Member Info for Midlothian

So Ofcom have approved the partial merger of the news operations for STV North (Grampian Television) with STV Central (Scottish Television).

That essential makes it a step closer to a single broadcast area for STV's local news remit and saves the company a lot of money. I wonder if it will spark any interest from ITV plc to bid for the company and bolt ITV1 Border to create a single ITV franchise for Scotland, if they decide not to sell the TV stations to Sky (Comcast).

A another year high today. I wonder if the SP will breach 20p for the first time in many years. Well done to those who invested in August last year at 9.5p, those who stayed patient are near a 100% ROI.

I'm sure there still a number of investors who invested in the placement (was it 32p at the time?) who are still significantly down. Given geopolitical issues, I wonder if XPF will benefit from people staying in the UK for their summer holidays.

After what seems like years being in the doldrums, this share is potentially looking interesting again.

@Jatw If CK Hutchison are wanting to exit the European telecoms, there might be some assets that Vodafone might be interested in:

Austria - possibly

Denmark & Sweden (same shareholders) - possibly

Ireland - competition issues, with already owning Vodafone Ireland

Italy - Having just exited the country, would they be interested in going back in again so soon?

Unless there's a change in geographic strategy (currently focussed on Europe & Africa), I doubt they'd be interested in the Indonesian assets and I doubt CK Hutchison would want to see their homeland assets in Hong Kong either.

Indeed. This is one share that as long as they maintain the shareholder benefits, I'll generally not pay much attention to until SMWS membership renewal is due.

Today's share price has reached a year high. In fact the closing share price hasn't been at this level since June 2024.

Any ideas what might be behind the 17% increase of the share price the last 5 days?

If I was an existing member of the SMWS or thinking of joining, given the current share price of 29p, now would be a great time to buy the minimum of 1,000 shares to qualify for the shareholder benefits of 50% off membership/renewal and the £50 vouchers. You'd basically be spending £300 for the shares and essentially get the money back over 6 years with the vouchers alone, even if the share price goes down. The good news is that you can now finally use the vouchers on the website and use the vouchers to purchase bottles, events, as well as in the members venues.

Of course ART can remove the shareholder benefits at any time.

Not a recommendation to buy and DYOR!

I see from Boeing's latest orders and deliveries update that RR have finally won an order for the 787 after many years (8 x Boeing 787-9), with the new upgraded Trent 1000 XE engine. Hopefully it's a sign of confidence in RR on the 787 program and that all the many problems that they've had with the Trent 1000 are behind them and can win further orders, as the remaining orders stand at just 35!

What are the long term prospects for ART? Given the whisky/other spirits stocks the company holds is (by their estimates) worth £80m. Perhaps the company might become a takeover target for their stocks and Single Cask Nation alone and sell off the the SMWS membership and bars to another operator.

On the other side, if they can make their new ventures in India and Vietnam work, they could have a very strong revenue stream coming into the business and boost the revenues.

With the downturn in whisky production, this might be an opportunity for ART to boost their stocks with distilleries who previously had closed the taps off to independent bottlers for over a decade now almost begging for sales. They might in fact look at acquiring stocks from some of the newer independent bottlers who are struggling financially as they bought casks at peak prices during the post-lockdown boom years up until a year or so ago.

Unlike a lot of other AIM listed company's, I don't see a risk of ART going under. As long as people are still drinking whisky, this business will exist. Given the business started right at the start of the 'whisky loch' downturn in the 1980s, ART with the right leadership will survive.

Of course these are just my thoughts, with no recommendation to buy or sell this stock.

TonyBonza - yes, I was on the same boat as you back in 2020 for the rights issue. Like most RR shareholders back them, many of us would have been way down (I think I was 90% down!) and though, "what the heck, why not" as it wasn't too much money to take up my allocated rights. The recovery since then, has been nothing short of incredible! I don't think even the most optimistic investor in RR would have predicted where the business and share price is today.

I guess, if we'd all had a crystal ball back then, we would have all bought a few more shares! 😁

Make what you will from Bernard Ponsonby, STV’s former Political Editor.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/stv-legend-says-broadcaster-no-36221886

Ponsonby added: “If Sky do take over ITV, then I think that Sky would simply mop up and buy STV because the current market capitalisation of the company, I think last time I looked was about £55m.”

I still remember the dark days of early 2020 and had pretty much written of my RR investment and likely never to see me being able to break even and exit. I think I was something like 90% down at one point! When the rights issue came along I'm so glad that I got on board with it!

Fast forward 5 years later and now my biggest regret is that I didn't invest more! 😂 I say "regret" jokingly as none of us knew what was going to happen back in early 2020. I will say, that not in my wildest dreams did I think the share price would be standing at £10 a share!

If the Ultrafan programme can end up on a new upgraded A350 slated in the mid-2030s (the so-called A350neo), a new re-engined 787 (hopefully Boeing don't call it the 787 MAX!) and is selected for the new Airbus and/or Boeing's narrowbody replacements for the A320 and 737 slated for the mid-2030s. This would absolutely turbo-charge the share price. But this is looking years into the future.

The SMR division is something that will be interesting to see develop over the next few years as well of course.

I wonder what the future holds for the dividend too. In 2015, the interim and final dividends paid that year added up to 23.1p. If the divis climb back to that level in the next 5 years, that could lead to some bumped cheques!

Anyway, the psychology price of £10 has been reached. Congratulations to all those holders who have made a decent whack of profit.

Let's see what the future holds...

So no real change in figures compared to last year. What I found interesting the update is that hot on the heals of the Vietnam venture. The SMWS are finally going to launch in India.

https://artisanal-spirits.com/announcements/7059303

"we are progressing plans to launch a new franchise in India, potentially as early as H2-25."

If ASC management get things right in India, given the size of the potential market there, this could be a huge boost for the company.

It's been pretty quiet in here.

The English school holiday season is nearly here (Scotland is already on holiday). Hopefully the company will have some positive trading over the summer.

With the completion of Vodafone UK and Three UK and the recent sales of the units in Italy and Spain, is the company finally back on the up? The share price has breached 80p for the first since 2023.

I guess the issues of debt and the general Global economy remain, but I'll enjoy the positivity uplift in share price (while it lasts anyway!).

YouTuber 'Progress is Everything' has been tracking this company and made a new video on his thoughts on XPF a few weeks ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6ML6hRrWIE

I understand the point you make about Revolution Bars, however it is a different business compared to XPF which should really be compared to the likes of BOWL

Like you, I like XPF, but this a share we're probably going to have to be very patient with for a while to see the share price ascend if the management deliver on what they say they plan on achieving over the next couple of years.

Here's the recording of the The Artisanal Spirits Company Private Investor Webinar: April 2025 webinar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puSWS8NAMO4

ASC announced a new shareholder benefits tier for members holding 5,000 shares on Monday. So I would imagine a fair few number of existing shareholders have increases their shareholders/attracted new members. This is what has probably caused the spike in the share price. Details of the benefits are on the ASC website.

It would be great if you could share your reasons why you feel the share price is cheap, and why you feel positive about the future of XPF.

A bit weird of WW to making comments like this as head of IATA! If he was still at IAG/BA, you could justify his frustration with the company regarding the 787 issues. Also doesn't he realise that the business is more than just jet engines?

As a side note, it has to be said though if RR didn't have the exclusivity contract for the A330neo and A350, then the aerospace division almost certainly wouldn't have been as rosy if there had been an engine option from P&W or GE Aviation (as it was known back then as part of the larger GE).

I almost didn't take part in the share right issue back in 2020, thank goodness I did! In the end, I just thought, that the hell, if it works out, I'll probably end up breaking even in a few years. It worked out a hell of a lot better than that for a lot of us. If only I had bought more shares back in the dark days when it was below £1 LOL! Still I'm not greedy and I'm very happy where the share price is today and that most folk who held on and invested in the share right issue are in the green.

For those of a certain vintage, it's almost difficult to believe that when Vodafone announced their mega merger with Mannesman at £112 billion in 1999, the valued business made it the 4th largest listed company in the World. It's almost hard to believe that the share price was over £5 back in the dotCom era. To be fair the entire Telecoms, Media & Technology (TMT) sector was grossly overvalued before the dotCom bubble burst.

Fast forward 25 years later, and the company is a shadow of the trail blazing giant that it once was. Of course it's easy to criticise the reasons for Vodafone's decline with the benefit of hindsight:

- The overpayment for 3G licenses

- Mismanagement of Vodafone Japan

- Missing out on purchasing AT&T Wireless

- Misadventures and billions lost in India after acquiring Hutchison Essar

You could also argue that it was a strategic mistake selling their stake in Verizon Wireless. Perhaps swapping their stake in Verizon Wireless for a smaller stake in the larger parent of Verizon Communications, would have been a better strategy had that option been available. Also spending a shedload of cash in the cable assets of Liberty Global too, although longer term once fibre rolls out, this may turn out to be a sound investment.

Anyway, looking forward now, perhaps now the sales of some divisions and slimming down of the business might bring about some positive news for those of us, who are invested in the business.

For those who are averaged over £1, especially those who've been invested for many years before the share price went below £1, I can certainly understand why there is frustration. I would

While I certainly don't ever envisage seeing the share price back at the levels of £5 again (certainly not in my lifetime), there is still a business making money and still paying out a fairly reasonable dividend despite the recent 50% cut.

If things don't pan out, there is still the possibility of the business being taken over for the European assets and the rest of the assets split up i.e. Vodacom and Vodafone Idea. That would be quite an ended for company that was once the largest on the FTSE 100, so large in fact, that if the share price moved by 1p, it was enough to move the FTSE 100 by 1 point!

Under 70p, I still see some value in topping up and average down from my current averaged position (99p). I do think in the medium to long term the share will be nearer to £1. Do I think this is a share that will pay for my retirement? 25 years ago, I would have said, yes! But today, sadly that Vodafone is long gone. I still believe there is some value in holding some stock in my portfolio. The worst case for me, would be in a couple of years if there's still no progress to completely average down (which if the share price plods along between 68p-75p, I'll already be at that level)and exit the share.

Anyway, that's just my two pence and obviously DYOR.