Member Info for Skindle

The share price continues to be walked down on thin volume. Does Mr Ashley own and control everything !!!!

Meanwhile the Lloyds Banking Group and its subsidiaries has declared that it owns 50,621,695 - 23.97 pence convertible shares, or 30.33 per cent. This folllows the disclosure last week that Royal Bank of Scotland owned 30,451,618 of the same convertible shares, equivalent to 18.24 per cent. Could it be that these convertible shares were given to our lenders as part of their lending terms ? In which case, could it be that these shares were issued by the company with strict conditions not to convert unless absolutely necessary ?

The duty and priority of any board of directors is to act in the best interest of the majority of shareholders. In this case 63.2 per cent of shareholders will be opposed to this hostile attempt at an under valued takeover. At this ridiculously discounted level virtually all shareholders will be losing money. To achieve maximum value the board must make it a priority to publish the 2018/19 accounts as quickly as possible. I am expecting a minimum EPS of 30 pence. Based upon this, anything under 300 pence a share and the board would be selling us out too cheaply.

Understood now thank you. The effect on the share price if all convertible holders convert is the same as a rights issue I assume.

Okay, so if converted, 86,442,534 would become 94,786,469 ? Should we expect more holders declaring their interests in the form of these 23.97 pence convertible shares ? If so, this dilution and diminution could continue for a while.

So converting creates 8,343,935 ordinary shares. That is equivalent to 9.65 per cent of the total number of shares in issue. Our 8.3’s have uncovered thirteen larger holders with one per cent or more. Those thirteen hold a total of 91.42 per cent. Add this to 9.65 per cent equals 101.7 per cent and fourteen holders ?

Thanks for your explanation 1GW_, what you say sounds entirely plausible. My below average level of intelligence is not helping me to understand this however.

So that is a total of thirteen holders with more than one per cent including SPD who hold a total of 91.42 per cent. The last RNS is something I am not familiar with. Nat West Markets hold 30,451,618 (18.34%) 23.97 pence convertible shares. What are these shares and how much control does this give them ?

Apologies 1GW_, my mistake, just read your post again.

I hadn’t read about Toscafunds involvement with NTQ. I was aware of their involvement with SDY however. Similarly very active here also. They tried to bully the founding chairman off the board which he resisted but managed to have David Shearer appointed to the board as a NED. Then they just sold their twenty per cent holding over night much as they did with FDL.

Given what we know, what do you think fair value for the business is ? What will our board have in mind as an acceptable price ?

Should we present a nice clean set of accounts for 2018/19 with a PBT of £28m as suggested, this will result in EPS of around 32 pence and a P/E ratio of 5.3 at current levels.

Two unanswered questions, why did City Financial Investment Company Limited sell their shares at such a low price and why did Toscafund decide to call it a day before Christmas ? Are they both unhappy with the way the business is being run or do they know something that we don’t ?

After the mandatory (derisory) offer was announced on Monday I had expected the price to jump back up above 200 pence as it did when Sports Direct first declared its interest in the business in 2015 (?). Just prior to their entry the price had been falling as inexplicably before bouncing back up with the announcement that Toscafund and Schroders has both agreed to sell part of their holdings to Sports Direct.

Also interesting to note and easy to miss that Mr Caldwell made another purchase just an hour and forty five minutes before the derisory offer was announced. This is a man who knows more about our business than most. I take comfort from this.

The diminution in the value of the Findel share price as orchestrated by the market makers.

Well done Mr Caldwell, this confirms that there is nothing untoward inside the business.

Every share trade now regardless of whether it is a buy or sell is causing the share price to drop. What is the purpose of this strategy ? Who is the ultimate beneficiary ?

Our now former NED made a brief television appearance last night on one of the news channels in his capacity as a former director at Iceland (?), commenting on the current situation at Tesco.

Analysts at N+1 Singer expect pre-tax profit of £31.5m for the year ending March 2019, giving EPS of 27.7p, compared with £26.8m and 23.4p in FY2018.

I lifted this from the Investors Chronicle article published just after our final results in June 2018. It would appear that N + 1 Singer are expecting a higher PBT than the company itself.

Our seller continues to reduce, suppressing the share price back to pre trading statement levels. When will this turn positive ? There is certainly nothing more that either the company or our board of directors can do to change the current sentiment, they have done as much as could be expected.

Yes I accept that the underlying performance is the measurement by which the market assess progress. A profit is a profit however so the actual PBT for 2018/19 is likely to be in excess of £30m.

Despite these encouraging figures investors still appear to be reluctant to buy in. Hopefully over the course of the next week or so the good news will stimulate some positive buying.

That’s a new one on me 1GW_. Very strong trading statement, especially the core debt reduction from £80.9m on the 29.09.18 to c£54m on 31.12.18. I was expecting a “better than expected” report rather than “at the upper end” having declared a £17.1m PBT for the half year.

A sparkling trading statement from Boohoo today and I was initially surprised to see the share price drop until I discovered that their P/E ratio is 70 compared to our 9. The Boohoo market cap is around £2b compared to our £173m. You have to achieve some huge revenue and PBT to justify those values.

Only two weeks until the third quarter trading statement. Meanwhile the share price is moving in a very curious way. Today was a case in point. The first trade of the day was 25,000 shares bought at 210 pence. From that moment on the price just fell away despite there being more buys than sells. There doesn’t appear to be much appetite for this particular company at the moment. I hope that this is not a prelude to a negative statement.

Yesterday in the Bank of America position, converting a small amount of voting rights through financial instruments to voting rights attached to shares. So BAML were still holding 7.044% of the shares as of the 31st December 2018.

Bank of America, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley would appear to be acting as market makers. Could this be an attempt by Sports Direct to buy the remaining shares of the business that they don’t already own ? I’m not convinced by this as SD through Mr Ashley are actively trying to save the High Street from those evil online retailers. Could this be Mr Ashley hedging his bets or is there another interested party looking to buy the company given the recent strong half year report. It is significant that several of our board directors Chose to increase their holdings recently.