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Quite shocking results as @mugginsthedog has already commented. What I don’t understand given the closure last year of what were the major subsidiaries, why is the Membrane area reporting first half admin expenses of over £600k? Where has this money gone?
Just as well there is the prospect of a takeover by SKIN, which has my full support before all shareholder value is thrown away.
It's clear from the offer document, that under Section 11 "Modern Water current trading and prospects", there is no mention of the Membrane Division, the focus is all on the Monitoring Division. It's the Monitoring Division that has a good fit with Integumen and not Membranes. I wonder where the industry partners of the Membrane Division sit in all this, will the Membrane Division be sold to one of them or indeed another party after the take-over (if it goes ahead)?
@mugginsthedog. I understand your frustration from my perspective of being a long term holder and investor in MWG. MWG has flipped flopped strategy, over the last 12 years. Even in the last 12 months its gone from trying to sell the monitoring division to focus entirely on membranes, despite having liquidated the main operating business, to then back to focusing on both.
I share your views on the carelessness of the website and its links etc. In the same vain, even details at Companies House appear to be wrong, with Modern Water Holdings showing its registered address still in Guildford and the Annual Return several months late.
It is disgraceful that existing shareholders didn’t get to participate in the 0.5p placing, also of note is that the existing senior executive management didn’t even participate, yet again.
I think that @gjbrandon has made a substantial impact on the business, certainly in terms of communication and trying to make the most of the monitoring products, where there are natural synergies with his other businesses. I have my doubts about the membrane business, which is the area where the vast majority of the funding has gone and the patent portfolio appears to be, as there just isn’t the synergies. The growth of this side of the business is dependent on partners and the question is how secure is the IP and knowhow, when working with partners?
As @gjbrandon has said it’s only four months since he has been in place and its clear he has already had a big impact, we do need to give him time. However, in my opinion, he must get the senior management sorted out given they have presided over spending more than £40m in funding and it’s all been lost.
I intend to agree with @mugginsthedog having followed and invested in this company for years.
@gjbrandon thanks for the update and taking the time to reply. Pleased to see your influence really coming to improve this business and realise some of its potential which has sadly been squandered for many years.
The confusion over the Gibraltar wastewater opportunity might be reduced if the company's website actually was updated to reflect the project was lost. The Investment Case (https://www.modernwater.com/investors/investment-case) still shows this as being a real prospect, as well as the Investor Presentations, which would just be better deleted given the significant changes that have taken place since 2018. I wait with interest the publication of the annual results and any update on strategy.
Re mugginsthedog.
Looks as though there has been some changes in core management, as of 17 April, Toby Schumacher his appointment as Company Secretary of plc and a director of many subsidiaries was terminated.
Interesting note and thanks gjbrandon for sharing, but as FlopTheorist noted it's more a compilation of RNSs and blog posts etc.
This business has had a 'flip -flop' strategy over the last year or so, from trying to sell the monitoring business, liquidating the main operating company involved in membranes and brine concentration, then announcing the main focus was back to the membrane business by raising capital by trying to sell the US based monitoring business, and then yet another about turn and the monitoring business is being retained. There appeared to be no further investment by the Chinese partners (Hangzhou Shangtuo Environmental Technology) in the February share placing. So what happened to management's strategy to focus on the restructured membrane business? Perhaps a good thing given the opportunity that Covid-19 might present for the business.
Maybe when the annual report is published we will have a bit more clarity on where this business is going.