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The Boohoo share price surged to an all-time high this year as the e-commerce market boomed. I don’t think this trend is going to come to an end any time soon. What’s more, ethical considerations aside, over the past five years, Boohoo has shown that it knows how to navigate this market.

As such, if you are happy to look past the allegations listed above, I think the Boohoo share price could be an excellent long-term investment.

Over the past five years, the company has gone from strength to strength. It is highly cash generative and has recently been using this cash to snap up bankrupt brands at bargain prices.

These efforts should help improve the group’s growth in the years ahead. By using its online experience, and infrastructure, Boohoo has the potential to make a success of these brands by leveraging its e-commerce experience.

I think many of these businesses struggled to adapt to the online environment, which is why they ultimately failed. Boohoo has proven over the past decade that it can navigate this environment successfully and use its marketing clout to improve sales when needed.

The recent allegations levied against the company hurt the Boohoo share price. However, the organisation now seems to be moving past these problems. If management can put this episode behind it, the stock could return to its all-time high. It may even be able to surpass this level as bolt-on acquisitions help the business grow its top and bottom lines.

Yes it is £593m debt. That's a hell of a debt load, regardless of the assets which are primarily in a loan book.

Total Assets - £760m (including loan book)

Total Liabilities - £593m

Leaves £167m with future liabilities of more and more complaints, future huge fine to be paid to FCA and people not being able to pay off their loans because of covid 19. As well as no new business. How long do you think £167m is going to last?

From Stockopedia - Annual Balance Sheet on Amigo Holdings up to 31 March 2020

Total Current Liabilities - £120m

Total Long term Debt - £462m

Other Liabilities - £11.8m

Total Liabilities - £593m

Funding update and Notice of Results

Amigo, the leading provider of guarantor loans in the UK, is today announcing a further extension of the securitisation facility performance trigger waiver period to 18 December 2020. This follows the announcement on 27 July 2020 extending the waiver period to 14 August 2020 and allows both Amigo and its lenders the opportunity to fully understand the impact of Covid-19 on the business, whilst maintaining the existing facility. In addition, the size of the facility has been reduced from £300m to £250m, reflecting Amigo's current lower funding requirements while lending is paused. All cash generation arising from customer loans held within the facility will continue to be used during the waiver period extension to further reduce the outstanding balance. As of the date of renewal, the facility was drawn at £199m.

Amigo has adequate liquidity to continue to fund operations and support its customers, with close to £145m unrestricted cash held as at 31 July 2020.

So you haven't looked at the figures. You're going on someone else's figures. Amigo have debts of nearly £600m. Large loan book of £609m. Why do you think Amigo need financing?

It is because there is a large loan book where people may not be able to pay off their loans. Do the figures yourself.

Amigo are doing no new business. Debt is higher than cash/assets. More and more customer complaints. FCA investigation for irresponsible lending which could mean a huge fine. Large loan book with people not being able to pay. Richmond Group/James Benamor selling all of its 61% holding so plenty of cash to buy Amigo if it goes into administration or insolvent or whatever.

Amigo Holdings (LON:AMGO) Stockopedia - Paul Scott - 7 June 2020

Some fractious comments from the outgoing Chairman in today's update. Large liabilities appear to have arisen from customers lodging complaints. Deal to sell the company has fallen through because of the economic situation. Looks very high risk to me.

Amigo Holdings (LON:AMGO) Stockopedia - Paul Scott - 27 January 2020

Amigo Holdings (LON:AMGO) - a quick comment to round off. It's a sub-prime lender. Shares are down 28% today to 49p, due to an announcement that the company is putting itself up for sale. One strategic option being considered is de-listing the shares.

It has not received any approaches so far. It mentions a "challenging operating environment", including from the Financial Ombudsman.

Richmond Group, holding 60.66% is said by Amigo to be a willing seller.

This looks a mess.

Comment by a poster called ISAallowance on 27 January 2020

So, Amigo Holdings (LON:AMGO) (no position), IPO'd only recently in June 2018 at a market cap of approx £1.3bn, during which the selling owner (Richmond Group) and the directors cashed out approx £350m between them. Less than 2 years later and the market cap is now less than the amount they cashed out, having eradicated the best part of £1bn of shareholder "value", and now the same IPOers are publically mulling a delisting?

Maybe the sub-prime environment has changed in an unforseen (in 2018) manner and caught them by surprise, but my cynical guess is they saw it coming back then, and got out with as much as they could when they could.

For me, James Benamor, Richmond Group are using you for their own ends.

Keep dreaming Octopus

Amigo has more debt than cash/assets, it's doing no new business, it's being investigated by the FCA, it may have a huge fine to pay to the FCA, customer complaints have gone up and up. James Benamor who owns the Richmond Group is selling all his 61% share holdings. He's not going to buy back Amigo shares at a higher price. He's going to wait until it goes into administration or insolvency or whatever, buy it back on the cheap and take it private, then he can do what he likes because he'll own 100% of Amigo. Shareholders will get nothing.

Amigo is doing no new business. It's being investigated by the FCA and may have to pay a huge fine. Customer complaints have gone up and up.

James Benamor who owns Richmond Group is selling all his 61% of shares down to 0%. He'll have the cash to buy Amigo on the cheap if it goes into administration or insolvency or whatever. He's not going to pay more money for shares that he's already sold. Would you? For me, he's using twitter to pump the share price up so he gets a better price for his last tranches of the shares he holds in Amigo. Research, research, research, you can't do enough research before buying any share.

Sadly, some people don't care about other people and their money whilst fortunately, some people do care about other people and their money.

From the RNS today - Read in full and Learn - Amigo are doing no new business

The Board agrees with Mr Benamor that Amigo fulfils an important role in meeting the needs of customers who require our help and are otherwise excluded from obtaining credit in the regulated market and, therefore, are equally aligned in our commitment to the UK market and to returning the business to active lending, as soon the Board deems it appropriate to do so.

I am here because I read comments by posters on here who had extended up to their overdraft limit and credit card limit to buy in here because of all the hype about Amigo.

Summary from Amigo on their RNS dated 20 July 2020 for their final results

This has been a year of significant challenge for Amigo, with numerous unprecedented events crystallising throughout the year including but not limited to a change in relending policy, the commencement of a strategic review, the announcement, progression and termination of a formal sale process, an evolution in the FOS' approach to complaints and a global pandemic. Following the year end, we entered into a Voluntary Requirement with the FCA to clear a backlog of complaints by the end of October 2020. The increase in complaint volumes has led to a material rise in the year-end complaints provision. On 29 May 2020 the FCA commenced an investigation into whether or not Amigo's creditworthiness assessment process, and the governance and oversight of this, was compliant with regulatory requirements. The FCA investigation will cover the period from 1 November 2018 to date.

The Covid-19 situation evolves daily; we will continue to monitor the macroenvironment and government announcements when considering when to lift our temporary pause on new lending. For now, we continue to operate mostly from home, prioritising continuing support of our existing customers.

Despite the in-year challenges, our liquidity remains adequate, with over £135.0m in unrestricted cash held at 30 June 2020. Throughout the first fiscal quarter of 2021, Amigo granted Covid-19 related payment holidays to approximately 47,000 customers; despite this, cash collections remained strong at 87% of pre-Covid-19 forecast projections. High cash collections were driven in part by operational redeployment to the Collections team whilst originations are temporarily paused, and also by an increase in early settlements. Gearing remains low despite the recognition of a complaints provision in the year; in line with pre-IPO levels, net borrowings/adjusted tangible equity was 2.4x at 31 March 2020. It is considered we have adequate liquidity to continue to support the ongoing business activity; however, the unquantifiable and unpredictable potential impact of the FCA investigation, Covid-19 impact on the economy and the level of complaints have led to a material uncertainty surrounding going concern. ?????

We are mindful of the evolving regulatory environment and will continue to work extremely closely with our regulators, the FCA, and the FOS to ensure our conduct framework and supporting systems and processes remain compliant.

For me, Richmond Group/James Benamor will wait to Amigo goes into administration, insolvency or whatever and then buy Amigo cheap. James Benamor is selling all his 61% of Amigo shares down to 0% each day and he has the cash to buy Amigo on the cheap from administration, insolvency or whatever. For me, do the same as James Benamor and sell your Amigo shares. I am not invested here and have no intention of being invested here. This is far too high risk for me.

Read in full from Financial Times - 20 July 2020 - Amigo have been doing no new business

Amigo Loans warned on Monday 20 July 2020 that there was “material uncertainty” over its ability to continue operating, as the UK subprime lender grapples with rising customer complaints, a regulatory investigation and the coronavirus crisis. The company said it was confident it had “adequate liquidity” but cautioned that additional financing would be needed if customer complaints were higher than expected for a prolonged period, or if the Financial Conduct Authority forced the group to carry out a major remediation exercise. This set of circumstances “represent a material uncertainty that may cast significant doubt on the group and company’s ability to continue as a going concern,” the lender said.

Amigo, which has been beset by turmoil since listing on London’s stock market in 2018, provides guarantor loans, a type of lending to people with weak credit histories who have a friend or family member that will step in if there is a default. UK regulators are investigating the way it assessed customers’ creditworthiness after Amigo’s founder and majority owner, James Benamor, accused it of knowingly carrying out irresponsible lending. Amigo has denied the accusations.

In a statement on Monday, Amigo said there were “a number of potential outcomes” from the investigation, including a “significant fine” or mandatory back-book remediation exercise that would “reasonably be expected to exhaust the group’s available liquid resources.” The group added that such an exercise was “a possible outcome, but not the most likely outcome”. A mandatory remediation exercise would force Amigo to go through its historic loans and potentially compensate customers. Shares in Amigo dropped 20 per cent in morning trading on Monday 20 July 2020.

The warnings came as Amigo published its long-delayed results for the 12 months to March 31 2020, when the company slumped to a loss of £27m. That compared with a profit of £89m in the previous year. The decline was caused largely by a £127m provision to deal with a surge in customer complaints. Loan impairments as a percentage of revenue also jumped from 24 per cent to 39 per cent because of disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The company’s handling of the complaints is central to the recent conflict between Amigo and Mr Benamor, who founded the group in 2005. Mr Benamor was unsuccessful in an attempt to remove the company’s entire board but the dispute nonetheless led to the departure of its chairman and chief executive.

Sadly, there are people who don't care about others and fortunately, there are people who do care about others.

chrisengland - it's not you I'm thinking about. I've read loads of comments on here from posters who are all in, who have borrowed up to their overdraft and used up their credit card facility to buy here. They're the people I'm worried about. You may not be worried about them. I am.