Member Info for mugginsthedog

The real problem with this company is the management. They seem to have no clue how to monetise the technology and seem completely inept at closing any deals/projects (eg Gib or the sale of Monitoring).

They seem equally clueless about their strategy. On moment they are closing the Membrane company - the next it is the main focus of the company.

The main purpose seems to be to keep paying management a salary.

UT - I hope that any news is good but 4 months is a long time without an update on the sales process suggesting that things are not going smoothly. Let’s hope they pull something out of the bag

There’s a history here of releasing bad news as the market closes. Hope there is not a nasty Christmas Eve announcement.

Pugg - this is the most astute comment anyone has written on this board for a long time

This seems balanced
‘The technology is good but there has been failure by management to successfully commercialise it.

They have little or no funds available. Shareholders will not support any further capital raise given the catastrophic SP collapse. Those shareholders closest to the company, such as Sunup and IP Group, have consistently refused to support recent fundraises – if they do not then who will? The company has raised £ms over the years but has little to show for it. Banks will not provide debt funding for a company that is clearly nearly insolvent, has no security and have already wound up a couple of subsidiaries leaving creditors high and dry.

The only obvious route for emergency funding is a sale of the Monitoring Division. Discussions were announced about a sale with one party over 3 months ago but no update since then. The prospective purchaser will be aware of the financial crisis and will be in no hurry to come to an agreement. The purchaser will have been trying to push the price down and might well decide that the lowest price will be achieved by buying the division from the administrator.

A month or two ago I would have said that the chances of a sale at a good price (£3-4m+) were high – say 70% plus. Over time it is an increasingly possibility that they will either not sell at all or the price will be disappointing. The success or otherwise of the sale is, to a large part, down to the strength of the management team. Management have consistently failed to deliver – few membrane sales, wobbly monitoring sales, a complete inability to commercialise the technology, failure to deliver Gibraltar and the forced winding up of two of the main subsidiaries. The departure of the previous Chairman who had a ‘mixed’ record was welcome although his replacement looks scarcely better. The CEO has presided over years of failure and a catastrophic fall in the SP.

If the sale does not happen then they will need to call in the administrators. Sunup will acquire the pick of the membrane assets, and the current potential purchaser of monitoring will pick up these assets for a song. Shareholders will get little or nothing and SP will collapse as a result.

If there is a sale of Monitoring at a decent price then there is likely to be, in % terms, a significant increase in SP. If they complete the sale of monitoring and a significant sale by the membrane division then the SP will rise sharply and probably generate interest from a potential acquirer – the market is substantial. The chances of this happening are remote with current management.

I am concerned that there will not be a sale at a sensible price and, given the delays and lack of news, these concerns are increasing. Given the uncertainties, the high level of risks and concerns about the BoD the SP is full and, in the absence of further news, I expect that there will be an ongoing SP decline as the market takes a view about the increasing risk of no sale of Monitoring‘

No agenda - just appalled by the blatant ramping. Clearly there are some on this board who have invested more than they can afford to lose. Suhail has spent the last 3 months forecasting the imminent announcement of a corporate sale - still waiting. Forecasting imminent share price breakout - still waiting. Seems that these boards should provide balanced view but every time this happens the poster is subject to vitriolic attack. Blatant ramping is fine but anything else......

Suhail and Trump have been forecasting the sale for months. They have been wrong for months. A bit of realism would not go amiss here.

Just as likely to go down the Krug crack

As every day passes without a deal we creep closer to the administrator being called for the rest of the companies. Let us not forget that the group has already liquidated 2 of its main subsidiaries. This company is running on a fumes and the longer the lack of news about the sale the more I fear. It has been almost 4 months since we had an update.

In case you missed it FSA
The technology is good but there has been failure by management to successfully commercialise it.

They have little or no funds available. Shareholders will not support any further capital raise given the catastrophic SP collapse. Those shareholders closest to the company, such as Sunup and IP Group, have consistently refused to support recent fundraises – if they do not then who will? The company has raised £ms over the years but has little to show for it. Banks will not provide debt funding for a company that is clearly nearly insolvent, has no security and have already wound up a couple of subsidiaries leaving creditors high and dry.

The only obvious route for emergency funding is a sale of the Monitoring Division. Discussions were announced about a sale with one party over 3 months ago but no update since then. The prospective purchaser will be aware of the financial crisis and will be in no hurry to come to an agreement. The purchaser will have been trying to push the price down and might well decide that the lowest price will be achieved by buying the division from the administrator.

A month or two ago I would have said that the chances of a sale at a good price (£3-4m+) were high – say 70% plus. Over time it is an increasingly possibility that they will either not sell at all or the price will be disappointing. The success or otherwise of the sale is, to a large part, down to the strength of the management team. Management have consistently failed to deliver – few membrane sales, wobbly monitoring sales, a complete inability to commercialise the technology, failure to deliver Gibraltar and the forced winding up of two of the main subsidiaries. The departure of the previous Chairman who had a ‘mixed’ record was welcome although his replacement looks scarcely better. The CEO has presided over years of failure and a catastrophic fall in the SP.

If the sale does not happen then they will need to call in the administrators. Sunup will acquire the pick of the membrane assets, and the current potential purchaser of monitoring will pick up these assets for a song. Shareholders will get little or nothing and SP will collapse as a result.

If there is a sale of Monitoring at a decent price then there is likely to be, in % terms, a significant increase in SP. If they complete the sale of monitoring and a significant sale by the membrane division then the SP will rise sharply and probably generate interest from a potential acquirer – the market is substantial. The chances of this happening are remote with current management.

I am concerned that there will not be a sale at a sensible price and, given the delays and lack of news, these concerns are increasing. Given the uncertainties, the high level of risks and concerns about the BoD the SP is full and, in the absence of further news, I expect that there will be an ongoing SP decline as the market takes a view about the increasing risk of no sale of Monitoring

You really should do your homework FSA. I have previously made it very clear that I am a shareholder. I have also given a very balanced view of the company and made a number of positive comments.

As to Suhail's 'If we rise from here as we should - double bottom formation at 1.20p complete' nonsense. More like a back double flip, with a reverse pike followed by the normal SP slide ie a load of bull.

Suhail - you are treading a lonely furrow here, and spouting this kind of rubbish will not help.

Good to see that the level of contribution from Ant has not risen above the gutter

You cannot really mean that. Surely it is obvious that, over time without a sale, risk increases? Why do you continue to deceive and pump your nonsense?

The technology is good but there has been failure by management to successfully commercialise it.

They have little or no funds available. Shareholders will not support any further capital raise given the catastrophic SP collapse. Those shareholders closest to the company, such as Sunup and IP Group, have consistently refused to support recent fundraises – if they do not then who will? The company has raised £ms over the years but has little to show for it. Banks will not provide debt funding for a company that is clearly nearly insolvent, has no security and have already wound up a couple of subsidiaries leaving creditors high and dry.

The only obvious route for emergency funding is a sale of the Monitoring Division. Discussions were announced about a sale with one party over 3 months ago but no update since then. The prospective purchaser will be aware of the financial crisis and will be in no hurry to come to an agreement. The purchaser will have been trying to push the price down and might well decide that the lowest price will be achieved by buying the division from the administrator.

A month or two ago I would have said that the chances of a sale at a good price (£3-4m+) were high – say 70% plus. Over time it is an increasingly possibility that they will either not sell at all or the price will be disappointing. The success or otherwise of the sale is, to a large part, down to the strength of the management team. Management have consistently failed to deliver – few membrane sales, wobbly monitoring sales, a complete inability to commercialise the technology, failure to deliver Gibraltar and the forced winding up of two of the main subsidiaries. The departure of the previous Chairman who had a ‘mixed’ record was welcome although his replacement looks scarcely better. The CEO has presided over years of failure and a catastrophic fall in the SP.

If the sale does not happen then they will need to call in the administrators. Sunup will acquire the pick of the membrane assets, and the current potential purchaser of monitoring will pick up these assets for a song. Shareholders will get little or nothing and SP will collapse as a result.

If there is a sale of Monitoring at a decent price then there is likely to be, in % terms, a significant increase in SP. If they complete the sale of monitoring and a significant sale by the membrane division then the SP will rise sharply and probably generate interest from a potential acquirer – the market is substantial. The chances of this happening are remote with current management.

I am concerned that there will not be a sale at a sensible price and, given the delays and lack of news, these concerns are increasing. Given the uncertainties, the high level of risks and concerns about the BoD the SP is full and, in the absence of further news, I expect that there will be an ongoing SP decline as the market takes a view about the increasing risk of no sale of Monitoring.

The first 2. the third is obviously completely irrelevant as I have answered yes to the first 2

I am just appalled by the way some on this board have completely misrepresented the risks associated with this company. Posters saying ludicrous things like the SP will not be affected if there is no sale of Monitoring, that the Monitoring has been sale has been agreed (which it has not), that there are other sources of funding, that the loss of the Gib contract is inconsequential, that the lack of an update is somehow good news and a range of other fallacies and inaccuracies.

Yes and yes

If they had agreed a sale of the Monitoring Division then they might be able to do a financing. However, despite comments suggesting otherwise from one poster, there is no sale - only a discussion about a sale. Without a sales agreement it is inconceivable that any financial institution will lend unsecured funding to the company. Let's not forget that they have already ditched a range of other creditors, including staff, when they liquidated two of there main subsidiaries.

Other than a sale there is no other credible means of raising financing. If the sale flops then they will be calling in the liquidators shortly thereafter. This is why the sale is critical.

I am concerned that many people do not have any real understanding of the company.

At the last general offer only a very small % of shareholders backed the fund raise. Since then then the SP has sunk like a stone. The recent placing used up all their headspace. Realistically a shareholder backed fund raise is not an option.

They have no security to offer a bank (look at the balance sheet). Winding 2 of the main subsidiaries with lots of unpaid creditors, including staff, will not do them any favours when they are looking for further credit.

They have not got a significant new order, as far as one can reasonably tell, for many years and the idea that anyone would pay a reasonable sum up front to a financially distressed company is completely unrealistic, bordering on fantasy.

Why would anyone pay an up front licence fee when they are quite likely to be out of business in a few weeks/months? Walking from the Gib contract has also probably not helped their reputation.

Sunup have passed on all opportunities to re-invest including all the recent capital raisings and option arrangements. Sunup would probably be very happy to buy some assets or contracts from the liquidator.

None of the alternative financing alternatives is realistic. If they do not sell the company then they are toast. Most enlightened shareholders can see that which is why the SP is where it is.

None of the so called alternatives to a corporate sale are realistic. I fear that it is a sale or call in the liquidator. If there is a sale at a reasonable price I expect a decent uptick in the SP, if not…..

It certainly does not have the running costs it used to but even so it must be running on fumes now.