Member Info for PingPong1

Good results today, just a shame the share price doesn't reflect the NAV price

Hi londoner7, yes everyone to their own, some will love it, some will hate it and see as impersonal. They will also have a large mark-up, as these companies have very small overheads and could if they want run the business from there garage. But the fact remains, funerals are now quite expensive, and many don't plan for this eventuality even if its advertised on TV every night. So if your from a deprived area, this may be the only option for you. They have also priced themselves at roughly the same as what you would get as a Funeral Payment from the government. So potentially your targeting quite a substantial part of the population. Then add those people who just want a very simple funeral. Personally i think you will find a lot more companies coming along like these , particularly as a lot of people now shop around for the best prices, and the first port of call for many is always the internet. i live in a town of about 250 thousand people, there is now only one independent funeral directors, as Dignity, Co-op mainly have bought all the others up, and since my friends place has been bought up, which is very close to the independent one. In the last year the independent has now doubled the number of funerals it carries out, and that is simply because a Cremation, hearse and one with minister is £3000, with Dignity its at least £4000. Since the service received is pretty identical, why would you not go for the cheaper option. The discussion on cost is never going to go away, as i said before particularly in more deprived areas. Dignity's trump card is always going to be its Age concern and Liverpool Victoria Contracts, and because of this they wont be going short of work for many years to com.

Morning, i sold my final tranche on Friday too, and i am sure there will still be many more opportunities to get in and out. Talking of efficiency or rather organisation, i know that at the local level, they couldn't organise a 'pi** up in a brewery'. Thankfully though and as i said yesterday, they will always make money and with having the Liverpool Victoria and Age concern contracts, will be laughing all the way to the bank

I hope you didn't top up, like you said you would after recent comments. Think they just need to concentrate on the business itself, after constant expansion and maybe a little overstretch. They will always make money, but they need to be efficient as well.

Wish every Monday morning was like this for SDI

I am, and very happy about it, but its hard to access the situation, have they got rid of all the bad news, and if so, is it time for a slow trickle upwards

A very nice blue day

Hope that's not bad news with Slater Investments lowering their holdings

Looking like a very good start to the day, is news imminent or is someone taking a much larger position

londoner7 I'd also like to say, and these are only my thoughts. That with Dignity and the Co-op merrily buying up all the business's they can, and therefore keeping funeral costs and profits quite high, they are also leaving a huge vacuum underneath, and all it would take is a large enough company to market themselves underneath these and things could soon become a quite difficult and obviously reduce profits.

Its obviously very difficult to give any real evidence. All i can say after being in the business for the last five years, and having friends working at a funeral director that was bought six months ago by Dignity, i am therefore party to a little bit of insider knowledge. And this is where i have obtained my information, that suppliers are not being paid at the moment, is this because these suppliers are new and hiccups with setting up payments, quite possibly. But i can also mention that the old owner of this business has still not been fully paid after six months, that does say to me, that they are struggling with cash on hand. A good of couple of months and maybe a bit of refinancing with the bank and this may all be forgotten. But my friend also says that they seem to be struggling with staff a lot, as when ever they do buy a new business, half the staff always leave. It is true that in a way that could be very good as it keeps the wages bills down. I'm not trying to de-ramp, just putting some information out there. You always need to look at things from both sides.

They have had a very good performance over the last few years, but I'd be careful they are not growing too fast, with trying to take over as many Independent funeral directors they can. Thus creating themselves cash problems, i know in the North West they are not able to pay some suppliers and also taking months to pay for business's they have bought. I'm going to take a back seat for the moment and not get back in until i know things are once again on the right track.

In August 2016, 365 Agile suddenly announced that it was considering closing its operations and a week later said that was it, it was all done and shutting up shop and hoping that it could do a new deal by end-February 2017 or be suspended. From an MXC Capital point of view, it’s no big deal. Its shareholding in 365 Agile was only worth a couple of million at its peak and its similar percentage shareholding in Castleton has arguably benefitted as a result in any event. However, any investor in 365 Agile must be furious. What about the Easytherm shareholders!? From a placing at 75p (and an acquisition at 82p) to a share price today of under 5p and a suspension potentially coming in about six weeks. One wonders whether it might be easier for MXC Capital to let this quietly disappear off the market so the arrangement with Castleton falls away from the public eye rather than try and make a deal happen. Following the recent Redcentric (LSE:RCN) debacle, this is ano ther strike for Tony Weaver and MXC Capital in my book. I suggest that any potential investor look very closely at any next MXC Capital investment opportunity and while it doesn’t necessarily impact MXC’s share price in the short-term, one more strike would raise significant doubts over its business model for me. I will now be watching closely. Does make you wonder what Mr Weaver will come up with next. Some good news will certainly help

ADVFN not very complimentary again about MXCP 365 Agile (LSE:365) came to the market on 21 August 2015 following a reverse takeover structured by MXC Capital (LSE:MXCP), accompanied by a placing raising £2.24 million at 75p. It was / is a technology play targeting the social housing sector, the details of which are largely irrelevant, but the admission document showed it was a profitable business and the year-end results confirmed this too with revenues of £1.6 million. It followed up in November 2015 with an acquisition of Easytherm, a business that offered smart solutions in the heating / hot water space. The equity for this acquisition was issued at 82p, so a slight premium to the placing at admission so looked like encouraging progress. Then all of a sudden the wheels came off. In April 2016, a mere eight months after admission and five months after the Easytherm acquisition, two things occurred that raised significant red flags. First, the CEO, Jon Holyhead, suddenly left – oh. Not to worry Tony Weaver was joining the Board as a NED. At the time though no-one noticed the scythe he was hiding under his cape! Secondly, the company announced the change of the terms of the licence agreement with Castleton (LSE:CTP) as follows: “The 365Agile Product is already sold exclusively in the social housing sector through a reseller agreement with Castleton whereby the Company is paid a 70% commission on the software and associat ed maintenance revenues generated by Castleton. The Licence Agreement guarantees 365Agile a payment of £0.6 million for each of the years ended 31 March 2017, 2018 and 2019 with the potential for a further payment of at least £0.3 million in the year to 31 March 2019 dependent on total sales achieved by Castleton for the first three years of the Licence Agreement. In addition, it is intended that certain employees of the Agile Group will be transferred to Castleton in order to assist with development and implementation of Castleton's suite of software solutions, including the 365Agile Product, though can be sub-contracted back to 365Agile when required.” So a number of employees were moving to Castleton and 365 Agile would receive a fixed licence amount of at least £1.8 million over the next three years, but then it would be free. With hindsight, it looks as if it was almost at this stage that 365 Agile gave up the ghost and transferred its entire business to Castleton for £1.8 million, not that it was described as such of course. The issue here is that Castleton is a connected business, of which MXC Capital is also a significant shareholder (currently it owns 22%). It is impossible for an outside investor to really know what has gone on here and whether this deal was good for the shareholders of 365 Agile (although what has happened since gives us a pretty good idea.)

Its just been tipped by Paul Scott from Stockopedia, possibly another reason for the increase

Flustered by the shock revelations about Diabetic Boot Company HERE, Jim Mellon's Port Erin (PEBI) published a December 31 NAV. Given that it published full year numbers when no-one was watching on 22 December this whiffs of panic. Unfortunately the statement begs more questions than it answers. The NAV at 31 December was 11.13p which is up 11.7% on the quarter or - put another way - more or less where it was eighteen months ago. But now to the questions. Cash is shown at £66,642. That suggests that Diabetic Boot has yet to repay the £200,000 emergency loan it took out on October 13 but which Port Erin neglected to mention until 22nd December even though it was a related party deal and material. Will Diabetic now repay that loan as Jim Mellon has provided it with a much larger £2 million facility? If not, given that net current assets are just £32,000 and that operating costs are just under £20,000 pcm what investments will Port Erin be forced to sell to stay solvent after mid February. If the loan is repaid, how much cash will Diabetic be left with and given all the funding it has received & guzzled over the past few years how long will that last? Why will Port Erin not inform us off the "missed milestones" at Diabetic? Given that Diabetic has failed to raise the cash it promised and has failed to hit milestones why is the carrying value of this investment not being reviewed? Shares in Port Erin are now 7p ( down from a 10p IPO price in 2011). You may think the discount to NAV is steep but the cash position suggests that either family silver will have to be sold or that a placing is needed. Given the stench of related party deals and non disclosures here, while Mr Mellon might follow his money ( he owns 29%) who else will be keen to follow his lead.

Lets hope this can continue, does this mean a positive RNS to come

Hello

Think this is just more Mellon skulduggery, he certainly knows how to twist and turn those accounts, and allow certain directors to vastly overpay themselves i.e. Jamie Gibson. Wish he would concentrate on his various business's and not keep parading himself around various Investor conferences like he's the font of all knowledge. Think Summit has huge potential which in turn will benefit us here at PEBI, unfortunately though we very rarely get a positive RNS and all this share has done over the last few years is drift down. Come on Jim get this share working again.

Agreed placing is far to cheap, hope this wont affect the share price. Shame they don't offer that to us normal PI's, would definitely top up !