Future for SND - Risk v Reward14 Aug 2024 10:44
In a bid to focus the discussion on something more tangible than what may or may not happen over the next few trading days, I've refreshed my previous post which I think sets out the investment case in terms of risk and reward.
In the short term, the only things that are likely to lead to any improvement in the SP are either a takeover offer from a party unconnected with current proceedings, or ROX offering to buy up any remaining shares before the delisting. On the former, that clearly remains a possibility, albeit unlikely now that the window of opportunity is narrowing fast. In some ways it would make strategic sense for a takeover offer to come when the SP is at its lowest, but it could also be argued that the current SP is largely irrelevant, as any offer would anyway need to be materially above 10p per share for ROX to accept it. That said, even at 10p SND is ridiculously undervalued, so it remains a possibility. On the latter, I can't see why ROX would make an offer before the delisting, as any such move would probably fall foul of the waiver (and in fact, I think I recall reading somewhere that they either not allowed to trade, or have undertaken not to). After delisting, both the above possibilities remain, but I think an offer from ROX immediately after the delisting is a distinct possibility.
While it's positive that a matched trading facility is being put in place, realistically I think there is unlikely to be much liquidity and trading on a day to day basis. That doesn't mean that the shares won't be tradeable, but it will be very difficult to determine a fair price, other than when we get the statutory information in the accounts etc. That said, JP Jenkins do publish the mid-point prices of the matched bargains that they strike, so any trades that do get made after the delisting should be visible, which might create some sense of a market value.
Beyond that, a takeover is always a strong possibility at any point and you would think that would become more likely over time, as the business grows and becomes profitable again (targeted by Q4 this year). There is also the possibility of relisting in the future, here or in the US, which is likely the most distant option for shareholders in terms of timeframes (likely 2-3 years minimum, I would guess). Presumably ROX is banking on one of these two options, as they will need an exit event to realise their gains, so a takeover or relisting probably represents both the most likely scenario and the one with the greatest returns, and I would expect that to be at many multiples of ROX's 10p entry point (so likely upwards of 10 times today's sp).
So, those are the scenarios as I see them - there is clearly risk in holding through into delisting (specifically that the minority shareholders get squeezed out by future corporate actions), but if that doesn't happen, the potential upside is very significant, and possibly huge.