RE: VAL to a tee........17 Dec 2019 15:59
Quote from that link
Placings
Equity raises are a necessary evil on Aim, as ‘growth’ companies often require cash to develop projects and invest in the business. However, many of these companies are not growth companies, but lifestyle vehicles for the directors. What may start out as an exciting dream to build a business eventually ends up in failure, but the directors have then become accustomed to increasingly higher salaries despite the share price going increasingly lower. A turkey doesn’t vote for Christmas – and so they hold on to their positions as long as they can. All of this, of course, is funded by the retail investor.
The company is a vehicle that pays the directors' salaries. It also pays the Nomad. It pays the broker (which may also be the Nomad), and it pays the PR agency. All of these parties, including the directors, have an interest in the company continuing, because without it they are all out of jobs. Therefore, there is always a new story or a new project to invest in – so long as retail investors continue to fund story stocks then the company will continue. If you are going to invest, it’s worth checking how much the directors have taken out of the business and how much of their own capital they’ve put in. Nil-cost options do not count – this is simply transferring shareholder cash into the directors’ pockets.