Assetco Share Discussion Threads

[5hakey] 13/7/2011 17:31

I really do not know.????????? I got 3k worth here

[5hakey] 13/7/2011 17:31

I really do not know.????????? I got 3k worth here

[linslader] 13/7/2011 16:18

You surely don't really think that now do you .

[5hakey] 13/7/2011 16:15

Just letting their buddy's out before shut shop one thinks

[effortless cool] 13/7/2011 16:13

Why would you be surprised?

[pre] 13/7/2011 14:32

institutional dumping....3.4 million sold by canada life and 4 milllon by blackrock...per the rns just out..overhang build up?

[linslader] 12/7/2011 17:26

Lol The three fcuckseteers.

[yoyoy] 12/7/2011 16:33

Greed is what went wrong.

[jockblue] 12/7/2011 15:10

The Drewster - 12 Jul'11 - 09:18 - 1340 of 1362

To my mind, what went wrong was a classic case of the company taking its eye off the ball. It had been making overtures at the UAE for many years, and presumably has spent a lot of money in the process. In the meantime, there were many other calls on the company's cashflows and not all of them could be met.

So, a dividend is played with, some other expenses and oops, they forgot that they had to pay the VAT. In the meantime, the assets are getting older, more and more capital is required for the new and existing contracts, and the requirement to refinance the non-recourse loans suddenly becomes too hard when a) the banks are in "no-loans" mode as a default, and b) the existing management made a fundamental mistake such as not forecasting their cashflow correctly.

Having arrived in that position, vultures immediately start circling. Credit Insurers who only play a no-risk game fled the scene, other credit lines from suppliers are throttled back and/or stopped and the amount of cash needed to continue to fund the business changes on a day by day basis as everyone moves to a cash upfrontbasis. Many retailers such as HMV have seen this effect. It led to management having to make multiple calls as they were unable to survive in the new creditless world, and the departure of Shannon and the internal political ramifications of this will further complicate matters.

And so, we are where we are. A simple cashflow forecasting error has brought the company to its knees - of course it's profitable but bankrupt (nearly),

Lessons to learn: It's a hard one - I've been here since the Asfare days and bought into the story of long term contracts just producing profit and cash. All I can deduce was that the weakness of the FD in not standing up to the others has led to this and I dot see how you can legislate against this.

[rrogans] 12/7/2011 14:57

I don't think ShareSoc can protect against incompetence. Paying that final dividend was just plain stupid, as was not raising the right amount of money when the share price would have supported a decent fund raising.

The time to have walked away was when they delayed the dividend payment. The writing couldn't have been on the wall in bigger letters.

[davidosh] 12/7/2011 14:30

John09...There are large institutions involved here though so surely you can get together and have it investigated ? ShareSoc would help if shareholders who know the full story want to mount a campaign

[effortless cool] 12/7/2011 14:26

linslader - they actually said that any offer was unlikely to exceed the then current share price (4p), which does not mean that they expected any offer to match the then current share price.

The Drewster - there are plenty of buyers with cash to afford this. In theory, it looks a great private equity play. Given the recent history, the share price, and the apparent withdrawal of all but one interested party, I think you have to take the view that all the published financial results are unreliable, and that things are such a mess that it is proving very difficult to calculate how much this is worth(if anything).

[john09] 12/7/2011 14:24

What went wrong? basically everything you have read about how the company has been performing has been a lie particularly the debt figure. As soon as i read £140m of debt i thought - oh dear they kept that quiet lol. It will all come out in the wash but basically its been a sham. Badly run at best but fradulently looks more likely

[the drewster] 12/7/2011 14:17

To a cash rich buyer, assuming £140m is the extent of the debt, then the return on capital is surely very appealing at this level.

I guess cash rich buyers are just few and far between in the current climate, and perhaps worried just what else might be lurking in the depths of the books!

[davidosh] 12/7/2011 14:16

Do any of you feel that directors have let down shareholders here ? What has been behind the problems ? ShareSoc may be able to help shareholders and it is free to register and discuss the issues or start a shareholder action group with ShareSoc backing. Join at www.sharesoc.org

[linslader] 12/7/2011 14:15

The company intimated in an earlier RNS that they expected a bid around the share price at that time which was 4p ish

[effortless cool] 12/7/2011 13:59

They are certainly not issuing shares to raise cash.

I agree that the liquidity is surprising under the cicumstances. I expect its just retail punters throwing good money after bad - after all, 1m shares only costs about 12k, so 10m trades is hardly megabucks.

[rrogans] 12/7/2011 13:34

Anyone got any views on the interesting trading today? 10M traded last time I looked, but very little improvement in the price. Could it be that some money is being raised in the background with some shares being issued? Or is there is a wholesale swing in sentiment from pessimists/realists to optimists/fantasists? (I put myself in the optimist category).