Member Info for Skindle

I think the market is still very sceptical of the company because of its recent history and Mr Maudsleys sale does nothing to diffuse this scepticism. On a more positive note should we be able to declare a pre tax post exceptional items profit of £17m as I suggested in a recent post then that would result in a theoretical current P/E ratio of 10. To put this into perspective N Brown currently have a P/E ratio of 37.8. On this basis our share price could double and we still wouldn't be over valued. I wish the market would open its eyes to the huge upside that is now becoming apparent. Mr Burke can obviously recognise it.

Give the man some credit Ejackson. Mr Burke had only been in office since the 12th January and he has stepped bravely up to the plate which in my opinion is a real vote of confidence in Findel. That now explains two of the three transactions that took place yesterday, one a 90,000 sale by Mr Maudesley to cover a tax liability and a purchase of 40,000 by Mr Burke both at 12.25pm. We have still not received any explanation for the 50,000 share transaction at the same time or the 204,252 transaction earlier in the day. Could we really finally be out of the woods ? Let's hope that the share price doesn't slip back again as it has done previously.

Firstly It is noteworthy that our new man Mr Burke did not pen this trading update despite commencing work as our new chairman on the 12th January, why ?Secondly, the company have taken the bull by the horns and pre warned the market of further exceptional items to come in the year end report rather than leaving it as a bombshell in the finals in June. Provided that those declared exceptional items are accurate we should still emerge with a pre tax profit of around £17m.

If we are not careful this could result in a positive year end P/E ratio and EPS !!

The price was marked up today on zero volume, not seen that before.

Taken from a BBC report today about retail spending being significantly down in December 2016. 'Shoppers also bought more online, spending about £1bn a week, which was 21.3% higher than in December 2015'.

As a result of that 5,000 share transaction yesterday. So far this year 490,408 shares have changed hands at £1.90 or above against 62,096 at £1.89999 or below.

You may be nervous and excited Ejackson, I will be absolutely terrified if the third quarter update bears any resemblance to the third quarter debacle of last year. An over cautious appraoch to supplying demand was a dressed up profit warning as you may remember. With the FTSE continuing its record breaking run and several retailers recently reporting improved trading over Christmas the pressure will be on our board of directors to report similarly improved sales. The back drop of positive newsfeed in our sector and across the wider economy will stand in stark contrast if our board dare to report one single negative aspect of our performance.

You make a good observation Khufu. The interesting aspect about the Speedy Hire situation is that since Toscafund succeeded in placing Mr Shearer onto their board as a non executive director in September 16, the share price has risen from 31 pence up to today's 52 pence, a seventy per cent rise.

....starts tomorrow. Might Sports Direct use this date to cause our outgoing chairman maximum humiliation by announcing a supply deal the moment our previous chap finally leaves the company ?

Provided we are able to report trading in line with expectation at the year end which is edging ever closer, our forward p/e ratio is 6.39. Fund manager Crispin Odey, a large Sports Direct shareholder was heard to say recently that "I am very happy to be buying anything on eight times' earnings". I think Mr Ashley should be reminded that his company is not demonstrating any 'supportive shareholder' tendencies of Findel despite its claims last year. Maybe Mr Odey is our man to press this point on the Sports Direct board of directors as they would appear to respect his views.

It would appear that 400,781 shares changed hands last Wednesday 4th January 2017 at £1.90, during the middle of the day. I am puzzled as to why the reporting of these transactions are delayed and why our share price didn't rise higher. You can be sure that if these transactions were sales, the share price would have dropped by five per cent.

My answer to your question is contained in my most recent post of the 30th December. My mind has turned to the subject of why our outgoing chairman has stepped down now. Having spent over seven years sorting out the business and enduring the wroth of shareholders like us, why step down now when the end of our problems is allegedly in sight. My conclusion is that Toscafund, Schroders and Sports Direct have colluded to bring about the end of his reign. Blocking all attempts by Sports Direct to place one of their representatives on our board and overseeing the sale of Kitbag to a rival has probably counted against him. Both of those decisions were correct ones in my opinion. I just hope that our incoming chairman can remain as impartial and resist the bullying tactics of Sports Direct. I am now looking forward to an upbeat trading statement at the end of January.

Sales from new and established customers continuing to generate strong growth during the peak Christmas trading period; orders during Black Friday week up 36%, a record week for the business. If this exert from the half year trading statement is to be believed then I think we can look forward to a very positive third quarter trading update towards the end of January 2017. Let's hope that Mr Burke adopts a more positive tone than our previous incumbent. A very happy new year to all my fellow Findel shareholders.

Interesting to note that Sports Direct have entered into an agreement to sell its Dunlop brand. The exert " Sports Direct's senior management team currently needs to prioritise the core UK businesses and relationships with third party brands and does not currently have the bandwidth to develop and manage international brands simultaneously. As such, Sports Direct intends to use the proceeds of sale from the Transaction in its commitment to its third party brand relationships." Could Findel be described as one of Sports Directs "third party brands" ?

Fair point, but to our knowledge he hasn't fallen out with Mr Ashley.........yet !! On this basis the possibility of a supply contract from Sports Direct is infinitely higher than it was one day ago under Mr Sugden.

I am afraid that Mr Sugden will not be fondly remembered by this shareholder. I am sure the measures he has taken over the past couple of years have been necessary but the chair or chief executive of a plc can only be judged on the cold hard figures of a share price. In this instance we have witnessed a significant diminution in share value going back as far as July 2014. It may prove that Mr Sugden had become the problem rather than the solution. It must be assumed that there was no relationship between him and our largest shareholder who could add significantly to our value if he so chooses. Could it be that Mr Ashley was not prepared to offer any assistance with Mr Sugden at the helm. I can't think of any other reason why Sports Direct are not channelling their products through Express Gifts. Let us hope that the change today heralds the turning of a corner.

I am pleased to see Toscafund adding rather than reducing. I think this purchase might be significant in so much as it gives Toscafund and Schroders collectively a slightly larger holding than Sports Direct. More importantly is the announcement today of a new chairman in Mr Ian Burke, which one assumes is acceptable to the above mentioned holders. Again, no interest from the market though. I wonder how Mr Ashley feels about this ?

I was only trying to remind Sports Direct shareholders that their own company still owns a large chunk of us. The comparison to this ridiculous situation that we find ourselves in is Mr Ashley and Sports Direct taking delivery of its shiny new aeroplane and then leaving it parked on the tarmac without using it or hiring it out. After all, the purchase price of the jet and 29.90% of Findel is not dissimilar ! Maybe the plan is to take delivery of the plane and fly to our head office and negotiate terms for a supply contract.

As a shareholder of Findel, it makes no sense to me why Sports Direct have paid well in excess of £40m to buy 29.90% of our business and not be utilising our online platform to sell its product range. Our online retail business, Express Gifts currently has over 1.2 million active users. Not one single product from the vast Sports Direct product range is currently being marketed to our client base. It looks to me like Mr Ashley is more interested in spending his profits on big boys toys rather than focussing on how to grow the revenue and pre tax profits further.