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| Share Name | Share Symbol | Market | Stock Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Patisserie | CAKE | London | Ordinary Share |
| Price Change | Price Change % | Share Price | Last Trade
|
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.00 | 0.00% | 429.50 | 01:00:00 |
| Open Price | Low Price | High Price | Close Price | Previous Close |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 429.50 |
| Top Posts |
|---|
Posted at 16/5/2022 12:42 by ccnp SFO will be playing a long drip, drip game asking questions of a variety of folks and totting up the discrepancies. Such tactics as getting a non participant to disclose documents in the belief it would be of assistance and subsequently finding the blue touch paper is burning ever brighter.Slowness is frustrating when a review of participants prior experience shows they could reasonably be expected to have spotted the gaping hole. Even walking past the shops and then becoming aware of the company valuation left one speechless. Perhaps there are things that may see the light of day which will give a crystal clear picture of the characters involved and allow the cranialy competent to correctly understand who knew what, when and the actions they did (not) take as a result of possessing, or being able to demonstrate plausible deniability in terms of not possessing, that knowledge. As ever for investors, the biggest problem is then to determine if one admires their commercial astuteness or determines that residence behind a set of bars would benefit corporate governance standards. |
Posted at 07/10/2019 07:16 by onjohn Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at At the IPO, Mr Johnson sold 8.8m shares directly, with his wife selling a further 5.1m, generating a total of £23m at the issue price of £1.70 a share. The company also sold new shares, repaying the bank and shareholder loans with the proceeds. The next year Mr Johnson sold a further 4m shares, raising £12.6m. Between late 2015 and mid-2018 the company paid out a total of 9.71p of dividends per share; on Mr Johnson’s stake that totals £3.75m, though he did not sell any more shares in that time. After the accounting irregularities were discovered and it emerged that Patisserie Valerie’s cash position was very much weaker than the published accounts stated, Mr Johnson immediately extended £20m of emergency loans to the company. These comprised a three-year interest-free secured loan and a £10m bridging facility, which was paid off from the proceeds of a share placing at 50p a share. The shares were never admitted to trading, and are now likely to be worthless. Recommended The FT View The editorial board Patisserie Valerie offers a bitter financial lesson Depending on the outcome of the administration process, Mr Johnson may not receive any repayment on his three-year loan, or the £3m he has extended to ensure that this month’s wage bills were paid in full. But based on publicly available information, he has put roughly £26m into the company and taken about £46m out, before taxes and professional fees. There is no suggestion of wrongdoing in either the loans or the share sales, but one investor said the numbers were nevertheless “pretty galling” given what has happened to the company. Mr Johnson did not respond to a request for comment. |
Posted at 25/6/2019 03:16 by dudishes G'day,Must admit bbms often gets it right. And having had a rather dodgy experience with Belgo (LJ) some years ago, I would recom that all investor agencies, newspapers etc, give LJ a very wide birth. If innocent (he has not been arrested, maybe why he jumped rather than fell out of the tree), but his innocence points towards his failure to get on the restaurant circuit for fame, he failed miserably, twice now. Big talk, little substance! Lots of us made mega bucks on totcom, we don't try to build a reputation, just crack on with our investments. Not Luke, he needs attention, not getting it. |
Posted at 29/1/2019 17:58 by tradejunkie2 Line up amongst all the other AIM muppet investors that have lost money.####### diku29 Jan '19 - 14:42 - 2866 of 2869 Investors buying shares here in good faith find later if the books have been cooked up for some time...do they have a case against directors?.. |
Posted at 29/1/2019 00:35 by danny baker I wonder if the reason this fraud perpetuated so long was CAKE's low profile with the investment community. I had never heard of PatVal before the problems emerged. I wasn't aware that it was an AIM company and had never seen one of its cafes. I had visited both Cambridge and Peterborough Services regularly but McDonalds there is in the prime position, drawing attention away from the other outlets. I think PatVal had a narrow base of followers who either loved the concept or had faith in LJ. Other experienced investors just didn't notice it or if they glanced at the multiple just thought it was expensively valued. It's easy to suspend reality when everyone is a believer. With hindsight, PatVal was a bubble assisted by fictitious accounts just when you thought regulation was there to protect investors. |
Posted at 28/1/2019 10:06 by dmipne The “cash is a fact” is indeed an area open to the art of accountancy and many (even I’d say, most) companies do it.The balance sheet only shows the cash figure on one day of the year, and the investors don’t see the balance on the other 364. Holding back payments to suppliers by one day, aggressive invoicing / Cash collections just before the year end are 2 of the most basic tricks to get the year end bank balance to look right. There are signs to spot this in the accounts such as excessive current liabilities or interest received/ paid figures that don’t stack up to the year end balance. I always treat year end cash with scepticism. However it has no impact on the profitability disclosed, or on the net assets position. What I believe has happened with CAKE though is way beyond accountancy manipulation. It is , I repeat, fraud and/ or inept auditing that have allowed material costs liabilities to have not been recorded in the books at all. It beggars belief that the company could have gone through so many financial checks on fund raising, flotation, placing etc and these have not been picked up. I don’t even blame the banks. Like investors, they have every right to believe the audited accounts on which they are making their financial decisions. |
Posted at 27/1/2019 22:49 by dmipne Its all very well trying to look at the accounts and spot the errors with the benefit of hindsight. But that’s not the job of an investor, particularly in a simple food retailer. It’s the job of the auditor.All those reasons, high sales per unit, high gross margins, were reasons to invest in this company, not to steer clear. It looked like they were doing things better than their rivals, so what’s not to like? An investor has a right to expect the figures in the audited accounts like sales and gross margin to be gospel. I can accept that in a company like Carillion, with high degrees of estimates over contract values, that an investor needs to treat the figures with a fair amount of sceptism. But not a high street coffee and cake shop. Grant Thornton should be sued by every investor , small and large, who read the accounts, made an investment decision, and lost money. It should wipe them out, though it won’t happen. Personally I steered clear because I could not accept such a high p e ratio for a high street store. I accepted that the audited accounts were materially right, and everyone has a right to assume this. |
Posted at 03/12/2018 20:25 by ntv An IPO roadshow, viewed from insideBy Luke Johnson FT Floating a company costs a fortune, but this is necessary in order to list on a reputable exchange This week there has been just one subject on my mind: the flotation of our company Patisserie Valerie. It is an all-consuming undertaking. Together with my business partners I have been immersed in meetings with investors all day for the past five working days. In total we will do a whirlwind of about 40 presentations back to back, meeting dozens of prospective institutional shareholders. Our journey started almost eight years ago when we bought a six-strong chain of London patisseries. Since then we have expanded our group to almost 140 branches across the country. Now feels the right time to go public: the economy is thriving and the stock market has rediscovered its purpose – providing capital for flourishing enterprises. It is all very exciting. I have a sense of déjà vu about the whole experience. Twenty-one years ago I undertook the same exercise with a couple of colleagues, promoting a restaurant concept to the stock market called PizzaExpress. We floated it for about £25m, not fully realising what a fabulous opportunity the transaction represented: it was a formative moment in my career, and made everything else possible. Ironically, last week it was reported that PizzaExpress is for sale once more – valued this time at a reputed £1bn .&# A few of the fund managers I’ve been meeting recently are familiar faces. In the intervening years they have backed countless winning and losing propositions from entrepreneurs involved with every type of endeavour. I come away from the question and answer sessions with renewed respect for their diligence and insight. It is unquestionably a field where time in the trenches counts. Youthful enthusiasm for the latest deal or technology has its place; but wisdom comes from analysing hundreds of companies, meeting countless management teams, learning which ventures will make most money. It is no coincidence that Warren Buffett, the best investor of all time, has been doing it for more than 60 years. Our roadshow is the culmination of months of preparation. Accountants and lawyers have been crawling all over our books, producing reams of detailed documents. There are rooms full of contracts, verification papers, warranties, indemnities, leases, health warnings and who knows what else. An analyst has carried out a 50-page study of our company. Public relations agents have been discussing our merits with the media. The whole circus costs a fortune in fees but is, I suppose, necessary if a company wants to list on a reputable exchange. We are looking for investors who understand our company and will hold for the long term. We present to a few hedge funds: the contrast with mainstream institutional investors is stark. The hedge funds occupy much grander offices and have exceedingly glamorous receptionists, while the partners appear far more laid back. None of that means they are better investors, however. The key when pitching one’s tale is to retain a sense of enthusiasm and be prepared for some tough probing. At least we are raising only tens of millions – not hundreds. Then it would be necessary to hawk our story all around New York too – and perhaps even Geneva. A dog-and-pony show that elaborate sounds exhausting: all we are doing in addition to the City of London is a swift trip up to Edinburgh on Thursday. There are floods of other companies looking for money. One fund manager complained that we were the third new issue she had met that morning. I pitied her having to wade through piles of 200-page prospectuses full of tiny print, trying to make the right decisions involving many millions of pounds. The system is somewhat mad, but much healthier than a stock market that neglects British industry. After all, savers need a mechanism to channel their cash towards risk takers who aim to deliver a return to those providers of capital. We are attempting to play a small part in that process. Next week we close the subscription list, work out the price for our shares – then trading starts. As usual with capitalism, demand and supply will determine the outcome: it all feels rather dramatic. Wish us luck in our new adventure. |
Posted at 18/10/2018 21:16 by eeza Telling investors, & potential investors, that the Co has £28m in cash whilst the true figure is minus £9m, would be classed as misselling anywhere else and liable to pay compensation. I fail to see how investors have not been misled. |
Posted at 13/10/2018 21:35 by muffinhead £30m rescue deal ignored by Patisserie Valerie bossesPatisserie Valerie’s management snubbed a £30m deal that would have protected small investors, it has been revealed, as furious shareholders rounded on the company last night. Investment fund Crystal Amber was plotting a convertible debt deal to rescue the firm which would have meant investors would not have seen their stakes diluted by the emergency fund raise that offered up new shares at a huge discount. A top 15 investor said there are “so many questions to ask of management, board and auditors in terms of how was it not spotted much earlier” Patisserie Valerie staved off collapse on Friday, successfully tapping investors for £15m and securing two £10m loans from chairman Luke Johnson. It is thought that Mr Johnson participated in the equity raise, which was limted to large-scale investors, but it remains unclear whether his 37pc stake was diluted. Crystal Amber’s head Richard Bernstein said that the placement had protected Mr Johnson’s fortune locked up in his stake from being wiped out. He added: “Two thirds of the equity raise is going to pay back the man who owns £166m of shares that would be worth zero without a raise.” Crystal Amber, which does not hold a stake in the firm, told Patisserie Valerie’s broker Canaccord Genuity that it was prepared to offer up to £30m to engineer a rescue but was “ignored&rdquo Investors and banks were wrongfooted by the company’s troubles. Asset management giant Aberdeen Standard, a top 15 investor, called it “an entirely unforeseen situation” while City sources said HSBC, whose Birmingham-based team had extended the company a £4m overdraft, only found out on Wednesday morning. Chris Marsh, the finance chief at the centre of its financial catastrophe, cashed in millions of pounds worth of shares in the business this year and has been involved in a string of businesses that have run aground. Mr Marsh was arrested on Thursday and released on bail after the café chain suspended its shares. He is now the subject of an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office into the crisis. Mr Marsh has sold more than £5m worth of shares since Patisserie Valerie floated four years ago, the vast majority of them in the past eight months. His share options were worth £2.8m and £2.4m respectively, making him a total profit of £2m. Mr Marsh and Mr Johnson held the same roles at Healthy Living Centres, a chain of fitness clubs, from 2004. It is unclear whether they had exited the company before it went under in 2008. They also collaborated on the rescue of Fishworks, a chain of fish restaurants. Mr Marsh left the year later and the business found itself in need of another rescue. |
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