Member Info for okenia

I have to say I thought it was weird to convert loan notes at a premium to the current SP. Think it through. Example: I give the company £1000 and get a pile of loan note with a face value of 0.1p. Until I convert, I can ask for the £1000 back. It's a loan. If the SP increases above 0.1p I might convert the notes to shares and then flog them into the market, making a profit. But I can wait until that happens, there's no point in converting earlier as I lose my £1000 minimum return and instead am fully exposed to the SP. The only reason I'd convert is if I wanted the voting rights. So why on earth would I convert when the SP is 0.04p? I've converted a £1000 loan to a £400 equity stake. Absolutely bizarre. Except there is one possibility ... if I think the company is going completely pear-shaped, then I want anything I can get. I can't get my £1000 back at the moment (it's not due to be repaid yet), but I can convert the loan notes and then sell the shares. That gets me £400 in cash, as opposed to a £1000 loan note that I am worried they will default on and be worth £0. I was puzzling this state of affairs all yesterday and then today the NOMAD brings forward their resignation to be effective immediately (triggering an immediate suspension) despite having said they would leave it until May 1st. Clearly Cairn are so unhappy with INC that they want out immediately, even if that means INC get suspended and take a massive repetitional hit. As I said at the time, I bailed when the first notice of resignation came out and there's nothing that has happened since then (no "response to press speculation" RNS for example) that has made me change my mind. Today's immediate-effect resignation looks like a major nail in this coffin.

Well that £55k investment in ALBA has already doubled in value and by the same metric the HHDL stake must be now worth >> £1m. In other words EVO is a HH play - with a free tungsten mine, biotech and gold assets thrown in for free! Still massively undervalued, people need to add up the various components and do the sums.

EVO has 20 shares in HHDL, bought for £425k, plus ~ 2% of Alba. Let's ignore the big Tungsten mine (the main asset), the Noricum stake, not to mention the legacy Venn stuff (which is going very nicely thank you). Ignore those. Just how much are those 20 shares in HHDL worth today? MCap of EVO is ~ £1.5m at opening today, so ~ 1.3rd of EVO is ascribed to HH. No wonder it's going up.

blonder?!? where did that come from?

Would be nice. Looks like DL played a blonder getting EVO a chunk of HH before today's news.

I echo that sms1982. I bailed last week and took it on the chin ... Insecto was supposed to be a rather dull turn-round story in a dull area (life insurance), but it seems to have got a tad more 'exciting'. Ivan's had four days to compose a 'response to press speculation' RNS. We'll see if one appears. Good luck everyone here.

Nice update from our legacy holding in VENN today. I do like having that bit of Venn/Labskin in the background, people may well have forgotten about that little gem. It's not all tungsten and NMG :) --- InnoVenn expands products and first sales in US Thu, 2nd Apr 2015 07:00 RNS Number : 2395J Venn Life Sciences Holdings PLC 02 April 2015 Venn Life Sciences Holdings Plc ("Venn" or the "Company") InnoVenn expands its Labskin product line and confirms first sales to the US Venn Life Sciences (AIM: VENN), a growing Clinical Research Organisation (CRO) providing clinical trial management and resourcing solutions to pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device clients, announces that InnoVenn, the skin science division of Venn, has extended its product line and seen first sales in the US. InnoVenn have introduced a new 12 well-plates version of the research grade human skin equivalent, Labskin. Labskin has traditionally been produced in 6 well-plate assays with unique qualities such as its ability to support microflora, improved barrier function and longer test window, positioning it as a world leader in the area of skin science research. The 6 well-plate provides a large area of skin for those requiring easy manipulation, application and sampling. It is ideally suited to large scale samples, repeated sampling and application protocols. In contrast the new 12 well-plates provide the same quality product but in a smaller format for study designs requiring additional technical and biological replicates. It allows Labskin to target a bigger market. Labskin has established its utility in the cosmetic and dermatological skin research industries with key opinion leaders championing it as a viable alternative to testing products on human or animal skin. The European Union implemented a complete ban on animal testing for cosmetics in March 2013. This ban has led to the market seeking out viable and reliable alternatives for a host of different cosmetic and pharmaceutical products. InnoVenn has also recently launched its United States service, shipping to a leading cosmetics, personal care and chemical testing group in Michigan who are carrying out tests to measure skin metabolism in different environments. Commenting on this development Venn CEO, Tony Richardson stated: "This expansion of InnoVenn's product line illustrates that this part of the business is growing independently of the CRO business, which is our strategic plan, allowing InnoVenn to be well positioned to deliver on the full potential of its technology portfolio. Labskin continues to break barriers in terms of its capacity to replicate human skin and colonise microflora and we look forward to bringing Labskin to a global audience."

Yes I agree knicol46. If there is a problem a broker resigns immediately, and then there is 4 weeks to get a replacement. However, if things are OK and the broker wants to leave for another reason it gives a much longer period of time to allow a transition - in this case, they are not resigning for another month, and then there is a month on top of that to find a replacement. I don't see an issue here, the behaviour pattern isn't that of a broker with an issue with the company. If there was any issue then they'd resign effective immediately, which they haven't. There will be a flurry of panic selling though, perfect time to pick up a few more from scared idiots :)

What will more than likely happen here (as per CLEE) is that it'll suspend without warning, get the RTO sorted, then re-admit at the new price. By which time it'll be too late to catch the added-value of the main market RTO logic. Gotta be in it to win it, as they say.

I see the NMG directors put up their own personal cash to participate in the recent placing too, vote of confidence there. I still haven't looked too deeply into NMG but at first sight it looks to be a decent company,and as sniffer78 points out there are some intriguing potential developments for those of us with a conspiratorial mindset!

I can see one trade at 8:22 for an impressive 18 shares, total value of that trade is 2p! Wow!

That's a pretty punchy statement!

"The Company is targeting a significant deal; accordingly a listing on the Official List of the FCA, as opposed to a junior market, matches the future ambitions of the Company in terms of scale, quality and appreciation in shareholder value."

Initial fundraising was at 50p. Take a bit off for the various costs involved and that gives you your current downside limit. However, these guys are top-notch, with excellent credentials and track record, and they haven't gone to all this effort just to walk away. But it's still nice to have a feel for the 'risk' side of the risk/reward thingy. "Auctus Growth PLC - Initial Public Offering 22 August 2014 Auctus Growth plc ("Auctus" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the results of its successful placing of 2,440,000 Ordinary Shares (the "Placing") to a list of professional investors and institutions and the initial public offering of its entire share capital, being 2,440,000 Ordinary Shares. Auctus has raised gross proceeds of £1,220,000. Auctus has been formed to undertake an acquisition of a target company or business. The Company's efforts in identifying a prospective target company or business will not be limited to a particular sector or geographic region. However, the Company expects to draw on the extensive experience of the Company's founders and its board in sourcing and successfully executing such transactions. The Company is targeting a significant deal; accordingly a listing on the Official List of the FCA, as opposed to a junior market, matches the future ambitions of the Company in terms of scale, quality and appreciation in shareholder value."

Cheers, appreciate that.

If you haven't done so, do go and read the full IPO document. It's much longer (sorry) than the corresponding RNS but contains a lot of very useful information. http://www.auctusgrowthplc.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Prospectus-Auctus-Growth-plc.pdf For example, there is this little snippet under B.3: "If the Acquisition has not been announced by the first anniversary of Admission, the Board will recommend to Shareholders that the Company continue to pursue an Acquisition for a further 12 months from the first anniversary of Admission or that the Company be wound up (in order to return capital to Shareholders to the extent assets are available). The Board’s recommendation will then be put to a Shareholder vote (from which the Directors will abstain)." In other words, this will either work and be a success (they find a target and do an RTO onto the main market), or else we get the cash back. Big upside, limited downside.

If you're investing here you're investing on two things: (a) the idea (b) the team The idea is unusual - a main market SIV that they will RTO a natural resource company into in order to give it a main market listing. Not 100% unique (MITH are doing the same) but very very rare to see on the main market. The team are top-drawer with a wealth of relevant track record and expertise. This is why they're doing this in the full gaze of a new main market company, as opposed to hiding behind the (*cough*) "light touch" regulation of AIM. Cash on the book is not much less than the overall MCap, and they have said they'll simply return cash to investors if they don't pull off the RTO. Thus downside is pretty limited whereas with this team and idea the upside is very significant. If you want opaque deals and dodgy characters, feel free to lurk on GATE or WRN or wherever. However, AUCT looks to be the real deal.

(the below is from the IPO RNS) "The Directors Malcolm Alec Burne Malcolm started his career in stock broking as an equity analyst and then later as investment editor of The Financial Times and Telegraph group. He has managed and controlled fund management, venture capital and investment banking companies in Australia, Hong Kong and North America. Malcolm has been a director of over twenty international companies. He was the founder of resources stockbroker, publicly quoted Ambrian Capital plc; the former chairman of Australian Bullion Company; the founder and non-executive chairman of Golden Prospect Precious Metals Limited; he also currently acts as an advisor to Altus Resources Fund, an investment company focused on the natural resources sector and is a director of Arlington Group Asset Management Limited. Charlie Cannon-Brookes Charlie is the Investment director of FCA authorised Arlington Group Asset Management Limited and has been active in a variety of investment management and corporate finance transactions since its acquisition in 2004/2005. For the previous five years (2000 - 2005), he ran Arlington Group Plc's proprietary trading book, managing all of its public equity exposure. He has extensive fund management experience and has advised and sat on the board of a number of other funds, trusts and companies in a non-executive capacity. Nathan Anthony Steinberg Nathan Steinberg, FCA, FCCA, TEP, is a partner in the London accountancy practice of Munslows LLP and has considerable public company experience. He previously served as the finance director of Pan African Resources plc and as the chairman of East West Resources plc. He is an experienced corporate and financial adviser and is a member of Council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. The Founders The founders of Auctus are the board members and owners of FCA authorised and regulated Arlington Group Asset Management Limited. They are Malcolm Burne; Charlie Cannon-Brookes and Richard Lockwood. Richard Lockwood Richard is a director of Arlington Group Asset Management Limited. He was previously the senior resource fund manager at CQS Asset Management Ltd having merged his New City Investment Management group with CQS in 2007. Prior to that, he was a senior fund manager at Invesco and a partner at Hoare Govett with responsibility for the mining department. He has held fund management positions at City Merchants High Yield Trust Plc, New City High Yield Fund Limited, City Natural Resources High Yield Trust plc and Geiger Counter Ltd. Richard has extensive experience in the financial securities markets in the United Kingdom, Australia, and South Africa and a number of his previous funds have achieved long term, top quartile ranked performance."

That was punchy! I wonder if tha was another Directors buy?

I've been here for ages. I know the team involved from NCIM and GPM days, top notch natural resource guys. Am happy to invest on potential and track record. It's low risk since they'll return the cash if they don't find a suitable RTO target. It's very unusual to go to the effort of making a main market SIV like this - which in turn will allow a RTO onto the main market. Happy to ride this until they do what they plan - can't be much longer now, I think they have ?4 months left to do a deal.