Member Info for TheTrotsky

Well Neill Ricketts hasn't done too badly!

I originally invested in VRS back in early September 2017 at circa 17pps. Then the share price started to tumble as it became apparent that the price had been pumped to facilitate to allow an institutional investor to sell down their holding. I was so incensed by the actions of the MMs and Ricketts lame attempts to issue any news, however banal, to try and raise the share price that I sold out at circa 22.5p in early November 2017.

I was ecstatic to have made a tidy profit and be well shot of (IMHO) Ricketts's continuous ramping the share price but was quickly left with egg on my face as the share price then proceeded to rise to circa 79p by the beginning of December 2017! I tried to console myself with the thought that I'd probably have sold out at below 50p in any event ;-)

I've kept a watching brief ever since (planning my revenge) toying with the idea that I might buy back in again if the share price dropped below by previous sell price; so I was somewhat surprised to realise today that the share price is almost a third of my sell price now! I do think graphene will have its day in the sun at some point, the potential uses are simply mind boggling (you might even be able to use graphene coated receptacles one day to store hydrogen gas and prevent leakage) but as yet, apart from perhaps Directa Plus, nobody in the graphene sector seems to have been able to gain any significant traction.

I think VRS will have its day (eventually) but, until it becomes EBITDA positive, there's always going to be the possibility of another fund raising in the short/medium term to hold the share price back. Furthermore, Ricketts seemed to imply in the recent RNS that, despite the £1.85m placing, they will still need to raise additional funding at some point albeit that they are looking at "grant funding and strategic partnership opportunities" in the first instance. It's perhaps better, after all, that you are divorced because the fairy tale doesn't look like coming true any time imminently ;-)

The post from ho5e4u (presumably email correspondence with the company). Latino prefers to read what they don't say; he reads the term "currently" as meaning not today but "tomorrow definitely"

Try actually reading what they say for once rather than what you'd like them to say!. They have nothing to say about the recent price rise because they have no information to release to the market. It's over. Give it a rest.

Looking at the trades on Friday, the price rise seems to have been kicked off by circa 500k of share buys between 9am and and 12am (an outlay of £10-12.5k, less if done through spread betting). The butterfly effect.

No, they are not. It's normal pratise to issue an RNS if the BoD are not aware of any reason for the share price movement but I don't believe it's obligatory. They are however obliged to release an RNS if price sensitive information has leaked (and the time for that RNS was Friday afternoon or Monday morning at the latest). In fairness to the BoD, by not releasing the former type of RNS they are allowing the share price to fall back gradually, giving PIs plenty of opportunity to exit if they so choose whereas, if they had issued such an RNS yesterday morning, the share price would have plummeted before opening.

Personally, I think it's highly unlikely that there is any news, not already in the public domain, to be released but, if there is, then the CEO and BoD are now in serious hot water.

Scooby, They are paying down their historic loans at a rate of £1m pa. The £0.1m decline in net debt year on year looks a tad disappointing on first read but I suspect that has something to do with the timing and fulfillment of orders and/or increased inventories (to manage supply issues) and wouldn't be wholly surprised to see inventories and, trade and other receivables circa £1m higher (perhaps more) than at the end of FY21; this ought start to reverse through H1 FY23 if orders and supplies become more normalised.

I didn't say there was substance Latino, far from it. Even the spread betting firms don't think there is any substance to the possibility of an RNS (they are still allowing you to open long bets)! The time for an RNS was yesterday morninng before the market opened.

Mick, They are obligated to make an announcement if there is news in the offing (and that news appears to have leaked) but are not obligated to make an announcement if there is no news (although it is normal practise). You cannot assume that "no news" implies that there must be news. The CEO and BoD have had plenty of time over the weekend to formulate a press release, if indeed there was news in the offing. If there is now news in the offing, as you suggest, then the CEO and BoD are in a very serious predicament because they've allowed the sp to drop from 4pps below 3pps by withholding price sensitive information from the market and have opened themselves, and the company, up to being sued by investors who may have sold yesterday/this morning. If there was news, an RNS would have been issued at 7am yesterday morning (even if it was just a stalling statement until further information could be released); information unintentionally leaking is not an excuse for the CEO and BoD to do nothing. Stop pumping!

But is 15m shares really the free float? It may be the number of shares available to trade but I'm sure that there are plenty of PIs who bought this share at 10p+ who are holding against a possible recovery with no view to sale below (say) 10p. Yes, a lot of shares were traded at the end of last week but it might have only taken a fiarly small number of shares to actually kick start the feeding frenzy. At, or around, 2pps it may have only taken a few large buys (500k-1m) in a short period ot time to move the price rapidly upwards, which could then have drawn in more PIs and driven the price further.

As I say, if there really was news in the offing then the CEO ought to have made an announcement yesterday, if not Friday, and the lack of such an announcement suggests that there's no news (the BoD are not obligated to make a statement about share price movements based on no news).

Agreed JimBob. There was plenty of time over the weekend for the CEO to issue an RNS if there was any news in the offing. There's definitely an obligation on the BoD to issue an RNS if news has leaked, less so if there's nothing in the offing. This is increasingly looking like a penny share that has been pumped and dumped. Welcome to the nether regions of the LSE ;-)

It's an interesting dynamic that could help lay the groundwork for future expansion in Europe and/or the USA. I'm not sure how much Sainsbury's will add to SOS's UK presence but it might provide invaluable feedback about a potential tie up with a large (say) US retailer in the future (I think they are targeting possible overseas expansion in 2024).

Hi Kathy, With reference to your specific question, the 15% US dividend tax credit is non-refundable in an ISA (you can only recover UK tax). However, if you were to hold DEC shares outside an ISA or SIPP, the 30% US dividend tax credit can be used to "frank" any UK income tax that might otherwise be payable on your dividend income; so, capital gains tax aside, it might sometimes be better to hold DEC shares outside, rather than inside, an ISA (the upfront tax deduction may be more but the total income tax payable migh be less). Hope that helps

Don't worry. I was confused when I saw it because they'd have had to launch a formal bid if they acquired more than 30% (if it wasn't for that I wouldn't have given it much further thought and automatically assumed the same as you)

Trek, You seem to be the only optimist out there at the moment. Despite a good trading update in the current climate, the sp continues to malinger (and was malingering long before the proposed acquistion of the Appreciate Group). The shorters seem to be pushing against an open door at present. I think this is a good company too but its sp is being wrecked by the shorters despite Astericos's 26.6% holding. I fear that PAY will ultimately be taken out on the cheap by Astericos, which begs the question why the shorters are punting against Astericos?

How can you say that the share price "got ahead of itself" and keep a straight face? Simple fact, AEWU's share price is either at a premium or discount to the NAV. The NAV has gone down, through no fault/action on the part of the managers, and the share price has followed suit. The share price was previously trading at, or around, 120p because that's what the NAV was at that point. The macroeconomic climate has changed. Whether AEWU will respresent good value at 90p depends. If NAVs keep depressed for a long period then it's likely to start to feed through to rents and/or the ability of AEWU to raise rents. Likewise, whilst the share price obstinantly trades at a discount to NAV (whether it be good or bad times) then the scope for SCRIP dividends and/or future capital raises remains zero and ultimately the managers will start to ask whether there is any point in continuing like VSL (would wind up be a better option).

I think AEWU is a well managed REIT and hopefully they will be able to cover the current dividend from REIT income alone from Q3 onwards but ulimately there has to be question mark over the dividend if the current turmoil persists into the longer term.

I'm a shareholder and think its way too early to assume that the NAV will continue to fall (there is still demand out there) but there is little or nothing that management can do affect the current macroeconomic situation. The worst that management can do in the meantime is lock AEWU into new, sub-optimal rental agreements in the short term as potential new renters try to opportunistically reset the starting rentals based on current NAVs (which may mean that that Q3 target may not be met).

Actually, MSG's interest is 29.8%, not 29.9%. I thought their might of been something in the rounding of the percentages but I forgot that only 99.3% of the others voters who cast their vote supported the BoD on resolutions 16-18 i.e. 0.7% of other voters supported MSG (that may have been down to a typo in the original voting documents that were issued for electronic voting that may have been overlooked by early voters and not subsequently rectified; the original documents said that the BoD "supported" resolutions 16-18!)

No, MSG don't own 36.4% of the issued share capital. Only 81.9% of shareholders eligible to vote actually voted. So, MSG's 29.9% interest in the whole ended up representing 36.4% of the votes cast. Just goes to show how shareholder apathy could so easily allow MSG to get their way.

I'm no TA but basically it's a bullish signal; the short term moving average price has crossed (in an upwards trajection) the long term moving average price, suggesting that there could be a sustained upwards movement in the share price.

Hi Saintly, You had me panicking for a moment before I remembered that I don't currently have any shares in non-exempt trading accounts ;-) I only currently have ISAs and a SIPP (I Bed and ISA's my last investments held outside ISAs at the end of the 2022 tax year). I'd forgotten that REIT dividends are paid net of tax outside exempt accounts (because, unlike other ITs, REIT profits are exempt from corporation tax within the IT) but the tax can be recovered by non-taxpayers (or used to frank income tax that would otherwise be payable).

Saintly, Don't forget that the capital gains tax allowance for any capital gains crystallised during the tax year ended 05 Apr 2024 has reduced to £6,000 pa and is due to reduce to £3,000 pa from 06 April 2024 onwards.

If you have any unused capital gains allowance for the current tax year ended 05 April 2023 (current allowance £12,300 pa) you might want to consider crystallising any gains on, or just before, 05 April 2023 (and don't forget that you might not be the only PI with the same plan, so it might be worth considering crystallising any gains a few days early rather than wait to the last moment) i.e. Bed (just before) and ISA (just after)