Chris Heminway, Exec-Chair at Time To ACT, explains why now is the right time for the Group to IPO. Watch the video here.
Mat D'or - this is something that really annoyed me. (I say "annoyed", when I mean... lost me thousands of pounds?)
From what I can see, Northern Leaf is an objectively good operation. When I first invested, I thought I was lucky to get the opportunity, because they were so oversubscribed. (I went in at the same time FFWD did.) Since then, they've done pretty much what they said they would - most notably getting medical accreditation in the UK ahead of anyone else. The only thing that has let them down is corporate advisors and the downturn in the market. If they had been ready to IPO a year or so earlier... boom.
Now, their business has been absolutely crippled - almost exclusively down to the availability of cash in the short term. They were so close to hitting operational breakeven, after a lot of (understandable) setup costs. SEED could have loaned the money on preferentially secured terms, instead of writing off their entire investment. It makes no sense.
Northern Leaf's Board is a bit dismal, but they've got great links with the States of Jersey, which is absolutely as important in their situation as having experts in the CBD world. Lobbying the States in Jersey is a couple of conversations between mates, rather than months of legislation. Northern had SO much potential.
Barwy - I can't really give a better answer than Bigstick re. current holdings, but I did post this back in October. It looks like we've lost Leckerman and Hackett since, although I seem to remember the Leckernator saying he hadn't sold up, he'd just transferred half his shares to his wife, and neither of them were individually above threshold (which felt rum).
Holdings:
17,194,590 8.08% Peter Saladino
14,783,722 6.95% Jim Mellon
7,943,687 3.73% Lloyd Leckerman
7,205,005 3.39% Norbert Teufelberger
6,355,460 2.99% Richard Hackett
..........
53,482,464 25.14% Sub total
4,680,000 2.20% Ed McDermott *
1,674,024 0.79% Ian Burns
3,950,000 1.86% Share buyback
17,300,000 8.13% Remaining buyback **
..........
81,086,488 38.11% Total known holdings
* at 2.549p average (although they may have been a bonus, not cash)
** if fully subscribed
I always thought Ed was just a figurehead, and that's why his hair was such an important part of his skillset. Like, he tells everyone he's a portfolio manager with his finger on the pulse... but actually SEED is just a way for Jim Mellon and mates to mutually invest in each other's riskier projects / share the risk with some lucky members of the public like us.
But then, I've just looked at the list of major shareholders, and they're not as invested as I remembered. Mellon + Saladino + Teufelberger only have about 20%
Hey Bigstick. I guess a blinder is in the eye of the beholder, eh... but I just really like Ed and think he's doing a great job and has nice hair.
I also enjoy a smoke! So - this made me very sad when I was sent it the other day:
"As announced on 8 April 2024, Northern Leaf sold its entire vault inventory and product that was
with our manufacturing partner in Portugal for processing and final packaging for approximately
10% of its normal selling price to provide urgently needed funds to maintain the Company in the
short term whilst alternative long-term funding was sought."
All our stash! Flogged off to the Portuguese at a 90% discount! I wish Seed would just step in and bail them out. And buy our weed back. And distribute it as a special dividend.
Bar(wick)man - I rolled my eyes smugly at your comment earlier, "Hope most or all of your Seed shares are in your ISA..."
I was thinking, "Yeah yeah, we may be invested in Seed, but we're not stupid." It turns out I actually am. Most of my Seed is in an ISA, but I left about 200,000 shares in another account when I hit the annual limit a few years back. I could have transferred them last tax year or last week. I am actually stupid!
Strategy A all the way!
https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/128/590x/24n20squirrel-491131.jpg?r=1686998680160
Deltalo - there's no way you would have known this, but just to fill you in: a lot of us on this BB don't post anything on April 18th out of respect for one of our former figureheads, ODONNELL. He was quite the character, beloved by all, and with never a bad word said against him (nor by him). ODONNELL did not have many rules, but... he would never post to this BB on April 18th. See for yourself: https://www.lse.co.uk/profiles/odonnell/
Should we be happy about this? I mean - it'll be nice to get a bit of cash, but surely letting the buyback run would be better for us. Like, the cost of the dividend will be equivalent to buying back 50% of the shares in circulation (at last week's SP). This feels like an effort to drive the SP up without any actual substance.
....who spent £6250 of their hard-earned on a purchase here last Thursday... no longer needs to enlighten us long termers as to their expectations... with the Leap cash hitting the coffers less than 24 hours later.
Was the timing of this public? I wasn't aware we'd get the cash Friday (although it is exactly a year since the sale RNS), and I'm just curious as to whether other people missed a trick or if this was a bit of insider knowledge. I suppose with this spread, it's only about a 3% gain so far, but I fully expect the blue streak to continue.
(Ps. Longlad - your broadsheet writing style IS appreciated, haha! Thank you.)