Member Info for MB10

Looks way more advanced than some realise. Very impressive list of partners.

https://lcse.co.za/

(Credit for finding this goes to JA)

Very dramatic reduction in hospitalisation cases in SA, and that’s without a vaccine prog yet. Looking good for the e-fest staging in Nov.

https://twitter.com/cherylfontini/status/1361329310406217728?s=21

My thoughts align with yours I would say. I liked her a lot. Hard to know why she has gone without speaking directly, but I did quite a few calls with her and DC combined last year and it’s unlikely to be because she disagrees with the strategy or has “fallen out” with DC as some are suggesting, there’s probably another totally unrelated reason for her stepping down that we will never know, in the same way that Ed selling is absolutely nothing to do with the company and purely down to his own desparatly sad circumstances.

Let’s test that claim. DC has put the thick end of £4 million in cash into this venture, and in that last 2 years alone has put in £465,000 most of which was at 65p. His holding is now worth around £1.2 million, so even with the salary that he has taken, he is massively down on what he invested.

So I get that people don’t like Cicliteria (and that includes me, can’t stand the guy), but saying that he is “the only one who has made money” is manifestly not true.

He doesn’t strike me as someone who likes losing money either.

Just showing yourself up for not being able to understand what an overhang is.

LVCG is obviously not for you barnyards, yet you keep coming back to a share you are not invested in. But good luck to you in whatever you are invested in (its difficult to know that from your posting history as its almost universally negative on everything you comment on)

15m 1st jabs done for the 1st 4 priority groups

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-56062976

So far the vaccination programme has been aimed at the top four priority groups, including NHS frontline staff, care home residents and workers, over-70s, and people deemed clinically extremely vulnerable.
These groups have accounted for 88% of the UK's Covid-19 deaths so far, according to the Department of Health and Social Care and are estimated by the JCVI to be some 15 million people.
A small number of the 15 million to receive a jab will have been outside these priority groups.
Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi tweeted that the government would "not rest" until vaccines were offered to all of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation's top nine priority groups by the end of April and then to all adults.

Overhang gone for sure

The short version of the “DC might take the company private” post

= a minimum 6 bagger

The misleading is still happening here. Some clown on twitter (a long term hater, but at least he consistently hates all companies if you see the link below) is suggesting that he “found something” and is suggesting the fact that on 22 Jan they announced the appointment of Monecore(london)/ETX as sole broker as “evidence” that they have lined up a completely new broker and would only do that as they were planning an imminent fund raising. The usual titter clowns joined in too.

The only problem with that “story” is the relationship with monecore started back in July 20, and they jointly organised the placing on 3 Dec. So they are not a new broker at all, they have just got rid of the previous brokers. Just inconvenient facts.

Another of the long term haters of the company was also so stupid that he claimed he had found “evidence” of dodgy dealings at the company and that the Chairman had been secretly selling his entire holding, and they had been bought by some bloke called David Cicliteria. I mean you just can’t make that stuff up, its comedy gold.

https://twitter.com/aim_researcher/status/1225481373017944065?s=21

Guzzler1962 says we all want the same thing, which is to see recouped losses. But one thing is clear is that not everyone wants to see that. There are a couple of people that post who would like nothing else that to see that company fail, and LSE and advfn are full of posters trying to bash down companies for their own ends. For example we had a group who swore blind that they met Andy Smith at an investors event and were told that a zoo touring set only brought in around £50k a year in rental, yet while the rental rates are commercial in confidence and vary on touring set size and on when they are rented, there’s overwhelming evidence that the larger sets command £50k a month. The trouble for those clowns was that I spoke directly to Andy and no only did he not say that, but he never met any of the clowns claiming to have spoke to them. So people will really literally stop at nothing to post (or suggest) false information. It happens on all AIM shares, especially those whose market caps are very low as it doesn’t take much buying or selling pressure to affect the price, so they tend to overshoot on both the upside and the downside. That’s especially true for companies like here that have a very small free float.

Clarifying that Mark Freebrain bought the majority of his nearly half a million shares in the Feb 19 placing @65p. (And its doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work that out as he has nearly half a million warrants that expire on 11 Feb 21). You see we’ve seen it all on this board with people suggesting that he was “allocated” these shares, but no, he shelled out £250,000 of his hard earned cash for shares, and that was before he became a NED as he didn’t sit on the board until September. He has considerable experience especially of corporate governance which is a bit of a disappointment to all the clowns that try and suggest that there are major corporate governance issues.

https://www.**********.co.uk/xsrns/34cfcf59-fee3-43ff-bd25-8d0436700041

Mr Freebairn holds 455,252 ordinary shares in the Company, representing approximately 0.65 per cent. of the Company's issued share capital and 480,769 warrants valid until February 2021 and exercisable at 80 pence each.

Mark Freebrain started his career with Martin Ward Anderson, as a graduate trainee, to become one of four directors of the company from June 1995 to January 2003.

Mark is currently a Partner and Head of the Financial Management Practice of Odgers Berndtson, an executive search company based in London. Odgers Berndtson's Financial Management Practice appoints Finance Directors and CFOs across all sectors in a range of businesses, both public and private, and is a leader in its market niche. Mark is also a member of the Board and CEO Practice at Odgers Berndtson, which is involved with searches for non-executive directors. Mark is a member of the ICAEW Corporate Governance Committee. Mark previously held non-executive director positions with GlobalData Plc from July 2009 to April 2017 and Progressive Digital Media EBT Limited from November 2009 to December 2013.

As to the what’s stopping DC taking the company private? I’ve seen that mentioned a few times by those trying to spread doubt. Under the takeover code if he buys more shares to make an offer for the company he has to offer the highest price in the last 12 months. He took salary shares at 20p last summer, so can’t offer for the company at the current price. He would also have to draw up a scheme and get it voted on at a GM and as it would be a special resolution, there would have to be over 75% positive votes to get any scheme approved and the majority of shareholders I know are not going to say yes to a low price. Plus you have to factor some on the Board like Simon Horgan and Mark Freebrain who got their shares at mainly 65p aren’t going to settle for less than that.

Worth noting that his own exit strategy is a sale. His holding at 32% is sufficient to block a hostile takeover at a price he is not happy with, and I’m banking on his greed stopping him selling out for a song.

“If BL had to jump to get on their radar” what nonsense. Did you even read how the IP programme got started? And as to the “their opportunities are things others have passed on” that’s hilarious. Mind you pawpatrol is only screened in 160 countries, and nick JR characters, Paddington, Peter rabbit, peppa pig, the snowman etc are just not that well known? Suggesting that promoters would pass up multi year deals to be associated with the most popular characters in children’s imaginations is utter nonsense. These events when they are out on are massively popular e.g. the pawpatrol bricklive trail in Birmingham attracted over 100,000 people (and that’s just the number that filled in the feedback forms) and people travelled hundreds of miles into the area just to see them. That’s why when shopping centres and venues hire these models they keep coming back again and again (Cardiff are on their 7th rental). They only do that if it’s working for them and they have good content that attracts people.

As to bricklive shows, my own view is that these will get going again once social distancing measures are relaxed, which could happen sooner than many think. The vaccination programme is tracking ahead of expectations and if supply continues to do well then the entire adult population will have been offered a vaccine by May. Children, especially young children, are not as affected by the virus. So once the population has reached the point of being protected enough then it’s clear that social distancing measures will be relaxed and big gatherings of all events will return. People will have their own view, but mine is that will happen early summer. Until then the zoo programme and bricklive trails with socially distanced compatible exhibits will be back.

If this was just a one man DC band managing the old and new businesses then you may have a point, but have a look at the experience of Trudy Norris-grey who is the deputy chairperson. She is also a Director of the efest. Seems pretty well connected.

The Board also have Mark Freebrain on it, and he bought his shares at 65p in the Feb 19 placing (circa £250,000 worth). He doesn’t strike me as someone who would put such a large amount into something he hadn’t done some due diligence on does he?

Trudy Norris-Grey is a recognized leader in the IT industry, with over 30 years of success spanning global sales, marketing, channel and partner strategies, business development, and portfolio transformation. Trudy has held leadership positions at Microsoft, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, and BT.

In all these positions she was a champion of the customer and its partners, seeking out insight into their unmet needs in order to better serve them, to help them overcome their challenges and in turn work with them to grow their customer satisfaction, revenue and profit. Norris-Grey joined Microsoft as General Manager overseeing the public sector business in Central and Eastern Europe then moved to Seattle to lead its smart cities and its local and regional businesses.

Women in STEM

Trudy is a passionate advocate for the development of skills and enterprises so that they can be continually relevant in the era of Industrial Revolution v.4.0 and the encouragement of women and girls to consider careers in science, engineering and technology. She is Chair of WISE, a UK-based organization which seeks to add 1 million more women to the UK STEM workforce. She has also served as Chair for the Confederation of British Industry’s Committee on Innovation, Science & Technology; a member of the UK’s National Careers Council; editor and contributor to the Wilson and Shadbolt Reviews; a member of the oversight committee for the UK’s national Technology Strategy Board and was a founding member of the CBI Leadership Group on Climate Change.

She also sits on an advisory panel for the Welsh Government in the finance and professional services sector.

And as to DC, sure there is arrogance in spades. Can’t stand the guy personally, but there’s no denying his contact list in this sector. Provided lvcg learn the lessons of how to commercialise this, they should get back to the predictions put out by the brokers fairly quickly. Those showed an EPS in excess of the current share price. Looks to me they are learning those lessons. They aphave moved the risk of bricklive shows to the event providers. Plus the arrangements for the complementary businesses shows they have learned the lessons from parallel media (most of the issues stemmed from the partners at the start of the RTO who brought a load of debt into the cash shell if you bother to read the detail)

And since you talk about DC using his own money, he has put the thick end of £4m in cash into the company. Sorry if that fact is a bit inconvenient. In the last 2 years he has also put in £465,000 in cash, most of which was done at 65p. That total contribution is now only worth about £1.3m. Given his greed I’m pretty sure he wants his money back and a lot more.

Oh and as to your “that’s the way it works” comments on IP providers, that’s actually not the way it works. The idea for the Nickelodeon IP programme and bricklive trails came out of one of the bricklive directors. You would know that if you know the history. They then approached Nickelodeon with that idea. However much you don’t like DC there’s no denying his connections. They then approached other Ip providers and it took off from there. Other IP providers saw what they were doing and now it’s them approaching bricklive.

If it was so easy and there are so many people that can do these builds, then how come they didn’t go there? #justsaying

On and comparing pawpatrol the most popular children’s brand on the planet with mr blobby, seriously I haven’t had such a good laugh for ages.

On the diversified businesses, with a heads of terms lined up for the efest with a worldwide events provider it looks they are more advanced that others you are suggesting that are out there.

As to bricklive events, the thing they have proven is that they need to pass the risk for organising them to the event providers, but with a global network in place and when they were running those events, there seems plenty of worldwide demand.

As to comments about “enclosed spaces” that could equally refer to schools, plus the virus does not affect children as much, and the latest direction of travel is to move back to having no restrictions when the population has been vaccinated. So that’s not going to be a reason for not putting events on.

More good news for covid recovery plays. Looks like outdoor activities back in early March and more back to normality well before the summer. Bricklive events could come back here sooner than expected.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9226083/Sports-outdoor-socialising-open-air-markets-activities-green-lit-ministers.html

Government confirms it will have vaccinated all over-50s before MAY 6 as PM plots route to freedom: Sports and outdoor mixing set to be first to return after schools from March 8 - as Tories say ALL curbs should go when most vulnerable have jabs

20% of the population now received at least one dose of the vaccine. A major achievement.

https://twitter.com/vaccinestatusuk/status/1357361417045872640?s=21

In better news for covid recovery plays, now more than 10 million people vaccinated in the UK. The target for offering to the full population is early May. Also good to note that the vaccines are proving effective at not just protecting people but stopping the spread. Announced that schools in Scotland will go back on 22 Feb, England will follow surely and that sets the conditions for lifting the lockdown soon after.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-55916020