Member Info for Maxi19

Here's a thought - could it be the company buying back its own shares?

They have authority to do up to 15%. Would they need to inform shareholders in advance that they were going to do that?

Maybe with the Samsung cash so near and the share price low they thought it a good time to do a buyback in advance of returning the rest of the capital.

Daz all I know is that a MM matches a buyer and seller and commits to making a market.

What do you mean by allowing a stock to run?

Ok, so was the order put in a long time ago and it's now eventually been filled? In which case has a lot of recent buying presumably been by MMs in relation to that order? And now that the order has been filled could one expect to see less volume in the near future?

Daz can you explain more about filling an order. Does a big buyer tell the broker to buy them x number of shares and the broker then does that at the cheapest prices until it's done? But all the buying causes the share price to rise al things being equal?

If so that broadly make sense that it's a buy.

Why would a large buy necessarily drive the share price higher if the buyer then stopped buying?

Isn't the £8m in current cash going to be used (or was used) to pay off the loan notes of about £5m?

I'd also add that I can't see a reason for a takeover before the Samsung cash is received. As much as I think there's minimal risk of Samsung not paying up, if I were a buyer I'd want to see that cash in hand before making a binding offer.

It wasn't so much the high volume as the number of trades. It's unusual for such a jump in frequency without news. Yes, the capital return is imminent but it was also imminent in December when hardly any trades went through.

Wouldn't surprise me if there's disclosure about some event soon. Really hope it's not a takeover (and to be honest I can't see much reason for a takeover at this stage unless some party really really believes in the tech) but it wouldn't surprise me if the board sold us out cheaply in exchange for a favourable management incentive plan.

Skeletor, what do you mean by the fintwit crowd? Is it a message board?

I get what you're saying Nanonano, but there's a time value to money and it's better for the company to distribute capital it doesn't need as soon as reasonably possible rather than hold on to it, where any interest on the cash is taxed at the company level.

Also, 40m would buy about 200m shares at today's prices. Based on current trading volumes, it would take the company about 2 years to complete, and that's assuming it bought every single share going!

Ok fair enough. Personally I'd love a buyback at less than 20p but it's just not feasible.

NGR, you're confusing the capital reduction with the return of capital.

The capital reduction was necessary because the company didn't have enough distributable reserves in order to pay a dividend or otherwise return capital.

The return of capital is about putting that £33-40m in the hands of shareholders. Could be a dividend, could be a buyback of shares. If the latter then that would reduce the share capital of the company (assuming the shares were cancelled) but that's not what the RNS you quoted was getting at.

You're clearly in favour of a buyback of some sorts. The problem with that is that unless the company offers a serious premium to the current share price you'll never get enough shareholders (approx 60%) that will want to sell their shares.

And I think offering a serious premium would be unwise following LOAM's 15p purchase in November as it raises MAR concerns.

The big event of Q1 is obviously the capital return. It will.be interesting to see what form this takes.

We may also get confirmation of the JDA with STMicro ("European Customer") for the Gen 2 material.

I doubt we'll see medium/high volume orders over the course of the year based on board guidance.

We may get a license agreement with a infringing party for CFQDs by the end of the year, that was what BT previously guided.

Apple Vision Pro using our dots and getting confirmation of that is a real wildcard.

Lol, PE firms don't build small positions in negative cash flow companies. They buy out companies with positive cash flow so they can service the debt they buy it with.

Is that how IIs build their position? Do they tell their broker 'go and get X number of shares' and then the broker does that through an automatic process via lots of medium sized trades?

Confidentiality imposed by the customer. It's a standard practice in business, particularly tech. I really wouldn't look for any sinister reasons.

Yep I think so. On a related note, I wonder whether the delay to commercial production has actually been caused by the delay in STMicro's 300mm wafer capacity in France where they make image sensors. Apparently 300mm wafers can lower costs by as much as 40% compared to 200mm wafers.

Agreed. But when that solution does come along they'll ditch the notch.

I doubt there's less motivation. If you're going to release a new phone every year you've got to improve it with each model.

I think that may be right. Under display Face ID has been rumoured for many years.