Member Info for The.Crowman

Its funny you speak of Lords being appointed but at its nadir as QPP it did manage to get a very well known Lord to the board no less than Lord Michael Howard. Along with city heavy weight Richard Rose.

Some very similar manouvres here to there.

Slater and Gordon didn’t go bust either

As far as their then shareholders were concerned they went very bust. As I say if you knew a little bit more than you clearly do you might well consider how many similarities exist here between QPP and THG.

PS. Watchstone was the rump of QPP flogging telematics and healthcare. Survived thanks to being hived off after the Ozzies took the legal biz over. It is or was more of a cash shell than a trading unit last time I took any interest.

Without investment AML was going bust. c264 opined that they needed cash to save them from this oft repeated mistake.

Autocar broke the £200m investment story then AML showed their hand with the RI. Simples.

Why would the Arabs invest? Well they did OK out of their investment here when they stumped up bundles to help take it off Fords hands. My guess is they are looking to do the same. Whether they do is another matter, I suspect they will throw in more if needed and own a majority stake in time. Good news for AML but probably not great for the current owners.

All that said if they can remodel some of the current line up - Vantage and interiors are a priority then they might just succeed. Lotus have taken the dowdy Evora and with a nip and tuck transformed its appeal with the Emira - so it can be done.

Were you familiar with QPP you would know they also boasted of massive cash at bank, growing revenue, big director share purchases plus lots of hyperbole around the future etc.

They were effectively bust 12 months after the rot set in - a particularly savage brokers assesment. Saved only by some very dumb Ozzies who did go bust as a consequence QPP is still considered a masterclass in market deception.

THG have more than their fair share of paralels IMV.

It does smell similar - the share price trajectory along with all the recent aquisitions - Quindell were utterly shot through on this count, oh and throw in a particularly big owner/investor.

Hmm Its far from certain this is not QPP Mk2 in my mind.

Time for those who insulted c264' to apologise for being so very wrong over this.

On the wider subject will this solve the problems at AML or simply buy some more time? I have no idea beyond they need to make affordable desirable cars again. The Vantage needs a redesign urgently.

"If it is resolved in Cineworld's favour, then a lot of people will take a second look and think it's worth a punt. Fundamentally it's a good business with a rubbish capital structure. That's not hard to sort out."

Indeed it is very easy to resolve - its called D4E swap. Shareholders get virtually nothing.

Indeed it was and for a good few before them. This will end badly I am sorry to say. AO are easily the best at what they do IMO but access to the market is too simple and most people buy on price leaving online players chasing the lowest spend consumers.

This might well be the beggining of the end for AO as far as its current shareholders are concerned.

Is that you Don?

DonBronco - your not good at reading/comprehension I guess?

Everyone else - anything odd about transferring such a number of shares when the sp is pretty much at rock bottom. I am sure he has his reasons but not entirely sure what they are.

Its done nothing for the sp either way at the minute. Maybe it will before the close.

I tend to agree, yesterday was a predictable damp squib and despite being at these levels gave no reason for the sp to go up.

This will be a long haul andd the most that can be taken from the current position is comfort around CPI as a going concern.

Grief thats deluded. What part of the current picture do you fail to see? Its a bath at best for current shareholders at worst its game over.

Those options are now beyond doubt. If you have shares sell and if you truly beleive keep the cash tight and buy them back when the dust has cleared, I am 100% certain you will buy more for the cash recieved today. I suspect twice as many - well at least until they do a 10 for 1 consolidation, again.

The writing on the wall has been cyrstal clear for a long time and c2645sg has simply posted what is out there, the level of denial has been quite incredible from some here in the face of what is overwhelming evidence that AML are more than struggling.

If anger should be directed at anyone it should be Stroll, IME most Plc's lie to their shareholders either blatantly or by ommision. Stroll has taken that to a new level. Listening to his FT interview on YT tells you all you needed to know abaout the man. His pedigree and ego alongside his lack of automotive understanding has taken AML to where they are today, in more competent hands I suspect it could have been different.

Me I would have given Steyr the job of building the DBX and seen where it went sales wise, beyond that I suggest they have gone on vanity projects that exceed their collective talents and in doing so spent a lot of cash that should have been used to reduce trade debt.

Its a mess indeed. Maybe Ford will buy it back off the administrator? Stranger things have happened, either way it needs another wealthy parent or this could be the very end.

Kong - Previous poster who bought a Bentayga - nice car as it is not my 'sand pit' as they say somewhere.

Hard to pick out the real culprits in this sad story, Palmer's over abition with a dose of greed? Possibly. Myself I beleive AML have tried their best with very limited funds once they were sold by Ford to compete in a market they really were never equipped to prosper within - Mercedes, Lamborghini Ferrari et al. These guys can afford to develop so much better cars whilst AML have had to de Aston their cars to even try and compete. By that I mean take away the expensive coach built quirkyness that gave them charm if little else and in its place leather clad plastics that are midmarket at best.

Compare the Bentley interiors to those of an AML product to see my point.

Throw in electrification and all that might mean to peoples desire to buy such cars and frankly I struggle to see where AML will go, indeed I will bow down to whoever gets Aramco or similar to stump up any of the talked of £200m.

Good money after bad.

Bfaith - You are the arm chair warrior here old chum. I thought you were in this with more than pocket money yet now you tell us you have £5k on the line.

I know people who never speak a word with more than that to lose at a days horse racing.

Best you keep a little quieter from now on.

£200m does sound like what is needed right Now rather than sufficient working capital till (if) they become profitable.

I feel sorry for AML, bequeathed a solid if ageing line up of cars in 2009 they messed up the Vantage to the extent even fans of the brand struggled to get on with its looks, in between the DBS and DB11 whilst handsome cars were not class leading drives and let down by their interiors.

DBX is to my eyes an odd looking car - neither fish nor fowl as they used to say. Not without "I'm richer than yow" appeal but launched late into a crowded market.

Then there is the mother of all recessions looming large, in bad times even rich folk consider whether flashy cars are appropriate.

In summary they have their backs against the wall and £200m will buy them some time and no more. Within two years AML will have been bought buy I suspect a Chinese car company - Geely are the obvious suspect but I think it will be some other outfit, shareholders will be lucky if its bought from them. Interesting that CG and a few others see the end game here yet AML beleive they can tap a new investor for some short term capital - they surely will see when they open the books what a pickle they are in.

Will be just deserts for Stroll - an arrogant man easily disliked by seemingly everyone.

Before anyone starts bashing me the opinion piece below is hardly great.

It added: "The likelihood of dividend payments or other shareholder capital returns is minimal in our analysis until at least FY27F driven by the continuing need to retain capital within the business and the low (exhausted) distributable reserves in the company balance sheet.

So no prospect of any dividends for five years!!!!!

My opinion of Debenhams mens range is less positive, compared to the previous incarnation of Debs the range is very limited and the quality is average at best. Everything I bought (three orders - around £275 in all) went back.

On the plus side it was all refunded quickly.

If they cannot sell better and more stylish clothes then the brand as far as I am concerned is toast. Finally why are nearly all the models ugly black men? Most off putting and IMO hardly the demographic of their customer base.

With RPI at 8% plus and indexed contracts the revenue will need to improve by a similar amount to stand still. To my mind 1% is hardly great in this enviroment. That said they have sold a chunk of the business so WDIK?