Member Info for Skindle

The first half year of trading has come to an end so the next RNS will hopefully be the pre close trading statement which last year was released on the 1st October. If this carries some positive news, that could drive the share price up further. The first quarter update was mildly positive, so here's hoping.

I refer you to my post dated the 14th September and reiterate this message. We now have three large shareholders, Toscafund, 20.05%, Sports Direct, 18.93% and Schroders, 17.489%. There are eight other smaller shareholders who collectively own 29.70%. The natural assumption to make is that Sports Direct are the party involved in the purchase of Kitbag but this hasn't been confirmed. Whoever buys it isn't important, what is important is that we have a buyer for it whose proceeds will ultimately help to reduce debt further. Remember, Kitbag is the only loss maker of the three brands and our present incumbent confirmed more recently that it is not likely to break even in this current financial year. That would leave two brands with gross revenue of approximately £410m and pre tax profit of around £38m. At 228.5 pence this is a screaming buy.

Those three trades at 16.21, 25 and 26 added together is exactly the same number as the trade that went through at 16.53. Is there any relevance in this ?

The board and the major shareholders haven't sold us out for £2. This is vastly under valued. There will definitely be an RNS on Monday or Tuesday confirming the deal. Keep your eyes peeled for speculation in the press over the weekend.

Of the total issued share capital has just changed hands without so much as an announcement. Is this the takeover we have been anticipating ?

I align the British Bulls website to that of the BBC evening weather forecast. On this they gleefully tell us what weather we have experienced during the previous twelve or so hours. They then go on to forecast the weather for the following day covering themselves by saying "there is a little uncertainty to our forecast". If the price goes up BB says buy, if the price goes down BB says sell or short, all changes to opinion are made at the end of the trading day.

Just read the RNS, River and Mercantile have added to their holding.

If it is Toscafund, they will now be obliged to make a formal offer for the business. If it is a new buyer then we will not find out who it is because the total amount of shares traded yesterday was less than 3%.

A half a day of increased volume with more buys than sells doesn't mean a change in sentiment but encouraging nonetheless.

The more I think about this, the more I am convinced we are close to a positive correction. The beneficiaries of Findel share sellers are the market makers who have been sucking these up for weeks and marking the price down with each new sale. Good news is just around the corner, if we all sit and wait, sentiment will turn positive and the share price will fly. The market makers are just waiting for their moment. I have never met a poor market maker, they know exactly what they are doing. If you decide to sell now, the MM's will buy your share but mark the price down, in a few weeks you will regret your actions. Be warned.

Historically this company has always had to rely upon its Christmas trading to makes ends meet and this Christmas won't be any different. While the Chinese situation is worrying for the wider economy, I don't believe it will stop people in this country continuing to buy their goods through Express or Kitbag. I don't know enough about the profile of the Findel Education customer to say conclusively whether the problems facing the global economy will affect those who patronise its goods and services. Let's hope not. I am keeping my fingers crossed for some director buys prior to the closed period particularly at these lower levels.

I think we are finished with the bad news. We had more than our fair share in the 2014/15 trading year. You must remember that without the exceptional items last year, the company made a £26.5m pre tax profit. Both Findel Education and Kitbag have already had their carrying values written down. Added to this there is the cost saving from the surrender of a lease of a warehouse and no CEO salary since the previous incumbent left his post in March.

Just over two weeks until the end of the first half year of trading. The company posted a gross income of £244.1m and a pre tax profit of £1.5m for April to September 2014. That of course included the income from Kleeneze. I am expecting an income figure in the region of £230m this year and a significant improvement in pre tax profit. I'm not sure the battered share price can take any more impairments/re valuations of fixed/intangible assets.

On closer scrutiny of this British Bulls website and its historical ability to predict the movement of the price of Findel, the site was right on fifteen occasions and wrong on seventeen occasions in the last twelve months which leads me to conclude that this website had no more idea of Findels future than we have. I would suggest that you don't take too much notice of this clearly ill informed site.

On my computer it says BUY !

The bare fact is that there are more shares being sold than bought at the moment. I would really like to see the board doing more to assure current shareholders in order to arrest sales and convince non investors that Findel is a safe place to invest. I note that the percentage of shares held by the ten largest investors has dropped from over 87% to under 85%.

I think our current incumbent should seriously consider stepping forward to say something positive. He has hardly covered himself in glory since he took charge at the end of March. Under his stewardship we have lost over twenty per cent in value. In my opinion a new CEO can't come soon enough.

No great loss in my opinion. This lady did not buy any shares in the business and was costing the company £23,000 annually. We do not know what she was contributing in the back ground, but I am sure she did make one. I am sure the right decision was made in the interests of shareholders.

Results of agm just posted, results as expected.

That was a very low key trading statement last Thursday. In addition to this we did not receive the result of the agm in the same way that we did last year. Indeed, if last year is anything to go by, then we will not recieve any further RNS's until early October. Hope the share price can support itself.