Imprint Share Discussion Threads

[jeffian] 13/6/2008 11:37

13 June 2008

Hydrogen Group plc

('the Group')


Trading Update


".......trading conditions in the investment banking market, which accounts for approximately 20% of Group Net Fee Income (NFI), have become increasingly challenging.....Despite diverting resources from this market to international recruitment, the shortfall against budget has not been fully mitigated.

As a result of this, the Board expects that NFI for the first half of 2008 will show a small decline from the record levels of the corresponding period of 2007."


Hmmmmmm. They weren't saying THAT during the bidding process. Still, a month is quite a long time, I suppose....!

Regards, Ian

[jockblue] 20/5/2008 10:34

Thanks Gengulphus.

[gengulphus] 20/5/2008 08:28

We get the court hearings to confirm everything this week; assuming everything goes smoothly, the scheme comes into effect on Friday and the cash follows 2 weeks later, on June 6th.

Source:

Note that while it says June 6th is the "latest date" for payment, I would not expect payment to arrive any earlier - it's standard wording, and I don't think I've ever known payment arrive earlier than the "latest date"!

Gengulphus

[jockblue] 19/5/2008 17:13

I've lost track of the timetable from here.....

When does this finally stop and we get some cash from Premier?

Thanks

[williebiz] 12/5/2008 11:07

I think RAB has managed to 'get out of that without moving': they probably stand to make something like a 1% profit on 13.5% (could be more in due course) of the £42m market cap - that's about £60k.

[williebiz] 08/5/2008 10:02

Wow - look at the volumes. Nice bit of quick profit in it for the buyer; seller moving on to better things available now.

[williebiz] 08/5/2008 09:58

Landsbanki at it as well. Nothing like a 100% certain profit of 15% pa to get them salivating. I reckon the price'll creep higher with a tighter spread over the next couple of weeks.

[williebiz] 07/5/2008 14:53

LOL, you reckon they'll carry on hoovering all the way to effective date, gradually increasing buy price to just under 115p? I could do with liberating my holding a couple of weeks early to pay for the RBS RI, but I won't take significantly less than 115p.

[apatel21] 07/5/2008 08:43

Ha ha - its funny watching RAB hoovering any loose stock to bring their average price down. What plums - when the shrewd investors were exiting @ 115p they were buying @ 115p+ !

[evilblues] 02/5/2008 23:04

huge lesson learnt with this one, & i'm sure i'm not alone in steering well clear of any future companies which involve certain related players whose disregard for shareholder value is such as its been here,
Good riddance to a poor bunch.

[williebiz] 02/5/2008 19:58

I feel robbed by cheating incompetent mgt. Won't say more.

[williebiz] 02/5/2008 19:44

Cheers David but just not interested any more, the old loss is painful enough already.

Did you end up losing money yourself?

I was really thinking about the old doubling up strategy @ 80p but decided not to go overweight, shame - but caution in the long run is worth it, methinkx.

[nigelpm] 02/5/2008 19:38

Not for me Dave.

Time to move on I think.

[davidosh] 02/5/2008 15:58

As there will not now be an AGM would anyone want to attend a meeting if I arrange one with management ? As they are now almost free from the takeover restrictions they might care to answer a few shareholders questions at a date agreed whereby they can give us some closure to this saga !!

[nigelpm] 02/5/2008 15:25

Oh sorry nigel i misunderstood i thought the boards were meant for reasoned debate ; )

Always worth doing some research before posting IMHO.

I'm hoping I never hold a share you also do again because to be quite frank your sarcasm doesn't interest me one bit!

Anyhow, time to end this nonsense here. Finally this saga has come to an end - phew!

[deswalker] 02/5/2008 15:13

RNS out. It passed easily.

[apatel21] 02/5/2008 09:41

This is bulletin board mate! There is no basis, I am thinking aloud. Is that ok by you?

Oh sorry nigel i misunderstood i thought the boards were meant for reasoned debate ; )

Always worth doing some research before posting IMHO.

[nigelpm] 02/5/2008 07:44

FWIW, a warning from NRG today :

[nigelpm] 02/5/2008 07:42

Ta Geng - always a wealth of knowledge.

[williebiz] 02/5/2008 07:23

Cheers Gengulphus for clearing that up.

[gengulphus] 02/5/2008 06:55

nigelpm and williebiz,

I wouldn't totally rule out the possibility of premier offering remaining shareholders 125p as a token gesture to speed things up.
...
Say, Premier get 75% +1, they will be pretty keen to delist IMP and concentrate on the synergies, that's 90%, right?

Wrong. It's a scheme of arrangement, not a normal offer. (See my post for a description of the differences.)

If today's meetings get 75% votes in favour and Court approval, that's it for any shareholders who want to hold out. The company reorganises its share capital as described under the scheme, which basically includes redeeming all existing shares for 115p, and the result is binding on all shareholders. Anyone who doesn't want it to go ahead gets their chance to vote against and a chance to put objections to the Court, and there are no further chances. Premier get 100% of the shares and can delist them with no problems, and there are no remaining shareholders to offer a higher amount to.

If today's meetings fail to get 75% votes in favour and Court approval, that's it for the scheme: nothing happens, and all existing shareholders keep their shares. If Premier then decide they'd like to offer more to try to get the company, they've got to make a new offer - and I believe the Takeover Code obliges them to wait some period (maybe 6 months?) before they can offer again.

Neither of those outcomes has any possibility of offering a higher price to just the shareholders who hold out - it's all or nothing. The only way that could happen is if the meetings got adjourned for some reason - for instance, if a fourth bidder emerged before them, offering enough and with sufficiently strong financial backing that the directors or the Court felt obliged to adjourn the meeting in shareholders' interests. (Note it would have to be a fourth bidder, not one of the existing three - all of the existing bidders are committed by the auction procedure a few weeks back not to modify their bids in the absence of another bid.)

davidosh,

Anyone going to the meeting tomorrow ? Opportunity to meet all the wonderful directors who have carefully guided the company through the past 14 months events !!!

There are so many questions that remain unanswered and leave a bitter taste IMO

I agree, but I don't really see much point in going to this meeting even if I could (which I can't anyway - work commitments). If the scheme passes, all I really need to do is put certain names on my "avoid companies with these people in charge" list - though I certainly won't object if someone gives them a roasting at today's meetings! And if the scheme fails, well, there'll be plenty of opportunity at the AGM...

Gengulphus

[davidosh] 02/5/2008 00:12

Anyone going to the meeting tomorrow ? Opportunity to meet all the wonderful directors who have carefully guided the company through the past 14 months events !!!

There are so many questions that remain unanswered and leave a bitter taste IMO

[nigelpm] 01/5/2008 20:55

Precisely!

My point being if they can wrap up 15% of the shareholding and a pay a 10% premium on that it's loose change and tidies it up. I'm not saying it's likely but raising it here for discussion. Like I said that's the only reason we post on BB's!

[williebiz] 01/5/2008 20:25

It's OK by me!

Say, Premier get 75% +1, they will be pretty keen to delist IMP and concentrate on the synergies, that's 90%, right?

Could well be worth a premium.

[nigelpm] 01/5/2008 19:29

And the basis for such baseless wild speculation?

This is bulletin board mate! There is no basis, I am thinking aloud. Is that ok by you?