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"They were almost top of the FTSE100 Risers board early doors "

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…and were clear leaders of the FTSE100 Fallers board by the bell. Some analysts clearly unimpressed by the presentation - where even Croda seemed to be gagged by the NDA, even though minute 21 suggests they had something good to say if only they were allowed to.

Gotta love this game. But it doesn't bode well for Ashman's next round of non-disclosures.

Croda H1 results not bad. They were almost top of the FTSE100 Risers board early doors but now settling down. But we didn't learn much about Zenakine.

Beauty Actives were only 1% up in H1 (adjusted) but were hurt by sales of ceramides following their $280m purchase of Solus BioTech in 2023. It's possible that early Zenakine sales helped to balance the ledger but we don't know. In any event, Zenakine is a small part of Croda's £100m Beauty Actives division and could not have seismically affected these results even if it sold like hot cakes. We will presumably learn more in H2 and next year.

They say they need to beef up the technical data for ceramides which presumably means more consumer trials; and they are looking for a better way to deliver ceramides to the skin. They will have learned from this when it came to launching Zenakine.

We may be in their sights: "We expect any acquisitions in the near term to be limited to small-scale next-generation technologies."

Token share purchase by NED. Why doesn't the CEO want any?

"The stock is struggling to get to 17p the rights issue price which I do find very surprising as it was all quickly taken in a few calls by those wanting to support SA."

belgrano, I can't get away from the fact that the SP shrank from 26p on April 25 to 17p on June 13, just before the cash raise. I can't say whether 26p was frothy but it came weeks after the Zenakine launch and not much changed in the following weeks to cause the drop to 17p. SOH did talk down SBTX at one point but this looked like an attempt in hindsight to justify his perma-disposals.

The only logical explanation I can come up with is that some biggish players were given early notice of the upcoming opportunity to buy stock at 17p, thus giving them carte blanche to forward sell to their heart's content.

The surprising lack of TR1s since the cash raise suggest that no respectable IIs were involved – or that some existing and respected IIs played dirty.

If the Singer note is wrong, where is the correction? A verbal briefing from Ashman doesn't count for much these days.

Bazzaman, the other alternative is that the Singer numbers are correct and SA has been feeding PIs a line up until very recently.

FWIW, I disagree that Zenakine has been all over the internet. It has certainly been all over certain online investor forums which accounts for most of Google's search results. And the next biggest contributors are Croda's own website and social media channels. After that, there's a small number of online trade media which repeatedly publish paid-for advertorial-style plugs plus a small number of trade exhibition previews around the globe – which again Croda presumably pay to be in. There has been precious little bona fide independent news coverage of Zenakine on the internet or anywhere else.

That said, I wouldn't expect much interest until one of Croda's key customers breaks cover and announces a real new product containing Zenakine. There isn't a lot of point in the media stirring up consumer demand for something which their readers can't get hold of.

I also take with a pinch of salt SA's repeated references to the standing ovation Zenakine received in Amsterdam (also repeated in the Singer note). There were 51 Croda staff in that room all of whom would be duty bound to stand and cheer.

PGlancy, inside knowledge is worth nothing unless you know and can confirm the source. Even then, I don't trust any insider to give PIs reliable information…and some may be actively trying to mislead us. Put it in an RNS and I might believe it.

It's not as simple as Croda knowing that Zenakine is the new Matrixyl, or even their key customers knowing it. There is high consumer demand for Matrixyl built up over many years and many of those end users won't be weaned off it until they know that something new works as well or better for them. It takes time - and starts with getting Zenakine out there as a complementary product.

AquaeSulis01, the other option is that the Singer 2025 numbers are accurate and Ashman has been stringing PIs along for months (in which case I will want him gone).

As for positioning Zenakine as complementary to Matrixyl, I think that has always been Croda's tactic since their bread is still buttered by hundreds of Matrixyl products which they can't afford to leave behind yet. The transition from Matrixyl to Zenakine, if there is to be one, will be a gradual process over several years.

There isn't an iceberg in Hell's chance that Ashman and/or his chairman didn't see and approve this Singer note – and feed numbers and guidance into it...whatever story he may now be trying to spin.

Are we supposed to believe that Singer plucked their 2025 numbers out of thin air? They knew that SBTX had forecast 2025 revenues at £5.3m plus Croda payments so surely they must have been guided by Ashman to downgrade this to £5.1m _including_ Croda and Superdrug revenues? Otherwise, where is their justification? It might be that Singer and Ashman are in cahoots and playing the good-cop-bad-cop routine to PIs.

For those who haven't yet read the Singer note:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/z3qkvr99v4ha48ck3w02c/SBTX-Singer-Note-July-2025.pdf?rlkey=zn3w9pklqosn4pyxtc14f2kw8&dl=0

£4m is a mystifying amount of cash and should not have been dumped on shareholders without explaining the business rationale - and specifically when we will see a return on this investment.

I think it becomes a matter for the regulator if anyone bought shares - or elected not to sell their holding at a higher price - on the strength of the promised news by June 30 which would certainly be price-sensitive one way or another. The question for the regulator would be whether Ashman updated the market in a timely manner about his inability to deliver the promised news. And the fact that there was no update prior to the June 30 indicates that he failed to deliver a timely notification of that fact to the market.

A CEO can't just make false promises - or promises which turn out to be undeliverable - about price sensitive things unless he moves swiftly to correct himself and thereby mitigate any potential loss suffered by shareholders.

The fact that he made no attempt prior to June 30 to correct shareholder expectations is potentially a lot more serious than simply playing fast and loose with PIs, not least because the deception coincided with a fund raise.

If it comes to it – and I hope it won't – my 300,000 shares will also vote against his re-election. But if he goes that would just leave the chairman and nomad free to replace him with a like-minded patsy. My preference would therefore be for a GM to vote not only on his removal but also the appointment of a chosen candidate to replace him. Either way, I hope you are sounding out the IIs…

Toyin, do we know when the AGM is? Ashman seems keen on the Xmas holiday – presumably to deter PIs. And is he even up for re-election? If not, you'll need to get enough votes to call a special GM.

He may be worth £30k a month, Cliostock. If he has delivered two accretive acquisitions and major revenue streams with Croda and Superdrug, I'll pay him the money. The trouble is we don't know.

I have given him the benefit of the doubt while he has been assuring us that everything is progressing in line with expectations; but if non-Croda revenues are now being downgraded, he loses credibility and value.

Within a month, he needs to make it clear what investors are buying into or this stock will become a farce.

I was happy enough with Ashman's repeated, and very recent, assurances that all parts of the business were performing in line with management expectations – until the Singer note downgraded forecast non-Croda revenues from £5.3m to £5.1m.

Ashman has said the same about Croda revenues but can't be held to account since he never gave any forecast for them.

His period of grace expires within a month. If we can't hold him to account thereafter, we might as well get rid of him and the chairman.

27001, use the filter:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/w28x21g7zht6ct6qgytn7/Hamlet-forum-filter.png?rlkey=fonaimuk8jemnkv4kwz14eh8d&dl=0

The chairman told us via RNS three months ago – in full knowledge of the imminent Croda launch and the upcoming Superdrug deal (then scheduled for 2026) that shareholder value wouldn't materialise before the "medium-to-long term", ie 2–5 years.

So either the SBTX suits weren't anticipating any re-rate from the Croda or Superdrug figures and/or they knew they would be diluting us repeatedly over the next two years.

The directors had opportunities to buy shares before the Croda NDA was signed but didn't do so.

PGlancy, please talk to Elrico before digging yourself ever deeper into your hole.

As I posted here at the time, my trial membership was active only until 19 June so I was able to tune in to the podcast on that day. But it had expired on the 20th as you can deduce from Elrico's email to me about his blog on the 20th. I have had no access since that day. You claiming that my free trial "would not have ended" on that day is nonsense since it presumably ended the previous day. And I don't "bottle" anything.

So do yourself a favour and check the facts with Elrico because he knows and you are obviously guessing – or fabricating vexatiously.