Member Info for Senator1

I was referring to 1p options or what I call zero cost, my number is correct. 8.2 is total, I can read. You need to do some subtraction from this number. I have given the lapsed options, it is in note 14 as you referenced and I gave the numbers. I dont care what anyone else does, I have never been a follower. Private development equity should not be benchmarked against the 250, period. You benchmark against same risk profile. Anything else is stupid. Return should always be considered in an ex ante risk context but at bare minimum ex post. Its not difficult. Its lazy and dumb to even suggest anything different. I dont care if they are employees, directors, CEO, janitor they have collectively failed over 8 years. A near £100m carry, 6m odd no cost options, havent even looked at deferred share profile and salaries and cash bonuses. Its a joke, fact.

Since 2016 the FTSE 250 has gone nowhere. Is it fair they get 1p options if they beat something that has flatlined for nearly a decade. I would argue that a broad based index does not have the same risk profile as Molten and therefore it should beat the 250 by a considerable margin. They are investing in private companies at the development stage, for the most part. This is not the risk profile of the 250 and most certainly beating it does not justify no cost options. There are about 6M of these no cost options outstanding as at Sept. Since 20916 only 656k have elapsed, 200K in 2020 and 400k in 2021. Anyway, I will await your justification with interest.

Performance conditions are realisations (really, just realise), AUM (please, buying assets is easy) and TSR (I cant see any details on exactly the weight applied to this and the relative TSR score). In any event 1p options are totally ridiculous. These people have failed for 8 years. It shouldnt be on the agenda. They shouldnt even have a job!

Terrible presentation. Answer on CEO a fudge, there is a problem here. Couldnt answer on outstanding options and shares. If he was a good leaver this would be an easy questions. Didnt answer question on why they are granting 1p options. It was asked but he ignored it. Low £2 coming.

The share price is now firmly in bearish territory with a steep declining one month average. If it breaks support in this 3.0-3.4 channel, it could easily end back at 2.2 area. The QQQs are testing the one month average, if the US rolls over from its recent all time Highs, hard to see these guys being a star performer. I dont think inflation is 100% defeated in the US just yet, especially with free wheeling Trump on the way and I dont think the Dec Fed will move rates down again. Surely they will wait to see the Trump agenda firm up. Market wont like that initially.

Steph, be very careful pointing to Nav growth per share as a measure that is not a problem. Nav per share can be improved by the use of leverage alone. which increases financial risk. The sp takes account of all inputs. For ex, I think the cash to unfunded commitments is a big issue with Grow. This is a leverage measure not captured by only assessing existing cashflow & balance sheet figures. The share price incorporates this measure of leverage, nav per share does not.

that said Molten's nav growth is 8.8% p.a. compounded. Given the risk profile of what it does this is still terrible over the 7.5 years they show the Nav progression in their presentation.

At 30/9/24 there are 6.14M 1p options still unexercised with Intrinsic value of £19.6M and £82.7M of carry owed to management thats a total of over £100M or 17% of the market value belonging to shareholders. That is not even counting the salaries over the last 7/8 years and deferred share awards and any options already exercised. This management team and Board have not been aligned with shareholders. As I have said many times, they have got rich using your money. It has gone way too far, for too long. To have the cheek to award 1.96M shares in the half year to me is astonishing. No truly independent Board would sign off on that. 1p options, way below market price. That is essentially dipping in to shareholders pockets and taking money! Credit, where credit is due, they are good at that!

Shareholders:

IPO date:15/6/24

Share price return 7.48% or 0.86% p.a. for 8.42 years

Management options in First Half 2024/5 alone:

In the half year to Sept 2024 ALONE 1.96M share options granted at an exercise price of 1p. Using todays close that has intrinsic value of £6.25M and given they are a mix of 2 and 3 year options they have substantial time value as well. The fair valuation in the accounts is very questionable as it is essentially the intrinsic value!

That aside (its a big leave), the question is on what basis does the Board think these awards are justified. How many more will be awarded in the second half? What is going to happen to Davis's outstanding options. What is the profile, number and strike.

Were there any deferred share awards in the period, aside from the options?

For 8.5 years this has been a gravy train for management, using shareholders funds while shareholders have earned, lets call it, nothing. I hope every shareholder knows to oppose every single resolution proposed by this Board. It wont make any difference but the big shareholders will notice the lack of retail support. Asthey will all be mindful of an exit at some point it might wake them from their slumber. They seem oblivious to the enduring discount to nav, so being petty is all retail can do and obviously give them hell on investor meet on Friday. It is fully deserved.

Stupidity

Comprehensive to you is acknowledging. Not to me

Over the last 5 years ARK'snext generation Tech fund is up 95%. Not a perfect comparable but in the ballpark

Grow?

Down 30%

Now gapped solidly below SMA200. Market sat at the SMA200 for days before results to see how management performed. There was really no new information from the trading update. You could guess that def tax would be up & so this is all down to the Board and management. This wont improve until there are changes here. Wakey wakey big shareholders, enough is enough. 22 accounts own c.76% of the shares, use your power. Since IPO this has been a disaster for shareholders. The idea for the company is great (permanent capital deployed to venture and growth). The presentation by the central overhead team, shambolic.

And nothing meaningful on CEO abrupt departure. Is there a legal reason why this is brushed over as if it never happened. Dumb approach, hope nobody notices. Market isnt stupid, if you dont want to shoot straight, market will make its own harsh judgement as it hates uncertainty and anyone thinking they are smarter and stick their head in the sand over the obvious uncertainty.

With net drawn debt of £38M and unfunded capital commitments of £312M how can they return meaningful cash to shareholders. That would be suicide and incompetent. Thats why there is nothing on buybacks. If they announced anything meaningful on that share price would rightly dive.

There has been absolutely "no extinguishing of cash" in the nav calculation. The broad figures were as given in the trading update with the more detail that deferred tax liab increased by 12m. Shares at sept 186.5M not 184.4m (note 8). The most concerning aspect is the 560M cost of the non core with a value at 90% of cost. This and fact they continue to doll out almost 2M share options at 1p. Thats just ridiculous with a loss per share and a further reduction in nav per share . Where is the alignment with shareholders. How do they get this passed the Board. Totally ridiculous.

Where did it close today? 3.28 thats a coincidence. Nasdaq up another 1.7% as I write and S&P 0.9%. It didnt get over the 3.28 today, lets see if continued US strength today has an impact tomo. If it doesnt I would be worried for this thing next week. Back to the 2 area?

AUTO now decesively below the SMA 200, first time since April when it spent only 2 days below on a closing basis. It now has 5p to get back or 720 could be next point to watch. 25-26 times earnings is certainly not cheap in a UK context . Meta has a forward PE of circa 24x and a market cap of $1.4 trillon. On the other hand it is cheap compared to the ridiculous run Carvana has been on since mid 2023. Will the 200 act as resistence or like before will it get back above it in next few days. Will be interesting, it cant be a buy until it does.

I dont want to "string anyone up", I just want them gone, simple. They have failed over a very very long period of time. This would never be accepted in the US. The way retail investors can get their message across is vote against every resolution, be petty. It's so obvious they are all incompetent and Wilkinson as CEO will be no better as he has been there right from IPO. There is a huge void at management, Board and shareholders to drive change. They will just stumble along going from mishap to mishap and your only hope is someone thinks the FoF business is valuable enough to take them out.

Last time I looked mgmt shareholding was Cook 55k shares (lol), Wilkinson 29K (lol), Davis 72K (please), slowey 10k(lol,lol), gentleman, four hundred odd( dont bother!). The only one significant is Chapman at just over 1 million. BUT i suspect he is the biggest part of the £78M carry so doesnt give a monkeys about £3m odd shre value. All very messed up, misaligned, wrong at every level.

The shareholder register is rubbish too. Blackrock(passive asset manager, stuffed Grow in ETFs), NTMA (asleep), LionTrust(who?), Border to Coast(god help us), Baillie Gifford (abysmal track record over last 5 years in almost every fund, so they cant throw stones). There needs to be someone to kick the Board, hard.

The share price closed today below the SMA200. If the Us market rally doesnt pull this share price back above £3.28 its pretty ugly to £2.8. There should be absolutely no bonus accruals for 2024 and the Board needs to wake up, they have all been there too long. The 10 year share price return for Grow is 6.99% or 0.81% p.a. This is beyond a joke and the management have a carry balance of £87 million. There needs to be a clean sweep here. Chairman, Wilkinson, Cook, Slowey, the rest of them need to go. This is a 10 year record of failure. The way the CEO departure was handled shows clearly they are brain dead and do not understand how to run a plc. Every resolution they propose should be voted against.