The next focusIR Investor Webinar takes places on 14th May with guest speakers from WS Blue Whale Growth Fund, Taseko Mines, Kavango Resources and CQS Natural Resources fund. Please register here.
My long held view ( since i started investing in this share over 12 months ago) is that it will take a decent set of financials to really kick start the share price. This is something that the BOD can ( and is ) deliver.
Acquisitions are great but in the absence of financials they seem only to have only a short term positive effect on the price.
FCA approval / Stable coins will of course have a significant impact on the share price - but these are factors are outside of the BOD's control, so i prefer to discount them for the time being , especially as there is no guaranteed timescale ( yes i know what the FCA / government ministers are saying about this ).
So as it stands i have put my alarm clock onto wake me up in late July.
While we wait for news, I have been reading up on the advantages / benefits that owning a majority stake in Easy Send gives GST.
At the time the news of the option to buy was first announced I thought it was a really savvy move by the board to acquire a company which although based in Great Britain is still deemed to be in the EU ( for matters related to trade and finance)
In summary the benefits are as follows:
1. SEPA Transfers: For transfers within the EU, we can use the Single European Payments Area (SEPA) network, which is designed to simplify bank transfers denominated in euro. SEPA transfers are typically free or subject to a nominal fee, which can be beneficial for both the company and its customers.
2. Brexit Considerations: Despite Brexit, financial companies in Northern Ireland, have continued to adhere to EU legislation that allows fee-free transfers over the SEPA network to euro-adopting countries.
3. Cost-Effectiveness: Transferring money internationally used to be costly, but with the advent of services like SEPA, the costs have been significantly reduced. This can make Northern Irish companies competitive in the EU market.
4. Regulatory Compliance: Companies based in Northern Ireland, are regulated by stringent security and licensing requirements, ensuring that transactions are trusted and have some protection within the EU.
Overall, the combination of low fees, regulatory compliance, and access to efficient transfer networks like SEPA can provide significant benefits to companies like ES operating within the EU. This plus most of the rest of the world adds up to goldmine (as previously pointed out by others) for us. If this strand of GST doesn’t excite you, nothing will.
I found some small change down the back of my sofa last night so i picked up a small slice this morning - every little helps, especially with the news that we believe is coming.
A few thoughts :
1. Everybody is entitled to express their opinion - even if i disagree with it.
2. It's not obligatory to respond if you disagree - in fact you can say far more by not replying.
3. Winning an argument wont make you rich.
3. If any one is crazy enough to make investments based on statements made by others on these boards, they really shouldn't be investing, so do your own research.
5. Never invest more than you can afford to and do not plan your future life based on your investments. You may be disappointed - the stock market is a games of snakes and ladders, so you need to accept that things do not always go according to plan.
6. The current state of affairs has not shaken my belief in this company, and as i keep saying that anyone actually researching this company will know that the company is well run and last time we looked financially stable. No one should under-estimate though the scale and complexity of what they are attempting to build. They are a small fish (presently) in a very large sea - they are having to be very nimble to acquire the resources to achieve their goals.
They are doing so without piling debt onto the balance sheet. The price though is the use of placings to fund infrastructure growth.
Right now we are in a void waiting for and anticipating the year end results. To break up the tedium we have the excitement of a possible/ likely acquisition. When / if this happens the price will spike... ..and then slide back. It will -in my opinion - be the year end results that bake in any increase in the value of the SP. I had been anticipating a relatively modest profit, but after the recent update I am not so conservative about them now. In the meantime just chill people, we can't change what's happening, but we can change how we handle it.
As one or two others have previously pointed out, Easysend was originally announced as an option to buy. This is / was subject to due diligence and and then negotiating terms / FCA approval. Although no time limit was indicated options normally have a time limit placed on them. The plan may have therefore been to timetable the acquisition for the new financial year and defer all related costs so that these would not "detract" from the final year results.
Warren Buffet when asked about how he responds to a dip in an investment share price said something to the effect that if the company is stable and well run, he sees it as an opportunity to buy even more shares. Things have turned out well for him.
Some people on this board are letting their emotions cloud their judgement. If they can't then as i said previously investing is not for them.
Investing is not without risk so if you are going to put your hard-earned cash into a company’s shares, you need to be able to handle moments like this. If you can’t then it’s not for you.
You should also remember that you are buying a chunk of a company not just a share price. I have steadily built up a decent holding in GST over the last 12 months. I remind myself (in the absence of news) that GST's balance sheet is healthy and has no debt and that it uses placings to fund acquisitions and not running costs. These are strong indicators of a sound, financially healthy and well-run company.
The share price will recover with the confirmation of Easysend , the announcement of further acquisitions plus year end results all to come in the near future. My confidence remains unshaken.
It's hardly surprising that the SP has retreated given the volume placed. I see his as a simple short term reaction to a necessary move by the BOD to raise funds for further acquisitions, and nothing more. Yes, perhaps the BOD should / could have managed the timing of the two RNS better / differently, but would anyone prefer that the company is saddled with debt to fund further acquisitions ?
With the results due in the next few weeks will see how this plays out very soon. I think that they already have target acquisitions in mind , and possibly already lined up. If I was to guess I would expect that they will be buying companies with established customer bases so they can escalate growth.
Today went exactly as I thought after reading the RNS. I have felt ever since I started investing in this company 12 months ago, that for the share to break out it needed to post a profit. Today reinforced that view. The RNS is extremely encouraging and my belief in the company is unshaken. The end of year results will be the moment everything changes.
Good Spot, NO FEAR. I note that the contract is not a fixed price for it's term and is subject TO RPI
Listed companies are required by law to notify without delay major new developments that may affect their business if the development may lead to a substantial share price movement. Issuers must also notify without delay information concerning a change in financial condition, performance or expectation of performance if the change would be likely to lead to a substantial share price movement.
I hope this helps some understand why and when a listed company is required to issue an RNS.
No one ever knows what the "bottom" is until afterwards when the price rallies and then sustains its increase. I have absolutely no idea what the bottom price is or whether we have reached it yet. I have managed twice in the recent past to buy in the dip and sell on the rise, and got out 24 hours before the results were published last week. I will at some point buy back in once there is evidence that the price has rebounded - but i am mindful of the comments that i made yesterday about being in the last chance saloon. I genuinely hope though that the new CEO can turn this company around - it really should be a success.
At risk of being called out for stating the bl**ding obvious, this company is very much in the last chance saloon if it is to turn things around. My personal view is that it is there is at least an equal chance of it being bought and "stripped out".
The next few months are vitally important for the new CEO and of course the share price. What ever the future is, there will need to be a bloodbath with large scale redundancies (all done on statutory minimum terms). Although some say that AI will be more cosmetic, i think that at the very least it will be used to deliver new wins at the very lowest costs possible.
I sense that people are bored and need something to interest them whilst we wait.
The link below will take you to an interesting article ( well i think it is) about the rise of the Neobank and the challenges that the new disruptors face in establishing their businesses.
https://www.worldfinance.com/banking/the-unstoppable-rise-of-neobanks
I have wondered for some time if this deal has been the key to getting FCA approval, and that now we have it the log jam will clear ?
Let's hope so.
Lets hope that the BOD want to be Billionaires and not "just" multi millionaires. In which case there are going to be many, many millionaire shareholders - a lot of whom are on this site.
To help while away the hours, days, weeks, months etc till we have some news, i have been looking at various you tube videos about Crypto / Digital Currency and came across this from the DW news channel:
Crypto Currency - The Future of Money ?
It provides a timely and fascinating insight into how Crypto / Digital currency is now becoming woven into the fabric of every day financial life and how the mainstream financial establishment is dealing with it.
There are a lot of takeaways from this documentary, but a few things stood out for me ;
1. The central banks - such as the ECB - hate the idea of it, as it takes control away from them (and they see crypto as a bubble) , but they understand that they have no choice to accept it and try to control it by regulating it.
2. The big banks across the world recognise the changing landscape and are busy rolling out their own digital currency business models.
3. The biggest opportunity for growth is in the commercial sector which is largely untapped when compared to personal transactions.
4. Crypto is becoming the currency of choice for those in poorer nations who do not have access to a bank account.
The documentary supported my belief that GST will be brought sooner rather than later (albeit at a premium price), as the big boys will need / want to apply a stranglehold on the Digital Currency space, or risk losing control of it - they are simply not going to let that happen.
I suspect that none of the above will come as a surprise to those of us who have been doing their research.
The video can be found using the following link : https://youtu.be/QTyzyP2Afys?si=-CeZ6IAZfLbPq0O8
I hope this helps some to take their mind off the wait for news.
There has been a lot of chat about the FCA investigation into car finance and for those who think that this is a “black and white” issue and that it’s up to the customer to shop around , or for the dealer to reveal the incentives that they received from the Bank, I thought I would share something that happened to me some years back, which highlights just how the FCA thinks about such issues.
I purchased an endowment policy from a Building Society (call it “B”). I knew full well what the drawbacks to these products were and I purchased with my eyes wide open and I was satisfied with the transaction that I willingly entered into. I did not subsequently make a complaint of any sort.
A few years later i received a letter from another Building Society (call it “A”) who had bought out “B” and was now responsible for “B’s” book of business. The FCA had concerns about the way that “B” had previously dealt with complaints of mis-selling endowments and ordered “A” to conduct a review of “B”’s complaint handling process. The upshot was that even though I had not complained I received compensation (£6500), because IF I had complained the complaints process in place at the time was deemed to be inadequate and would have failed to properly address them.
Be warned, LLOYDS is on the hook for this and it’s going to cost. That said I remain a long-term holder and agree with the school of thought that this share is underpriced and will ride out the storm of the FCA investigation.