Member Info for Vbig

I've still got PTSD from previous acquisitions.

Surely law of averages means we can't bollix it up yet again.

i'm pleased the deal fell through. glencore control attractive copper assets that are in short supply and they are right not to give them away on the cheap to the first ****-taking fantasist that makes a low-ball offer.

I want much more than 580p.

Glencore's copper deposits aren't going to vanish tomorrow and God isn't making any more of them. If Rio want copper then they can find it themselves or pay-up a decent amount for already discovered deposits.

If Rio can't accept that then they should sling-their-hook.

The market has known about AI and its capabilities for a year or two. Has there been news in the past couple of days which wasn't known before?

Why has the market suddenly sold off in past couple of days due to AI?

I am puzzled.

I think any bid price must begin with a "6" as a start.

Rio Tinto need to offer Glencore shareholders a better deal than Glencore staying independent, under which scenario Glencore share price could be up to £8 in 2-3 years time.

@Silberblade - I agree with you exactly.

From my perspective I just want the share price to grind steadily upwards, e.g. 10% return year-on-year in perpetuity. Take it steady through sensible investment in the business. Work with your customers to expand your product offering, range and quality. Why can't this be a £1bn market cap company in ~20 years. It doesn't sound difficult.

No M&A though unless we get some better people on our side.

I am a shareholder in this Company but am very worried. The investor Peter Lynch recommended buying shares in companies whose products and services you were impressed by. In that case this Company is in serious trouble.

My washing machine broke on 20th December. I would normally buy a new machine + installation from John Lewis who can be relied upon, but because I am a Currys shareholder I felt I ought to try out Currys. The earliest they could deliver and install was this morning (27th December). My house is now full of dirty laundry so I couldn't wait for them to arrive.

Within 2 minutes of arriving they told me that the water valve to my existing washing machine was too stiff to turn and that they couldn't do the installation until I had got a plumber round to look at that. The valve in question was put in brand-new about 10 years ago, when I had the previous washing machine put in, so probably just needs some WD40 put on it. Surely this is a typical trivial issue that they deal with every day! But, they couldn't get out of my house fast enough. I had to shout after them in the street to find out what my options were. e.g. arrange a new delivery time etc. but I just got a surly attitude and "Dunno mate".

In the end I thought it was best to cut Currys completely out of the loop. I told them just to leave the washing machine in my hallway and I'll find a plumber to do the whole installation and hopefully see if they can take away the old machine.

I would rather pay £100 for installation and have a guarantee that they would do the job. I appreciate that Currys can't be expected to do major plumbing works but surely trivial issues are par for the course. If that isn't the case then this should be made 100% clear at the point of purchase of the installation.

To Currys Director of Service...Are you aware that this sh*t is going on?

This company seems to get its "ass-kicked" every time they make a US acquisition. They had a major US disaster 10 years or so ago after which Christopher Mills bought into EKF.

I don't think the problem is just the unquoted holdings. The quoted holdings look to be in a lot of "semi-speculative" bubble stuff also. Companies like Tesla, Northvolt, Delivery Hero...
Looks like there's plenty of listed garbage in there which I think will be found out to be very over-valued in a few years.

Should move the listing to NASDAQ if that is going to get the share price to a point which reflects reality and stops this type of Sagi shenanigans. Or maybe it won't make a difference as the problem is that he is a dominant shareholder regardless of where it is listed.

If Sagi's bid is rejected then I'm not sure how much the price will go up. Why would anyone want to buy shares in Kape at the current, or higher price, when Sagi is likely to have another go at taking the company private "on the cheap" at some point in the future.

If the board and Sagi thinks the 285p offer is fair, then the other (non-Sagi) shareholders should be allowed the chance to buy out Sagi for 285p and he should be happy with that.

I can't believe how few shares Leon owns. It is hardly a big vote of confidence. I would have thought the value of his shareholdings would have been several hundred thousand pounds at least.

If he doesn't put his money where his mouth is then he shouldn't constantly blow his own trumpet.

I think you're right, management knows if they want to stay with the business post-highway-robbery they have to keep on the right side of Sagi.

If I were management I would have been embarrassed to present to shareholders an offer of 285p and would not have mentioned that, before I had used my amazing negotiating skills, it was 265p. I would simply have resigned and at least retained my integrity.

But unfortunately most people are cowards and value money and their own comfort above integrity.

Sagi seems to be a bit short-sighted. He's only early 50s so he has quite a few years left to operate in the investment sphere but who would want to invest alongside him in the future? No long-term investor would feel comfortable investing alongside someone who is just looking for a opportunity to shaft you.

Apparently he was the target of an assassination attempt in Cyprus in 2021, so he seems to **** people off.

But if he gets to 76% and can trigger a de-list, but the other 24% of shareholders still won't sell, then how is that advantageous to him. He just ends up with 76% of a unlisted company which surely is worse than 76% of a listed one because it's harder to now mop-up the other 24%.
Am I misunderstanding something?

Feeling a bit peed off, as the offer price is only fractionally over what I bought in for a while back. But, that is the risk with a dominant shareholder who is also a convicted fraudster and would pimp -out his own mother for a quick buck.
Anyway, what to do? No idea really...
(i) The threat to delist is hollow I think. Where would that get Sagi as he'd still only own ~60% and it would now be much more difficult to buy-out the "rump".
(ii) Bigger knockout offer coming from third party. Highly unlikely as it would have the be a price higher than Sagi thinks he can get by re-IPOing the company a few years in future. Would need to be >>£5 I think.
(iii) Hope our "independent" directors can squeeze out a higher price. As the share price is 290p this morning this looks to be what the market expects. If it were >320p I would take it.

Anyway, Sagi will make some money but who will invest alongside him in future?

If they only have enough cash to September (as ShearClass says below) then buying in now, as a long-term holder, means you'll likely have to dip into your pocket again in a fund raise in advance of September...and then maybe again later until they are cashflow positive. So to be cashflow positive they need to generate $2.83m per month additional cashflow relative to today. Assuming 100% gross margin means they need to increase sales by $34 (or ~60%) to become cashflow positive. They claim ~50% revenue growth so it might take say 18 months to increase the sales by ~60% = $50m additional cash needed on a current market cap of $114m.
Am I wrong? maybe.

This update seems to me to suggest that customers are now starting to reduce their spending.
- "Sales strong in domestic appliances and mobile, offset by weaker consumer electronics and computing". When your washing machine or mobile phone is broken you have to replace it but other items can wait.
- "Record credit adoption of 18.2%, +4.3%pt YoY, with 1.9m active credit customers". When you've got no money but you need a new washing machine because your wife is screaming at you then you have to buy it on credit. This is not a good sign.

I think the first half of this year will be the acid test. So I'll be standing on the sidelines for a while longer.

Maybe I am speaking from ignorance as I am not a "coder", but how is it possible to get bad reviews for video games?

Surely at all stages of development you get in young hard-core gamers "off the street" and ask them to critically test and review your project vis-a-vis the existing games and competition. Then you'd know pretty early on whether you had a winner of a duff. Re F1 Manager, to me the questions is who inside the company thought this was a good game and were they surprised when it got bad reviews or were they living in their own "bubble" of delusion.

I can see this going back to 300p. I cannot see what the catalyst is to grow sales and profits when there seems to be nothing in the release pipeline that could change that.