Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
"Nice trade to end the day so you now have to pay over 20p"
You still have to pay a smidgen under 20p. It's unlikely to move much until the next big update, which could even be next week (last year it was on 26 April).
Right now, the dominant factor in the travel industry is pent-up demand. When that subsides, there will be no protection from the effects of the looming recession - to say nothing of the ever-present threat of wars, pandemics, natural disasters, increasing tourist taxes....the list goes on.
No wonder - apart from the rampers on this board - investors remain cautious.
ports – yeah, still around, still a holder. Just away a lot these days. Mind you, at the moment, following DX is like watching paint dry, but this could change all of a sudden for good or ill, without warning, as it is wont to do, especially on AIM. For example, it would be interesting to see what Lloyd does next, i.e. his strategy for extracting the maximum from his considerable investment in DX. He can’t sell them all in one go, clearly - the only way he could do that would be through a takeover, which would no doubt suit him - to say nothing of others - especially if paper-for-paper. In the meantime, even if he doesn’t need to, he may want to liquidate at least part of his holding. The problem is, any material sale by him will hit the SP, at least in the short term, and hence hit the value of the balance of his holding by possibly even more than the amount realised! Moreover, it would be unfortunate for the current directors - but not for PIs - if he did this just when the SP was about to be tested for share scheme purposes…
I think at the moment it's just taking time for the company to regain the trust it lost during its year-long share suspension. Mind you, even before the suspension, the market was loathe to give the company the benefit of the doubt.
Gatemore will be fuming: as far as they're concerned, the SP should ALREADY be well north of 40p!
As long as the company meets market expectations this year, 40p is almost a foregone conclusion.
From the last trading update RNS:
"Halfords is today announcing a Capital Markets Day on 30 March 2023.
Graham Stapleton and members of the senior management team will present the Group’s vision alongside the strategic and financial ambition over the next phase of its transformation. The event will showcase the planned evolution of our Services and B2B business, our loyalty platform and Avayler, and how the Group operating margin will evolve over the medium to long term through continued investment in high margin, high returning initiatives. The day will be a mix of presentations as well as physical site tours."
Their website now shows this as taking place on 18 April 2023.
Presumably the presentations will be available on the website for all to see.
From the recording:
Q: Can you explain the business rationale for your investment in Trakm8 and your long-term ambitions for what does not seem to be a very profitable investment?
A: I can’t talk too much about Trakm8, because I’m a non-exec on that board as well, but the key things to point out are that, although people often think we are competitors we’re not, we actually operate in different markets, and there are synergies and benefits that we can see both from the hardware manufacturing and also other collaborations that we are doing that are of benefit to both companies.
What happens longer term, you’ll just have to see what happens on that, it’s not something I can comment on at this point in time.
Actually, on reflection I think my original paraphrase was fairly accurate!
Re dilution, if by that time the SP has recovered to, say, 50p+, that wouldn’t be a major concern for LTHs.
KBYK - I wouldn’t read too much into “at this stage”. Unfortunately I was distracted when the question was asked, so I’ve had to paraphrase his response from the impression I got from limited amount I heard. I will listen back later when the recording is available.
A question was asked about the rationale for ML’s investment in "loss-making Trakm8". Nadeem Raza talked about “hardware manufacturing and other collaborations that we are doing”, but as to as to the future of the relationship, “no comment at this stage”.
Still below 30% - just. The time to make a bid would have been when Trak were crying out for funding. Having missed that boat, I think ML will be happy enough with having built up a decent stake on the cheap in a business which could even overtake them in terms of profitability.
Could be of interest to Trakkies.
Microlise have the option to convert their £1m loan to Trak shares at 17p odd in due course. I'm sure they're confident that the Trak SP will be way above that level when they do.
KBYK - last time I looked, the AA had stopped offering SB to new members. It still supports existing members who already have it. It may relaunch it I suppose, once the cost of living crisis is behind us...