Member Info for TeelaBrown

Thank you Grumpy Scouser for posting the link to the Approved Judgement of 28th August 2019.

I had read the summary but not the full judgement. Whilst I can fairly say I know nothing of Civil Law, Mr Justice Bryant does and he's provided a very full account of events involving Quindell/PwC/Greenhills/S&G.

I can certainly see why he considered the actions regarding PwC to be included.

Para 11
John Skippen, the non-executive chairman of S&G, later referred to as "the most rigorous due diligence I have ever seen".

Para 20
whether information about Quindell could be obtained by establishing a secret channel with Quindell's lending banks, he arranged to meet with a contact of his at PwC, who he described as "the Head of Restructuring" and the "lead partner" advising Quindell

Para 47
Fyi, I am sitting down with the head of PwC restructuring who I know very well to have a quiet coffee – time TBA – he claims to be advising the company! Will report back."

Para 48
Suggestions and requests for information from PwC

I've struggled to find a means of valuing ingenie, however, this very issue was raised as S&G gave some consideration to buying Quindell in its entirety:

Para 49
Questioned why not by the whole plc? As the bits we don't want are small and easily separable or shut down (as to their value who knows but telematics fascinating technology, cost a lot to buy and could either be worth a fortune or next to nothing – sells for + 30m could be 200m today and ???m tomorrow)

Some indication that S&G at least considered a higher price for PSD
Para 63
Amongst other matters, there is an internal note of 23 February 2015 which says, amongst other matters, "Maximum price? – (700)". So there is at least some evidential material, that S&G may have been willing to pay more.

Loads of references in emails relating to the usefulness of the PwC contact; priming this individual for specific information and; the need to keep the contact discrete.

It is possible yet that PWC may settle prior to a hearing. They may consider that an out of court settlement would be advantageous in order to: minimise reputational damage; retain the anonymity of the Head of Restructuring; prevent the disclosure of internal correspondence; avoid the distraction of legal proceedings and; reduce the compensation to be paid to WTG.

On the basis of the information I've read, I think that WTG has a strong case. I'm prepared to wait for the issue to be resolved. I bought a few more shares after the initial surge on Friday.

Prairie have released an RNS on 21/7/20 outlining their plans to raise A$4.0m. They give the price for the fundraise as 25c . I make that 14p.

Importantly, the only qualification to participate was being on the share register at the close of play on 20/7/20. The only limit that's given for the number of shares that can be bought is A$30,000. New shares can be bought in blocks of various sizes.

My understanding of this is that the holder of a single share will be able to buy as many new shares as they want (up to the limit) for 14p.

With Prairie being quoted on a spread of 17-19 earlier in the week it seemed like a good chance to sell at 17 then buy back at 14 giving 3p or 17%.

Spread is now 16-18 which would give 2p, 12.5%.

Thank you for the link. I'd never have managed to find it in my own.

A full page article on artificial meat and its implications for producers and consumers.

It gives an overview of some of the technologies being applied.

It strikes me as being quite bullish for the sector (pun intended!)

I'm not clever enough to be able to post a link but you should be able to find it for yourself if interested.

An overlooked issue regarding the company relates to land.

There is a possibility that at some point MPAC will be successful in obtaining planning permission for 10 acres of land at Monks Risborough, Buckinghamshire. I understand that this used to be a sports ground and the company no longer requires it. Currently on the books valued at £0.8m, I suspect there's substantial value there.

Have a look at Google Maps for Monks Risborough. "Molins Ground" is located East of the station.

I've been looking to try and find a reason for the price surge in 16/7/20.

A contributor on Hot Cooper, an Australian bulletin board, reports that an article in the Polish press discussed the litigation and valued a successful outcome as being with between 500m and 3bn (currency not stipulated but my guess would be US dollars).

Even the low end would be a huge multiple of the current value.

I also re read the research note published by Align Research in September 2017. They were giving a value of 118p per share. I'm sure that a lot of the input values they used will have changed, however, the current share price still send woefully short of any true valuation.

I expect the share price will fade back a little before moving ahead again as news of the litigation process is reported.

It is my view that as Watchstone winds down and returns cash to shareholders that most investors are overlooking a possible source of value.

On 29th August 2019 an RNS entitled "Counterclaim against Slater & Gordon (UK)1 Ltd" was published.

The RNS related to the conduct of Slater & Gordon through their agent Greenville & Co together with Price Waterhouse Coopers who were acting for Watchstone in regard to the sale of PSD.

The RNS points out:

"...an illicit back channel that Greenhill & Co ("Greenhill"), a corporate finance adviser to S&G, procured during the period of due diligence and negotiation with Watchstone's then group restructuring and technical accounting adviser, PricewaterhouseCoopers ("PwC")...”

" ...thereby gaining an unfair advantage in those negotiations, which it exploited in order to purchase the PSD at a lower price than it would otherwise have had to pay..."

" ...and did cause, Watchstone to suffer significant loss..."

The sale of PSD was for £634(?) million. The question then arises: in relation to £634,000,000 what is a "significant" loss? My guess would be 10%. It might be higher, it might be lower.

Should Watchstone instigate proceedings to retrieve £6.34m and be successful, this would we equate to 143p per share.

I raised this issue with Mr Borson and he kindly replied:

”...we stated in Mr Rose's update: "During the course of the S&G litigation we identified claims against other third parties which we are pursuing."

This remains the position and I am not able to say more than this at this stage. If a claim is commenced formally it will be publicly announced. Any decision we take to launch legal actions comes after a detailed consideration of the merits of the claim and the costs associated with such action. Rest assured where the claim is meritorious and valuable we will take whatever action is required to recover losses or damage.

Please keep an eye on RNS's for updates on our remaining legacy matters.”

Interpret this as you wish. I've made a small top up.

I've taken a look at why there hasn't been a mandatory bid for the 44% of shares not owned by Res Privata and found the following:

Takeover regulations
The Company is incorporated in the Cayman Islands and, accordingly, transactions in shares of the Company are not subject to, and shareholders in the Company will not have the protection afforded by, the provisions of the UK’s City Code on Takeovers and Mergers. However, the Articles contain provisions that are similar to elements of Rule 9 of the UK’s City Code.

Last Updated: 08.08.14

My interpretation of this is that the company, whilst registered in the Cayman Islands, will follow the UK Takeover Code. Well, they'll follow the code until such time as there's actually a requirement to follow the code!

On a separate note, I read elsewhere that a shell company is worth about £500,000 . That's about £4.36 for each current Leaf share.

It strikes me that Res Privata will have a couple of ways to make money:

They may be able to sell VREC and Escalona where Leaf has failed

The losses from VREC, Escalona, and others may have value to other clean energy to use to reduce their tax liability

They could be creating a shell to either sell on or reverse an enterprise of their own into

They may be able to trim some of the windup costs and retain the remaining cash.

There's only 114,600 shares and Res Privata has 56% of them. If they can save/make £1 million then £560,000 goes to them, or £8.72 a share.

They'll probably have to make an offer for the 44% of shares they don't currently own.

The board need 75% of shareholders to vote to delist. I don't think RP will be voting for a windup.

I think I'll hang on to the few shares I have and see what happens.

I've not been able to trade the shares since the last payout.

Well, this is interesting.

VREC and Escalona have been marked down to zero.

The annual report still hasn't been published.

We're being extolled to sell our remaining shares in the market.

And…

Res Privata NV, a hedge fund has popped up with a TR1 stating they now own 56.1639% of the shares. I guess they see value somewhere.

Now that they own over 30%, will they bid for the remainder?
If they can pick up the whole company for £250,000 then scrap the management bonuses they could make around 10x their investment.

We might be going to get a few interesting days.

So, the BOD are going to award themselves a bonus of £2.6m. That's around 14p per share at the 17.6m share buy back.

I've looked through earlier RNS's and company reports but haven't found any reference to this proposed payment.

It looks as though the company will now have no value. This means that the holdings in VREC and Escalona will be getting written down to zero when the annual financial report is published. That's $1m down from December 2018 and that was already down from $2m the year before.

Why not include this value destruction in any awards to the BOD?

I've updated an earlier post showing Simon Thompson's tips for Gresham House and how they've performed.

He's done another big write up in Investors Chronicle, increasing his target to 700p.

This new target reflects:
New forestry assets in Ireland
Fund raises in some of the assets they manage
Organic growth of 30% in assets under management
Increasing profit margins

6/2/17 share price 305, target 400. Target attained 18/12/17, 10 months

20/9/17 share price 335, target 432. Target attained 16/5/18, 8 months

12/2/18 share price 400, target 460. Target attained 24/8/18, 6 months

16/5/18 share price 424, target 500. Target attained 16/11/18, 6 months

19/9/18 share price 475, target 575. Target attained 28/5/19, 8 months

12/11/18 share price 470, target 650.

7/3/19 share price 460, target 650

26/3/19 share price 520, target 650

28/5/19 share price 565, target 700

...pursue JOG's plans

Prior to 3/4/19 JOG have given an assessment of Verbier of being between 25 mmboe and 130 mmboe with an average of 69 mmboe.

My redding of the RNS of 3/4/19 is that:

The amount of gas is likely to be closer to 25 mmboe than the initial estimates have although the final figure is yet to be calculated.
Even at 25 mmboe the Verbier discovery will be commercially viable.
There's currently sufficient funds to pursue JOG's

Like many others I'm disappointed with the most recent drilling result although I think the subsequent share price fall has been an overreaction.

Inside information is defined as:

Insider information is a non-public fact regarding the plans or conditions of a publicly traded company that could provide a financial advantage in a securities market.

I've been trying (and failing) to think of a scenario where Align could be privy to such information for five weeks and that during that period of time Pathfinder don't seem to think that this information should be released to the market by means of an RNS.

Anyone prepared to speculate/guess?

I'm a bit stuck as to why Align might be "inside" for at least the last five weeks from 7th December.
Richieboy666 has stated that they've fielded several enquiries regarding Pathfinder but can't respond because they are inside.
So, after five weeks, what might it be that keeps Align and Richie inside?
Surely if tentative progress has been made with General Veloso there should be an RNS " We've made an offer, he's thinking about it, very uncertain outcome" or " He's made an offer , were considering it, very uncertain outcome"

Does anyone have any better ideas?

Anyone know anything about Yorkshire Seedcorn Finance?

They've just submitted a TR1 showing they bite own 9.74% of Opti, 84,,724,363 shares.
They haven't previously had a declarable holding.

Today's placing increases the share count by 8%.

If the value of each share prior to placing is 0.7p and the placing shares are 0.5p then the combined price for the shares becomes 0.685p.

I would expect the placers to flip some shares they currently own, however, once that's done they'll become firm holders for the next three years in order to retain the benefits of EIS .

I'm a fan of Simon Thompson from the Investors Chronicle. I hold GHE.

I've had a look back through his recommendations which started in early 2016 when he included GHE in his tips for the year.

5/2/16 SP 312 Buy

20/4/15 SP 300 Buy

28/7/16 SP 300 Buy

19/8/16 SP 330 Buy

6/2/17 SP 305 Buy target 400

20/9/17 SP 335 Buy target 432

12/2/18 SP 400 Buy target 460

5/3/18 SP 410 Buy target 460

16/5/18 SP 424 Buy target 500

19/9/18 SP 475 Buy target 575

12/11/18 SP 470 target 650

It's noticeable that the targets he sets here are generally achieved six to twelve months after they've been set.

Simon Thompson from the Investors Chronicle has raised his 12 month target for Gresham House to 650p from 575p.
He's very positive about the new Gresham House Energy Storage Fund, further increases in the funds already running and the protects for cash generation.
The new target is based on £38.5m cash and liquid resources and an an enterprise value of £134m.