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Hi dallo
It must be slow even if you are analysing trades!
I think I got ‘told of’ for that last year!
Be nice to think we will soon have something more meaty to get our teeth into than a few £’s worth of shares , sparse pickings right now!
atb
Uhlf
ps
GtheG
Myself and other investors have made our feelings known to ENET/ MarkR.
Your explanation sounds plausible, up to a point. Nothing in your explanation , if correct, would be price sensitive or damaging to the company. But there is absolutely no indication from the company , either via official reports etc or emails to suggest this is the case.
I think we all accept forecasts are not written in stone, they are best estimates at the time. What we are after is some clarity for the company, a dialogue, level with us, open up, instead we get the we won’t tell you anything because we don’t think you should know/we don’t need your money now/it’s against the rules/ forecasts get out of date/we’ll think about that response. Pick any of the above as ENET’s standard reply.
Imo, it’s simply not good enough for shareholders to be treated in this manner.
IR needs a massive shake, it’s utter rubbish, imv and will and is costing all of us and ENET dear.
If they can’t see it, we’ll, I’m at a loss for words! That’s unusual!
atb
uhlf
Hi GtheG
Yes, it’s fine to disagree and it’s good to talk these things out.
What you have outlined sounds a reasonable suggestion. However, it rather falls down when you read the Dec 14th update, specifically :
As set out in the half-year results of 19 August 2021, the Company remains confident that on the basis of the current contracts, continued increased customer engagements, focus on delivery of system solutions and the anticipated customer deployments now being realised, Ethernity will meet its growth plan objectives for 2022 and 2023 and is well positioned to become one of the key solutions providers in its marketplace
Now given they have used the terms transformational, exponential, winning post, amongst others, then I’m pretty excited to hear what these objectives are.
Now perhaps their growth plan objectives are along the lines you suggest re component ordering, they’re confident of growth between x% and y%.
But plainly not confident enough to share that with their loyal investors. It is worth noting the company reiterated the 19th August position. Yet here we are, nearly 6 months later and none the wiser as to what these growth plan objectives are.
I don’t think that’s good enough. I for one would like to know what transformational and exponential boils down to. I can wait a little longer, no problem, but they’ve had ample time already.
Addressing you point that maybe they bought the components so they can deliver over a period of two years to a customer, than is not what they’ve told us in the Dec 14th RNS.
The RNS really is quite clear, FYI:
‘..zgiven the expected ongoing components shortages, the Company has purchased and secured sufficient critical components for its 2022 system solutions delivery (UEP and ACE-NIC100 products), and is in the process of securing all components for the mass production of our UEP products targeting innovative solutions for the existing wireless connectivity market, to safeguard against delays in 2022 deliveries.
Skid re $5m, purely for illustrative purposes only, I hope!
Although I rather suspect they will forecast something like $10m rather than the $15m-$20m you suggest.
Don’t forget we’ve been pushed back a good 6 months, so far, this year. They will dumb the forecasts down to the lowest they can get away with, imv.
Or to sum it up it’s simply not a credible position to tell investors that they will meet their growth plans for 2022 without stating what they are! Then to rub salt in the wound, order sufficient components for 2022 , showing they can clearly forecast, yet tell us squat.
Stand by for the dumbed down forecasts, as that is odds on favourite. $5m this year, $10m next, ticks the exponential box and gives them a nice low ball number, esp as $3m revenue should be carried over to this year. Hope I’m wrong. If I’m right, hope they don’t put out a forecast!
Skid35
On the face of it that seems a reasonable stance to take, until you realise they’ve already forecast for 2022 and told us they will meet their growth plans!
From Dec 14th RNS:
As set out in the half-year results of 19 August 2021, the Company remains confident that on the basis of the current contracts, continued increased customer engagements, focus on delivery of system solutions and the anticipated customer deployments now being realised, Ethernity will meet its growth plan objectives for 2022 and 2023 and is well positioned to become one of the key solutions providers in its marketplace.
And:
In addition, given the expected ongoing components shortages, the Company has purchased and secured sufficient critical components for its 2022 system solutions delivery (UEP and ACE-NIC100 products), and is in the process of securing all components for the mass production of our UEP products targeting innovative solutions for the existing wireless connectivity market, to safeguard against delays in 2022 deliveries.
Clearly ENET have already forecast what they think they will do in 2022, they were forced to by the component shortage. Clearly they are confident
‘…has purchased and secured sufficient critical components for its 2022 system solutions delivery (UEP and ACE-NIC100 products), ‘
Confident enough to pay hard cash to secure the components.
Given the above, is it not reasonable and fair they share their forecasts and growth plans with investors?
Why can’t they inform us?
I think they just hope we won’t notice and will be so happy with transformational, exponential and winning post we won’t ask any deeper.
Or twig they’ve already forecast for 2022. Clearly the fund raising was for components. You can get a lot of components for a few mill, the resulting sales should be quite something.
C’mon ENET, stop being so shy and bashful with your investors and spill the beans.
Qantas
I don’t think the current valuation contains much, if any ‘froth’, imo.
Wether ENET are in the dark or not, we don’t know. I would hope they know a lot more than us, as we are definitely mushrooms! What we can say is in the previous 2 years there have been market forecasts on which investors can measure ENET and get some idea of what their aspirations are. This year, we are without a market forecast. Least they don’t have to put out revenue warnings! But having told us their growth plans will be delivered for 2022, which strikes me as rather foolish not to put some caveats in there, the marvellous thing for them is they can just do any old numbers and say that’s exactly what we meant!
Rather disingenuous, if it pans out line that.
Given the transformational and exponential terms that our directors have bandied about, it’s rather taking the michael to not tell us what their growth plan is and how it’s transformational and exponential.
I bet they don’t use those terms again, as myself and others will be on them like a hawk and calling them to account.
About time they had a bit of honest open dialogue with shareholders instead of continually fobbing us of with these teens, winning post and all the other ones.
Have they got something worth these terms or not?
I suspect they are playing for as much time as possible.
Hi Skid
Appreciate your efforts and the feedback. I would urge any other investors with concerns to feed them back to Mark Reichenberg, email is on the Ethernity web site.
I can see that Ethernity don’t want to look mugs again so prefer to wait before releasing anything like forecasts ( via brokers). I get the impression they’re waiting for something, be it the start of the delayed contracts, new orders or a combination. It’s a good point, delays to the start of ‘exponential’ growth make a massive difference to the final $m figure. When does it really all kick off, H1, H2?
We’ve no idea and it sounds like ENET could be equally in the dark.
atb
GLA
uhlf
I guess it’s market sentiment but you’d like to think at £25m tiddler with a small free float shouldn’t be too affected by folk having something better to do than be on FB.
The current sp malaise is firmly due to our boys not being able to forecast more than a few weeks then dropping that one on us as a pre Xmas gift. Until we get good, regular newsflow that is always going to weigh more heavily on the stock than any FB shenanigans
All imo.
GtheG
Re waiting for clarity, that sounds sensible till you realise they tell us in the Dec 14th update they they have, past tense, secured and purchased sufficient critical components for 2022 orders. They ain’t waiting for clarity there, they might get it right or wrong, same with any forecasts. But they had to act quickly, and fair play to them. They simply couldn’t afford to sit back and wait for clarity as by then we’re looking into 2023 or whatever for delivery.
This is my point.
They have already forecasted what they think they will do in 2022. They’ve backed their forecasts with hard cash.
It’s our flipping company, so let’s hear what those forecasts are. I think that is totally reasonable stance to take.
GtheG
well, they've had to make predictions re the number of components they require for 2022, so why not share that with investors, or do they feel we cant be 'trusted' with such info?
everyone understands if things happen that they can't control. They've made great steps in controlling the component issue, for sure there are still a lot of other moving parts. But almost every other listed company can put out forecasts, I don't believe ENET is a special case and they've already told us they've done their own forecasts for 2022. They need to share. They're not sticking their finger in the air for these forecasts, it's their best effort backed by our cash!
In addition, given the expected ongoing components shortages, the Company has purchased and secured sufficient critical components for its 2022 system solutions delivery (UEP and ACE-NIC100 products), and is in the process of securing all components for the mass production of our UEP products targeting innovative solutions for the existing wireless connectivity market, to safeguard against delays in 2022 deliveries.
If you are suggesting orders are in the bag for 2022, this enabling them to confidently forecasts, then if they are not conveying that to shareholders they are massively letting us down. May or may not be a breach of the regs that MR seems to use all the time as an excuse for saying squat.
If it’s something else, fire ahead….
GtheG
I don’t think so, I think the onus for that is on ENET and to adequately convey their thinking.
In the interims in August they said
With the refocused strategy on product sales, the Board now expects 2021 full year revenues to be in a range of $3.5m to $4.5m, displaying continued significant growth over the previously reported periods.
Then literally with a few working days of the year they slashed those forecasts to bits.
Pretty poor and inexcusable in my book. Surely they must have known earlier, or is the business that tenuous?
And if it is, what confidence they can predict a year ahead?
If you’ve got another take, I’d be delighted to hear it, over to you.
I think ENET may have something of a dilemma on their hands re forecasting.
Clearly they are confident enough to back their forecasts for 2022 with hard cash for components.
But, do they use those forecasts as the basis for any forecasts they may, in time, convey to us mushrooms?
There must be a strong driving force to dumb any such forecasts down to the lowest they think they can get away with. The trouble is, they may over egg the pudding, by using terms such as transformational and exponential were hardly likely to be impressed with anything in say the $5m-$10m range, esp as that will include c $3m carry over from last year. I think the market may well take a dim view of forecasts in that sort of range. They’ve dug themselves a hole and need to work out how to get out of it. This is what happens when you don’t prime the market and don’t bring investors with you.
I think they just need to be honest and put out forecasts that are in line with the components they have ordered.
It does , however, make me wonder how a company struggled to forecast the year end with literally days to go can confidently proclaim they’ve ordered all the bits for 2022. That is some turn around.