Member Info for Takayama

Dagz. Sorry buddy. I was busy scoffing my lobster in the Michelin starred restaurant I was in this evening. But yes, I’ll consider how to retort when I am a little less busy. My holding of a couple of mill is a side hobby, but an entertaining one nevertheless. Do the math, and I’m sure you’ll agree with my suggested strategy. The science behind CFG is surprisingly good to top it all off!

I was a little busy today Longlad! ;-)

Dagz-Lol!

Peg: “ With the share price falling so much following the buyback it has cancelled out the increase in NAV. ”. Sure. The sp only matters at the point of sale. I’m between, so what if it fell to 0.1p? Yep, there’s be a lot of angry shareholders wondering what’s going on, but we’d all know the assets have retained their value. Once we sell the assets, we’ll have more cash and so either the share price increases back up to reflect the NAV or there’s another special dividend. Sure, if we have another special dividend, timing is everything- keep the announcement to after the buyback (or two), to allow some trading to continue. And yes, you’ll always have cash should another properly good opportunity come your way. Another 20m buyback would cost perhaps 500k. Money well spent assuming we don’t lose on LGP or CFG. The reason the sp is low, I’d venture, is because there isn’t much value assigned to the bod we have. Sp often reflects confidence in the management team.

Pegasus - so it all hangs on whether you think any of the existing investments will provide a return. I'd say yes. I'd be quite happy for buy backs to continue for the next four years and the remaining money to be paid back as special dividends. On a personal level, that would provide me with a reasonable return (so all my investment back with a little bit more) as well as a lot of free shares that will give me a decent slice of the pie when the assets are cashed in. I don't think there is the insight or the expertise (Pascual is an expert in Cannabis but we don't need him anymore) on the board as far as experience has dictated to identify a winner in a particular sector. so any further spending of the pot would likely result in money just wasted. Might as well spend it in the pub. Like you, I seem to be better at picking winners in exciting sectors (IT security was my last winner) than this board. I don't have belief that they are more likely to pick a winner than a loser. I'm content with the existing investments as being the fund until its termination. I agree that we could whittle the board down, but I'd suggest that it would be to one person, with one or two more on a NED consultancy basis until the strategy of cash return, share buy back to 50% and winding up of the company is terminated.

I'm not entirely following what you're saying. The first point is that you want them to invest in something with risk but the second point is you have no faith in their ability to invest in a winner. I think we'd all like them to invest in something that is going to be a ten bagger, but given the track record of the people on the board, that is less likely to be by design. Your point about NAV likewise doesn't really reflect reality. The purpose of the buy back is so that when the company cashes in its investments, the spoils are shared between less investors, so we all get more. Likewise, any increase in the valuation of any asset before liquidation will provide a greater increase in NAV than if there are more shares. And so on. So a buyback will not only magnify the increase NAV with increases in valuations of assets, but will also provide a low risk investment. There is indisputably value here. It's pretty straightforward stuff to understand.

Good points Pegasus. The difficulty is that there is a degree of risk in the strategy you’ve outlined. Do we have confidence that the team we have are mitigating risks well enough? The deep dive into cannabis, then broadening into ‘wellness’, into Lifestyle ‘brands’… . It’s good that the board are recognising we want them to display they are adding value and them buying shares is a good use of their salaries. But they haven’t ALL done so, and their salaries have looked like money for old rope, particularly on the last 12 months. So a company share buy back is lower risk. It adds value idée believe in our existing investments. There are two that I’d suggest are likely to demonstrate significant value over the next five years. If the company survives that long, we’ll do well. It’ll survive if we don’t waste our cash reserves. And if half of the company shares are in treasury by that time, so much the better for us holders.

LGP is, realistically, well run and doing ok but seriously undervalued by the market because of lack of sentiment for cannabis stocks. I wonder if a bid is on the cards? I’ve no evidence but it wouldn’t be a poor move by anyone. We’d get a serious reevaluation of that part of our portfolio at that point.

There’s got to be an obvious value move on the cards. The obvious ones would be either another share buy back, or a complete liquidation. There isn’t a reason to buy otherwise. Lance obviously knows, so if anyones got any spare dosh, I reckon now is a good time to jump back in. The only negative indicator (aside from the usual ones) is that other Directors didn’t coordinate buys with Lance.

Barwick. I have to admit switching off Twitter. ‘Cess pool of hate’ is perhaps a more apt moniker these days. I’m getting the gist here though. Nice one!

Dagz! Always love your posts mate! The lack of punctuation make it even better!

Well, that's interesting. I wouldn't be surprised to see a couple of things: share buyback announced would be one.

Longlad. As much as I appreciate the spirit of your comments about Ed, would you mind holding off from the personal comments please? You’re not a farmer, to coin a phrase.

Good debate. So the conclusion is let’s hope Ed continues the buy back. And another 1p divi, but not announce it now to keep the sp depressed. He can announce it next March.

I agree with other posters. We're enough invested in cannabis. Our risk exposure in that particular area is enough. Not sure Pascual has any mileage left in him given his single area of specialism. I'd suggest he could go and perhaps operate on an advisory basis rather than a salaried basis if at all. We need to diversify. An easy spot would be to look at where HMG has identified the future. National Security Strategic Investment Fund provides some ideas in case Ed is short of where to look (type in Google to see). Darktrace had been an obvious candidate a couple or so years ago given the pedigree of the start up team, and perhaps the novel area that SEED had been created to exploit. Perhaps a little late now, but it feels that we're looking in the wrong areas. Oil and Gas may bring a return but it isn't the novel area where I thought we'd be investing. Old and tired.

Anyway, there's a new strategy due in September/October. I'd be happy with a reannouncement of a share buy back of another ten per cent as per the rules. It remains a bargain at this price. And one of the NEDs/Pascual being given the chop to keep an eye on the cost of running the business.

It would be good to see some positive action from the board. Despite the ‘buyers market’ Ed goes on about, we haven’t invested in anything for as long as I can remember. Do we really need three NEDs? The best strategy seems to be a repeat of a ten percent share buyback asap with this bargain price to maintain interest. 10% pa is the limit so let’s crack on and only after that is complete so we get another special divi. Or even wait 24 months before the special divi so we can get 20% bought back… . And let’s get rid of at least one NED. We seem over staffed for such a small investment vehicle with a disproportionate wage bill.

Fordm- it is sector relevant. It provides an early indication of what news may be for other players in the sector. It suggests that IAG will announce similar news, if it hasn’t already. It is good for the industry. It is a buy signal. And so on. Not sure why you’d ask the question?

On track for ‘another record breaking summer’.

Or we could have another share buy back announced (10% limit pa unfortunately) as well as the second special dividend. My guess is that is where we are going.

Good pointer samval. Here’s to another resolution in spetemberish for the next slice of 10%. And the next divi too.