Member Info for Silverblade

Anyone care to volunteer being part of the 6.044p sale or purchase club....its a strange price to settle at......!! Wonder how close we at to the .London payment and if it merits an RNS - would be good to get some updates after the strong sales performance in the last month post the interim results and if we will exceed current financial guidance. SB

Tap - that's the problem with an automated system which attempts to interpret buys/sells based on the ask. I know it doesn't help but at least we can reasonably assume they are purchases - possible more topping up from our II's? Goodness knows what is up with .fit recently - its almost a surge!! Every little helps.....SB

Few interesting trades coming to light in the last 24 hours. Finncap made six buyback trades on the 15th totalling 1.66m – which have now been accounted for apart from the 500k trade at 16.16.35. The purchases were made at an average price of 6.09p, with the last trade at 16.16.47. Within 15 minutes, a further 5.6m shares were traded at an average price of 6.02p. Not huge in the grand scheme of things – but assuming they were purchases then further signs of interest……! SB

Afternoon bakky - at around $200/300 a pop (i think?) per annum for trademark holders it would certainly make a real impact if we could sell a few thousand of these before the year end. Difficult to predict what the take up will be so lets hope either mmx or Uniregistry can provide an update prior to end of year. I think the 70k previous registrations were confirmed by SJL - a small percentage of that would make a big difference to our bottom line. Keep on dreaming eh!! SB

11 weeks to go in our financial year. I was hoping we would close the year with 2m domains under management - but even accounting for 100K+ of deletes we could be in the 2.1/2.2m bracket according to our own figures - that's a great performance from our registrars and our own sales team. It would be good to close out the London issue, provide some update on adultblock/luxe/premiums given their potential bottom line impact this year, clarify plans for shareholder returns and ensure we finish 2019 with the business primed for 2020 - I see no reason why the company should not be targeting a $10m EBIDTA in 2020, and that's going to make a lot of interested parties want to be our friend. SB

Tap - that's a good trade you made in CNIC given the recent fall back. Looking at how they are developing they are possibly looking at a 3/4 year growth plan which would tie in with the bond maturity in 2023 and a potential exit. Could be an interesting investment - when i recoup my position in mmx i would consider CNIC and will start to follow with more interest. Good to chat. SB

Hi Tap - like you i have considered further purchases in mmx - but I'm way overweight as it is - so not for me currently. Fair points on CNIC - but unless investors sold during the recent spikes - the actual share price has gone nowhere in years accepting the overall valuation is higher as a result of more shares in circulation. I'm not a shareholder in CNIC so am not best placed to comment further; my point was the sector is not doing that well in general - as highlighted by the continued share price malaise in both companies. I hope both come good in time - the shorter that time the better...SB

* SLJ - SJL - apologies! SB

I think one of the main issues we have at mmx is that the business model is firstly not understood by the investment community, secondly, we are on AIM and lastly the entire investment market is all over the place in relation to brexit, global trade issues and political instability. The previous investor frenzy of 10-15 years ago for anything internet related has dissipated while the search is on for the next tech behemoth. In relation to the first two points (business model and AIM) – these are issues where we have some degree of control – and in tandem with the strong trading performance should start to occupy more time from our senior team of TH and MS to determine what can be done to improve our position – I believe this would be the case anyway – they are (rightly) well incentivised to maximise the share price in the next 2/3 years.

If we could do better in terms of finncap and belvedere then that should be reviewed; and is AIM the most relevant exchange? The answers perhaps depend on our objectives – are management looking at growing the business for the long term or preparing for an exit. In terms of creating value for all invested here – private investors, institutions, management, acquisitions – an exit is realistically the main avenue to maximising a return – unless there is a genuine attempt to introduce cash distributions which appear to be one of the options under consideration and which would create an improved investment proposition.

It’s not just mmx who are in this ‘unloved’ position. CNIC appear to be on a similar downward trajectory – losing 30% of their valuation in the last two months – a business with a clear plan to create scale through acquisitions but in doing so have raised a lot of short-term debt – which is both costly, needs to be repaid and perhaps is starting to weigh on sentiment. Some of the purchased business are performing well – which is great – but this increases future earnout considerations and pressure on cash – no sign of a dividend stream in that business at present.

Being on AIM puts businesses like mmx and CNIC in the public eye for all to see the growing pains – one of the benefits of being private is the ability to so this behind closed doors and avoid the type of criticism dished out by boards like this!

SLJ – unfortunately I am based 400 miles north of London and have a few family issues so won’t be able to take up your kind offer to meet up when you are in London – it would have been good to meet up with you and others who may have been able to make it. I hope you have a good trip and manage to touch base with your various business interests. SB

L+C have picked up another 4.25m shares - with the latest purchase yesterday (1m/2m) triggering the 14% breach and hence RNS notification. Has to be a good sign! SB

I’m not so sure they were sells - the 500k and 1m trades were done at pretty much the same price that finncapp have been purchasing. We know there is interest in the stock at this price as confirmed by SJL.
Our main Japanese registrar partner is still selling loads of .work – presumably at low first year – and perhaps the momentum is there over time for another 1m domain in addition to .vip. It’s also notable the recent sales in .fit have been very strong – another 3k today.
H2 trading and corporate tidy up have the potential to act as the catalyst to rerate the shares; but only when a clear path to shareholder distributions has been identified – and not the current confused picture with buyback, tender, dividend etc.
We are not the only unloved domain stock – CNIC are nearly back to year lows despite the recent flurry on the back of positive news. SB

No problem bonum - last thing we need is another tapgate incident - only joking Tap!!! SB

bonum - totally agree - I hope you don’t think I was suggesting a dividend wasn’t the option I and many others including yourself wanted - but as it stands that ain’t happening and there should be some measure as to whether the buyback achieves anything and for me if it helps an increase in the capital value then thats surely something. Cheers. SB

Afternoon all. I’ve been missing in action for the last week or so – its been quite amusing catching up on posts – looks like things got a bit heated but I guess we are all here to make (or at least not lose…) money – and when that doesn’t go to plan (for lots of the reasons which are debated here) its easy to see the red mist. Looks like there has been some healthy trading in the last 48 hours which hopefully signals an emerging interest in company shares beyond the large scale II interest referred to by SJL.
Whilst I would have preferred the introduction of a dividend, realistically this would have been limited to 0.1/0.2p at most. What I am now seeking is that the £1m buyback demonstrates its value by increasing the share value way beyond what £1m (or c.0.1p) would have achieved in the form of a distribution. The starting point is 6p a share – and we have spent about £130K on 2.3m shares so far; so have plenty of cash to accelerate the programme. The timing of this may work for us as we enter our final quarter - based on clear evidence we are bottom line profitable (despite the $1.8m payment/s), the upcoming settlement of .London, assumed adultblock take up, continuing strong sales, high renewals, back end negotiations to reduce costs etc. So – I’m looking for the £1m to deliver a 1-2p increase in share price; which to me would more than justify the programme. Time will tell. SB

Tap - fine to disagree - but lets be clear i am not criticising the ICM deal, far from it I hate to think of where we would be without those domains. My point was it adds to negative investor sentiment company wide where reports refer to reversing declines, mature portfolio, turning around the fortunes etc. And i know that's not a fair reflection on what appears to be very healthy cash generating part of our business - and based on SJL's quick analysis it does make you wonder why we appear unable to monetise the remainder of our portfolio. SB

Hi Tap. I'm not questioning the merits of the deal - it is clear the results of the previous strategic review (in terms of offers for the business) and the dire operational circumstances at the time necessitated action - and the purchase appeared to make sense. I was not aware the ICM portfolio was in decline at the time - perhaps it was wider market knowledge - and we paid close on 12 times net earnings for a business that subsequently dropped a chunk of its revenue and has now been mentioned in several reports as requiring management intervention - accepting we now appear to be making progress on that front which is great but its another sign that mmx has issues to resolve which results in a lack of investor confidence and we are where we are. Agree with you an all other comments. SB

FWIW – few observations. The previous trading statement pretty much told us what to expect in terms of unaudited numbers – so no real comment as they were in the public domain. Clearly the most positive aspect is the $1.7m profit, after tax – 0.19 cents eps. This shows we have distributable cash which is now based on stable, more predictable income streams – the often referred to annuity model. There are various comments contained in the report which show the company continues to make life difficult for itself – despite strong operational progress which on its own appears unable create any value momentum.

What was the H1 2019 $1.8m onerous contract payment made for? The $5.1m London payment will use up the majority of our $8.9m cash – given $2m is restricted – although we should be generating cash in H2 2019 to offset the payment – but potentially leave’s us with nothing in the bank.

The company’s approach to creating ‘shareholder value’ needs to be addressed. The share buyback is meant to finish tomorrow – this is restated in the report – and we now have the progressive dividend and tender offer (with not a lot in the bank) all appearing as further options. This ongoing uncertainty and lack of a clear plan does nothing to support the objective of shareholder value – quite the opposite. We need decisiveness – not exploring options.

We are now advised that management time has been allocated to turning around the fortunes of the ICM properties; acknowledging the business was in decline at the time of purchase – that raises questions about both the rationale and purchase/earnings multiple price paid – and that is not taking anything away from the vendors. I am sure SJL will respond on this point.

We appear to have only booked $588K profit on our $1.6m gtld auction proceed, have only sold 106 adult block sales to date (and yes they have only just gone on sale but again we had high hopes), spent £56K on a buyback that has decreased company valuation by 10%, claim 1.92m current domains yet our own web site states 2.07m (no mention of this new web site either), no indication on what revenue we are forecasting from our 5000 reserved names – all of these are nothing in the grand scheme of things – but come on mmx we all have real money invested here and another 6 months at 5.5p a share is going to increase an already frustrated shareholder base.

Anyone able to make the 3rd October Q&A – unfortunately I can’t. SB

Taproot - strange to think it is now two years ago since we hit 13.5p and the troubles we have had since then to reach the current lows. The business is quite capable of making $20m+ full year 2019 revenues (incl the auction income and with a small contribution from adultblock) and with costs at $12m, we should post a strong profit - assuming no further exceptional costs. The team will be reasonably clear at this point on what the full year will deliver - hence i suspect we will see a strong trading statement included in next weeks interims. A 13p price would value the business at c.£130m - some way from where we are now, but not where we have been! The vesting conditions attached to the latest options would support a view that the company is about to enter a phase of strong cash generation - and that will be attractive to shareholders on the assumption 50% is paid out in dividends (being realistic); or to purchasers who will value cash flows and operational savings and work out a valuation. FWIW 13p would do for me too given the last two years, but i also respect the inherited difficulties the business has had to cope with and believe we will see a material improvement in sentiment over the coming months. SB

http://domainincite.com/24743-mmx-switches-porn-tlds-from-afilias-to-uniregistry

Nothing wrong with this on the face of it / looks like aligning the adult domains through one registrar.

However - as part of the ICM sale, Afilias were ‘paid’ close on 30m shares. Now that they are losing their business revenue they may have a different attitude to being a shareholder - and unless there is a major investor looking for shares there could be real pressure on share price if they look to exit. I assume there will be a comment on this at the interims. SB

.....that any semi positive chat here that next week might see decent interims posted results in another price decline - 5.5p, as bad as it is, having held its ground for the last few weeks (with the exception of the 5p trade which brought a certain chill with it). Being a LTH in mmx is becoming more and more difficult to reconcile for all the reasons posted here in the last few days. Let’s see what Tuesday brings - but history shows it’s going to have to be out the park to put any momentum into the valuation. SB