Member Info for Skindle

The time is coming where Mr Ashley as CEO of Sports Direct will be forced by advisors and shareholders to make some decisions as regards Findel. As I see it he will have three options. 1) sell some or all of his shares in Findel which cost over £40m to acquire in the first place. This will probably realise a loss at the current price. 2) negotiate a supply deal with Findel thus increasing the revenue and pre tax profit of Sports Direct while pushing up the Findel share price when news of the deal is announced and of course improving the value of his 29.90% holding. 3) buy Findel out completely although as Ejackson has pointed out Sports Direct have currently prudently paused in the pursuit of strategic acquisitions so this is less likely. It makes no sense to spend over £40m on a share of a business and then do nothing with it.

I've not studied the SPD interim in any great detail so that exert is of some interest. At the very least you would expect SPD to be making moves to agree a supply contract with us if only to test the waters so to speak. It would appear that Mr Ashley has spent the shareholders dividend fund on a shiny new aeroplane. I fear that the payment for this aircraft might have appeared on our expense account had he taken over as chairman. As you know I have a whole host of criticisms of our board but these pale into insignificance when one discovers what the board of SPD are up to ! Despite the large drop in pre tax profit at SPD, I am still sceptical as to whether they will make any moves to agree a supply contract or attempt to buy us out. The man is a brilliant retailer but extremely unorthodox and totally unpredictable.

Well said Ejackson. Nice to hear from a couple of new posters on this board in the recent past. I've just received some updated figures on our anticipated year end 16/17 revenue and pre tax profit. Final 31-Mar-17 Revenue - £437.58m +7% Pre tax profit £25.85m EPS 22.75p +20% These figures, should we achieve them illustrate just how under valued we currently are at £1.85 per share or £159.9m market cap. It can only be a matter of time before we receive some sort of acquisition interest.

1) Appoint a new chairman. 2) Agree a supply deal with Sports Direct. 3) Dispose of Findel Education.

Because he has been with Findel since 1987, has been the MD of the home shopping division twice, and probably knows the retail side of this business better than most. Mr Maudsley owns a significant amount of shares, most of which he has paid for and in my opinion probably deserves to take the chair above all others because of his knowledge of this company. Does anyone know something about this person that I haven't mentioned ?

Our current bean counting leaders have clearly perfected the art of the above. It is almost comical reading the reports written today and comparing them with those of the past. What I find really disappointing about the figures today and those of November 2015 is the significant rise in revenue (£21.6m) but the fall in pre tax profit before exceptional items, £3.4m (h1 2015) versus £1.9m (h1 2016). In this financial year we have not had the burden of Kitbag but our margins have diminished further. I was very impressed by the way our board jumped straight in this morning and bought more shares in our company and also by the way they deferred their salaries until we declare a post exceptional items pre tax profit....not ! That Greg Ball, you can't keep him away from buying our shares, what a great job he is performing as an NED ! Come on you overpaid prats, get your money out and back the business that you are all to willing to milk !

Well, very uninspiring figures but to be fair while it should have been better, it could have been a whole lot worse. Our board, with the exception of Mr Maudsley are nothing more than bean counters, inspirational retailers they are not. We are desperate for a new retail focused leadership. We were told in June 2016 that the financial services management team had reviewed all past products sold and identified those requiring redress or refund. Despite alluding to this work now being complete, we have had to set aside a further £3.3m in these interims to allow for further redress or refund. That exceptional item has again taken us from a pre tax profit to a pre tax loss. No further news on a new chairman until the new year. There is no shortage of appropriately qualified candidates to take the role of executive chairman on. I don't think the company are interested in finding a replacement, this could all be just a ploy to keep Sports Direct guessing. On the upside, our year end revenue will be at least £430m and possibly closer to £450m if recent trading comments are to be believed. With no further exceptional items for the second half of the year we could still be looking at circa £25m pre tax profit or 5.55% margin.

Disappointingly it looks like our present incumbent will be presenting another set of interim figures to us on Wednesday, a prospect that fills me with dread. Such a good job has he done of destroying the value of our investments in the past couple of years, it makes me wonder whether our largest shareholder has had more influence in affairs than we realise.

There is absolutely no chance of a pre interim results leak so I am astounded to see shareholders offloading two days before the release. I think this set of interims will be good so why not wait and see !

My apologies to fellow investors for the gloomy post on Saturday but those are the facts. I may be completely wrong but I actually believe that we are on the brink of a significant rise in value and I'll tell you why I believe this to be the case. Back in late 2014 the then chief executive Mr Siddle 'retired'. I believe he was invited to step down by the man who took control of the business, Mr Sugden. In the short time that this guy has been in charge, twenty one months, he has overseen two sets of final results during which a total of £79.2m of exceptional items have been declared. I then read very carefully the Exceptional Items section in the 2015/16 results written by Mr Sugden which in a nutshell said 'my work here is done, thanks for all your help, im off'. This leads me to cautiously believe that most exceptional items, for the time being at least have been declared. Any sort of pre tax post exceptional items profit in the interims next week will send the price up. In addition to this there is hope of a dividend payment either now or at financial year end and the possibility of a new leader. This may well be the turning point for us long suffering shareholders but if it isn't I make my apologies to you all in advance.

I think I am being a little naive in hoping that there will be no exceptional items this year. For the record these are the exceptional item figures including impairments over the last four financial years. 2012/13 - £11.5m 2013/14 - £18.7m 2014/15 - £47.3m 2015/16 - £31.9m. A staggering £109.4m in total. Let's just hope that this is kept to a minimum in 2016/17.

Now confirmed for release on the 30th November one week later than previous years.

I can very much concur with your actions this morning Ejackson, it helps to vent our spleens at someone every now and again. I do wonder how much we pay these nebulous communications companies for very little apparent return. Back in August when Messrs Shearer and Duddy were suggested as possible candidates for the role as chairman the share price reacted very positively. The news today didn't move the price at all so clearly the market has taken a dim view of this possible appointment. I can't help thinking that this is merely one grey suit replacing another grey suit.

Good spot Feanor but not a flicker from the market. Do we take that to mean that it is not very impressed with the potential appointment ?

I expect the interim to be released next Tuesday or Wednesday all being well. Last year revenue was £191.4m and profit before tax if £3.4m but exceptional items reduced this figure to a £600,000 loss. The recent trading statement advised that overall sales on a like for like basis were up by 6%. A simple calculation provides us with a revenue figure of £202.88m. that should produce a very healthy pre tax profit but after £4m of exceptional items last year, the big question is whether the company will come up with another raft of these mark downs that have been plaguing us for the last two years. It is quite understandable why the market is so mistrusting of Findel. A nice clean exceptional item free set of figures should really help move the share price up to the next level. Any other positive information such as news of a new chairman or a dividend payment will also help significantly. If there is no mention of a new chairman or a dividend payment and further exceptional items in the figures I fear the share price will fall.

So, America elects a megalomaniac president but we still can't find ourselves a replacement part time chairman. In the recent post close update we were told that a decision would be made "shortly". Here is the definition of shortly :- shortly ˈʃɔːtli/ adverb 1. in a short time; soon. "the new database will shortly be available for consultation" synonyms: soon, directly, presently, quite soon, in a short time, in a short/little while, at any moment/minute/second, in a moment/minute/second, in less than no time (at all), in next to no time, before long, by and by; How long is a piece of string ?

I refer to your recent description of the company Ejackson and totally agree but I would go further and suggest that it in an induced coma rather than just sleeping. The re-introduction of a dividend payment with the half year results would be the shot in the arm that is required to bring the company back to full consciousness. I hope that exceptional items that have tarnished our results for a couple of years now are over and done with for the time being.

A significant date because exactly one year ago today, the share price reached a high point of £2.5475. Is this the date that Sports Direct have been waiting for ? Take over code rules dictate that the company taking over are obliged to offer the highest price that the share price reached in the previous twelve months. We all know that our high price for the previous twelve months will reduce significantly between now and June 2017 down to as low as £1.30. Will Sports Direct be tempted to make a move to acquire us ? Do our board really care if they do or they don't ?

It is over thirty eight weeks now since the current chairman announced that he would be stepping down. We are in danger of becoming a laughing stock if a decision is not made soon in my humble opinion.

Having not offered an opinion since July 2015, our broker has woken up and issued two opinions in the space of eight days. No target price in either reiteration though.