The next focusIR Investor Webinar takes places on 14th May with guest speakers from Blue Whale Growth Fund, Taseko Mines, Kavango Resources and CQS Natural Resources fund. Please register here.
I don’t get it. By all readings of disclosure requirements and market abuse, they need to issue an RNS in all instances other than business as usual (being as previously disclosed to market).
If it’s business as usual, then this is going to be quite the bounce back but it seems crazy to dive in with so much big money betting against.
Can someone make this make sense!
So, reading those rules I’m still flummoxed how they aren’t issuing a statement. They are not obliged to if in discussion unless it seems possible a breach has occurred due to the share price move. So, by logic they are not on discussion about material events but that also seems hard to believe.
Key UK Listing Rules obligations
General obligation of disclosure for companies
9.1 A company must notify a Regulatory Information Service without delay of any major new developments in its sphere of activity which are not public knowledge which may:
(a) by virtue of the effect of those developments on its assets and liabilities or financial position or on the general course of its business, lead to substantial movement in the price of its listed securities; or
(b) in the case of a company with debt securities listed, by virtue of the effect of those developments on its assets and liabilities or financial position or on the general course of its business, lead to substantial movement in the price of its listed securities, or significantly affect its ability to meet its commitments.
9.2 A company must notify a Regulatory Information Service without delay of all relevant information which is not public knowledge concerning a change:
(a) in the company's financial condition;
(b) in the performance of its business; or
(c) in the company's expectation as to its performance;
which, if made public, would be likely to lead to substantial movement in the price of its listed securities.
9.3 The requirements of paragraphs 9.1 and 9.2 are in addition to any specific requirements regarding notification contained in the Listing Rules.
9.3A A company must take all reasonable care to ensure that any statement or forecast or any other information it notifies to a Regulatory Information Service or makes available through the UK Listing Authority is not misleading, false or deceptive and does not omit anything likely to affect the import of such statement, forecast or other information.
9.4 A company need not notify to a Regulatory Information Service information about impending developments or matters in the course of negotiation, and may give such information in confidence to recipients within the categories described in paragraph 9.5. If the company has reason to believe that a breach of such confidence has occurred or is likely to occur, and, in either case, the development or matter in question is such that knowledge of it would be likely to lead to substantial movement in the price of its listed securities, the company must without delay notify to a Regulatory Information Service at least a warning announcement to the effect that the company expects shortly to release information which may lead to such a movement.
9.5 The categories of recipient referred to in paragraph 9.4 are:
(a) the company's advisers and advisers of any other persons involved or who may be involved in the development or matter in question;
(b) persons with whom the company is negotiating, or intends to negotiate, any commercial, financial or investment transaction (including prospective underwriters or placees of securities of the company);
(c) representatives of its employees or trades unions acting on their behalf; and
(d) any government department, the Bank of England
Well I did say it was becoming a binary investment and it looks that way. The returns are either going to be spectacular or the crystallised losses painful.
One thing I do know. This is a disgusting way to treat long term holders and their employees. The failure to comms and manage this is properly is going to be a case study in mismanagement of a listed company.
I literally don’t get how they can allow this to continue without a market update.
I have a question here though. The share has moved so dramatically aren’t they obliged to state they are aware of the movements and confirm discussions ongoing. Silence is creating a false market.
I think it can keep the on coming! One of the oddities here is the lack of business news. Don’t forget Petrofac are somewhat (business) news worthy with their history so I’m surprised no real press speculation to this point.
If they needed a RI to support future contracts, the fools should have combined that with the TenneT announcement.
Didn’t this used to be FTSE 250. It seems to be run like it’s on AIM.
Again I’m going to question the competence of this CEO and board. If a major shareholder in dumping at seemingly any price .Why? Aren’t the management team able to manage their relationships with their major shareholders better than this. Or are they privy to information that is not public. Unacceptable.
Out of auction and down by a pence or two. Never seen anything like this on no news. Amazing incompetence of the BoD to allow this to happen. They can say all they like about getting on with business but defending the shareholder equity is still part of their responsibility. There’s still a good recovery story there - the gamble now is who actually gets the benefit. Existing shareholders or new owners.
This is the bit I don’t understand. They are either in financing talks or not. I get those talks may not be concluded but issuing a clarifying RNS would hardly make things worse. Or, they are not in financing talks so they issue a statement no reason for share price move.
I’m totally gobsmacked by the lack of action here. Rabbit in the headlights management it appears to me.
The problem being how are they funding this expansion for their contract obligations. You hope via advance payments but….
If PFC end up with a capital raise or D4E after signalling nothing of the sort in the last 6 months, the CEO and the CFO need to go. I can’t believe the levels of incompetence they have sunk to if that scenario plays out.
The stock and bonds have lost significant % in a relatively short space of time in no RNS. There is now an article the public domain stating debt restructuring needed. That might be worth a company response. Of course, no response will lead people to draw their own conclusions.
You could say ‘ahem’ press speculation having a material impact on share price and that needs a response. A 13 month low is quite eye raising regards the company’s own narrative vs reality of the trading of the stock and bonds.
To be honest, that article felt - and no disrespect to the journalist - a bit ChatGPT.
However, it’s out there and it’s a plausible reason n for the share drop, short increase and the bonds which are now trading from 70s to 50s.
If they do need a RI though, it’s appalling timing. At the time of the initial TenneT agreement would have been better. Either way, someone at the company needs to get a grip on looking out for the owners (ie shareholders) interests. The current situation is not exactly inspiring confidence in the management . So far they’ve done a lot right building the backlog but the share performance undermines all their other good work.
Astaris actually reduced from 1.4 to 1.3 from 1st to 2nd Nov. whilst Millennium increased 0.91 to 1.04
Surprises me how aggressively this is dropping. The equity and the bonds are both being hammered any the moment. As others have said, I guess we will know soon enough if their financial position requires significant dilution or D4E or this is a speculative attack into an appallingly weak UK market that simply fails to support medium / small UK business. PFC's issues strike me as as symptomatic of the general decline of the UK markets unfortunately - a Peel Hunt report today basically said UK small/mid caps are dying due to the atrocious investment environment in the UK.
On a brighter note, PFC continue to execute those awards - work commencing on one of the ADNOC awards from June. https://twitter.com/PetrofacGroup/status/1718983665521476036
Honestly, I thinks there's a great company in there with a great new management team - if they clean out those legacy contracts and manage to avoid any serious dilution , this one should be highly rewarding on a 12-24 month timescale.