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I finally took the plunge to invest in ITM today. The recent sell off in green energy followed by yesterday’s drop on trading update were too good an opportunity to resist. Whilst revenue didn’t meet expectations for Q1 it is the future growth in revenue which excites me. The high levels of investment and partnerships with some of the biggest names in energy are impressive. I expect a steady flow of good news in the coming weeks and months to get the share price moving back up.

AJP fingers crossed you are right. Hopefully someone like Croda…

AJP my first thoughts on potential investors are that it is likely to be one of their existing investors. In order of size:
HL 14.9%
IP 11.2%
John Shaw 10.2%
II 5.1%
Octopus 5%
Halifax 5%
Guy Broadbent 4.2%
Barclays 3.3%
Figures as of end 2020.
Elsol - agree there is no such thing as a minimum stock price in the turbulent world we live in. However on a personal level I feel confident this will not dip below 12p and I am also confident of significant share price increases over the coming weeks and months based on my research. As always I encourage everyone to do their own due diligence and research.

I agree with all the comments here (except for the one obvious exception who I have now filtered). I think AJP you are likely to be proven right on upcoming good news. I have been busy adding all week. The best thing about the recent fund raise at 12p is that is basically future proofs this stock from every falling below 12p again. There is no way investors would have put their money in if they didn’t think there was significant rise in share price to follow.

Today’s placement of new shares means there are now only 12% of all shares available to us mere mortals. Those 12% are in sticky hands so it’s going to be increasingly difficult for us to buy Itaconix shares. I’ve made another top up this morning.

If that’s where the money is going (expansion of current facilities) then that is fantastic news! It resolves my long standing concern that they will need to expand capacity to meet demand.

I remember being in this situation last year when Jet2 holidays had to raise capital due to the pandemic and thinking it would be awful for the share price. But the share price rocketed up on the day as investors had peace of mind that the company was financially sound.

At least it’s only a 2% dillution. Let’s hope they have some exciting plans for the proceeds. Still not cricket!

1.1m new shares

The timing of the trading update is very curious. Whilst we may not be able to predict the future we can learn from the past pattern (or lack of pattern) of trading updates:
8th June 2021 - trading update on first 5 months
5th May 2020 - trading update on first 4 months along with update on impact of Covid and reassurances around liquidity
2019 - no trading update until H1
2018 - 16th April trading update on the first 3 months
What does this tell us?
1. The company picks and chooses whether to release any update at all prior to H1.
2. When it does release an update prior to H1 there is no consistency to this either in the period that it covers or when it is released.
It is clear to me that there was a purpose to today’s trading update or they wouldn’t have released one. We just don’t know what that purpose was. There was nothing in today’s RNS that couldn’t have waited to next month’s H1 update.
So this gives me cautious grounds for optimism that something big is coming between now and H1 and why I have added a lot of shares today.
Watch this space folks!

Elsol interesting observations.
I am not sure regarding points 1, 5 and 6.
Point 1 - JS has sought to develop investor interest. Has he really decided that it’s too much?
Point 6 - One of the easiest ways to raise funds (if needed which I don’t think they are at present) would be a Rights Issue. The higher the share price the less equity they have to give away so it would not be in their interest to release a downbeat trading update.
Point 5 - I see your point but perhaps they wanted shareholders to have a more realistic view of what would be a “good” offer.
The pandemic has created incredible M&A opportunities and the big fish and busy snapping up the small fish while they’re cheap.

Yep i can see a couple of my top up buys in there showing as red. The are definitely buys. Pretty useless data on lse it would seem!

I note that Croda have been busy acquiring small companies recently. First they snapped Alban Muller - a leading maker and supplier of natural and botanical ingredients for the global beauty industry – for £15 million and then in April they bought Parfex for £38.7m who are a French fine fragrance (perfume) business.
Steve Foots, Croda Chief Executive Officer, said: “We believe that transitioning to more natural raw materials is a potential differentiator in the fragrance market. Parfex will play an important role in Iberchem’s plans to increase its sustainable fragrance offerings and further enhances our position in the creation of higher-value fine fragrances.”

Can you think of any other companies producing environmentally sustainable solutions that Croda might be interested in buying...

@AJP I like the JS quote at the bottom and the word “positioning”!
“ As we increase recognition of the Company's green credentials, improve our balance sheet, and expand our line of sustainable products, we are positioning Itaconix for new routes to broader revenue horizons in the emerging low-carbon economy."

*buy out

@pokerchips there is nothing in today’s rns that suggests that is likely. They only talk of an improved balance sheet! Still think a bit out is coming though as they can’t expand fast enough in line with demand IMO

Having had a chance to digest this mornings update I think it increases the chances of a buyout. Why? Because Itaconix has a sought after product with a million and one potential applications but it is still a small company without the resources to expand as fast as the opportunity presented. I imagine there will be many bigger fish looking at today’s update, perhaps some of Itaconix’s own customers. I have just bought another 30,000 in 2 transactions as this price is too good an opportunity. I do think the timing of the trading update is odd given we are a month away from
H1. I hope my suspicions are right.

Onassis do you have anything credible to say or are you just throwing out random meaningless one liners that hoping that these will somehow persuade investors to sell

86% of shares are held by institutions/ insiders so there is a small free float of shares available.

Fair enough but do we understand why that is? I would have thought that most revenue would be recurring.