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Can you be specific with a list of examples of Jim's trail of destruction. Not saying you are wrong, just want to see the evidence

...or maybe the Ukraine War is something I am personally very affected by and people dismissing their loss of life as being inconsequential is distasteful.

Ah well. It's Friday night. I've been offered a new job with a sustainability consultancy. Should I take it? Kind of aligns with all this?

Chris - thanks. Easy to lose sight of what's important when you hold a struggling share like this. Best wishes to y'all. Just don't hold on to tightly to material stuff whatever that may be.

Hi. No offense but a bit of respect for the doubtless 100's of thousands of Ukrainian men who have died in the war may be in order. Who cares? I care. Their lives are worth more than a few quick bucks. We in the west don't know that we're born.

Follow up....consumer demand is not there yet for alternative proteins:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65481714

Don't know where you shop, but the milk and cheese sections of my local Sainsburys, Co-op and Aldi are pretty much the same size they were when I moved to this town in 2015.

The rate of change is glacial. Total invested in lab meat in the last 12 months globally across all companies is comfortably less than the R&D budget of one large manufacturer i.e. Nestle (about 1.7 Billion CHF R&D budget this year).

Taking Beyond Meat as a reasonably relevant (and I concede not directly relevant) example, their reported 3Q sales in 2022 were 22% down on the previous year. For the arithmetically challenged, that's not growth!

I would love for this sector to do well, but I don't understand the delusional Del boy style comments asserting that this time next year we'll be millionaires. There is absolutely no evidence that there is a large scale trend towards lab grown meat and precision fermentation.

Hi RainbowRhythms. My views haven't changed over much. I think you said that this share defies logic but I don't think it does. The market is seeing this as a high risk speculative punt and looking at the best available comparable companies like Oatly and Beyond Meat, various vertical farming startups etc. the market has seen their value destroyed over the past 12-18 months. The market is assigning a value (the correct value?) to ANIC in light of this. This is a small part of my portfolio and I am prepared / half expect to lose it all but there is just a sliver of a chance that it hits the bigtime and I don't think anything has changed in this respect even with high interest rates etc. as given the timescale when this is likely to come good, you should expect to encounter any number of headwinds. The industry always had a mountain to climb, now the market has realised that. The whole narrative surrounding why this has a chance of success is still compelling though. It's just not going to be easy and I wouldn't recommend that anyone holds this as a high % of their portfolio. I still think ANIC has mediocre management at best. The deal negotiated with regard to Jim Mellon getting 15% of increase in NAV is awful and too many of our portfolio companies overpromise and underdeliver. Need to get those 2 points back on track if nothing else.

Does this mean Jim is giving us some money back?

Not quite true that ANIC doesn't invest in plant based substitutes as LoveBUDS which forms part of All G Foods product range is plant based. Don't remember ANIC's position in All G but it is something like £9 million. Not sure how big a part of All G Foods their plant based products make up either. I'm pretty sure there are others who ANIC invest in who have a hybrid approach, but I don't especially recall who. Jim Mellon also seems to like a lot of the plant based comments on LinkedIn - not really sure why as he keeps saying they are not the future.

If anyone is interested in educating themselves more about the cultured meat science you could try the event below on 19th April at UCL hosted by the Institute of Chemical Engineers (£90 if you are in the IChemE):

https://www.icheme.org/cultured-meat?dm_i=73VG,ELS9,Q66AW,1SP8M,1

Or you could just **** each other's competence off on this board....

I suppose the update shows there is lots to be positive about, but the focus is on continued uplift of NAV (benefit to Jim Mellon) as opposed to any mention of action to bridge gap between share price and NAV.
More generally, I'm concerned that the whole plant based alt protein industry misunderstood consumer behaviour and are now being punished and I fear we may fall into the same trap. Take Blue Nalu assertion for example that they will be able to charge top dollar for the fancy cuts of bluefin tuna. I think that assumption is just plain wrong. I'm not a big seafood fan, so lets take the comparison of Kobe beef. If you buy a Kobe steak, you are buying a particular story and associated exclusivity of how the cattle was reared, what it ate and the fact that some farmer gave the cow a massage. That just doesn't work on the same level for cultured meat. They may have a story to tell about the environment, but it's not the same story that would motivate you to pay hundreds of pounds for a single steak / cut of fish. You are not buying the taste and texture alone so just because you can replicate that doesn't for an instant mean you can charge the same. If that is what this industry is reliant on, then we're stuffed (in my opinion).
I do think the precision fermentation stuff looks a better bet though and it seems more likely it will stand on its own 2 feet based on cost.
I also wish they would stop referencing the AT Kearney report. It's a fairy tale based on nothing-ness.

I think "Hiel Mellon" could be considered a little extreme......just saying.

Interview with her from a little while ago on YouTube at following link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNN4p4ZvYyg
Key role at Credit Suisse was to "mobilise capital" to help solve global challenges concerning social and environmental issues.
Looks like she ticks the right boxes.

That's why you should all pool your shares.....and elect me onto the Board! I'll fight the corner of the little man (and woman) and I have a (First Class!) degree in Chemical Engineering so just about know what I'm talking about. How much does that pay do you think? I have a certain standard of living to maintain!!

Another investment by ANIC

https://www.wildmicrobes.com/news

OK123 - All of the big food manufacturers have massive R&D budgets. Nestle and Tyson Foods investment in alternative proteins is equally as likely (more likely?) to make it big as any of the startups in ANIC portfolio. Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust has a small % invested in Upside Foods. Then you've got any number of plant based alternative protein companies like Oatly and Beyond Meat. You've got various investable ETF's focussing on sustainable future food (KROG, FOGB, VEGB etc.).

Haha! Once again, this board gets the announcement out before "the" board!

Gonsan - agree with your comments, but why rule out the activist shareholder aspect? I don't believe it's outwith the realms of possibility but takes motivation and organisation. Per previous comments I think this would be very difficult to orchestrate but don't think it's impossible if someone with the drive was to take up the mantle. Just need a coherent and consistent "manifesto". For a company with market cap of ANIC's I'm guessing scraping together a band of investors who hold 5ish percent of the total would not be impossible.

The share price declined because there was a significant fund raise a few days/weeks after Shellbay agreement . I'm pretty sure it wasn't relating to people digesting the fee structure.

As critical as I am of the fee structure, as JM has something like a 15% holding, it is very difficult to argue that he is not strongly incentivised to boost the company share price. I'm not sufficiently clever to work out if there is a benefit to him somewhere within that fee structure that the share price is artificially low relative to the NAV. Maybe someone else could comment on that.

But no point arguing about it. The fee structure is wrong. End of story. I would not be personally critical of JM but there is undoubtedly certain aspects of how the company is managed that I disagree with - I am not saying I'd do any better but I think there should be room for constructive criticism.