ray of hope from TW20 Oct 2016 13:35
'As such, things are perhaps not as gloomy as might appear. We shall have to wait and see what happens about the AIM listing and whether or not it can be preserved. But it seems to me that at worst, shareholders could find themselves holding shares in a private company which has access to deal flow courtesy of its current management. In the longer term, one might hope to see a decent return, although it will take time. But a pie-in-the-sky scenario could see a new business injected and a reappearance on the Casino in the end.
But for that to work, the management must be allowed the time and space to give it their best shot. Make no mistake, this is no rose-tinted assessment but I sense that there is a strong motivation within the company to turn things around: there are reputations at stake and those at the helm will not want to be seen to go down with the ship. The potential stain on the official record, I rather think, is concentrating minds.
But with the now twice-postponed AGM giving shareholders the opportunity to put an additional man on the board, one might consider what happens if there is disagreement. With only two directors, they have little choice but to try to get the company out of its current mess – it would be reputational suicide to up sticks and walk now.
But if you had a strong reputation for creating shareholder value and an opportunity to offload this particular baby onto someone else presented itself before disaster really struck, what would you do?
That is the question on my mind as I consider the new AGM resolution. Frankly, right now I think that the company needs that distraction like a hole in the head'