Avanti Capital Share Discussion Threads

[touch2002] 31/3/2003 13:30

Well, well, well. Cash still in place at 2.6p fully diluted, NAV assuming investments are realised at circa 3.3p suggests a fair amount of upside to current price. Pathetic they didn;t name the US company involved, its self evident from the past interims/annuals that the company is idefence, in any case takeover activity surrounding that one has been mooted since mid last year,

where to from here?

touch

[man1] 29/3/2003 13:49

Typical, can't even provide us with the results when expected.

[orsky] 27/3/2003 16:47

Lets hope the market picks up this good news and reacts accordingly tomorrow when the interim results come out!!

[touch2002] 26/3/2003 20:23

£18m cash in bank and c. £6m+ investments held through a LP arrangement

Yours for under £13m.


Unquoted winners:

Technopuce SA (www.technopuce.com, huge success story £1m inv - £2 - 5m?)
I-Defense Inc - (Internet security, recapitalised, hot clients 20%? of $15m? - $3m)
Amino Communications (raised $3.5m funds at pre-money c.£21m March 20th 2003 - what % ownership? - $2m?
Digital Brain Ltd (£9.5m turnover 2002,
Business Serve plc ( - $200k?)
Espresso Broadband Ltd - Schools service provider, 1000+ linked up, sig stake - $400k?
VIS Interactive plc ( twt jv, launching a tv racing simulation betting channel next month - no idea on inv size - 300k?
XDL Intervest LP ( reasonable vc, small LP inv - $50k?)
mBlox Ltd (SMS architecture - reasonable inv)
Callserve Communications Ltd (www.callserve.com - telephone over IP)


YAVA - (operations exchanged for 8% Public Networks (quoted, dead) - $0)

[touch2002] 26/3/2003 09:39

growbag, not sure we will see them Friday, 28March last year but no noise from the company as to this year...

If you didn;t know already, reason for rise was 3rd round funding for Amino Communications (see above) closed on March 20th (but clearly available to those in the know the previous day) who picked up £3.5m at a pre-money valuation in excess of £20m

touch

[growbag] 26/3/2003 09:36

Touch - Results due Friday. All will be revealed (or not, if the track record of Dan Taylor is anything to go by). Agree that for the first time, the portfolio (since the sell off of the quoted investments) looks promising. Good news about idefense. I remember the Chapter 11 and thought they'd gone belly up.

Let's hope some negative goodwill can be applied to the portfolio.

Cash will be down of course (lower interest from cash on deposit which basically provides the working capital - read: salaries of the directors). Assuming cash is down £1m, we will be relying on an increase in the valuation of the portfolio to bolster NAV. Fortunately, they are unquoted investments - a quoted portfolio would be a horror story.

[touch2002] 26/3/2003 09:35

A work in progress: Essentially though with £18m cash in bank and c. £6m+ invs, this is looking seriously cheap,

comments,

touch

Decent unquoted:

Technopuce SA (www.technopuce.com, huge success story £1m inv - £2 - 5m?)
I-Defense Inc - (Internet security, recapitalised, hot clients 20%? of $15m? - $3m)
Amino Communications (raised $3.5m funds at pre-money c.£21m March 20th 2003 - what % ownership? - $2m?
Business Serve plc (http://www.businessserve.co.uk/company/aboutbusinessserve.asp - $200k?)
Espresso Broadband Ltd - Schools service provider, 1000+ linked up, sig stake - $400k?
VIS Interactive plc ( twt jv, launching a tv racing simulation betting channel next month - no idea on inv size - 300k?
XDL Intervest LP ( reasonable vc, small LP inv - $50k?)
mBlox Ltd (SMS architecture - reasonable inv)
Callserve Communications Ltd (www.callserve.com - telephone over IP)
Digital Brain Ltd (£9.5m turnover 2002,



Dead unquoted:

Legion International Ltd (dead)
NETfractal (dead)
Qool Inc (dead)
Video Networks Ltd (dead)
YAVA - (operations exchanged for 8% Public Networks (quoted, dead) - $0)

[touch2002] 26/3/2003 08:59

Interesting that it continues to hold firm despite persistent small sellers, I suspect we shall see the reason fairly shortly, the mm's are not known for taking 'the long view'!

touch

[growbag] 25/3/2003 10:14

Banj - Mostly UK, but a few jonney foreigner (Qool Inc, Technopuce, I-Defense (is that still going?), Netfractal?). Edit above. The unquoted portfolio seems to be valued around £1.7m.


Amino Communications
Business Serve plc
Callserve Communications Ltd
Digital Brain Ltd
Espresso Broadband Ltd
Legion International Ltd
mBlox Ltd
NETfractal
Qool Inc
Technopuce SA
Video Networks Ltd
VIS Interactive plc
XDL Intervest LP
YAVA
I-Defense Inc

[banj] 24/3/2003 20:28

are these all registered in the uk - worth me sniffing around companies house?

[growbag] 24/3/2003 16:59

touch2002 - nice one. That's good news, because the unquoted portfolio is negatively valued at the moment by the market (and, if I recall, is only valued at about £1.7m in the accounts). What ECI need is the flotation of one its is unquoted investments - though this may not be likely in the near future in these market conditions.

[touch2002] 24/3/2003 14:09

Just got round to checking their holdings (transferred to Sigma), list at some are serious winners, technopuce SA has just had a major set of contract wins, I believe Avanti have £1m invested. Espresso Broadband (school ISP) also seems profitable and is another with no link. Perhaps there are realisation events on the horizon?

more positively,

touch

[touch2002] 23/3/2003 10:46

Only +ve is that the 'board' have options that vest at 2.5p, expect either a repricing or any offer at above that level!

touch

[touch2002] 23/3/2003 10:45

Dumped this dog in the sock drawer after buying in at 3.25 a couple of years ago. They have the cash to do something interesting, its just the management are crooks. Perhaps the rise is on the back of Aspinall's baby, due any time soon...

touch

[growbag] 21/3/2003 10:42

Continues to show strength for the moment. Talk on other boards about reverse takeovers. Hugh Osmond mentioned on iii. He doesn't show up as a major shareholder. Anyone heard anything. Even I have to admit, this is strange price activity for ECI, Cambury, Avanti

[snuff] 21/3/2003 01:27

Call me a cynic but it looks to me like MMs trying to entice people into buying ahead of the results - making it appear that good news is on the way. In reality this is going nowhere and the price will drop like a stone again within a few weeks...

[pachandl] 21/3/2003 00:23

Another increase on relatively small volume.

[growbag] 20/3/2003 15:05

Maybe something happening with these guys: Amino - one of ECIs unquoted investments (though this piece, from the Sunday Times, is 6 months old now). Flotation prospect?


Amino is the Fastest-Growing Tech Company in the East of England
29th-09-2002
THE SUNDAY TIMES ARM TECH TRACK 100 The second Sunday Times ARM Tech Track 100 league table reveals that electronic systems designer Amino, based in Cambridge, is the fastest-growing unquoted technology company in Eastern England and 4th fastest in the whole of the UK. Amino specialises in products for multimedia distribution such as on-line digital video and audio, as well as data reception. Typical of these is a new generation of small, low cost set top boxes for networked and broadcast markets, which will replace the bulky units currently supplied with cable, digital and satellite television. The boxes will also enable Internet access via the TV and will act as the core constituents of new-technology multimedia networking around the home. In addition, Amino sees other areas which can use its technology as being in the hotels and hospitality, healthcare, retail and education markets. Bob Giddy, Amino's CEO commented, "We were delighted to be ranked number four in this prestigious survey. It confirms that we are at the heart of one of the fastest growing markets in the technology arena." Amino was founded in 1997 by Martyn Gilbert who had previously held senior positions with Texas Instruments, Atari and Acorn. It currently employs 35 people and has received £8m in funding from business angels and institutional investors.

[accessible] 20/3/2003 14:42

something is happening, be it a current investmet, future investment or Mellon (who i am sure would not just sit on a share with his track record).
Just have to wait for the news and fingers crossed it rockets.

[growbag] 20/3/2003 14:15

A huge increase. There might be developments with one of the unquoted investments - maybe a flotation. That is all I can think of. The Mellon reverse takeover is no longer news. We are in a closed period, so expect no news from the company.

[arthurconboy] 20/3/2003 13:47

WATS GOING ON FOLKS

[growbag] 19/3/2003 16:14

Odd stock this one. Its price goes up when the sell volume is high, and down when people are buying. Talk about contrarian.

[younasm] 19/3/2003 00:12

Results should be out by end of this month......

[growbag] 18/3/2003 11:35

Interesting rise today on negligible volume. Any one have any ideas?