Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
Contempt is the word.
I've been oft told that the company's broker prohibits more frequent RNS-ing of information as it's not considered RNS "worthy". If that's the case, isn't that exactly what the RNS Reach service (RNS-R) is for? The description per the LSE seems to show that's exactly what they are for!! Where is the quality of advice supporting the company with managing its listing and shareholder accountability coming from? Clearly not the broker or non existent PR company, who do sod all to justify their retainer.
https://www.londonstockexchange.com/products-and-services/rns/rns-reach/rns-reach.htm
Ha Patt, director buys. There are PIs holding more than EH here, it is shameful. Evidently little belief in what they are trying to achieve, whilst happy to cream generous salaries off the top, with a perpetual illusion of "closed periods" created. Ironic for a company that never releases any (shareholder value creating) news.
Our last trading update was DECEMBER 2017. We were then told revenue delays from 2017 would be additive to the 2018 budget. Is that still likely? Surely if not it would have been known by now (late Q3), given the sales that need to be achieved by now and year end. If we were falling short, why not bury it with the placing and get the news out of the way with the backing of that 4p placing support. If those targets are still achievable, why don't we know of any sales to date.
I cannot get my head around this "investment". Apologies for the rant - EH refuses to communicate in private with me anymore so this is my only means for frank discussion of the state of affairs here.
Hi mick. Same here.. biggest for me too in terms of % and monetary (by some stretch). Keep the faith too - had an option of selling all out at a big discount to the bid a while ago, or just write it off mentally and ride it out. Chose the latter, but couldn't envisage that all these weeks/months later we would still be here not knowing if this company has even sold a unit of its product!?
It is completely ridiculous that a publicly accountable, listed equity could keep shareholders in the dark to this extent. I suspect that we could have had sales/revenue downgrades by now and still not be much (if any) worse off share price wise, but at least potential new investors would have faith in there being a BOD at the helm that treats shareholders with respect, not contempt, by communicating with the market.
The trouble is, were a RNS come tomorrow confirming the inevitable - no sales, more delays etc, we would be pounded share price wise again! I sound like a broken record, but even for a fledgling company where operationally things will always go wrong and take time, this share has been a blue print for future equity listings to follow in how to not manage an AIM listing. Not that they care one iota, but EH et al with their meagre shareholding here, should be ashamed of themselves.
Unfortunately old habits die hard here Mick. All week we've seen bid price buying, good volume of it, and an increase in holdings RNS without the share price even inching up to reflect it. A couple of sells this morning and hey presto, movement.. down we tumble 5.5%. I really feel like this BOD need to deliver something soon - and if they can't get sales orders over the line, put their hands in their pockets! The participation levels in the latest placing were abysmal, and they should be embarrassed.
Thanks Qnard for sharing that background.
Good to see, and also nice to know there's £500k of the placing / 7% of the Company safely tucked away.
More of the same today Mick. All 4.60+ trades buys, including another whopper for 850k.
Good to see - I guess those trades weren't smoke and mirrors after all. Sizable holding being accumulated, and statement of support in the BOD to continue adding on the open market at circa 20% above the placing price. Bullish.
Yes, naive on my part. Later prints support that theory and I think you're completely right.
400k at nearly full ask.
Hi Mick, the issue is an open offer will attract flippers. Had the placing gone into the wrong hands we would be seeing shares churned for a painless 10-15% profit and doubt we'd even be where we are now. Putting the pieces together, it seems lessons have at least been learned from the 7p placing in handling of the placing, even if the operational delays means the price this time has been much worse.
As for other AIM shares, those wanting to be privvy to placements need to sign up for an account with the house broker to be offered shares in said placing. That no offers were made this time only confirms that the shares didn't go out to retail to be flipped, and I'd prefer that personally to them being in the wrong hands and getting churned on any buys.
Wonder if the placing took care of a few nerves about financial outlooks, and has opened up a little bit of buying interest. Clearly MMs keeping a lid on the price, which is frustrating as this share has got so low on zero volume and often dropped about 10% on one piddly trade, but good to see some churn and interest return nonetheless. Currently already at about 500% ADV and we're only at lunch!
Hi Spin, that angle makes sense. More time to deliver something and make a success of things. I get the positivity if you look at it that way. ATB
Smith, your tune appears vastly changed so can only assume you took up some on the offer. And good luck to you for doing so. But I'm sure we've all been in the markets long enough to realise a placing overhang causes the wrong kind of liquidity for a share. I don't see a huge benefit in seeing extra interest (which shock, we aren't so far this morning, because the company never releases anything on sales), but should we see extra buying off said mythical sales news, we have a whole host of sellers ready and waiting to sell into that. Great.
For those of us who've backed this from the start, we saw at 7p placing that any decent hint of buying traction was offloaded into - and ultimately placees were forced to sell below that raise price in the absence of not enough buy interest and the placing ceiling collapsed. The co will need to seriously address their listing management to ensure the same doesn't happen again IMO.
Spin, i am glad it was not only me who thought we were fully funded for '18 and had been told as such via RNS? Must have woke up on the wrong side of the bed or something, but as much as this is a (relatively) small discount on the prior close - the prior close was at around all time lows. If the BOD were genuine in the prior claim about full funding through the year, but saw the opportunity to raise money at an all time low share price as an "opportunity", then I fear the outlook is even bleaker than I envisaged. In the absence of even anything remotely positive operationally, let alone sales-wise being in there, I'd love to hear your thinking on how this is a good move for us shareholders.
PATTSV, I've tried to stay away from these boards and have mentally written this punt off, but that truly is one of the wildest back of fag packet market size / unit sales calculations I've ever seen. We surely can't be seriously extrapolating unit sales based on Amazon online review numbers?
A bit of background research gives a decent indication as to the target market CPT are trying to penetrate. Personally for me this looks like it may be too tall an order given the dominant players in the market already, and the market really is pricing the company as such. However, everything considered an industry growth opportunity is being tackled by CPT. Its just a matter of getting the product right, getting sales and getting the reputation in the market place. Those latter points are clearly proving difficult given the complete radio silence on any operational or sales related matters. An interesting market place (independent) research piece is attached below. CPT differentiation is clearly addressed in all corporate presentations and EH presentations - the website is a great starting point, likely much more handy than a bulletin board! GLA.
https://globenewswire.com/news-release/2018/01/29/1313625/0/en/Global-Digital-Pregnancy-Test-Kits-Market-to-Surpass-US-233-1-Million-by-2025.html
- Technological advancements such as Bluetooth connectivity to a smartphone through apps in the digital pregnancy test kits are driving growth of the market. The application alerts the user when the test stick detects the sample. For instance, Church & Dwight launched First Response Pregnancy Pro test in 2016, which was the first product integrated with Bluetooth connectivity.
- Extensive advertisement and campaigning can assist in increasing awareness about products such as Clearblue and First Response, which in turn, creates lucrative growth opportunities for manufacturers in this market. For instance, a leading manufacturer of digital pregnancy test kits Swiss Precision Diagnostics (SPD) experienced significant increase in market share from August 2013 and this was attributed to aggressive campaigning.
Another day, another SP capitulation. Have a massive holding and backed this concept massively, but it just hasn't worked out, and is now a mental write off for me, esepcially as I can't get anything even remotely resembling quotes to offload my holding here.
No buyers of note no matter how low it goes (especially now that I've stopped buying), so MM's understandably will keep just running it down until some sort of activity point is met.
Now need in excess of 3x the current price just to break even, and see no way of it getting there now - even a 1x rise will just be met with traders and most likely a funding round.
Awful listing management of what should have been a superb introduction to the market. By the time the Euro launch comes around I and other early adopters will no doubt need nearer 10x their money for BE. I bid all those who still have faith in this management team to deliver good luck.
There are clearly no sales orders to report, hence why we trade in the 5s versus 52 week highs 3 times higher, when the company was frankly in worse shape. The adoption is clearly not there at this moment - the BOD are making strides and doing what they can, so this must just be boiling down to basic lack of demand in the avenues they are pursuing. The significance of the EU market for the long term health of this Company grows by the day, and intrinsic value should remain here in the value of the product and the potential of better adoption in other markets, to underpin the price to an extent. This has been higher by 5x on potential alone. China, which was always going to be a nightmare market to crack, is apparently struggling - and its been marked down about 80% as a result. Fair, just?
Re Sinopharm deal, couldn't agree more. The silence will soon become deafening, as often tends to be the case with this company. The one caveat I'd make to your prudent outlook is the share price on the eve of the Sinopharm announcement was 6.25p. Tonight it stands at 5.6p. We can scarcely say the market is pricing in any substantial success from this deal, and appears to have presumably similar concerns regarding this deal (and others) as outlined by yourself. In the light of nothing materialsing, you'd have to rationally expect it to have minimal impact given its had no tangible positive impact to date.
Good spot on the buy.. at that time the bid/ask spread was 6.2/6.3, so at 6.4 I think you are absolutely correct it was a buy. Smart money moving in the right direction; traders ramping to the heavens to earn their quick buck getting washed out.
Interesting that is now back to Wednesday's close of 6.25p, and all gains made on the Sinopharm deal have been erased. Is that fair? Regardless of the vagueness of the terms (we won't know volumes until we know what sells - a future event - this seems like a JIT-esque arrangement), is tieing up with the largest pharma company in China worth nothing to CPT? Evidently so, according to Mr market. But not really. The trouble is, all those trivial declines in the past, 10% here, 8% there etc, often on nothing volume, add up. And what it means is when good news finally comes through, off such a beaten-up base, traders pile in (reference this BB On the day of news), and invariably with this share - buy after buy can come in, followed by little movement. Those same size sells will go through, as traders move to the next event-driven share, and big drop. The naivety and arrogance of the Board regarding managing an AIM listing is palpable. News alone does not cut it - for one, that news needs outlets to reach the wider market. Not all are eagle eyed enough to catch every RNS. I've tried telling the Board this countless times, and now just get the cold shoulder. Until something changes, all news released by this company will have a similar outcome. Traders will be the only ones to gain.
That's a fair email, and along similar lines to correspondence I've held with EH myself. My responses from Erik have also been similar; to which I've replied that if the regulating and scrutiny of the RNS' is so great (we must be one of the few companies considering what some Nomad's let companies get away with - another debate), then why not turn to the RNS-Reach route? Why not look at some press and promotion? Some sort of way of spreading the word about what the company are doing. These were my sorts of themes. It doesn't seem like the team have taken (what seems to be) a common SH theme onboard, and acted on it. I can only assume they are happy with the job being done; what ever that exactly is, because the company is rarely anywhere to be found in common AIM PR/Press outlets. FYI I've got no quips on negatives being posted. If you read my history you'll see I come on here mostly to berate the company! Where I get snipey is people coming on here to talk nonsense, like gloating about selling 15% higher as if that is some sort of badge of trading honour, or talking the company down when its released news of such a transformational stride (IMO). On reflection, it's easier to just use the filter and block out such noise. Life's too short to get into it with someone like that.