Member Info for Silverblade

I think SJL will clarify his position - its not in his interest to remain silent on this. The lock in period for all shares has expired. Perhaps this is connected to tax obligations on the ICM purchase? I am hoping there is a sensible reason for this as opposed to an implied criticism: SJL appeared to agree with buyback intro a few weeks ago so i don't see what has changed. SB

I was just about to respond when I saw who is selling. OMG. This needs an explanation. Seriously not good. SB

I'm almost scared to ask - how's your Friday going Tap......SB

Don't think so Scotty - at the start of the buyback programme this statement was made - " The Company confirms that it currently has no other unpublished price sensitive information other than what has been disclosed above ". SB

There are only six shareholders who could have sold 32m shares - SJL, London and Capital, Lombard, Hargreave, Oryx and Hony Capital. Not likely to be SJL. Hony are in at 13p and that's real loss of face to be selling at this level. Lombard have been purchasers up until recently (apart from Turcan 500K this week). London and Capital provided shareholder loan until recently so have been supportive. Leaves Hargreave and Oryx who may be re-appraising their position? SB

I guess we can rule out this being part of the buyback! At over 3% of the business we can expect to find out pretty soon. Last piece of action of these levels involved Lombard transferring shares to Janus Henderson - with Janus appearing to sell shortly after. Possible repeat? SB

We don't know the background here - so lets not get too excited on a £30K trade from a business that owns 117m shares. That said - I would be more concerned if this developed into a pattern of selling - but given the positive direction of travel i cannot seriously imagine that will happen. I wonder how our 5000 domain premium sales inventory is going. If our sales and deletes continue at current pace we could end the year with 2m+ domains generating up to $19/20m in revenue, $12m in total costs, all legacy issues resolved and no debt. SB

1,2,3,5 and 7.vip have been sold as far as i can see. You fancy starting the bidding for 8....!! SB

in the same vein i wonder how much 8.xxx went for......Chinese purchase perhaps?! SB

The buyback is both limited in scale and time - so £1m - or c.15 million shares at current prices - is quite significant in a two month period up to publication of the H1 2019 results. I think it was done primarily to show the company is generating distributable cash flow, is aware of the share price disconnect to operating performance, and that it recognises shareholders need to believe management are listening to well founded concerns on how the company intends to show it has deal with its historic, albeit inherited, baggage. The other word that has not been mentioned recently is 'dividend'. Is the buyback - which in all reality is unlikely to be used up by 25 Sept - just a stepping stone to a dividend announcement. It will be interesting to see where the share price gets to by 25 Sept and whether it actually results in creating shareholder value - lets hope so. SB

bakky - you would obviously be able to cancel a lot more shares at 5p than 6p,7p.......every cloud eh!

Some clarity on the buyback mechanism would be good - a buyback at a premium to the current price would good for some who bought low, but not so good for others who would still be selling at a loss. If there is another way that capital can be returned to shareholders without selling at a loss to benefit from the buyback programme then that would be interesting.

Meanwhile - another great day for registrations - certainly by volume. We are now a top 5 gtld registry! SB

Cheers Rykan - lets see which way they go - tender offer or a £1m kitty to soak up sells. If they want to return capital to shareholders the first option would appear to be the easier solution. SB

The comments on the share buy back are purely my thoughts and may be completely incorrect so please don't work on the principle there is a short term 20% return available here for the portion of shares you would be able to redeem. ATVB to all. And yes bakky - we got there eventually on the .vip 1M! SB

One of the things that frustrates me is the changing references to how our turnover is publicised. I don’t know if its deliberate – but mmx have used billings, revenues in the past (and I appreciate the difference) and now its cash inflows – maybe just being pedantic – but stick with one definition.
If we are to assume from the update that H1 2019 income received was $8.6m v H1 2018 of $6.3m (reported as $6.4m in the unaudited release from last year which included $250k from ICM), and the former includes $2.8m of ICM ‘stabilised’ costs, then despite a 30% increase in new sales billings, our like for like turnover for the original 28 mmx domains has decreased from $6.05m to $5.8m (virtually back to H1 2017 levels) – despite the belief that our renewals are being renewed at higher prices that the original sales (esp in the .vip and .work domains). And that’s despite some premium sales in .law and .vip amongst others. I know we are now one business so don’t have a go at stabilising ICM revenue and avoid the same issue on our original portfolio.
The deal to pay .london a one off $5.1m isn’t as bad as I first thought given the current balance sheet liability is $7.9m and we might actually make a bit of positive income over the remainder of the contract (3 years to go I think). An overall $3.3m balance sheet improvement.
It will be good to see how the buyback is done; I suspect it may be a tender offer similar to the previous one which provided shareholders with the option to sell shares back to the company at a premium to current valuation. A 20% premium would see shareholders offered c. 7.2p to sell a portion of their shares at that price, with £1m allowing circa 14 million shares to be bought at that price (or roughly 1.5% of your holding). Doesn’t remove many shares but the share price should move. SB

Some good, some not so good stuff here. Once again it looks like our full year PBT will get wiped out by London legacy. If you remove ICM’s $2.8m then our portfolio declined YOY - I would have expected that our renewal revenue would be higher so not entirely sure what’s happening to renewal income. The comment on ICM’s revenue decline was also worrying - although the blocking service should mitigate that in H2. As for cash in bank - we should have more - but don’t know if the $8.9m includes restricted cash - if not, that would make sense. Not sure £1m will make any difference - although that’s roughly equivalent to 0.1p per share if it was a dividend. Let’s see what mr market makes if things. SB

Afternoon all. I’m lucky enough to be on hols in lake Garda which helps my mood. There are likely many reasons why there is so much do discontent at present although we all know the primary problem is the share price - or more importantly the company valuation at £50m seems out of balance with our perception of where we should be. However - until we deliver actual numbers and show the company has become the annuity business it has been claimed - we have to deal with the past. In relation to .vip - have we sold 1 million domains - of course we have - its just our annual run rate which is lower for now. As for .law - yes it’s not great in volume - but we sold $500k in Q1 so it’s contributing. As others have noted - generally our portfolio is growing - all the evidence points to that - both in numbers and hopefully revenue - which the company really should provide some clarity on ASAP. What remains unclear (numbers aside) is the business model. For me that is becoming more important - and may be linked to our under performance. What are we trying to be? Are we looking to grow our registry, to consolidate our position as a leading independent operator - or are we merely hoping that one day someone will offer us £200m.....which of course would be nice but it would be nice to know the plan. SB

Dandee - it’s actually a 5 year low...let’s look to the day when it’s a five year high. SB

Thanks for update the SJL - The age verification process does seem a bit of a shambles in the uk - hopefully it will sort itself out as it is an area which needs proper regulation. It’s a pity about your trip - but I hope we will get some news soon enough that will lift all our summer spirits. SB

Sunday. I would be very surprised if we do not get a trading update next week - i expect it to be very impressive. All the indicators are positive, and mmx must be keen get some good news out - there must be a considerable pressure on the team to show what they have achieved. Its not great to give the market bad news; so for me the opposite is true in that when you have the ability to show real progress then there should be a real willingness to get that info out. SJL is likely to be in London as we speak and will no doubt be meeting with company and shareholders alike to seek the reassurances required of someone with his shareholding. That said - this is a big investment for me and likely to be for others also and our valuation needs addressing; the market is active and we need to show we are one of the strongest financially performing businesses in our sector to drive the share price to where it should be. SB

I know I'm starting to sound like a broken record on this subject, but before we keep on requesting mergers and buyouts and offers and management changes and consolidation - lets wait and see what happens when either a H1 2019 trading performance is issued (which i expect) or when we see the unaudited H1 2019 results released in Sept (which is too long to wait IMO given the current share position). If those results don't deliver for shareholders - then yes perhaps some thought should be given to value focused alternative's - but lets not kid ourselves that we will have any say in such events - that requires major shareholder step in - although that's not to say they would not listen to a reasoned debate with us mere PI's......SB