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I wasn't convinced by today's SBTX presentation.

We were told that all £4m+ raised was exclusively to support the Superdrug launch and that simply isn't credible because it could take a decade or more to see any return on that investment.

We were assured that the £4m+ cash was not needed for any other purpose and that the auditors would have signed off our YE accounts without it. Time will tell on that.

We heard that some of our IIs were upset with SA because they weren't approached about this highly dilutive fundraise – which makes it sound very suspicious.

We heard that the £4m+ was raised very quickly from only a very limited number of participants – which doesn't tally with the lack of TR-1s for the 21m unaccounted-for shares issued.

We were told that SA's misleading information to shareholders about releasing Croda numbers by 30 June was down to his naiveté in making assumptions. I don't want to invest in naiveté.

We were told that our subsidiary, BTS would not be making the Axis products for Superdrug and they would continue to be produced expensively by Winclove.

We were given no detail on how the £4m+ will be spent.

We were told that revenues this year would be north of £5m, so probably no nice surprises.

The new guy did OK.

SA needs to rebuild trust with PIs today or his days could be numbered. After his last two RNS's I can no longer believe anything he says; and if other PIs feel the same then he won't be able to survive much longer. It's a tragedy that his achievements in delivering Croda and Superdrug have left such a sour taste in my mouth – and such a depressed share price price.

Without question, he has misled us. I can't accuse him of lying because his misguidance on the need to raise cash for working capital – and the disclosure of Croda numbers by 30 June – may have been honest statements at the time they were made. But he did mislead us and then made no attempt to set the record straight and adjust our expectations before the shocking RNS's of 16 and 30 June.

Even if it were true that the Superdrug deal had been unexpectedly brought forward into this year, the £4m+ raised on 16 June was far more than should have been needed to support the launch. New investors – presumably Singer clients – filled their boots at 17p while existing PIs were forced to give away 10% of their equity to accommodate them. And for what? There is no realistic prospect of a return on this amount of investment in the foreseeable future. More likely the YE accounts will reveal that we needed this cash to get a clean sign-off from the auditors.

But SA could have exposed himself to more serious charges of market abuse by announcing the Superdrug deal and the completion of the fundraise at the same time. It seems possible, and even likely, that the Superdrug inside information was used to sell the 17p fundraise to punters via Singer's back channels. If this did happen then laws have been broken – and possibly some of our existing institutional investors antagonised.

The 30 June RNS was shocking, not because it provided no Croda numbers because that was always a possibility but because it made no reference to SA's failure to deliver on the promise he made to PIs in the days and weeks leading up to it. This was extreme arrogance and it suggested that SA believes that he can toy with PIs with impunity; that he can lead us to buy more shares on false information; and that he is not accountable for it.

But of course he _is_ accountable and certain parties have already filed complaints about his conduct with the FCA. He may also pay the price for any stock manipulation or market abuse at the next AGM, if not before.

I have previously supported and defended SA against complaints voiced by other PIs but these two RNS's have shown an unacceptable degree of arrogance and disregard for existing shareholders which I won't tolerate. Nor will it be justified by growth and profits, should they materialise.

So, later this morning, he needs to apologise and explain exactly what is going on. If he fails to convince us, we will need to replace him with a CEO with integrity who understands corporate governance.

Https://www.railindustryconnect.co.uk/uk-construction-sector-sees-turning-tide-despite-persistent-headwinds-arcadis-report-reveals/

Https://www.railindustryconnect.co.uk/uk-construction-sector-sees-turning-tide-despite-persistent-headwinds-arcadis-report-reveals/

There were several vague terms used to describe the placing and subscription offer which was a done deal by the time they announced it. This was strange: "The Placing is being made available to certain institutional investors, including Premier Miton" – especially bearing in mind that the £4.1m had already been raised prior to writing the RNS. So, did Premier Miton, or indeed any of our significant shareholders, take part? Why was the deal not offered to all of our institutional investors? Why has SBTX remained silent, other than disclosing David Brierwood's £600k subscription?

We don't know if the placing and subscription offer had been underwritten by Singer. If it was, they could have had some leftovers to flog into the market.

But, FWIW, my suspicion is that Singer had been working a Marketed Offering or ATM Plan or Dribble Out Programme for days, possibly weeks, before the Superdrug contract and 17p fundraise were announced. They could have been pre-selling the 17p shares to their retail clients when the SP was significantly higher, and possibly armed with inside information about the upcoming Superdrug announcement. They would have tried to get a higher price but found the necessary demand at 17p.

If my theory is correct, there could be dozens, hundreds even, of Singer clients who took a slice of the action – none of whom would presumably be selling at the current SP. Some may even be planning to hold long but the fear is that a quick 20% profit will be all that it takes to see those shares being dumped onto the market.

As for any sizeable share dumps at below 17p, that might happen if Singer had underwritten the event and failed to find sufficient buyers at 17p or had possibly been let down by one or more of their clients.

It could be illuminating to find out if – and when – our institutional shareholders were approached about this fundraise.

As if we haven't suffered enough with never-ending iceberg share dumps by SOH and others, I am now concerned that the 21m 17p placing shares which are unaccounted for could lumber us with a new overhang to keep the SP suppressed every time it tries to rise. This would at least be consistent with the chairman's downbeat forecast in March that shareholder value won't be seen until the medium-to-long term.

Presumably all or most of the missing 21m shares were sold by Singer directly to their retail clients…with instructions to sell on the next engineered SP spike to 20p…

https://www.singercm.com/service/sales-trading-and-market-making/

So, if you want the inside track, become a Singer client.

Trading is quiet but so far 52000 shares bought and 3000 sold – excluding all the dark trades which haven't been reported live. Not that the numbers make any difference because the SP is being artificially constrained within the 16-17p range – which gets mighty boring after a few weeks. Sadly, Ashman is to blame.

Even with an extra 10% voting in favour they would still be a long way off the 75% needed. And of course we don't know who bought 21m of the 17p shares or what their intentions were. But conspiracy theories will abound in a news vacuum, naturally.

Given the possible scenario that the FCA agrees with TW that SA is guilty of market abuse and he is then forced to step down, I wonder if Dr Cath could be tempted back? I gather that she initiated the Croda and Superdrug deals when she was CEO.

SA is never going to get 75% shareholder approval to flog any asset cheaply – even in the unlikely event that all the major shareholders (33% of the voting rights) were to vote in favour.

"so the yard dog commentator [Winnifrith] has sold all his holdings in sbtx....or is he a liar ?"

It was an error, 7777, now corrected. Winnifrith states in comments that he has never sold a single SBTX share.

Theanalyzer, sleep benefits aren't listed under Zenakine "Functions" or "Consumer Benefits" at: https://www.crodabeauty.com/en-gb/products/product/5852-zenakine - which I thought was odd.

It's odd that Croda's spec sheet for Zenakine doesn't mention its sleep-enhancing benefits.

https://www.crodabeauty.com/en-gb/capabilities/actives

It was indeed a misjudged RNS - although it could have been a lot worse. It's only tolerable because the FY results aren't far away. My suspicion is that this RNS was a warning to expect little or nothing new from the imminent Singer initiation note.

I do feel that some PIs are missing the wood for the trees because they are too close to the historical ups and downs of SBTX. That's understandable if shares were purchased on a promise which hasn't been delivered; but calling the CEO a "liar" is too strong a reaction. It's a fast-moving world and yesterday's truth can be torpedoed at any time by changing markets and by customers who don't play ball.

Of course, it's an ugly truth that the SP is in the doldrums. But that is temporary because it's a beautiful truth that SBTX has signed business-changing deals with blue chip customers, Croda and Superdrug – and also secured the first high street retail listing for both Axis-ps and Axis-ac.

These milestones are almost too good to be true, and that's part of the problem. Sceptics want sales numbers, forecasts, profit margins, etc before they believe. Those will come. But they certainly are true. SA and his predecessor as CEO have done a great job getting us to this point. Countless life science startups would give their right arm to be in our position. We should be chilling and enjoying the ride.

Were I invested in OPTI I would be depressed by today's FY results showing their operating loss up by £0.5m to £2.26m, falling trade receivables and modest revenue increase of £226k offset by a £215k increase in the cost of sales. I would also have been annoyed at having to scroll through War & Peace to find the profit/loss confession.

However, I was interested to note that SOH now describes OPTI's shareholdings in PBX and SBTX s "appreciating assets".

Meanwhile, this morning's SBTX RNS was perplexing.

"…a textbook example of strategic M&A"

https://joshthompson.co.uk/investing/hercules-acquires-advantage-nrg-uk-power-expansion/

Would that be a theory behind a paywall? Spit it out here please if you want to talk about something important.

What stinks, Toyin?

MMs up to mischief here this morning. Something's brewing.

Https://advantage-nrg.com