Cripes ...........my barclays share dealing account went up £4000 today irrespective of my portfolio individual shares movements . On having a good look into it ( I have rather alot of different shares ) I found Barclays had kindly dumped £4K of SWC shares in my portfolio at zero cost to me . Very odd .......of course they are closed till monday . I did think about selling them first thing monday for a micro second before thoughts of spending low quality time , and alot of it , sharing a cell with some murder inclined nare do well . So if your missing a few SWC shares from your portfolio I might be able to sell you a bridge . Not very smart Barclays !
Paul, Your evisceration of Vinanz is great. As someone who bought BTC at $500 I agree entirely with all of your points. It was massively overpriced then. Vinanz, Microstrategy will flame out under the mass of their contradictions. It simply cannot end any other way. Satoshi would be turning in his grave. The ones to watch I think are the brokers (Coinbase) who are cleaning up like Levis in the gold rush.
Hi Drew. Artemis now own 11.05% of Card. It notes this further down the RNS where it shows the split between Artemis Investment Management and Artemis Fund Managers (6.09126% and 4.96058%)
I think the format of the Holdings" RNSs is bad.
Stocko says their previous holding was 12.96% between the two funds (AIM = 8.49% and AFM = 4.96058) so this to me looks like a sale and they have notified as they have crossed a threshold on the way down. May be wrong.
Public Policy Holding Company Inc (PPHC) - It looks like this is the subject of an Investors Chronicle Alpha pick, by Simon Thompson. PPHC's main business is in political lobbying, particularly in the US where it looks like they're the market leader, if you combine the revenue of their subsidiaries. While the cash flow looks good, to me the income statement looks like just what I'd expect for a company that rewards employees rather than shareholders, with a huge "Share-based accounting charge" reversed out of in the cash flow statement, and that looks like PPHC's term for stock based compensation. The same item is an expense in the Income Statement, in addition to a smaller amount of Employee bonuses, and the biggest expense is Personnel cost. A post on lse (London South East) dated 6 April says the stock was tipped by the Daily Mail, and maybe there's some goodness tipsters are seeing that I'm not .
Other points: PPHC is considering a dual listing in the US, and they're reducing the dividend to invest in growth, particularly acquisitions. 70–90% of revenue comes from recurring clients (from AI).
I subscribe to Investors Chronicle, but not to the Alpha picks. I can't be certain I've got the right stock, and I can't say why I think it's the right stock without breaking IC's copyright.
From the annual report, year to 31 Dec 2024, all in $, I expect the full-stops should be commas (as in the balance sheet, most of the time):
Revenue $ 149.563.307
out of 9 expenses -
Personnel cost 81.824.942
Employee bonuses 10.374.636
Long term incentive program charges 4.162.000
Share-based accounting charge 31.803.600
Post-combination compensation charge 11.598.647
Total operating expenses 167.715.929
Loss from operations (18.152.622)
The cash flow statement has "Net cash used in investing activities" twice, with two different figures, and it looks like its first appearance is actually the cash from operations, of 16,402,466. The actual "Net cash used in investing activities" is (19,489,604), nearly all of it for Cash paid for acquisitions.
The Chairman, on 23 April. BTW Hargreaves Lansdown shows 9,824,710.00p, and I nearly looked stupid for getting the decimal point in the wrong place. 73,870 shares x £1.33 per share gives £98,247.
Better late than never, I would like to think its about finding out what they knew and how timely they told the market. After 2 previous aborted take overs was there something uncovered in both suitors due diligence that made them walk away. It took WG how long to tell the market.... SIdara walked away in August 2024 and they called in Deloittes in Nov. 2024 ....Class action incoming???
Great dissection of Vinanz but just one comment. You say:
"Strangely, the announcements says this was its “first Bitcoin purchase”, which contradicts the accounts saying it already held £399k in a bitcoin wallet."
Not necessarily a contradiction because the £399k could have been acquired through mining activities, rather than a market purchase.
Possibly an early sign that Trump's trade tariffs are starting to cause negative INDIRECT effects?
"Heathrow Airport has warned that the US travel market is becoming “more challenging”, as it is seeing “some early signs of softness on business-heavy routes”.
Albeit this could reverse quickly if there a slew of agreements signed between the US & many of its larger trading partners between now & the 9th July. Here US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick apparently said that "the White House has imminent plans to reach agreements with 10 major trading partners."
US domestic air travel has been falling over the last three months, but the sense is this has more to do with consumer belt tightening than tariffs. Might be connected to international travel too.
We do short lets / holiday lets and a significant number of guests come from North America. This year bookings have been softer from US guests, particularly since early April, with higher cancellation rates. Thank goodness the Canadians have been travelling more.
The airlines have been hinting at this for a while.
So Next 15 acquired Mach 49 with an uncapped potential earnout . Mach 49 announced a huge very profitable contract (possibly with Saudi to promote Neom ) which entitled them to a massive 300m dollar earn out . 2 years later they announce actually sorry we’ve lost the contact but they’ve already fulfilled the earn out conditions to get paid . Now the Mach 49 guys have been sacked for fraud.
I don’t know the story well but it seemed like the market cap had already reflected the fact that Mach 49 was now worthless ? . Perhaps it’s even a good thing that they get to stop the earnout payments and maybe even claw back what’s already been paid
And it seems like a problem that was isolated to one acquired subsidiary , whilst the rest of the business was previously one of the best ever performers on AIM and is now trading on 4 x earnings
Anyone aware of any news/announcements? I can't find anything but share price is taking a bit of a walloping this morning - down 10% on higher than 3x average daily trading.....
WRKS has had a good run and looks more than up with events - it has trebled in a matter of weeks.
Purely conjecture on my part but this is an extremely crowded trade. If cockney rebel is taking some profits or top slicing for example you can bet there are a bunch of people following him out (or perhaps he isn’t and they are second guessing that he might). The point is it is currently high profile and has risen vertically. It peaked a few days ago and has stayed static - ie exhausted bull run so not hard to see any drop in price triggering a bunch of nervous holders into selling.
I agree, this has a had a very good run of late. Worth watching the IMC presentation and reading Cockney Rebel's recent update. Up with events and profit taking imo.
I think Jet2 is the week after (9th July according to Stockopaedia. Also very much looking forward to this one. Used them at Easter from their new Bournemouth base and was very impressed. Also the number of routes from Bournemouth is increasing over the next year (according to their big poster route maps at the airport!).
Things just stay where they are then jump up on new news
Videndum yesterday just pops up 9%
Im pretty much fully invested cant see much point selling anytning to buy something
Market shrugs off bad news very quickly
Its the polar opposite of 18 months ago when we were all in doldrums
Keeping a small rotation and looking much more at sectors
The sector i sold out of was building just seems too obvious and its a folly of a plan
Investment trusts on big NAV discounts are all going up, not only will the discount narrow but the holdings are going up - so thats a double whammy
Im pretty bullish on tandem will hit RNS level soon there seems to a big seller could be Jim Shears one of the old guard . Too cheap in the 170s. The market has turned and they are in good spot .
Greyville distributors just went pop, thats a really nice bolt on for them, 3 million turnover , be very interesting if they grow a pair and have a crack at it .
Should be very cheap, id buy it but they dont sell the stuff i like
Ive done 2 acquisitions this year , our margin has gone from 38% to circa 60% due to the pennies in the pound on stock . But an absolute total ballache to process , collect , sort etc .
A guy on lse (London South East) likes Simon Bragg being a Director (appointed Oct 2024). Part of what AI tells me about Bragg,
"He’s also held non-executive roles at firms like the JP Morgan American Investment Trust (a FTSE 250 company) and Trap Oil, and co-founded JSB Energy Partners, focusing on energy investments in Western Europe2."
(I can imagine a Yorkshireman saying "Aye, but knows nowt about bikes"?)
"Interestingly, Bragg was already a significant shareholder in Tandem before joining the board—he owned nearly 11% of the company and had previously challenged the board over governance issues. His recent share purchases and board appointment suggest he’s now playing a more active role in shaping Tandem’s future."
Sorry (again) for banging on about Halfords (HFD), but they had prelims out on the 25th, with some comment about the bikes market. BTW I'm confused (despite some help from Dave) about the extent of market overlap between Halfords and Tandem, in areas like premium and kids' bikes.
"In the cycling market, assisted by warm spring weather, we have seen positive signs of recovery in recent months. The cycling market has faced numerous challenges in recent years. Products are manufactured on long lead times and the industry found itself with significant excess inventory when the pandemic boom gave way to a cost-of-living crisis and associated collapse in demand that has persisted for some time. Halfords' inventory has been well-managed throughout; however, the industry has been highly promotional through a period of consolidation. While our cycling business has undoubtedly been impacted by these factors, our scale in the market and focus on exclusive brands has enabled us to be more disciplined in our promotional activity while increasing our market share in the post-pandemic period[3].
We have also continued to invest in new product development, stretching our Boardman brand into more premium product ranges where demand has been more resilient, growing our Cycle2Work business, and all-the-while maintaining our strong position in the adult leisure segment, as well as in kids' bikes where our sales are around two-thirds of the market in volume terms.", some ESG stuff, then ... "Cycling remains a core part of our portfolio, and we are optimistic about our prospects in a market with some very clear recovery drivers over the mid to long-term."
It's the optimism at the start and end that seems most interesting, and maybe adds a little to Dave's input.
SERCO shares are on the move today as the latest crisis to hit the UK sends ripples through international markets.
Parking in roundabouts in BOURNEMOUTH has reached epidemic proportions we are told, with Serco well-placed to benefit from the Council's proposal to install meters outside residents' homes in order to to tackle the problem.
Hi all, following on from my post this morning I've received a number of DMs, including one from the US asking what a roundabout is.
The main drift was that the post was unnecessarily alarmist, disturbing readers' peaceful day under broad English sunshine as they reach for their Aperols while duly adjusting their deckchairs.
I would like to say that the notion I was being alarmist is a little unfair. I was simply sharing a news item which, as Sir Humphrey Appleby might say, was the thin end of the wedge.
The prospect that the #Bournemouth roundaboutcrisis might present itself as the epicentre of something much larger with signifcant geopolitical ramifications should not go unconsidered.
Certainly the smart money seems to be thinking that way, piling in as parking meters are installed up and down the front drives of residences along Panorama Road. Just wait when the Crisis arrives in Milton Keynes.
Declaration of a national emergency and Cobra Committee meetings before the end of next month.
An LLP notified a purchase of 6% of card late today .
Cripes ...........my barclays share dealing account went up £4000 today irrespective of my portfolio individual shares movements . On having a good look into it ( I have rather alot of different shares ) I found Barclays had kindly dumped £4K of SWC shares in my portfolio at zero cost to me . Very odd .......of course they are closed till monday . I did think about selling them first thing monday for a micro second before thoughts of spending low quality time , and alot of it , sharing a cell with some murder inclined nare do well . So if your missing a few SWC shares from your portfolio I might be able to sell you a bridge . Not very smart Barclays !
Renishaw in my local news- making redundancies to save £20m.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwykllmg8pvo
The shares are close to a multiyear low. I can’t help but feel this going to get bought out- founders are dying off!
Paul, Your evisceration of Vinanz is great. As someone who bought BTC at $500 I agree entirely with all of your points. It was massively overpriced then. Vinanz, Microstrategy will flame out under the mass of their contradictions. It simply cannot end any other way. Satoshi would be turning in his grave. The ones to watch I think are the brokers (Coinbase) who are cleaning up like Levis in the gold rush.
BTC: That man Lenigas needs a balaclava and nitrile gloves.
A mine is a hole in the ground owned by a liar and Del boy Lemongas should know that by now .
Just seen a Card Factory RNS - Artemis have a 6% stake.
Hi Drew. Artemis now own 11.05% of Card. It notes this further down the RNS where it shows the split between Artemis Investment Management and Artemis Fund Managers (6.09126% and 4.96058%)
I think the format of the Holdings" RNSs is bad.
Stocko says their previous holding was 12.96% between the two funds (AIM = 8.49% and AFM = 4.96058) so this to me looks like a sale and they have notified as they have crossed a threshold on the way down. May be wrong.
Public Policy Holding Company Inc (PPHC) - It looks like this is the subject of an Investors Chronicle Alpha pick, by Simon Thompson. PPHC's main business is in political lobbying, particularly in the US where it looks like they're the market leader, if you combine the revenue of their subsidiaries. While the cash flow looks good, to me the income statement looks like just what I'd expect for a company that rewards employees rather than shareholders, with a huge "Share-based accounting charge" reversed out of in the cash flow statement, and that looks like PPHC's term for stock based compensation. The same item is an expense in the Income Statement, in addition to a smaller amount of Employee bonuses, and the biggest expense is Personnel cost. A post on lse (London South East) dated 6 April says the stock was tipped by the Daily Mail, and maybe there's some goodness tipsters are seeing that I'm not .
Other points: PPHC is considering a dual listing in the US, and they're reducing the dividend to invest in growth, particularly acquisitions. 70–90% of revenue comes from recurring clients (from AI).
I subscribe to Investors Chronicle, but not to the Alpha picks. I can't be certain I've got the right stock, and I can't say why I think it's the right stock without breaking IC's copyright.
From the annual report, year to 31 Dec 2024, all in $, I expect the full-stops should be commas (as in the balance sheet, most of the time):
Revenue $ 149.563.307
out of 9 expenses -
Personnel cost 81.824.942
Employee bonuses 10.374.636
Long term incentive program charges 4.162.000
Share-based accounting charge 31.803.600
Post-combination compensation charge 11.598.647
Total operating expenses 167.715.929
Loss from operations (18.152.622)
The cash flow statement has "Net cash used in investing activities" twice, with two different figures, and it looks like its first appearance is actually the cash from operations, of 16,402,466. The actual "Net cash used in investing activities" is (19,489,604), nearly all of it for Cash paid for acquisitions.
I assume you have seen the Director buying to?
The Chairman, on 23 April. BTW Hargreaves Lansdown shows 9,824,710.00p, and I nearly looked stupid for getting the decimal point in the wrong place. 73,870 shares x £1.33 per share gives £98,247.
Cheeky RNS drop by Wood Group (WG) whilst everyone is heading to the pub.
FCA are now going to investigate them. I'm not exactly sure what that entails but certainly doesn't sound good.
Better late than never, I would like to think its about finding out what they knew and how timely they told the market. After 2 previous aborted take overs was there something uncovered in both suitors due diligence that made them walk away. It took WG how long to tell the market.... SIdara walked away in August 2024 and they called in Deloittes in Nov. 2024 ....Class action incoming???
Hi Paul,
Great dissection of Vinanz but just one comment. You say:
"Strangely, the announcements says this was its “first Bitcoin purchase”, which contradicts the accounts saying it already held £399k in a bitcoin wallet."
Not necessarily a contradiction because the £399k could have been acquired through mining activities, rather than a market purchase.
Cheers,
Mark
Ah yes of course, that makes sense, thanks Mark! Thank you. P.
PS. I've updated the article to include your point, with a hat tip! Thanks again :-)
Possibly an early sign that Trump's trade tariffs are starting to cause negative INDIRECT effects?
"Heathrow Airport has warned that the US travel market is becoming “more challenging”, as it is seeing “some early signs of softness on business-heavy routes”.
Albeit this could reverse quickly if there a slew of agreements signed between the US & many of its larger trading partners between now & the 9th July. Here US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick apparently said that "the White House has imminent plans to reach agreements with 10 major trading partners."
https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2025/jun/27/us-10-trade-deals-trump-china-rare-earth-agreement-stock-market-oil-confidence-business-live-news-updates?CMP=share_btn_url&page=with%3Ablock-685e859d8f087443bddc6c9d#block-685e859d8f087443bddc6c9d
US domestic air travel has been falling over the last three months, but the sense is this has more to do with consumer belt tightening than tariffs. Might be connected to international travel too.
We do short lets / holiday lets and a significant number of guests come from North America. This year bookings have been softer from US guests, particularly since early April, with higher cancellation rates. Thank goodness the Canadians have been travelling more.
The airlines have been hinting at this for a while.
Seraphim Space taking quite a big leg up narrowing discount to NAV - think these guys are very well placed long term.
So Next 15 acquired Mach 49 with an uncapped potential earnout . Mach 49 announced a huge very profitable contract (possibly with Saudi to promote Neom ) which entitled them to a massive 300m dollar earn out . 2 years later they announce actually sorry we’ve lost the contact but they’ve already fulfilled the earn out conditions to get paid . Now the Mach 49 guys have been sacked for fraud.
I don’t know the story well but it seemed like the market cap had already reflected the fact that Mach 49 was now worthless ? . Perhaps it’s even a good thing that they get to stop the earnout payments and maybe even claw back what’s already been paid
And it seems like a problem that was isolated to one acquired subsidiary , whilst the rest of the business was previously one of the best ever performers on AIM and is now trading on 4 x earnings
Sky news floating a £200m price tag for the ‘legacy’ parts of Next 15 . The market cap was only £210m to start the day
https://news.sky.com/story/crisis-hit-marketing-group-next-15-approached-about-163200m-break-up-13389288
Re The Works WRKS
Anyone aware of any news/announcements? I can't find anything but share price is taking a bit of a walloping this morning - down 10% on higher than 3x average daily trading.....
WRKS has had a good run and looks more than up with events - it has trebled in a matter of weeks.
Purely conjecture on my part but this is an extremely crowded trade. If cockney rebel is taking some profits or top slicing for example you can bet there are a bunch of people following him out (or perhaps he isn’t and they are second guessing that he might). The point is it is currently high profile and has risen vertically. It peaked a few days ago and has stayed static - ie exhausted bull run so not hard to see any drop in price triggering a bunch of nervous holders into selling.
That would be my guess as to price movement.
I agree, this has a had a very good run of late. Worth watching the IMC presentation and reading Cockney Rebel's recent update. Up with events and profit taking imo.
All sounds plausible, thanks. I have a small position but can see a longer term possibility here
I think Jet2 is the week after (9th July according to Stockopaedia. Also very much looking forward to this one. Used them at Easter from their new Bournemouth base and was very impressed. Also the number of routes from Bournemouth is increasing over the next year (according to their big poster route maps at the airport!).
Dave
Argh, that was meant as a reply to a post below.... Sorry Dave
Whats the point
Really weird market at the moment
Things just stay where they are then jump up on new news
Videndum yesterday just pops up 9%
Im pretty much fully invested cant see much point selling anytning to buy something
Market shrugs off bad news very quickly
Its the polar opposite of 18 months ago when we were all in doldrums
Keeping a small rotation and looking much more at sectors
The sector i sold out of was building just seems too obvious and its a folly of a plan
Investment trusts on big NAV discounts are all going up, not only will the discount narrow but the holdings are going up - so thats a double whammy
Im pretty bullish on tandem will hit RNS level soon there seems to a big seller could be Jim Shears one of the old guard . Too cheap in the 170s. The market has turned and they are in good spot .
Greyville distributors just went pop, thats a really nice bolt on for them, 3 million turnover , be very interesting if they grow a pair and have a crack at it .
Should be very cheap, id buy it but they dont sell the stuff i like
Ive done 2 acquisitions this year , our margin has gone from 38% to circa 60% due to the pennies in the pound on stock . But an absolute total ballache to process , collect , sort etc .
Apart from
A guy on lse (London South East) likes Simon Bragg being a Director (appointed Oct 2024). Part of what AI tells me about Bragg,
"He’s also held non-executive roles at firms like the JP Morgan American Investment Trust (a FTSE 250 company) and Trap Oil, and co-founded JSB Energy Partners, focusing on energy investments in Western Europe2."
(I can imagine a Yorkshireman saying "Aye, but knows nowt about bikes"?)
"Interestingly, Bragg was already a significant shareholder in Tandem before joining the board—he owned nearly 11% of the company and had previously challenged the board over governance issues. His recent share purchases and board appointment suggest he’s now playing a more active role in shaping Tandem’s future."
I have spoken to Simon has invested / bought into a clothing brand Prendas ciclismo as well (cant remember the group name)
I dont think he is activist in the way a Harwood would be but I think he is acutely aware the company is owned by the shateholders
And not a private members club for overpaid uselees under performing old farts that enrich themselves whilst shateholders scrape a breakeven
Totally useless previous management now long gone, they were pretty horrendous .
Interesting, thanks Dave!
Sorry (again) for banging on about Halfords (HFD), but they had prelims out on the 25th, with some comment about the bikes market. BTW I'm confused (despite some help from Dave) about the extent of market overlap between Halfords and Tandem, in areas like premium and kids' bikes.
"In the cycling market, assisted by warm spring weather, we have seen positive signs of recovery in recent months. The cycling market has faced numerous challenges in recent years. Products are manufactured on long lead times and the industry found itself with significant excess inventory when the pandemic boom gave way to a cost-of-living crisis and associated collapse in demand that has persisted for some time. Halfords' inventory has been well-managed throughout; however, the industry has been highly promotional through a period of consolidation. While our cycling business has undoubtedly been impacted by these factors, our scale in the market and focus on exclusive brands has enabled us to be more disciplined in our promotional activity while increasing our market share in the post-pandemic period[3].
We have also continued to invest in new product development, stretching our Boardman brand into more premium product ranges where demand has been more resilient, growing our Cycle2Work business, and all-the-while maintaining our strong position in the adult leisure segment, as well as in kids' bikes where our sales are around two-thirds of the market in volume terms.", some ESG stuff, then ... "Cycling remains a core part of our portfolio, and we are optimistic about our prospects in a market with some very clear recovery drivers over the mid to long-term."
It's the optimism at the start and end that seems most interesting, and maybe adds a little to Dave's input.
SERCO shares are on the move today as the latest crisis to hit the UK sends ripples through international markets.
Parking in roundabouts in BOURNEMOUTH has reached epidemic proportions we are told, with Serco well-placed to benefit from the Council's proposal to install meters outside residents' homes in order to to tackle the problem.
Remember, you heard it first here ;-)
More on the crisis as it unfolds here: https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/2073703/crisis-seaside-town-bournemouth-tourists-parking
Hi all, following on from my post this morning I've received a number of DMs, including one from the US asking what a roundabout is.
The main drift was that the post was unnecessarily alarmist, disturbing readers' peaceful day under broad English sunshine as they reach for their Aperols while duly adjusting their deckchairs.
I would like to say that the notion I was being alarmist is a little unfair. I was simply sharing a news item which, as Sir Humphrey Appleby might say, was the thin end of the wedge.
The prospect that the #Bournemouth roundaboutcrisis might present itself as the epicentre of something much larger with signifcant geopolitical ramifications should not go unconsidered.
Certainly the smart money seems to be thinking that way, piling in as parking meters are installed up and down the front drives of residences along Panorama Road. Just wait when the Crisis arrives in Milton Keynes.
Declaration of a national emergency and Cobra Committee meetings before the end of next month.
Right, back to my Aperol Spritzer.