Member Info for Mulder

How can you now claim Debenhams CEO is holding a similar amount to Thorntons?

Sergio as CEO holds a pathetic 356,617 shares that are not even worth £40K now
£35K to be exact
Most small private shareholders hold more than this!

For this alone he deserves a huge amount of stick and should have been sacked long ago.

The Chairman Sir Ian Cheshire £76K - another tiddly sum for one with such large wealth.

The last buy by either was on 8th Jan 2018 - have they been asleep for 9 MONTHS? Obviously they have.

You refer to Thorntons - the Chairman's holding was worth £1.4 MILLION and the CEO's £250K
Apples and oranges...

Don't make excuses for the board.

They only entered the closed period last week.

They have had 6 MONTHS to buy more below 20p and have CHOSEN not to do so.

I maintain Sergio Bucher and his chairman Sir Ian Cheshire have wasted tens of millions of pounds in the past year on closing warehouses (!) and refurbishments.

Profits are a third of what they were before Sergio took the post.

1.8 Billion Rand written off. This can not be swept under the carpet. I am sorry but those responsible for acquiring such a high cost per ounce mine need to be punished. Cobus was CFO. Now he is CEO and failed to bring costs down.

£100M write off is half the current market cap!

A Rio Tinto or Anglo American or BHP may be able to just push this sum aside but not PAF. Sell it on at a loss if you must e.g. £50M but don't slap it with a big fat zero! The gold reserves are still there and will not be going anywhere!!

Thorntons had net debt of £30M not £300M
4x EBITDA not 10x

Directors at Thorntons were buying right up to the offer.

Ask and email Sergio and Cheshire why they have not been doing the same even at 9p.

I am holding and have never shorted but a fall from 60p to 9p - yes 9 pence! says it all. I fear your optimism is misplaced and further if the board thought a recovery was likely or the share price was unjust they would have been buying and loading up.

As it is Sergio has a pathetic holding worth not even £40K now.

Net debt £250M to £320M in a year thanks to Sergio
Money wasted that Debenhams could ill afford.
10x EBITDA

Sergio should have been sacked after the disastrous Xmas he presided over.

Knigel the FCA have been sent detailed files regarding these two several times over the past few months. The Debenhams board and Chairman are also well aware of these suspicions.

FCA = reward for failure

Did you know Sergio spent £10M GBP this year just to close a warehouse?

£10M!

£25M on refurbishing the Oxford St store.
Almost a whole years profits.

I don't think people realise the extent of the scandal developing here.

1. Odey has by far the largest short position in Debenhams.
2. Odey has one of the largest stakes in Sports Direct and is believed to be a close friend of Ashley.
3. Ashley is said to hold a 29.7% stake in Debenhams but this could be false as there are plenty of rumours of him transferring these shares to Odey to short the share price.

We are now hearing reports from newspapers like The Times that Ashley/Sports Direct would be happy to see Debenhams fail into administration. This seems to support the above points.

30-40p?
Again are you having a laugh?

Most takeovers are at a 30% premium to the current share price.

Again reality check. Ashley is a miserly bugger and would not even offer 12p at this stage.

Holding here and well down like most however some posters need to have a reality check. These small rebounds mean nothing. Debenhams has been shorted viciously for over a year now. 50p to 9p in a matter of months. Forget all talk about dividends - this share is now priced for administration by the market. Odey, Ashley and the short sellers have won. The article about Ashley hoping and willing it falls into administration seems spot on. Him blocking the Magasin sale also seems true.

His stake always seemed bogus to many but the FCA is also pointless.

The biggest problem here is the useless, spineless and incompetent board who have sat back and watched it all happen whilst being crushed by Ashley, Odey & Co.

Total wastage of tens of millions spent on refurbishing stores and closing warehouses!

Email
Sergio.Bucher@debenhams.com
Ian.Cheshire@debenhams.com

Peanuts for a director and also bad news because it means not in a closed period and so no talks going on regarding M&A.

Mediclinic are probably still miffed about what happened last
year and the rejected bid.

Hospital Corporation of America are the only other serious candidates here.

Traders are doing well here day to day.

http://www.miningweekly.com/article/pan-africans-rapid-turnaround-removes-false-notions-on-doing-business-in-sa-2018-09-19/rep_id:3650

Note he is now saying Elikhulu will also be at $650 AISC
Also he says dividend will be resumed at the earliest opportunity which IMO will be H1 Feb 2019

Using the figures from the interview and a gold price of $1200 with current exchange rates gross annual profit (pre-finance costs/interest costs - ?how much anyone) would come to around £47M

The last time PAF came anywhere near such a figure was 2013 when they made profit of £43M - the gold price hit $1800

Add another 30,000oz from Sheba at $700 AISC in 2019 and you start looking at gross profits of £60M p.a.

As for ZAR485M of unused debt facilities stockable it may sound like a lot but in GBP terms it only comes to about £25M

The wider question is what exactly has happened to Evander and could the SA govt have seized it even? Mad man Mantashe with his 'use it or lose it' approach? Unless one is there who knows what is really going on behind the scenes. If they can reduce Baberton AISC by $200M+ how much could have been achieved at Evander? If gold does shoot up will they magically add £100M to the books again? A total write off seems very extreme still for what was their largest producing asset.

The higher fuel costs will actually reduce travel profits I'm afraid. Carnival issued a profit warning recently. I am not a fan of the cruise business here or the high capex involved.

The larger problem is the crap CEO and board.

https://www.sharesmagazine.co.uk/news/shares/spire-healthcare-crashes-near-to-all-time-lows-on-earnings-miss

RISK OF BREACHING COVENANTS?

Liberum analyst Graham Doyle has put his recommendation under review. He is concerned about uncomfortable debt levels as leverage is currently 3.7 times the EBITDA guidance range.

‘If management misses the bottom end of its EBITDA range by 5% then it could breach covenants based on this guidance,’ warns Doyle.

He adds that a 2022 earnings target of £200m, outlined at an investor day earlier in 2018, is no longer credible.

No Director buys since the heady days of 50p.

They may have just entered a closed period now given results on October 25 but this was not an issue 2 weeks ago for example.

No excuse not to buy.
This alone is shocking.

Disgraceful incompetent spineless management team who have let Ashley bully them.

CEO
sergio@debenhams.com

Chairman
Ian.Cheshire@debenhams.com

FCA
Market.abuse@fca.org.uk

They picked up the Woodford shares.

He sold out.

For once he timed it right.

The board should be tendering their resignation over this debacle. Reject a 315p offer and almost a year on we are sat at less than HALF the Mediclinic offer!

They should be very ashamed and ideally forego wages and all bonuses.

Incompetence of the highest order.

In no other profession (except banking) would this be accepted and those responsible would never be allowed to work again.

Baberton mine costs down

'Barberton Mines is benefiting from increased underground mining flexibility due to, inter alia, both the high-grade 272 and 358 platforms being available at Barberton Mines’ Fairview operation. The Barberton tailings retreatment plant (“BTRP”) is also benefiting from the installation of the regrind mill at the end of the 2018 financial year.'

Elikhulu to produce at steady state from October.

In the video he did not seem bothered by the cash/debt situation did he?

As for the dividend I guess an interim dividend is possible on this occasion at H1 results in Feb 2019.