Member Info for SanCarlo

I think the plans were very much for IDE to be an acquisition vehicle to scale a managed service provider. It's certainly why I invested in them. Sadly I fear now it's just recover whatever value they can before closing up the MXC shop.

They put the cost of remaining listed as about £0.3m a year they said for MXC, so there are potential savings there.

The reason they said really the only main reason to remain listed was access to capital. So I guess keeps the door open for further fundraising.

Well that was all too predictable. As I said they might... although I didn't think they'd play the Covid card again!

Higher potential EBITDA for last year nice. Only 600k for first half of this year not so nice.

Oh they'll cook up something if they choose I'm sure :) Call me a bit cynical. "Due to the significant changes in the business it's taking longer than expected..." or some such. Let's hope not though.

I'm not feeling hugely positive as IDE took out that loan without notice of explanation and couldn't/didn't pay it back... so I wonder what that's all about.

With no RNS updates, no perceptible marketing... it just feels a bit ghost town. I even notice they had about six roles vacant a few weeks back and now none - they're either efficient recruiters or are on a hiring freeze.

Results are due by 30th June... it was the 29th last year they announced a delay. So we'll see this week I guess.

I am not high on hopes. I could have almost had a bit more hope if MXC was an ongoing concern with a reputation to manage. But as this is a case of them recovering as much value as they can while they can... there is little hope for us.

Still, at least I'll have closure soon. It's been six years since I started this journey at 37p a share.

I bought first at 37p! This is gonna be a winner one day! LOL.

I have lost a lot of money on this, so have nothing to lose by waiting and seeing... however I see nothing good coming of this for people like me. £6m market cap, £25m debt... there's very little equity to even give.

And looking back at that original RNS "the Company expects to repay the loan by the 31 March 2021" [sic, I think they mean 2022] Has their position deteriorated so much that in the space of a few months they went from thinking they could repay it to... well... not.

Well the RNS answers that one!

IDE lends money to Cloud Co partially owned by MXC so that it can take its connectivity business away, then in the process can't cover its own bills so borrows from MXC... and can't repay that. Lordy.

"MXC has begun exploratory conversations with IDE Group, with a view to converting its loan notes into equity."

Why do I have a vision of Ian Smith with glove puppets. Hand one: "Do you want to convert debt into equity?" Hand two: "Well sure, that sounds like a swell idea!"

That was meant to be paid back by end of March. Should we take no news as:

1) It was paid back, so nothing to say. They'd say if it was converted.
2) It wasn't paid back... because if they had paid it back they'd announce it to sound bullish.
3) Neither, they don't need to say...

Would you mind explaining what the brokers note means? I'm not up on that.

Also I wonder if they have paid back their loan, due end of March.

As I've lost a lot of money on this one over the years I shouldn't be surprised. But sometimes I can still be surprised.

"This day has been a long time coming but for the first time in three years we can confidently look forward to a positive and rewarding future for IDE shareholders." Finally. Hurrah.

Oh you just got a £1m loan. With no reason given.

"The Company is now seriously looking at options to remove the debt overhang"

Oh, by taking on more debt?

And it means MXC is lending IDE £1m with a free of £37,500 up to 3% interest, then we're lending a quarter of that to CloudCo at 3.25%.

Assuming that deal completed, were we meant to get confirmation of that?

On that topic back in 2018 they sold off the 365 part of the company to "PTCA Newco Limited " to some of the management of the 365 business. MXCG bankrolled that purchase, but said "MXC does not have an equity interest in PTCA." But that didn't last. That company became Koris and within seven or so months MXC acquired it (with Liberty Global).

Yeah magicians. Buy Nimoveri for £200k and then sell it and a £10m revenue business for £250k. And then WHERE DID IT GO? And they reach behind your ear and... oh it's gone to another MXC company. Then for the next magic trick you don't even have to pay IDE for five years, and we'll even lend you £500k to fix the business that we couldn't fix! It's either a very tasty deal, or really does demonstrate what a drag that business unit was. I suspect a little from column A and a little from column B...

Yeah me neither. They estimated the costs of running on AIM at about 0.3M when they delisted MXC. Some of that was directors fees, but it proves there's money to be saved.

This is all just from the RNS that was previously released.

Agreed. I'm pretty relaxed about it now. I've lost virtually all of it. I see I paid 29p five years a go for my first lot, then just kept digging each time it went down! So I'll just wait and hope something comes allows me to claw a bit back!

Acquisitions was definitely their approach with these roll ups... I just worry that IDE is too small to do anything meaningful in the M&A space. I guess we'll see.

Andy's last bonus from Capita would have bought almost a quarter of IDE a couple of days back!

I agree with you on MXC. They are sharp, and if anyone knows and can sort out this sort of company it's them. I just still fear for me as an average joe investor. But, the damage is done for me. I've been wiped out. I just sit around and hope for some return some day.

They blame a lot on the old management, but they've done the odd thing like literally buying Nimoveri last year for £200k which carried on trading independently, and now selling it and the entire rest of the connect business for £250k!

"They're liaising with themselves." Very true. Talking to themselves about their own debt, to return value to themselves!

I can only see this as further dilution, surely? Whether private investors will ever see much of a return is one thing, but it was by far the most bullish they've been in an RNS in drawing a line underneath the past. There was actual proper growth in the managed business too by the look of it.