And they're out!
Nothing special. Just plodding along. I've held this share for nearly 4 years now and it's been a perennial disappointer. Year after year management drones on about executing their 'recovery strategy', which never seems to makes any progress. Another year with no divi, so we're not even being paid to wait.
My patience is at an end. If it looks like a dog, acts like a dog and sounds like a dog, it is a mangey dog! Onto the cull list Sig goes. Just waiting for an opportunity, I'm so ready to move on.
Another fair point. The BOD are clearly out of their depth. They have done the right thing by obtaining an independent valuation. From here, all they can do is continue taking hopefully good, undoubtedly expensive, advice and, step by step, ensure that they follow best practise in discharging their fiduciary responsibility to us shareholders. A v unfortunate situation.
Saietta finally gets itself onto Mr King's TV programme. Well done Saietta!
Thanks. Interesting. Well, ultimately, an asset's NAV should be what someone will pay for the asset. Short term we have the overhang of income funds selling out.
Very fair comment. I can only hope that the discount to NAV that might be applied to a sale is considerably less than the discount that the current share price of 55p is on the restated NAV of 92p...!
A supplementary question might be: are there many/any? specialist buyers of a music portfolio outside of Mr Mercuriadis and his cohorts?
Material reduction to NAV following independent valuation. Debt to be reduced in line with restated NAV, so divis suspended for the foreseeable.
Note to self: be wary before investing in sexy new asset classes.
Sorry to drag this worrisome matter up, but still no news on a replacement CFO. The last CFO resigning without a word of thanks to her in the notification was and is a concern.
Maybe I'm being foolhardy but I'm refraining from selling my shares down here. Still, I am nervous and can't wait for an update on trading and the cash position. Anyone have an idea when it's due?
I think you're right about the none of the officers of Polarean being interviewed on Vox - I don't remember seeing one - so fair enough to say POLX management haven't lied to investors. Mind you, if you read the "View from Vox", which comes with many of the RNSs from many companies they are uniformly bullish, never bearish or 'balanced'. They always take a positive slant on every notification, even the awful ones. I remember Paul Hill writing "time to patient" at the end of his "view" in relation to one of Saietta's final RNSs, just days before it went belly up. I can't remember ever reading a warning from Vox. Re payment, I wouldn't say POLX or any other company actually pays directly for a specific bullish piece, but someone is paying Vox's salaries and it's my firm belief it is the companies (and possibly fund managers) by means of some collective mechanism... and, of course, he who pays the piper calls the tune. The point is they are "sell side" all the way.
Finally, for those interested, thought I'd give a little colour on that infamous Justin Waite podcast, because Vox took it down quickly and I don't think many listeners got to hear it. T'was a proper eye-opener! I remember thinking at the time that this situation (with Waite) can't last. Basically, one of his 'followers' accused him of pumping and dumping in relation to one of his holdings which he'd unexpectedly (according to the follower) sold. Waite launched into a long diatribe, starting off with how he acts according to his charts and is ruthless about going in and out of stocks (so, more of a trader then), and spending a lot of time justifying all his moves and (by this time v worked up) ending up saying something like "you shouldn't trust or listen to any of us, we're all charlatans"... quite amazing for a tipster to say that! Poor old John Hughman was on the other end of the line and had to endure it all. In the middle of the diatribe I heard Hughman mutter under his breath "disclosure is important"... lol.... poor fellow looked well embarrassed. Vox Markets? It's the wild west of investing, I tell ya!
Anyway, good luck yourself BigSlick. We're all learning and the lessons where financial pain's involved are lessons well learnt!
BigSlick7, of course you're absolutely right in what you say about investors being duped by the newsflow with Saietta. I was indeed one of them! And of course you're absolutely right about Vox pumping things up all over the place - they are paid by the companies to disseminate their corporate PR so it really is to be expected. It's not about losing respect for Paul Hill - he knows his stuff - but to pump companies is his job at Vox. However, Justin Waite is particularly clueless. I notice he's been removed from Vox and stopped from hosting his daily podcast, having completely lost it in one of his shows a couple of weeks ago.
However, when you say, referring to Saietta shareholders, "It did make me wonder how much research they do, and how much of an understanding they have in that type of business process before investing... I personally think they just wanted to invest in a company with a lot of news flow", the irony is not lost on me, because I can't help wondering if that description doesn't apply to you, BigSlick7, in relation to Polarean? After all, a few months ago Vox were shamelessly propagating endless PR, or newsflow as you put it, about POLX too.
I don't mean to doubt in any way your or any other bullish poster's understanding of the company and its products. However, what pre-profitable companies like Saietta & Renalytix have painfully taught me is no matter how well put together the corporate PR, no matter how genuinely amazing the product is, there 's absolutely no certainty at all that decent sales will follow. In the case of RENX, the company recently presented me with a 'get out of jail free' card in the shape of a massive short spike up in the share price that allowed me to substantially reduce my holding for a much diminished loss.
We all know the simple equation: a pre-profitable company + no news on substantive sales = a tricky fundraise looming. In the case of Saietta, it was so tricky that, at the time of writing, they haven't raised a dime... it would seem none of the investors who ponied up 17p a share at the last fundraise are interested! So the entire company has a mkt cap of < £1m and is a week away from turning out the lights.... but I digress...
I'm not giving up on UK companies, but after my experience of SED and RENX, I'm de-risking my portfolio and focussing my attention more on cash-generative mid-caps with strong(ish) balance sheets which are seriously undervalued (and there are plenty of those). In that vein, I sold half my (fairly small) holding in POLX this morning. Took a nasty cold bath on it, but I'm worried this might go much lower so am happy to get some money out of it. I hope for the sake of all holders that it multi-bags and I've still got some skin in the game if it does. And if decent sales start getting RNS'd, I'll certainly consider eating humble pie and buying back in - no problem - even at a higher price - I keep an open mind.
I won't bother with that read, because I've got you! Thanks 404.
404, "Required to disclose shareholding under takeover rules". Forgive my stupidity, but what takeover? Has there been a public announcement of a takeover or even of an approach?
404, "the 8.3 forms are required for shareholders with 1% or more". Required for what?
Lots of these RNS's associated with rules on the Takeover Code.
I know they're hoping for one, but has there actually been any offer for the company? Why are the RNS's coming out, does anyone know?
The value destruction while we are being asked to be patient is remarkable. It would need to 10-bag to get back to where it was just a year ago. Sucking up the company PR about obtaining this and that coverage is one thing - most of these pre-profitable companies have a good story to tell - but it's hard sales that will keep the lights on.
Oh, thanks FlyingHigher. I'll be alright. It's not like I just bought recently. I've been averaging down for many months and so most of the financial damage was already done. Plenty of lessons learnt and to be learnt... but I'm not going to be too hard on myself as it's been possibly the most difficult couple of years in AIM history. Good luck.
I don't know what their holdings are but I reckon v small. Certainly none of them appear on the list of significant shareholders. Another red flag in retrospect.
This was my 2nd largest directly held share by money spent and I've almost certainly lost the lot. However, I don't have to sell the house, don't have to sell the car, don't have to sell the wife. I'll just have to make the money back elsewhere and , hopefully, in a couple of year's time Saietta will be just a distant blip in my investing journey.
As for tonight, I might order a curry, crack open a few tinnies, and watch a collection of Tony Gott's old interviews on Vox. Should be a laugh.
Actually it doesn't Latino. "Cash flow model" allows them to say "Whilst the Company's cashflow model shows positive cash balances to the end of March, the Company's Directors are becoming increasingly aware that certain contracted cash receipts may be withheld, therefore bringing forward the date, absent any further funding, on which the Company can no longer solvently trade". So it appears they didn't have the cash, even until March.
Update 10 days ago said the company "has positive cash balances that take it through to the end of March 2024". Today it's the company's "cashflow model shows positive cash balances to the end of March". So, basically, when they said they had the cash, they didn't, they just hoped to.
Old Gott got himself a juicy little pre-pack Admin? Certainly appears that's what's being lined up.
I've lost my investment, but this will make a great case study cataloguing the dodgiest practises on the AIM market.