Crystal Amber Share Discussion Threads

[dangersimpson2] 22/10/2020 10:16

If you assume they wouldn't get much for board intelligence or GI Dynamics then a say 10% haircut to place the listed equities as blocks that would only leave 10% profit but on top there would be wind up costs. Given the time & effort required, there must be easier ways to make money.

A very aggressive buyback would close the NAV gap but then where is the exit for the activist funds?

[spectoacc] 22/10/2020 06:41

Lol @HUR. Fair to say we were all calling that one out a while back! (eg post 447).

Discount to NAV surely the only reason for activists, with a view to possible wind-up? But most of those holdings wouldn't be easy to sell in any size.

[dangersimpson2] 21/10/2020 23:15

It's quite funny that a listed activist fund is itself being targetted by activist funds. Not sure what exactly they are going to do to agitate for change tho - send Bernstein on a de-programming course where they give him an electric shock every time he buys more HUR?

CRS are already buying back shares at discount - there is only one thing that will change sentiment here and that is better stock-picking & portfolio management. Kicking out the fund manager or getting them to reduce their fee still leaves the same portfolio to deal with, and if they are a forced seller then the market will put the holdings under pressure a la Woodford. 30% discount is not enough to make that strategy work.

[rambutan2] 21/10/2020 21:44

So, those will be two slightly worrying additions to the shareholder list for the board. And 1607 is also there with 12% and Rath Dhu with 3%. All adds up to at least 37% held by not so easy to please stakeholders. Time for Mr Bernstein to start performing!

[rambutan2] 21/10/2020 21:27

And Almitas added big time, taking its 6% up to 16%:

[rambutan2] 21/10/2020 16:09

Weiss took 5m of them:

[rambutan2] 20/10/2020 20:09

Invesco's 20% stake (18,870,340) sold, says the rns, although can't really see it looking back through the trades. CRS website yet to be updated.

[catsick] 08/10/2020 07:36

Looks like they will ramp up these buybacks with de la rue doing a moonshot

[conradj1] 21/9/2020 08:10

what a heap of sh1tr this I

Bernstein lost the plot with HUR and the way he ramped them on twitter whilst selling shows he really isn't cut out for being an honest winner in this game. 1.5 pct fee makes this a complete basket case too

[frazboy] 15/9/2020 16:28

Gheez, CRS buying more Hurricane.

[spectoacc] 10/9/2020 16:22

Catching up, CRS 31st July NAV 112p, but you'd need to be quite a fan of DLAR (& ALM, which I am).

[wbodger] 15/7/2020 00:44

Probably. Not sure why they haven't put out an RNS, the new shares started trading July 7th. If they didn't invest in more their percentage holding dropped a lot.

[dangersimpson2] 14/7/2020 23:20

I suspect they sold DLAR in the market to fund the open offer and maybe some of the placing - be daft not to given that they could sell at £1.50 and use the cash to buy at £1.10. We won’t know any amounts until the RNS arrives though, before then it’s all guesswork.

[wbodger] 14/7/2020 23:12

DLAR: Working from the Holdings-RNS figures, CRS increased their holding by about 5 million shares between mid-Feb and late-March, when the shares traded around .55, and sold somewhat more than that many after the Trading Update on June 1 brought a spike and re-rate to above £1.20/share. That is a tidy profit of £3.25 million (ballpark).

They have now returned to a holding of about 14 million on a much diluted share base. Their new percentage of the 195 million shares in issue is therefore about 7.1%, although afaics that has not been declared yet in an RNS, nor whether they subscribed in the Open Offer. Bernstein may be in no hurry to sell out, now that DLAR is a much more attractive investment.

My calculations. DYOR.

[room5] 04/6/2020 07:45

Bought into this at 70p, still think it looks cheap at these levels. DLAR have turned around, ALM just a quality holding, REDD recovering, EQLS will get back on their feets as cross border travel and trade resumes.Don't know enough about what's going on at HUR but the oil price is going in the right direction and their break even is what $19/barrel? Due a retrace on positive news.

[spectoacc] 02/6/2020 20:52

Steel not steal? ;) He thought they were all steals, but none of them bloody were.

[edwardt] 02/6/2020 19:10

Has not had!

[edwardt] 02/6/2020 19:09

Let's give the manager some credit. He had balls of steal

[wbodger] 02/6/2020 12:42

I was really thinking that until people put out holdings updates this is just a NAV spike. It can vanish as quickly as it appeared, but it is certainly good news for now. At least it removes the risk of a cash-raise by DLAR at a silly price. It was a good trading update, especially with new contracts signed. (Btw answering your point i don't think their business going forward is about banknotes, they are stressing other revenue opportunities.)

Problems at HUR haven't gone away. I'm not very familiar with EQLS or KMR but I like Redde's new team, and ALM has recovered.

The spread at CRS is ridiculous but for me that's academic.

[apollocreed1] 02/6/2020 11:57

@Wbodger - Good point - what do they do with DLAR, and the long-term trend is still for the world to use less cash.

[wbodger] 02/6/2020 11:50

Imo it is because DLAR is up a lot but that doesn't necessarily translate into CRS value right away. DLAR spiked on a short squeeze, so it will probably retrace somewhat, meanwhile CRS has nearly 20% of equity but unless there is a takeover it's hard to see what Bernstein does with it, and therefore how directly the DLAR re-rate translates to CRS.

CRS is highly illiquid anyway.

[apollocreed1] 02/6/2020 11:32

I'm a bit puzzled by this Crystal Amber spread on the shares. Buy price is 94p and sell price is 80p, which means your down 15% as soon as you buy the shares. Has the spread always been so large or is it just large now because the price has been moving up quickly? What is the usual spread if not so large?