Member Info for mitchoftheday

*Scroll down to 11.34am*

It does exist and it's here: http://ftalphaville.ft.com/marketslive/2015-11-05/ Scroll down to 11.24am. Not sure it's worth the effort though...

Re BRC Certification The July 31st announcement contained this:"An audit inspection was conducted in late June and a certification audit is expected in October 2015." It wasn't repeated or confirmed in the mid year report, so I guess there may be a bit of drift.

Re: Operating Loss I think the release makes it clear that all divisions faced temporary headwinds in the last period: the weather delayed the start of the logging season; retail affected by shopping centre redevelopment at main store and election; agriculture from lack of BRC certification. Second half should rebound on all fronts. Hurrah!

It will be interesting to see what difference the new guys make. Agriculture should start delivering soon (especially with BRC accreditation, but that won't show in these figures.) I'm interested in the retail business too. Turning over $10m pa when we bought it, but not making much money. What was the problem, and have they fixed it? And then there's some news on timber divestment due soon, probably in Oct/Nov, which will be big news. Bring it on!

...until the (usual) mid year report. At least we'll have something to talk about then!

Indeed. This looks very interesting. Divestment news in the offing is my bet. JMO, of course

Nice job BBN, not least because you're right, this has to be one of the hardest companies for whom to predict their announcements. Who saw a leap into retail, or selling Apple stuff, or a timber venture in Latin America coming? Here's my effort: I'm expecting - Updates on everything especially timber and certification - Some signs of progress on sales and, crucially, margins in retail - More drift in timelines generally (always happens) - A strategic surprise (often happens thanks to the endearingly bonkers/opportunistic Frank. See above.) I'm hoping for - Overall step change in revenues from H2 2014 - Real progress on timber divestment and confirmation that we're on track to meet the self imposed deadline (end 2015) for value delivering from timber assets - Evidence of talks with significant potential customers for dried and processed food in advance of final certification - Major progress on sales and margins in retail, and news of imminent branch openings - Bullish projection for full year

...only *14* working days... [Sorry, dozed off mid-sentence]

But there are only working days until the mid-year results are announced, if previous years are any guide. Predictions anyone?

Jay The role of "Poster of links to carp sites with plagiarised, undated and unattributed content for ram ping purposes" is already taken on this board. Move along....

It's the the OBT RNS from 31st July.

Wrong on almost all counts ts247, but I know reality doesn't bother you that much. The 35p is the NAV at year end. It's not cash. In fact most of it is trees. The Other Source you refer to - the Motley Fool article of 30 June 2015 (when the results came out) - is the original source which was shamelessly plagiarised (as usual) by the rampers' recycling centre of choice "Directors Talk". If others haven't had a look, check ts247's ramping/posting history - it tells you all you need to know

What makes you think they are agreeing terms, Jenks? All we know, as far I can tell, is that "the board have agreed a divestment strategy" for execution in 2015 and that as part of that they are "assessing the viability of a stock allocation via a dividend in-Specie in part to existing Obtala shareholders". We don't know what the strategy is, but could be a trade sale (more likely given the talk of investors when new board appointments are made). It may also be that the forestry business could be spun off as a separate entity. On the sale side it's possible that Kishugu are in the frame, but I haven't seen anything that even hints at that yet. Have I missed something?

They do look like rollovers, but the first transaction doesn't say "Bargain Conditions Apply" - so does that mean it isn't a rollover? Anyone know?

This is the original rumour that first appeared in the Independent on March 4th this year. There has never been any evidence that there is any substance to it but that doesn't bother bs247 who will happily, and endlessly, post links to any low grade source that repeats it. The news we are waiting for is from Frank and team, and they don't seem to leak much!

Bye! :-)

It's an interest point to make Forestry. I'd like to understand more about how you arrived at your conclusions. Do you, for example, prefer a different valuation model than a 10 year NPV projection on a 50 year licence? If so, what is your model and what assumptions have you made about the species on the concession plots, the cost of harvesting, the projected value of the crop, the impact of the 7% growth rate in the local economy and so on. Have you factored in the additional 13% of land acquired, or the increase in timber prices since the last valuation was done? There most be some huge differences between your view and the view of the people who spent time on the ground compiling that report and who were prepared to stake their professional reputations on a published figure? How exactly did you arrive at $8m? Pray tell..

Fair point balloon. I've been thinking about this too and Kishugu seems a strong candidate. They have a growing timber-related business, plus it makes more sense that recently announced $300k investment in plant is made with the knowledge of the people planning to use said plant. The only thing that seems (relatively) certain is that something will happen in on this in 2015.

Hi Balloon There is more on the timber products in the RNS announcing the divestment strategy ($300k investment in plant to make flooring, window frames etc) and in the full report published today. It's seems to me to be a funny thing to do as these assets are not likely to be productive before the divestment goes through... unless... it's being done at the behest of a buyer as a condition of the sale. OBT could even have agreed to buy these products for AHS fro mthe new owner. Those last two points are just conjecture by the way, i have no inside knowledge that any such deals exist. That said, when the 300k investment was announced I queried with OBT whether the manufacturing business would be part of the sale or would be retained. The answer (from Simon Rollason) was that it was part and parcel of the forestry business.