Member Info for mavswf

We know it’s a value trap. You’re totally right there. But the share price has cratered because the market has lost confidence and trust in the company largely due to the clusterf!ck of errors that happened during Stamps tenure as CFO , for which he fell on his sword whilst Garat seems to have been untouched by. Doubtless they are doing their utmost to turn the results around in very difficult circumstances. The Cosmens are the biggest losers here if it fails. But the fact that they display complete arrogance or are oblivious to the concerns of shareholders by not releasing RNI’s and at least doing something to improve sentiment is very concerning. They have a lot to prove to investors, private and corporate, and this code of omertà that they practice has sent the share price down for months. Let’s hope that they have a nice surprise for us in this years accounts rather than another shocker.

I agree JG , incompetent, uncommunicative, the CEO here has been a total disaster for shareholders and should have resigned along with Stamp after the public humiliation of last year with profit warnings and cancellation of the dividend that they’d just reinstated. Garat is clearly a puppet put in there and controlled by the Cosmens , how could any company keep a CEO under whose watch the share price has cratered so disastrously . I’m expecting nothing positive about the NA sale , it’s still radio silence and these things have a habit of leaking somewhere so just seeing how the share price has behaved says it all. Someone in the know would have been buying and it’s not happening. It’s a matter of time I think before the Cosmens take what they want from this group and leave the rest of it to burn along with other shareholders cash. Luckily for me I had invested in RR and a few others to numb the pain on this one but it started with a six figure investment sum in here and averaged down several times since and I’ve more or less accepted that I’m going to lose 40-50pc on it when the accounts finally publish. It’s been a horrible experience this one , totally my own fault but a lesson learned not to chase losses in such badly run companies in future.

Before last year’s fiasco under Stamp they’ve historically published the end of year accounts between end of Feb and mid March so hopefully not too far away now. Assuming that they don’t give the market another nasty surprise and hit their forecasts what would expectations be on the share price with or without firm news on the NA sale ? Surely at sub 70p we could reasonably expect a 15-20pc increase?

The latest shorts activity appears to coincide with the FTSE250 re entry which seems odd to me but I’ve given up trying to rationalise the share price movements in MCG long ago. All I can see is that I have a long held 150k or so shareholding that is a lot less underwater today than it was a few months ago. And as far as we know the NA bus sale will eventually happen, whenever that will be who knows but we know that they’re in discussions. This has been a very poor and at times stressful investment so far but I’m still confident that our day will come on this one , let the shorters play and have their short term win. There aren’t so many opportunities out there to see a 25-30pc pop in the daily share price which could easily happen here if NA goes at a decent price and even if it’s not sold at the top estimate surely we are still in bargain basement territory at todays level? I feel strangely confident here despite everything , maybe it’s the lunchtime beers that have done it.

Barring another major shambles in accounting this is still in bargain basement territory once full year results are out let alone any sale on NA. It’s disappointing not to get back into the 250 but doesn’t really make a lot of difference to me or most lth on here as we’re a long way off seeing fair value yet.

It looks like we never made the cut on the 250. I’m slightly surprised that the shorters are increasing here again ( MW ) .. does anyone have any idea why they would continue to target MCG ? Everything here seems to be pointing to an upwards movement in the direction of share price which is steadily increasing.. NA bus sale should remove concerns about gearing levels and the accounting disasters that took place on Stamps watch seem to be under control. Even the latest broker forecasts are pointing to a substantial recovery in the short term share price so I don’t get why shorters are still targeting MCG when there must be far easier pickings out there today. Does anyone have any idea what might be behind it ?

Any ideas when they’ll release the TU ? I know it’s usually around the third week of this month but can’t find anything on the investors website referring to the date of the next one ? Let’s hope it’s better than the disaster of last year …..

Poker I don’t care what you suggest because you’re clearly on a wind up. So Garat isn’t responsible for the losses that NEX / MCG has made? Or the accounting errors and missed profit guidance disasters ? Or the late reporting ? Or the reinstated dividends that were immediately withdrawn? Or the numerous other things that have happened here during his tenure that have crashed the share price when other companies like FGP in the sector have seen a big recovery. I’m pretty comfortable as it happens with my investments in the market over the last few years and have done very well with most of them but yes of course I’m responsible for my own actions as are all of us. But this company has either been grossly mismanaged or has misled investors by giving false information about its financial position. More than once. And if not be surprised if during that period Garat and co took performance related pay and bonuses based on false accounting results. I don’t know how you have the front to defend it tbh.

Poker … so you think that Garat has done a decent job here then during his tenure as CEO do you ? Interesting as the market cap , missed targets , profit warnings and losses in the annual accounts might not agree with that view. As for the PI’s sat on paper losses yes we are the mugs who were misled , possibly lied to , by the management responsible for running this business. Garat should have been fired at the same time as the CFO , in many other companies he would have been. Take the p&ss out of posters on here who are eating big losses all you like but don’t infer that nothing has changed here ffs … apart from the name change, the cancellation of dividends , the CFO , the accounting ‘mistakes’, and the destruction of the share price… yeah nothings changed here. You’re right.

Nothing surprises me anymore with downward share price movements in this dog … the only surprise would be a sudden and substantial increase. The shorts knew what they were doing here, pathetically incompetent management asleep at the wheel and about as attentive to the shareholders as Gareth Southgate is to his subs bench. Let’s see what half year results bring but given what’s gone before another profits warning or unforeseen write downs on the books would not be any surprise. But the CEO is doing a wonderful job fully deserving of his share options lol.

This company is basically taking the p&ss out of its investors… it’s a massive kick in the nuts for all of us that have invested our hard earned cash in the business to see it halve or more under the oversight of this idiot. Now they’re rewarding him with free shares ? Who is paying for those shares I wonder on the day he cashed them in ? Oh yes , the mug punters again. I’m feeling that I’m a victim of a big scam with this company , they’ve lied , missed guidance, made endless and repeated mistakes.. yet the man in charge is still there with a promise of a bumper payday to come at some stage should he actually start doing his job properly. You really couldn’t make it up.

On the question of losses Mule how much did you have locked up in Evraz ? Just asking as I saw you post up in that forum.. I had a few shares there myself, not a lot , the postie was a bit surprised today to hand me a big envelope from Moscow with Russian stamps on it… proxy voting forms for the AGM .

Accountant ..I’ve got holdings in MCG in 3 trading accounts and average just under £1 cost on everything… I’ve been in NE / MCG for a couple of years now so kept buying to average down … stupidly as it turned out.

I’ve tried to remain positive here for weeks and holding huge paper losses on MCG but feel like this is nailed on now to drop into the 30’s. The market has passed its judgement on the buffoons running this company and I’m gutted that I have stayed in here too long and kept the faith that a turnaround was coming. I should’ve taken the loss at 20pc , now 50pc and counting. The writing was on the wall when the shorts started increasing and without any news to deter them they’re playing with the share price like cats with a three legged mouse. I just hope that there’s not another profit warning coming in half year that will be the final nail in the coffin for us long suffering holders here. I’m still fuming that Garat kept his job , theres nothing coming from the BOD to support shareholders in this lousy company. At least I’m not supporting Scotland in the Euros , there’s always someone worse off !!!

It seems clear that this leg down in the last couple of weeks has been triggered by the Berenberg downgrade. I’ve been invested in other companies in the past which have been targeted by shorts and they’ve always been accompanied by broker downgrades. The U.K. stock market is rigged and the dice are always loaded against the PI’s we know this , there's a game being played here and their aim is to spread panic which to be fair is succeeding at the moment . The fundamentals haven’t changed with MCG , there’s a decent business in there but it’s debt heavy and suffered one off hits on P&L which with better financial management won’t be repeated. If NA bus can’t find a buyer at a reasonable price then yes there could be a problem but the BOD seem to be fairly relaxed about things. I’m not seeing anything to persuade me to panic sell at these levels… share prices go up and down and it’s probably going lower. But in a years time the picture could look very different in a lower interest rate environment and with reduced debt.

Nothing has materially changed here apart from the fact that Mobico are being shorted by hedge funds and now PI’s have jumped on the bandwagon. It’s all sentiment driven and encouraging all this nonsense being spouted about share dilution and conspiracy theories about how the Cosmens are keeping Garat there as a useful idiot. Apparently as a master plan to destroy the company that they’re major shareholders in so that they can pick up Spain for pence in the £. Having worked for a multinational company that did go into administration when they failed to refinance a huge RCF I have seen close at hand that not only do all shareholders get wiped out when the banks take control but all sorts of vultures then descend to feast on the pickings. In our case it was multiple hedge funds led by Apollo who bought out the banks exposure and then proceeded to asset strip every company in the group and our version of the Cosmens , the family who owned the majority of the shares, were wiped out and got nothing for the shares . The owner and Chairman even had to suffer the humiliation of giving up his parking space in our City office to the ‘adviser’ appointed by the hedge funds while he was still coming in every day. Mobico are nowhere close to going bust of course but if anyone seriously believes that this is being driven down on purpose by insiders with bad intentions then that’s just la la land stuff. If that scenario came to pass the Cosmens would lose their investment and the likely outcome would be that hedge funds or banks would run it and sell off its parts after a restructuring period when the market conditions allow them value. The Cosmens could bid for Spain of course but they’d be one of many and definitely not preferred bidders as the banks aren’t fond of people who have lost their money. So let’s wait and see how it plays out here. As long as they don’t repeat the same cycle of incompetence and mismanagement going forward we should eventually see a bounce here.

Can’t see this reversing the down trend until we see either sone news , half year figures or dare I say it a new Cosmens or Garat share purchase … everything here is weighted towards the shorts and regardless of what we think the sum of its parts are worth until the management demonstrates it can perform then why should anyone invest in this business. We can all list at least half a dozen serious screw ups made by the company in the last 18 months but I’m really struggling to think of one good thing that they’ve done that’s beneficial to us as shareholders. For those of us sat on big paper losses it’s a question of riding it out and waiting for the end game to play out … probably a lowball bid by Cosmens or another bus company. But I must admit that I’m tempted to call time here and take the loss in exchange for some stress relief. Luckily I have some equally big gains on RR that I could write this disaster off against in my head at least. I do really appreciate the insight and shared pain that some of you guys on here give me though , I’ll miss that when this nightmare is eventually over!!

So looking at the share price movement since 130pm I gather that Garat kept his job and that there’s radio silence on NA or any other kind of news that might help the shareholders?

You’re not wrong there wealth it’s not even a rollercoaster with MCG more like the Tower of Terror lift drop at Disney. At this rate we either go bankrupt or it’ll hit bottom soon but another 3pc drop the day before the AGM isn’t a good look. I wonder if the company will drop another nasty surprise on us tomorrow, another skeleton has been found in Stamp’s empty cupboard perhaps?

My personal view is that this will bounce back at some stage , maybe next year , but only assuming that they can get a decent price for NA. It’s been so hard to find reasons to keep going with this as we’ve all suffered a death by a thousand cuts on NEX/MCG over the last couple of years. Like others on here it’s made me stressed and made me doubt myself for the stupid calls that I’ve made doubling down on this dog on several occasions. But I still think it’s going to get back to some sort of more realistic value eventually as the sum of its parts are surely going to be worth a lot more than 51p.

A change of management and a decent sales price for NA would turn things around quickly here imo , this doesn’t look like a business that is in its death throes to me. The Cosmens have been building their holdings and MCG are still actively aquiring new companies . Unless are actively looking to run the business into the ground for the gamble that the Cosmens will be the only show in town to buy Spain then maybe we need to look beyond the current share price shambles and believe that most of it is sentiment driven. Which can change with some good news after 18 months of crap from this firm. After all this suffering on the way down I can’t bring myself to sell and then see this double in 6 or 12 months time… which could easily happen given how much it’s dropped.