Byotrol Share Discussion Threads

[1gw] 13/11/2019 21:22

I would hope that if the company had access to the right advisors they would be able to find institutions who would be prepared to invest despite the qualification. But I agree it is an extra hurdle to get over. What chance something in the AGM statement tomorrow to put the audit issue to rest?

[the ghost who walks] 13/11/2019 19:01

Can't see that happening yet given the recent audit issue. Not sure that worries me though, as when they buy hopefully that is once good news has come and stock higher.

[1gw] 13/11/2019 17:22

They've said they need to spend money marketing/advertising to increase sales haven't they? That's the point of looking for a partner - someone who can fund some or all of that spend now that they've got some real data from the trial.

[sikhthetech] 13/11/2019 13:35

Micro, I found your post about Byot on Target website interesting...


I'd thought majority of potential customers would perform a generic search like 'disinfectant spray - all purpose' rather than specifically for "Byotrol"..


Using a commonly used generic search and various 'sort by filters', the following was returned showing where Byotrol appears on the list...

Sort by:
Relevance: 20th on list.
Featured: NOWHERE on 1st page of 24 cleaners.
Price low to high: NOWHERE on 1st page of 24 cleaners.
Average ratings: 4th on list.
Best Seller: NOWHERE on 1st page of 24 cleaners.
Newest: 8th on list.





So according to Target's own website, after more than a year of trials, still not even on the 1st page of 'Bestseller' list and not even listed on the 1st page of 'Featured'.


Further evidence that Byotrol in Target stores is not doing well.
Maybe that's why, after more than a year, it's still in trials. Maybe that's why the 2nd retailer pulled out????

[1gw] 13/11/2019 07:18

I'd prefer to see institutional buying.

[the ghost who walks] 13/11/2019 07:14

More buying by new lands. Bullish?

[sikhthetech] 12/11/2019 21:42

The ghost,

Yep, agree to disagree...
Lots of IFs and Buts in their full statement and a lot of jam tomorrow from a BoD who aren't confident...


The BoD aren't good at cash flow or planning if 6 months ago they say:

"We are also now close to securing an additional new national retailer trial in the US."

and then state it's too expensive and now they need a partner...

Seems more likely the Target trials have cost them a lot and they can't afford to go through another trial...
Normally Trials are on SOR basis and Byot would be funding the 'free samples'..

[mudbath] 12/11/2019 21:29

1gw

Thanks for your incisive appraisal of Byotrol's current position.
I too hope that any worries regarding perceived negatives will soon be dispelled.
(Not that I have any)

[the ghost who walks] 12/11/2019 21:00

The whole note is worth reading, particularly the point about trivial balances. Think we can agree to disagree on this, and only time will tell. I've purchased a few more in recent days.

[sikhthetech] 12/11/2019 19:18

The Ghost,

"The board is managing cash, the us is a potential big cash strain but they’ve concluded that they will not ask shareholders to fund that at least in its current 100% ownership structure, hence the search for a partner"

Yes, US is a big cash strain hence why it's also highly likely they will need a placing...

They also said that they were close to securing a 2nd national retailer, yet so far nothing more on it.. So why believe them when it comes to a partner or placing...
Then the accounts were delayed and a mess..

The BoD have lost credibility...


Weak cash position:
"At the year-end we had cash resources of £2.8m (2018: £3.85m) which is sufficient to finance our ongoing operations and the remaining earnout payments to Medimark’s vendors but not to fund additional resources, capabilities and nationwide marketing expenditure in the US."


"We were able to review bank reconciliations for three of the four open Lloyds Bank Plc accounts referred to above, with the fourth account having a trivial balance for which bank statements indicate trivial movement during the year. However we were unable to perform all our planned audit procedures and we considered that alternative audit procedures did not fully address the risk of completeness of bank facilities across the Group and parent company financial statements."




READ THE COMPANY NEWSFLOW

[the ghost who walks] 12/11/2019 18:50

Agree with this. The board is managing cash, the us is a potential big cash strain but they've concluded that they will not ask shareholders to fund that, at least in its current 100% ownership structure, hence the search for a partner.

[1gw] 12/11/2019 17:56

Well you never know for sure about placings, especially for a microcap with growth ambitions, but the conservative balance sheet and relatively strong cash position are things that attract me to byotrol.

It had net current assets (£5.0m current assets less £2.0m current liabilities) and net tangible assets at year-end and current assets included £2.8m cash. It had less than £1m of non-current liabilities. It had positive operating cashflow (£330k cash generated from operations) in FY19, but that is flattered by the Solvay IP payments, so not representative of "underlying" cashflow. One of the issues with the accounts is trying to back out underlying numbers given the IP payments, the IFRS changes and the Medimark acquisition and part-year contribution. But they did say in the preliminary results that EBITDA would have been around negative £0.45m without the IFRS changes and that included US costs and acquisition costs.

Specifically on cash, the company reports that:
"At the year-end we had cash resources of £2.8m (2018: £3.85m) which is sufficient to finance our ongoing operations and the remaining earnout payments to Medimark’s vendors but not to fund additional resources, capabilities and nationwide marketing expenditure in the US."
and
"The Directors have prepared projected cash flow information for the coming year. The projections take into account the new business opportunities highlighted in the Chairman’s and Chief Executive’s Statements, the timing and quantum of which will affect the Group’s cash requirements, which are continually monitored by the Board. On the basis of these projections, the Group has sufficient working capital facilities for the foreseeable future."

So OK for business as usual, as I read that, but they can't afford big marketing and development spend in the US (without raising cash), which is why they're looking for a partner there.

The interim results will be a chance to see how "steady state" cashflow looks without the distortions of FY19. They have been successful in the past in doing one-off deals (e.g. Solvay IP monetisation) which have provided a good boost to cashflow at the time, and presumably there are further opportunities to do one-off deals in the future (not least with the US business perhaps). There is also the potential for royalty cashflows to come in if Solvay gets going with Actizone.

So as a microcap (and therefore almost by definition high risk), this looks relatively solid to me. The main negatives that I can see are the institutional selling and shareprice trend (which affect sentiment), qualification on the accounts (which I suspect will be a red flag to some investors, no matter how reasonable the explanation sounds) and the number of distorting factors in the FY19 accounts (which makes it more difficult to assess the underlying state of the business).

I hope they can put many of those negatives behind them over the next year or so.

[as always, offered in good faith but not guaranteed to be error-free]

[pugugly] 12/11/2019 14:56

What the Corbyn mob fail to understand is that the majority of major UK drug companies have a significant part of their production and research facilites and also back oficies outside the UK ao relativly easy to emigrate the head office - So Corbyn UK plc will soon lose all their cutting edge reseach and manufacturing facilities -

[sikhthetech] 12/11/2019 14:42

Given the lack of cash, there's likely to be a placing soon....

I think it explains the significant number of 'sells' over several trades...
Question is how deeply discounted a placing will be...

Best read the company/industry newsflow than believe posters, who are heavily under water...

[1gw] 12/11/2019 13:57

Byotrol don't provide cleaning services to the NHS do they? They provide cleaning/anti-microbial products.

I like the look of this shareprice move, so some of that buying is mine. I had meant to stop after my last purchase, and realise this is providing a hostage to fortune, or at least to the trolls hoping that my investments fail (apologies to other posters for the disruption on this thread), but it's good to see that high volume go through today and the price moved up so quickly afterwards. What would be really nice is to see an institution on the other side, because if that is another institution (i.e. not FIL) selling out and we don't see an institution take their place, that would be a concern.

Thursday is an opportunity for the board to try to get on the front foot again with a good positive AGM statement.

[sikhthetech] 12/11/2019 13:22

Pugugly,

"At least some protection here with their US business "

Will they?
After over a year, their US business is still in trials..

Post Brexit, it's easier to put heavy duties on a country, like UK, going it alone than a large organisation, like EU. Post Brexit, UK would be finished if there is a trade war with the US.

So what will happen if Labour, as they are saying, hit NHS CLEANING services in UK and Trump CONTINUES with America First, buy only US goods..

[pugugly] 12/11/2019 13:09

sikhtheteck - Can I take it then in view of your post 3812 you have sold or will be selling out of TLY - You were warned about the Corbyn risk there many moons ago -
At least some protection here with their US business - If Corbyn and mob get in and carry out their threats can the last entrepreneur turn out the lights as he leaves whatever may be then left of the United states of Russian and the rump of the UK.

[slicethepie] 12/11/2019 12:43

Contact the bod and ask questions or come to the agm.

[razoblade] 12/11/2019 12:25

Havent you already made your point about this before. Its like pressing refresh on the browser only to look at the same rubbish again. Get over it, we get your point too!

[sikhthetech] 12/11/2019 12:25

Massive selling ahead of GE/Brexit... around 23m 'sells' reported..
Will Labour take hospital cleaning products into public hands as well?


"Life and death" services such as hospital cleaning should be brought back into public hands, Labour's Baroness Chakrabarti has said.

[sikhthetech] 12/11/2019 11:54

There's also questions over the accounts and questions over the BoD's credibility..


6 months ago, they announced they were close to securing an additional new retailer... what happened?

"We are also now close to securing an additional new national retailer trial in the US."

[microscope] 12/11/2019 11:34

I had a look at some of the Byotrol products on 'Target' website over the weekend. The site itself wasn't particularly user-friendly, (not Byotrol's fault of course) a search for Byotrol only bringing up three products initially. The products themselves have had a few excellent reviews (though some were from people given free samples) but I was then presented with 'similar alternative products', which was a long list, several of which were cheaper, in what appears a very crowded space.

I think one of the issues with buying a range like this is that all the manufacturers make similar claims (in some cases more tenable than others probably!) 'long lasting aroma', 'clears 99%' or whatever of bacteria, 'lasts longer' etc etc, so unless you're a scientifically minded customer, the tendency might often be to go for the cheapest, on the principle that 'it'll do the job fine'. Lazy perhaps, but just how it plays out a lot of the time imho..

Also two of the products were only available online with shopping orders over $25, and the other could not be ordered online (as opposed to out of stock).

So I can conclude from that it is a very tough market indeed to make inroads in especially as the big retailers seem to adopt often a 'trial' first, which in Byotrol's case does seem to be a rather elongated process with Target