Member Info for Pianista

No discount means no economic dilution of existing shareholders, which should help the SP today.

To be fair, I can't think of any company that has RNS'd about contracts lost. But if my own dealings with Scottish Power are anything to go by, they're well clear of them!

The main problem with these announcements though is that they give no indication of the financial effect. But I'll take it as a positive...

I agree Ports about the SP “dislocation”. It’s been dislocated all year - for reasons largely outside the company’s control - and not just during the recent communications fiasco.

I suppose, rather than buy shares, in an ideal world it would have been better - if the idea was to steady the market - to rush out another RNS clarifying and softening the position set out by the first RNS.

But that second RNS may need to have been cleared by the auditors, depending on the precise facts, which we still don’t know. And that would have taken too long.

So in buying shares they did the next best thing.

Certainly the company has not covered itself with glory recently on the corporate communications front, but Grant Thornton, with their cavalier approach, must take much of the blame.

Exactly. The SP should have jumped at the prospect of another lockdown..

Most would agree that last week’s RNS was unnecessarily alarmist: people do panic at the word “suspension”, even when it’s due to a technicality, and likely to be short-lived.

(Personally, as a LTH, and knowing how sound the underlying business is, I managed to keep my head: in fact, rather than dash for the exit, I topped up).

Of course the fact that the RNS followed hard on the heels of a couple of other slightly worrying RNSs, in relation to delays to the Annual Report, didn’t help. However, I think generally communication from the company has been good, and that it would be unfair to lay the failure of the market to respond to no less than five profit upgrades in FY 21 at the company’s door.

Nevertheless, this latest intervention won’t be good news for those involved in the company’s corporate governance, but it’s not bad news for shareholders: it’s clear that Gatemore are impatient to see an, at least, doubling of the SP from current levels.

Wow! Strap yourselves in...

Age (or any other) discrimination in the allocation of NHS resources would be morally repugnant.

The only way is first come first served.

Certainly the old should not be made to pay for the government’s recklessness in allowing the population to grow, largely through rapid mass immigration, way beyond the means of the NHS to service it.

To me, the RNS said: “We’re going great guns, but due to a technical issue, and with little time left following unavoidable external audit delays, the accounts won’t be ready by 2/1/22, and share trading will unfortunately, under those pesky AIM rules, have to be suspended for a short while. And as we aren’t going into further detail about the issue, you can assume it’s not material to the results. The issue is certainly not serious enough of itself to warrant an immediate suspension”.

However, if the market wants to overinterpret the RNS, so be it. The press will also tend to blow it up out of all proportion – “that’s what they do”. However, today’s PDMR purchases support my interpretation, because my interpretation implies that there is no inside information here to get in the way of such purchases. BTW, I also put my money where my mouth is, and picked up 100k today at 17.99p.

Talking of purchases, Paul Goodson, who is one half of the Audit Committee, also bought some in March 21, i.e. late into the financial year during which the original investigation commenced. This gives me additional comfort that the issue is unlikely to be material, and is only relevant to the extent that it is holding up the issue of the Annual Report.

Finally, as the RNS confirmed, the business is fundamentally in good shape, so if the current SP weakness continues for much longer, I wonder if this will provoke a cheeky, opportunistic bid? However, I would expect the SP to recover somewhat in the coming weeks. It will be interesting to see if there are any major II sells in that time. I doubt it, but then they do have their arbitrary investment rules, don’t they?

The message in the RNS was pretty UNCLEAR! (no indication given of the underlying issue).

I also think we may not be in this situation if Grant Thornton hadn't dragged their feet in the first place.

The possible suspension of trading on 2 January is merely a technical knock-on effect of the of the Annual Report not being published by then. It is not a reflection of the underlying issue, whatever that may be. I understand Liberum have issued a research note today which may shed more light on the matter.

Nothing to add, really, except that this will be the new FD's first set of results, which might be a reason for them to be slightly later than usual.

I agree, you can’t slavishly follow the Fool's share tips, partly because they are often self-contradictory, but it carries some interesting and thought-provoking articles - which are at least as useful as anything you’ll read on this BB - and which can stimulate and complement your own researches.

It can’t be directors (close period). So it must be rumours/expectations of a decent H1 or a bid.

It’s not just the £6K purchases, I reckon many of the other “sell” trades today were probably buys, eg 25,000 @ 26p?

No date has been announced for H1 results, but maybe we’ll get a nice surprise tomorrow….

ports – I’m seeing that a lot these days (great update, muted market reaction). Chemring is another example: a solid company loved by the analysts (and me!), where the SP initially responds favourably to invariably good news from the company, but it never holds. Not a problem if you believe in the company and can afford to wait before realising your investment.

ports - I don't know what you were expecting for adjusted EPS, but I was expecting no more than 1.5p, whereas it came in at 2p, an uplift of no less than 33%.

Also the company is "confident of further progress over the new financial year", so much so that it's announced a further £20m - £25m investment programme, and it's shortly to announce its dividend policy.

So on the face of it the subdued market reaction so far is a little hard to fathom.

However, echoing wiseys point, unusually because of the excessive delay in announcing these results, we are now only two weeks away from the AGM, which will provide a better (i.e. slightly later) opportunity to give a more detailed statement on current year trading. No doubt the market is waiting for that; also observers of the usual price action on DX immediately following a positive update have perhaps become wary of piling in to create a spike, followed by an almost equally rapid collapse.

All in all, I think the SP is set to steadily move ahead over the coming months - economic backdrop willing - but it wouldn't surprise me if at 31/12/21 it falls short of the magic 40p; that milestone may have to wait until the first trading update of the new year, unless other positive news comes along in the meantime.

Stunning results driven by an exceptional performance in Freight. Worth waiting for!

This was despite a reduced contribution from Express due to the impact of lockdown; however, with that now behind us, and the company focusing on investing to turn Express around, there is plenty of scope for even more good news to come…

It will be interesting to see how the market responds.