Member Info for Stuartrm

Yesterday, the BBC reported the following:

“ The government has intervened to stop car loan firms from potential multi-billion pound compensation payments over concerns they could have a significant and potentially damaging impact on the motor finance market.

Last year, the Court of Appeal said that lenders and dealers should have communicated clearly to customers how much commission they were making from selling loans, and compensate them when this did not happen.

MotoNovo and Close Brothers, two of the UK's biggest car finance firms, will appeal the ruling in April after hundreds of thousands more customers came to the financial regulator with similar complaints of being missold car loans.

The government said that while it wants to make sure customers get re-dress, it also wants the motor sector to be able to continue "supporting millions of motorists to own vehicles".”

Does anyone know if LIT are involved in, and will be affected by, this?

The market will need consistent sales of assets at above book value and/or the total value of quoted holdings to be near or above the current fund value.

It is only a ceasefire, not a peace deal, so don’t expect too much, if anything.

Is it too late to wish the Competent Person a prosperous New Year? If he manages to extend the ongoing review for yet another year, I am sure it will be: at least for him.

No, unfortunately. The price has been effectively flat for 5 years (allowing for the split this year). When this is adjusted for inflation, your description of the performance is very generous.

I certainly do not claim to have greater knowledge than others but for what it is worth, here is my six pennyworth. For several months now I have noticed that the market seems to be over-fixated on the magnificent seven and US interest rates, to the extent that a wobble in one or other, or a projection or speculation of a wobble, causes what appears to be a mini panic in much of the remainder of the market. This is particularly pronounced with tech type trusts (look at the drops in SMT, WWH, IEM and PCT over the last few days) and small companies. Yes, many of smaller companies have had hiccups but the market reaction to them tends to be very severe while any good (or better) news that comes along is virtually ignored. Unfortunately the options for we investors boil down to riding out the storm until sentiment improves, which is what I am doing, or cashing up (probably at a significant loss) and sitting on the sidelines. I suspect, however, with the deteriorating political situation and increasing uncertainty in so many places I will have one heck of a wait before green shoots start to appear, so my choice may not be the wisest. Only time will tell.

I basically agree, TradeWizard89, but until actual, or at least projected, $ and c income is stated it looks as if the share price will continue to languish.

A 7.4 times return on the purchase price is impressive enough but in terms of the current Molten share price, does anyone know what the holding valuation of M-Files was at the time of sale? That is, was it sold for more or less than the current book value? Thanks.

Steady as she goes is one interpretation of the results. Stuck in a rut with a hope of jam tomorrow is another. One pays one's money and takes one's choice.

Https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/lithium

Here is s summary of what he writes:

"This fintech fund is a stand-out buy"

"Proforma cash backs up 30 per cent of the £162mn market cap"

"Seventh portfolio company exit, all .....at or above the last published valuation"

"Exit price (of last exit, FullCircl) represents a 75 per cent increase on the company's last published valuation"

"(NAV, after this exit) implying the shares in the £162m market capitalisation (of Augmentum) are trading on a massive 42.5 per cent discount to book value"

"top 10 holdings, which represent 81 per cent of the total portfolio valuation, reported average annualised revenue growth (of) per cent earlier this year and are cash generative (five positions) or have an average of 20 months cash runway."

"They are well worth buying ahead of the forthcoming results. Buy"

It looks like it, DaveT1. Perhaps some details of the skilled person review will finally be announced shortly.

Steph remarks below that it is “Silly to be at 50% NAV/share when we should start turning a sustainable profit soon (ie by year end).” Should is the operative word. As long as the NAV per share continues to fall, investors will require a large safety factor to minimise the risk of the NAV falling below the share price. If, and hopefully when, the NAV starts to rise the factor of safety (discount, if you prefer) should reduce. The problem will be that one swallow doth not a summer make and given the recent track record, it may take a period of consistent NAV rises, and/or profitable asset disposals, before the discount narrows appreciably.

The most worrying part for me is Sangijuelas1's comment that "Martin has been completely exorcised from their website.". This suggests that something more sinister than a divergence of managerial views has happened.

Here is our answer, by the look of things, in today’s Trading Update:

“ Half Year Highlights:

NAV per share (unaudited) expected to be circa 644p (30 September 2023: 735p, 31 March 2024: 662p)”

So it appears as if this “leaked out” before the announcement was made.

Maybe, Steph, but sudden drops like this, in the absence of a widespread market dip, often seem to occur just before an announcement of bad news - suggestive, one might suspect, of that news "leaking" to a select few.

I hope you are right, JamesPope44, but I remember being royally shafted by Teddy Sagi over Kape.

The IC AIM review this week concludes:

"The company maintained full-year guidance, but Shore Capital has cut its revenue and earnings per share forecasts by 3 per cent and 5 per cent, respectively. The shares look cheap at 7.5 times forecast earnings but its patchy track record doesn't inspire a great deal of confidence. Hold MF"

The last results RNS stated "As announced on 27 June 2024, Jarvis continues to work through the skilled person recommendations and is creating an additional remediation plan to address the points arising from the report. Phase 2, which requires the Skilled Person to review the remediation work undertaken by JIML on the matters raised in any of the three s.166 reports, has now commenced and is expected to be completed by Q4 2024. As part of this work the Skilled Person will also be required to provide a Reasonable Assurance Opinion to the FCA (confirming the Skilled Person is confident as to the completeness of the remediation) along with any final recommendations."

In my book, Q4 started on 1 October so we are overdue an update.

Reluctant as I am to get involved in a debate regarding what the NHS might know about CIZ and what effect that might have; any ambitions the government might have to reduce NHS waiting lists; and what money might or might not be provided by government agencies to any given company to advance any such ambitions, might I suggest that viewing the now dated BBC series "Yes Minister" and the sequel "Yes Prime Minister" would illustrate how difficult it is to anticipate what our political masters will do? What might seem to be a simple and cost effective solution is rarely adopted for a myriad of reasons that are not immediately obvious to those who are outside the decision making process.