Member Info for rickmeister

Yep, great win for the Lionesses, the Swedes tripped up against the Spanish. I was never sure about Ulla, I think it was hoped here public sector background would be useful. The question again is did she fall or was she pushed. Here is a quote from her Linkedin page, perhaps she should have stuck to completing her task! "Imagine how easy it is to just work on and check off the list that the administrative and operational tasks are done. It's human to think it's nice to check off and finish. But when those tasks completely encroach on my creativity, it creates frustration in me. The value of thinking bigger comes in the longer term by developing the business and delivering real value to the company".

The price of an investment, bond etc, is the inverse of the return required. Ie if a 10% return is required the investment price is 10 times the yield (income), 10/100. If a 5% return is required then the investment price is 20 times the yield. 5/100. As the yield expectation increases due to base rate changes or investment risk the required yield goes up and the price of the bond goes down accordingly. Hope this helps.

I take 2 positives from today. 1, the value of this BB, without it I don't think individually we would have garnered the info we now have on Vardar et alia. 2, no matter how poor the management of this company appears to be its a beacon of excellence compared to this current government. Bibby Stockholm evacuated due to the presence of legionnaires disease. A basic test for any closed water system. TTFN

Fair question Pocko, can only guess at the answer. Wooldridge and Bryan's modus operandi is probably to find opportunities and then drag funders/partners in. BEM had already invested a fair bit so needed to keep going to protect what we had already put in. To date Vardar has been funded with cash-little to no debt.

Looks like it Suzy. In my business we keep well away from competitors but did have close relationships with old pals and personal connections. BBQ weekend by the looks of it. And I'll be raising a glass to our Harry Kane, who looks to be off to Germany. Apparently Alan Shearer is driving him to the airport.

Correction. Kodal are not registered at Weavers but Weavers are a director, as are R Wooldridge and Bryan.

Pocko, I've checked the company's confirmation statement. There are 9 recorded shareholders, BEM own 60% and A Wooldridge and Bryan hold circa 14% each. The rest is shared out between some individuals, a Davies Trust and a couple of companies, Creos and Pelamis. Assets increase by about £1m in a year (not sure how). Alan Wooldridge was a director of Kodal Minerals and still owns a largish chunk of shares (176m). Kodal has a Mcap of £80m. BEM control Vardar and now Kurt has gone any cosy relationship between him and Wooldridge/Bryan should be irrelevant. Most directors give Weaver Financial as their address, where incidentally Kodal is registered. There do seem to be various opaque interconnections but hopefully now Rostin and Ed are in control of Vardar we might see some value extracted from it's 'valuable (sic)' licences in Kosovo. Maybe the 6 month review of the company's strategy is necessary following Kurts exit!

Agreed, HH. Don't forget this is just a cash shell with very little cash. Business has already been sold. Future uncertain.

Freetrade doesn't deal in all stocks, including this one , it seems.

Quote 'MIT engineers create battery alternative using cement and carbon black'. Relevant to supercapacitors an article appeared today regarding MIT and cheap supercapacitors using 'carbon black'. Carbon black isn't as pure as graphene but cheaper at present. Graphene would be a more efficient ingredient. Link if anyone is interested herewith: https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/technology/mit-engineers-create-battery-alternative-using-cement-and-carbon-black/ar-AA1eM9OV?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=38062bb6b1454c81a3a56126a20416f3&ei=34

Another article discusses the benefits of graphene over carbon black. Link; https://graphmatech.com/graphene-versus-carbon-black-for-polymers/

Eric, whilst it is not unusual for board members to have other directorships it all seems a bit opaque with BEM. Rostin is recorded as the only exec board member, until Ed joins. His profile lists him as a board member of a large property company in Sweden, Wihlborgs Fastigheter AB, with a Mcap of circa £2b, (and Velove Bikes AB), but these are not mentioned on the Beowulf website. He resigned suddenly as CEO from ForSea in 2020. Ulla is only a board member of Jokkmokk Mines. BEM have a couple of non-execs and one manager. None of this points to an active company so lets hope Ed stirs things up. All Rostin seems to have done is sack KB.

Afternoon all. Been away from my laptop to find this BB more animated than it has been for some while. It's odd we didn't get a RNS mentioning Ulla's appointment at Primrock, especially as there could be some connection between Primrock's business and graphene. One of the potential uses for graphene is in 'supercapacitors'. Hopefully it just the Swedes' way! I did visit Ulla's profile page in Linked-in (or is it now just in) and read a couple of her articles. She gets a A* for waffle, claims to be a big thinker. I concur with the general feeling of disquiet and hope it's not well founded.

Pay heed to Along. Notwithstanding a further interest payment delay, if it can be agreed, the E100m bond remains outstanding, matures in Sept 2024, carries a very high interest rate, revenue is falling and net assets are a paltry £3m . Unlike the song, the only way is not necessarily up.

Eric. I can only speak from personal experience, I entered into a compromise agreement with a quoted company, now extinct so no non disclosure issues. I disagreed with the Chairman, as a board member, and so he wanted me out. Rather than defend a claim for unfair dismissal, which I threatened, I was compensated in return for keeping quiet and dropping the unfair dismissal claim. The right to work for competing businesses is inevitable as the courts have deemed restrictive work clauses unreasonable. My read through is that Kurt was pushed because Rostin and maybe others didn't agree with his decisions-probably Kosovo. Anything dodgy/illegal and he could have been summarily dismissed, with RNS to that effect. If it had been a cash settlement rather than share options the current RNS might not have been needed. How to make a mess of what could potentially be a good business. Hope it doesn't go the same way as the company I left.

This is a good business with good clients but very badly run in the past. Hopefully the new board will get their act together and realise this conpany's potential. Anyone who bought yesterday should do ok.

And a long way back to 60p

Pocko. I'm not sure the Swedes are as tolerant as they appear or pretend to be. Ask a Muslim.

Truth made a pertinent comment a while back. Would an English parliament approve funding with taxpayers money to a Scottish based company with the SNP in power, bearing in mind they claim North Sea oil to be Scottish.

Yep. Not sure why the Swedes got carried away last week, SP now below the start of the spike and continuing it's downward trajectory. The only positive news seems to coming from Finland. What's the old adage, sell in May and go away!.

Suzy. Vardar has always seemed to me to be the outlier, with very little actually happening so I think that will go. Kallak is the biggest potential asset but the most difficult and costly to unlock so I can't see how we can easily go alone with this one. Finland has a commercial product, graphene, and a willing state 'partner' and of a scale a company of our size can develop forward. Personally, that's where I would focus our resources on and find a large, well resourced Swedish partner/buyer for Kallak. All rather disappointing bearing in mind where the company started from. This is my longest held share by a considerable margin, so might as well stick with it to the bitter (or sweet) end.