Cascade would prefer to see the business weighted with more debt rather than take up their options and for YA to be holding a million plus warrants at a reduced 5p exercise price. Seriously p.....d off with this !!!!
Ok done. Off for a fortnight`s holiday tomorrow morning so hope you all get some further good news ,on the contract front, in the next couple of weeks. Cheers.
Oki Doki Ahmir. Was there a picture of the inside of a client`s van hastily removed ? I`m not sure I saw it.
Right,I have had enough of this.Can someone remind me of the "Faux-pas" on Twitter recently and I will email Israel. Cheers.
Good spot Brand. Egged will obviously have agreed the Mobileye/sev spec with the bus supplier and presumably have left them to sub-contract out this element to Mobileye/Sev who will undertake the installation and commissioning.As you say, this will bring the "package" to the attention of the bus suppliers who may mention it to other clients. A few interesting tit-bits in the link below in terms of how the Israeli bus manufacturing market has developed recently and the impact of cheaper bus imports from China. (A mention for Egged) http://hamodia.com/2017/03/17/israeli-bus-makers-to-go-electric/
Spot on Ahmir Get a tweet out with #Mobileye #Telematics #Fleets #Tech ....... or something of that ilk.
Defo looking that way greendave.The logical path is a Mobileye/Intel buy-out of Sev to get their hands on the IP and ensure that there is a smooth continuation of service to their existing and new clients who buy in to the Mobileye/Sev integrated offering. Why embark on a joint aftermarket sales plan with us,essentially rubber stamping Sev as a partner of value and leave anything to chance ? IMHO etc
More JV`s with Mobileye ? From the results RNS... "We also began cultivating new ties with integrators in Japan, Poland and Colombia over the course of 2016, and in recent months we have begun IVG pilots for a number of bus and other fleet projects in these territories, and in several countries in Africa."
Excellent news and the first of many Mobileye joint ventures to come imo.As mentioned,they are currently working on this joint sales plan. Egged Israel has a fleet of 2861 buses so plenty more scope there. Egged Europe also has potential with the following fleet sizes:- Poland 1500 buses (via wholly owned subsidiary Mobilis) Holland 220 (via wholly owned subsidiary EBS) Bulgaria 50 (via Rousse Co Ltd) The more joint ventures with Mobileye,the more our value to them increases...........
Very poor social media management and a disparity between the quality of this and the quality of clients we are working with or targeting.Needs sorting ! We are still not using hashtags in the tweets to get the tweets in front of our target audience eg if we put #fleetmanagement in the tweet it would appear in the search results of anyone searching those words on Twitter. By way of example,I searched Fleet Management on Twitter and you can see what results were returned in the link below.Flick down through a few tweets and see their use of hashtags to get the tweet to appear in relevant tweet flows which match search terms.It is acceptable to use a couple of hashtags per tweet. https://twitter.com/search?q=fleet%20management&src=typd
Turkey/Vodafone wasn`t followed up with comment in the results RNS,as far as I am aware. Plenty of stuff potentially bubbling away but we need one or two of these across the line,sharpish. Like the London buses,hope they come along 3 at a time. Cheers
Morning Ahmir I will be keeping an eye on the above. PrimelineVNE are a Republic of Ireland logistics,warehousing and distribution private company with some big named clients such as Vodafone,O2,3 and obviously Japan Tobacco International.I am assuming that VNE are only handling the irish distribution but JTI are seriously big players on the world stage listed at number 219 on the Forbes list of the biggest public companies worldwide,with an mcap of $66 billion ! on sales of $19 billion. A huge distribution network of cigarettes,pharmaceuticals,coffee,frozen foods etc into 120 countries. The results RNS (extracted comment below) indicated that we have designed a bespoke service for VNE/JTI (presumably for the Irish set-up).If this can be used to gain leverage with JTI and make inroads into their network then seriously happy days. "The high security sector has also seen steady growth with initial orders from Cardtronics (Cash in Transit) and PrimlineVNE in conjunction with Japan Tobacco International. The solutions designed for these clients are unique to the industry and provide the highest level of cutting edge technology." https://www.forbes.com/companies/japan-tobacco/ http://primelinevne.ie/
get some positive feedback shortly on the conference in Minsk. MMs do your job,make a market,move the sp about a bit,create some liquidity.
Persons with significant control discussion,seems that we have an exemption as a quoted Company with voting shares on a UK regulated market and do not have to keep a register.(confirmation statement entry 7th July). https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/05143241/filing-history