Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
Let me correct you. Firstly, George Morrison paid himself £177,491 in the latest accounting year 2018 and not £103K you mentioned, unless you were talking about something else. Secondly, he gave himself a pay rise of £20K from the year before (he paid himself £155982 in 2017). Thirdly, the pay package is not a lot but also not small for a tiny company with constant losing value year after year.
He and others on the BOD should be ashamed of themselves by giving themselves continuous pay raise year after year and in the meantime the company constantly losing value year after year, and up to now they have NOT delivered anything meaningful apart from mouth of words, absolutely nothing. On top of that they constantly doing bad funding deals, jut the bad funding deals alone costed the company value £millions...
The idea of they cannot publish the Val201 report because of no more money does not convince my a slightest bit. Anyone backing the consolidation then in the future if they dilute your money then I think you should not complaint.
BritishBulldog, it is not just in the last few days but it has been going on for long time. We have various posters came on here and said we have great compounds/products but in reality no one has any idea apart from mouth of words coming from the board, people don't even know we are completing phase I or I/II. I wanted the company to be on its knees 2 years ago because I wanted to know what really these people on the BOD is made of. How on earth they increase their own salaries/bonus year after year and the company has been doing badly year after year, after 7 years we are still waiting for official data from the clinical trials.
If you look at their funding in the last few years then would realise they never plan anything for long term, very careless management skills, all their plan was for short term otherwise they would not raise funds every few months and predictable as well. Good management never do that and they, themselves, with their management skills contributed massively to the down turn of the company. Always doing dodgy deals like European High Growth Opportunities SF, Bracknor...to name just a few.
In the last few weeks they had opportunity to convince shareholders that they were on the right track but you heard nothing from them apart from the threat of terminate trading if no consolidation. Personally I think they still have small opportunity from now until the GM to convince the shareholders, if nothing from them then I think people should vote them down and please stand firm this time.
If these people (BOD) do care about the company and it is truthfully the compound 201 or any other compounds is that good then now is the time for them to publish/convince the shareholders with proper data, no one trust Satu anymore, her positive comments is useless now. I have seen various posters saying that the compound(s) is good but I haven't seen any concrete evidence of that.
I hope people will stand their ground and make these clowns to work for once, we have been suffering for years to allow them to increase their earning year after year. Apart from Satu and George don't forget other board members paid themselves more than £100K a year between them. It must stop.
I appreciated your experience in the biotech sector but it seemed to me you don't see the issue here and you are happy to see your investment shrinking...I have to leave now but in short just think again why this company has been constantly doing badly for long time but at the sane time the BOD paying themselves more year after year...sometimes you have to stand up enough is enough. They would be sacked long time ago. Have a good day. BTW, I used to work for Glaxo, Roche...myself
I agreed with Valju, I know it is hard for many of you who are worried that you may lose your investment but if you let them have their way then your investment will keep losing anyway. As you can see they made zero effort to come to the last meeting, I did not want to say at the time but I did not believe Satu excuse at all, as the CEO she should be the first to be there.
Also in the last few weeks they have made zero effort to resolve the situation. Just go to the Companies House website and see for yourself, Satu's salaries/onuses has been increasing year after year and the latest accounting report showed she even paid herself £40K bonus.
I agree that we need to work out how to replace them, we cannot remove them then have no plan. If we cannot remove them then let them sort out this mess without consolidation. If they do care about the company then they will be able to find a way, no down about that. STAND YOUR GROUND.
Yep rightback, stand your ground this time, if the compound val201 is that great then prove it to the public, 7 years already. It is just unbelievable to think the BOD paying themselves bonuses whilst ordinary shareholders deep in red to the point of almost valueless. It will not too late for anyone to buy in even this share go up 2000% in one day.
Personally, I believe they have nothing to show in short term and that was why they wanted to do consolidation otherwise they could release whatever the good news is then raise funds after that. Since May last year they said they needed money for short term and 8 months later is still needing money for short term. Stand your ground.
ArthurCrown, VAL201 has been in clinical trials for 7 years and we have seen nothing concrete apart from odd rns(s) assuring us the trials going well and doing endless of placings. It is time the BOD need to show the truth how good VAL201 is also the truth how much they believe and care about the company. I would urge everyone not to allow them to do another consolidation, even they come up with a plan it is still no good, that plan should have been in place long time ago. It is time for them to show the shareholders they do care, most people do not believe them anymore. Be strong this time and don't fall for it like few years ago.
Stand your ground and don't allow them to do another consolidation, over the years these people have earned a lot of money from the company, let them invest their own money or show the truth how good VAL201 is (forget about deal as I don't think there is any deal foor VAL201). The money they have raised since May last year should be been enough to pay for the report...I said over a year ago that I wanted to see the company on its knees because I wanted to see how good these people on the BOD are.
"...Furthermore on that date, the Company stated that it would need to raise further funds in the short term as it had limited financial resources..."
This kind of statement starting to appear in various rns(s) since May last year, it was almost like they try to scare the shareholders with the current financial situation. But if you think carefully over many years, financially, they have never planned for long term anyway. They kept raising funds every few months, it was very predictable and the worst of all was most placings diluted at least 20-35% in value. If a company really cared about their business then they would never do that. Failing to manage the financial side contributed hugely to the failure of this company.
Read the post from sunset777 at 18.59, I recognised this poster and was an early investor years ago before most of you joined in...
Sadly, I do not believe they will give up and put this company into admin because it would be difficult for them to find another job, they will come up with something to keep it going to pay their salaries and bonuses.
Chrisatrdg, I really think no one want to see this situation, obviously everyone wanted to support the BOD and no one want to lose their monet, but this lot had countless chances, they treated shareholders with no respect. I rather I lose my money and stop this lot do any more damage to current and future shareholders, they had had numerous times to rescue themselves but they did not seem to care. To be honest I don't really know if this BOD is really care at the moment. So let see what they will do next, they need to show that they do care and stop paying themselves large salaries, all they have done over the years is bringing the value of this company down fast. Where is the result of VAL201? it is in 6-7 years already. We have seen nothing...
This bit of the rns is insulting "...The Company announced on 30 January 2020 that if shareholder authority was not granted, the Company would be impaired in its ability to fund its clinical trial programme...."
The money raised is used to pay for their salaries and bonuses more like. Last year Satu paid herself bonus of around £40K and that brought her earning of just under £250K, just imagine how much the company need to pay just for her if you add all amin expenses for her like travel, hotel, food...and how much the company worth, under £1mil. What a joke.
Enough is enough and I hope all the shareholders will stand your ground this time and won't give in like last time.
...and also after VAL401 trials finished she mentioned in one rns(s) (I cannot remember which one) that she was looking forward to many peer reviews for VAL401, and we got exactly one and it was paid. Have great day everyone.
I don't understand why so many people on here defending Suzy so much, I guess I am one of very few people who think she is as useless as the rest. Let me remind you all that VAL401 was on the shelf for 10 years before VAL tried to push it further, without VAL involvement I guess VAL401 would still be on the shelf. So I haven't seen Suzy done much.
I have been monitoring this company over many years and rarely I see the BOD buying share and when they bought the most they put out as far as I could remember was no more than £10K. So £50K is a big ask.
Sacking GM or Satu is not an option or in reality will never happen. But if the BOD really care and believe they are on the right track then I think they have to do number of things:
1) Make the company spending less than £1mil a year, or even £0.5mil. This can be achieved with everyone in the company taking pay cuts and pay minimal salary in shares. There is no point for them to invest into the company and at the same time paying themselves huge salaries like Satu did last year by paying herself with almost £250K, and if they paying themselves huge amount in shares then sooner or later it would be diluted again.
2) They all need to Invest into the company enough to make the company last at least 9 months to 1 year before the next fund raising.
The bottom line is they have earned enough over the years and if they really care about the company then they need to action, show the shareholders that they really care about the company and we are on the right track, at the moment there is nothing . I have already voted against the consolidation.
As a person who has been monitoring this company for such long time, there are few things it may help new holders understand a bit. Since I started to monitor this share from around 2009-2010 the company was doing fine up until late 2015 (obviously there was ups and downs and sometimes lost 60-70% down in value but it was always able to recover), at one point VAL was valued more than double compared to SAR but now it is 1/10.
At the beginning of the VAL201 phase i/ii trials it was not that bad but since they took over of VAL401 then the company was just sliding down fast. . From my observations there are few things contributed to the down fall:
1) Since the late 2015 They constantly raising funds year after, for a small AIM company you cannot expect the company do well if you keep raise funds every few months.
2) It became so predictable when next placing would be around. It is very much like you know which day of the week VAL would like to release rns. Because people roughly know when the placing would be so they started to talk down the share until the placing over.
3) Most of the placings apart from the last 2 was at least 20-30% discount even during the period VAL was doing well they still gave 30% discounted.
4) The amount raised was too little each time, because of this VAL had to constantly raising funds. I don't know why VAL did not follow SCLP lead by raising large amount, at least enough to cover for longer period and also it makes it difficult for people to predict when the next placing would be.
5) After 6-7 years we still have not heard any proper news about VAL201 clinical trials, forget about V401, it will be years away.
In summary, I think for a small company doing 2 clinical trails in parallel ALONE was too much for VAL, also adding on top of really really really bad management, big salaries and no proper news to cater constant asking for money is making this company the worst on AIM market. Personally I fear that because of the field they are in which is constantly in demand in search for a cure so they will still be around for sometime to come.
BTW, for anyone waiting for the right time to buy in, don't worry, if the company is that good even 2000% go up in one day is still not too late for you to buy in after that, if I were you then I sit and wait, don't feed the BOD anymore. All the best.
borgie, it was good you brought up what happened in the past for people to take lesson for experience this time. As you mentioned the shareholders managed to win in the GM but it was overturned 3 weeks later. It should be mentioned here of the sequences so people understand, after the shareholders managed to vote against the BOD proposal, I still remember a strange poster came on here criticised the action of the shareholders and warned that the trial was almost completed and if the shareholders did not follow the BOD advice then it could jeopardise the trials, it made people to change their mind and it was the reason why the BOD managed to get what they wanted the second time (3 weeks alter). I wish you all the best, I am willing to lose all my money if this could conclude soon either way.
You spent years trying to time the right time to gamble on this share but I guess you still got it wrong and couldn't beat this BOD. Looks like the company is not going anywhere soon either you like or not. Well better to concentrate on my business...
The last time I checked this board few days ago and I thought you sold out and ran for the cover, thanks to your you did a good job by keeping this board super busy. Sorry I don't follow this board that often unless I mis-understood you other post few days ago or something have changed since then which made you changed your mind and bought in again...All the best.