Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
Wait and see, I agree. A while back, when Arysta bought in we had thought that 45p would be a new baseline. Unfortunately, performance since then has been inadequate, despite the welcome introduction of a complete new management team. I for one am keen to see some up to date figures. GLA
Who knows where the SP is going to? Could easily go way beyond 25p should there be a significant improvement in sales or a substantial contract agreement for soya in South America
hereandnow - your comments are becoming childish and offensive. It appears to me that anyone with views that do not concur with your own are worthless to you. This is a great pity. But please refrain from making such comments here, the rest of us are here solely to discuss PIM
hereandnow, yourself and horace are very naive if you consider that the only answer to any investor doubts will come through discussion with the company management. A little respect for those who prefer to take the facts and figures at face value is required. I have on occasions contacted different managements when I needed certain information, but one must always remember that any answers you will be given to any of your queries will necessarily be given as much spin as possible. This is true of both politicians and company spokespeople.
Regarding this discussion, I think the key part of the RNS is this: At this time, and given a later than usual start to the European growing season, we do not yet have sufficient visibility to judge in-season distributor re-ordering of the Company's products. This is clearly a situation that is temporary, and will be remedied by the end of July. In any event, the last sentence makes more interesting (and indeed, encouraging) reading: Plant Impact's financial objective for the six months' ending 31 July 2013 remains to operate the business on an accounting profit and operating cash-flow break-even basis.
I fail to see how the lateness of the spring season will materially affect sales figures, especially now that the accounting period has been moved. In fact, from what I can gather, even the company are saying only that the lateness obscured visibility of customer re-ordering.
Interesting that the statement refers to Bugoil as TGT 01. Very strange! I would have thought it was trade marked - maybe not.
I would say that we are a very long way off profitability, but need to wait for the figures. Depending on these, and the company's forecast for future South American revenue, it will become clearer if more funds are necessary. The other problem is the deal that may have been struck for the repayment of the Arysta loan. We don't yet know how this is now being paid off, except that some arrangement seems to have been made to pay back with income received through sales (which in turn increases the time to break-even). I am in for the long haul. GLA
The thing is, you never really make any serious points. Certainly none worth contemplating an answer. You appear to me, and many others no doubt to be just a sycophantic mouthpiece for the company. I should give up trying to argue any of your points, nobody is taking any interest in what you have to say anyway. Serious investors are open minded enough to listen to other arguments whereas you are clearly not. For your information, I continue to hold and will take no advice from the likes of you.
Your'e efforts at turd polishing are not proving very successful. Perhaps you should try another strategy, one which doesn't provoke such antagonism towards you. I actually feel rather sorry for you. Having invested such faith (not to say money) in this, it must be frustrating for you that not everyone chooses to see only the glorious as you clearly do. And before you reply trying to point out how critical you can be when it suits your purpose, think again as you are more likely than not going to make it worse for yourself. Any criticisms you make are always outweighed with unwarranted bias.
You make some very interesting, and accurate comments. There are too many who blindly assume that just because someone or another is building a stake that it will inevitably prove fruitful. I think the main problem now is that the company has fallen too far behind. The gravy train will continue on for a little while yet though. I repeat, sales are key, and there is no sign yet of the improvement required.
You seem to have a propensity for getting into arguments that make you look silly - I have noted your spats with others on another board. I am astonished that you are constantly prepared to defend the indefensible, promoting this company as if your very life depended upon its success. Your biased views are not at all helpful, and will only serve to make potential investors wary. Why are you putting these people on a pedestal? They have achieved very little in the way of increased sales. They started off sacking just about most of the staff, boasting that cutting costs was the priority. Now they are praising themselves for doubling the workforce. They also fudged a set of sales figures by making it appear that a milestone payment was part of sales revenue. On top of this, they seem to have raised too little additional capital at the last attempt, leaving doubts about future funding requirements. The share price reflects all this and until such time as the sales figures start to show exponential growth I would guess that it will stay depressed. This business has lost a lot of very valuable time in getting it's technology to market in any significant way. It is in danger now of being caught up and overtaken by others with competing products. I am afraid it's now or never in my opinion. For all our sakes I hope they come good soon.
I must say, I find it rather pathetic to be using a late growing season as an excuse for possible lower than anticipated turnover. Most especially as the year end has been moved in order to align growing seasons with the accounting period.
I recall that I'd previously advised waiting until July before investing here. Substantially increased sales figures are long overdue. Some of the forecasts over the years had suggested that the turnover would be considerably above £7m by now. Clearly we are going to fall well short by that measure, but I am hopeful that enough of an increase will be announced in July. With regard to the issue of the Arysta loan, it appears from what little information has been given, that some accommodation had been made with the offsetting of future sales to pay down the loan. I am still of the opinion that more finance will be required before we reach profitability, but I will be more sure of that when the figures are announced. GLA
Casino - A word of warning. Before you get too carried away buying now, you would benefit by examining the potential cash position. There is a debt owed to one of our investors (Arysta) and we are unsure yet how this is to be repaid. Also, it appears that insufficient cash was raised at the last funding attempt. Another is quite possible before profitability can be reached. Until you can be sure that break even can be achieved, given especially that sales are stalling (I am being generous with the term there), it may be better to hold off for a time. At the very least you should consider waiting until more figures are released in July. Good luck, dyor, etc.
If reports on another board are to be believed, the interim figures released yesterday show turnover (already significantly below last years') inflated by a one-off payment that has nothing to do with sales and furthermore, falsely inflates it by way of comparison. If this is the case, then it should be corrected immediately. Investment decisions should be made with regard to the true state of affairs, not any state which can make it appear better than it actually is.
It has already increased by 50% in a month. To my knowledge, it has never before shown such a rapid increase. Previous directors have never shown much interest in buying shares in the market place. They preferred to be handed them free of charge (except to us), as options. At least this lot are putting their money where their mouths are. We had better hope their judgement is sound. Sales need to increase rapidly to prevent further fundraising imv.
The term 'interested in' usually denotes some sort of indirect holding. He will still own the shares in the truest sense. It is possible that he has been a significant holder for some time as only when the 3% threshold has been breached is there an obligation to declare. More likely that he has been buying at these all-time lows, but we can only speculate?
I think there has been quite a lot of buying going on. Most appear as sells. Unfortunately for us, most of the buying has been below the bid price.
I guess that when Brubaker took this on, those options looked quite appealing. I wonder if he knew then what he knows now he would have taken this on at all? I for one am glad he did, as I believe both he and the new Chairman are leagues apart from the previous incumbents. Talk prior to his appointment had been all of world domination, now it is more retrenchment and uphill progress to break even. I eagerly await the year end statements and results.