Ducat Ventures Share Discussion Threads

[day_dreamer] 05/10/2004 10:45

michaeld :

I day-trade a lot and that means obtaining stock i do not intend
to hold for long or actually buy.
So what difference is that to shorting, the stock has to be bought
back at some stage, you have to make your money and if a stock is
too expensive then you have the right to make money out of your own
judgement either way.

Gravy

[mautstwo] 05/10/2004 10:37

mauTToo- multiple alias user to deceive , TT on iii, where he is reviled, cheat, con-man , and crook

BEWARE

[michaeld] 05/10/2004 10:37

Day dreamer; I do agree that when people become disillusioned with a stock they should not remain to criticise. Personally, if I am bailing out I usually post that I have sold for such and such reasons and leave it at that.
Also, I think that selling shares you do not hold (shorting) is a harmful stockmarket activity and should be made illegal.

[day_dreamer] 05/10/2004 08:48

michaeld :

Suggest you visit the Tadpole threads and see what maut too
has done over there because of HIS grudge with that stock, he
has sold out and has been deramping on many bulletin boards
ever since, he's getting a taste of his own medicine and he does
not like it, you'll find maut too is the most arrogant person
i've come across on the net, he has befriended many with tadpole
with misleading info and now because he has sold he cannot simply
walk away and leave holders to it, as for Duc i would wait for the
downtrend to resume and short it with IG.

Gravy

[maut too] 05/10/2004 08:44

Thanks michaeld ... (s)he does seem a little strange and I have notified advfn



I note the new ceo bought 7000 shares yesterday at 75p

[michaeld] 05/10/2004 08:30

Thanks for reprinting those articles maut too. It looks as though mautstwo has something of a grudge against you. If what this person says is unjustified (libel even?) then I would ask ADVFN management to look into the matter. Its certainly not helpful to this thread.

[mautstwo] 05/10/2004 07:35

mauTToo- multiple alias user to deceive , TT on iii, where he is reviled, cheat, con-man , and crook

BEWARE

[maut too] 05/10/2004 06:49

October 05, 2004

Costs row claims Durlacher chief
By Caroline Merrell, Banking Correspondent Times



CHRISTOPHER Stainforth, the Old Etonian hired to rebuild Durlacher, the stockbroker, has left the company in a row about bonuses and costs.

Mr Stainforth, who was hired more than two years ago to rescue Durlacher in the aftermath of the dot-com crash, has been succeeded by Julian Hirst, who is a board director and head of corporate finance at the broking firm.



Although Mr Stainforth officially resigned, it is believed that he will receive a payoff in lieu of his one-year contract. His basic remuneration last year was £350,000.

Mr Stainforth, who in 1991 was acquitted after a year on trial during the Natwest-Blue Arrow scandal, is thought to have riled shareholders by not controlling costs. Investors are believed to have contacted Howard Flight, a nonexecutive board director and conservative MP, about this.

The situation came to a head on September 23, when Durlacher announced interim results that showed costs for the past six months were £4.3 million.

Tony Caplin, the broking firm's chairman, had told investors that costs for the entire year would only be about £6.5 million.

Shareholders, who were asked to provide additional funding of £10 million during the first half, are also annoyed that some of the money raised had been used to pay lucrative bonuses to Mr Stainforth and others, such as Zoe Appleyard, the broker's 30-year-old head of corporate finance.

The bonuses were approved by the remuneration committee headed by Mr Caplin.

Mr Stainforth's sudden departure comes after three years of turmoil at the top of the firm - one of the oldest names in the City of London.

During the dot-com boom, under previous management, the firm came within a whisker of entering the FTSE 100 index.

However, after the technology bubble burst, its value fell to just £3 million, and Mr Stainforth was recruited to return the broking firm to its roots, as an adviser to small and medium-sized companies.

The shares closed 12 per cent up yesterday at 78½p, valuing the company at £15 million.

[maut too] 05/10/2004 06:48

GUARDIAN


Durlacher chief quits

Christopher Stainforth has quit as chief executive of stockbroker Durlacher. Investors in the firm are thought to have expressed concerns over its cost base. Mr Stainforth, a well-known corporate financier who was acquitted of deception charges in the Blue Arrow trial of the early 90s, had joined the firm in 2002 to help its recovery following the bursting of the dotcom bubble. He will be replaced by Simon Hirst, head of corporate finance

[maut too] 05/10/2004 06:47

Durlacher replaces Stainforth in boardroom row over bonuses
By Katherine Griffiths in New York
05 October 2004


Durlacher, the boutique investment bank, replaced its chief executive Christopher Stainforth yesterday after a boardroom row about fees paid to Mr Stainforth and his allies within the company.

Relations have become strained between Mr Stainforth and some investors after it emerged that a small group of senior figures within the company received generous bonuses for working on Durlacher's £10m money raising in March.

Almost £400,000 went to about six individuals, including £200,000 that Mr Stainforth himself collected.

While the bonuses were approved by Durlacher's remuneration committee, they were frowned upon by investors, who challenged Mr Stainforth about them when he held meetings with major shareholders after announcing six-month results two weeks ago.

The payments were viewed to be part of a general escalation of expenses, according to some shareholders who were dismayed to see in the company's six-months results that annual costs were running at £8.7m. That overshot the £6.5m target which Durlacher had said it was aiming for.

Durlacher said in a statement that Mr Stainforth would be replaced by Simon Hirst, who was recruited by Mr Stainforth from Commerzbank in November 2002 to head the corporate finance business. Mr Hirst's twin, Julian, who also works for the company, will take over that role.

Mr Stainforth had created a mixed impression as the head of Durlacher, which he joined in April 2002 when the business was on the verge of running out of money.

Some said the company, which had earlier focused on investing in technology companies and whose fortunes had mirrored the boom and bust of the dot.com bubble, had been successfully returned to health by Mr Stainforth.

Others, however, said he had made some unpopular hiring choices and there has been general discontent at the level of executive salaries at a company which has only just begun to stem losses and break into profit.

Tony Caplin, the chairman of Durlacher, said: "The board would like to thank Christopher for his hard work since April 2002, during which time he has been instrumental in restructuring and refocusing the company." The company would not comment further on the change of management.

Mr Stainforth is no stranger to controversy. He worked at UBS Philips & Drew when the bank advised the employment agency Blue Arrow on a controversial £837m fund raising in the late 1980s. The deal was later investigated by the Department of Trade and Industry and a number of individuals were put on trial for allegedly trying to cover up to what extent the fund raising flopped. Mr Stainforth was acquitted.

[ino results today] 05/10/2004 06:44

Take a look, have a read, discover that they have NAV 11.3p per share - this is even stated by the Directors.

Up 11% pre-market to 7.25p.

Expect a massive surge of this tiny microcap (£0.85m) today.

50% gain is very possible even with small buying.

AND NEWS OF A 3RD ACQUISITION

[maut too] 05/10/2004 06:44

TELEGRAPH


Durlacher chief quits amid cost controversy
By James Moore (Filed: 05/10/2004)


Durlacher chief executive Christopher Stainforth quit the company yesterday amid mounting controversy over its cost base and a £200,000 bonus he received as a result of the company's capital raising in February.



In a terse statement the loss-making investment bank said Mr Stainforth, who did not return calls, had decided to resign immediately. The shares responded by closing up 8.5 at 78.5p.

The company also later said that Zoe Appleyard, the socialite and former girlfriend of Rory Bremner, had resigned as head of Durlacher Ventures, the company's private equity arm, in June. Ms Appleyard, a high-profile appointment of Mr Stainforth's, is still involved with Durlacher on a consultancy basis and is listed as managing director of Durlacher Ventures on its website.

Mr Stainforth will be replaced by head of corporate finance Simon Hirst. Mr Hirst said: "There has been an announcement and that is pretty much all I can say. One thing we are going to do is concentrate on measures to contain our cost base."

Mr Stainforth, who owns more than 2pc of Durlacher and was made chief executive in 2002, is widely seen as having brought stability to the company that was once a star of the dotcom era.

At its height, Durlacher was on the verge of entering the FTSE 100 with its shares changing hands for more than £61, but they collapsed when the technology bubble burst.

Mr Stainforth was brought in to rescue the firm, which he reinvented as a stockbroker to smaller companies, selling off its technology investments, axing staff and bringing in his own people.

However, investors are thought recently to have expressed concerns that the cost base is too high for such a small company, and have been unhappy about the bonus Mr Stainforth received.

Mr Stainforth oversaw Durlacher's £10m cash call earlier in the year and is believed to have received a bonus of around £200,000 for his work. While this meant the company saved on investment banking fees, the payment has annoyed shareholders and Mr Stainforth is understood to have quit in response to investor pressure even though the payment was approved by the remuneration committee.

Mr Stainforth was last year paid a basic salary of £308,000 and is on a one-year service contract.

[michaeld] 04/10/2004 15:10

The market certainly seems to like the news anyway.

[maut too] 04/10/2004 14:50

I hold lots of EVG and they are up again today ... they have enormouus amounts of cash looking for a home

[plexi] 04/10/2004 14:48

Clearly from the sentiments expressed here and by the share price's reaction today Stainforth will not be missed.
Market cap is £14m, cash in bank is £8m. Business still making losses. The interim statement notably quiet abt new business. Of course they'll save £350k on Stainforth's salary, but no doubt that will be gobbled up in rises for the Hirst twins who have taken over (wd be heartening to read an official statement to the contrary) and no doubt Stainforth has negotiated himself a generous pay-off (if the board could be persuaded to give him a raise from £200k to £350k, then it is sensible to assume that he has also got a generous payoff coming).
When the finals come out expect a kitchen sink post-Stainforth set of results which will probably tip the share price south. So what next for shareholders?
1) Nothing happens, the new team grow the business slowly and the share price recovers or
2)A merger/bid. Probables: merger with Seymour Pierce or a takeout by Evolution or possibly even Numis).

[michaeld] 04/10/2004 14:36

Don't be like that mautstwo, your near namesake might be right about this one yet? Make take a while though; sometimes the new man/men in this situation takes the opportunity to get any bad news out of the way, blaming his predecessor and then stocks up with options etc while the shareprice is depressed?
Corporate finance has been doing well and so this bodes well for the future imho.

[maut too] 04/10/2004 14:34

ok - so your short ... out of interest who do you manage to get a price from on such a low cap?

Just received the hard copy of the interim report - at leastt they are keeping the print costs down :-))

[dionis] 04/10/2004 14:31

Stainforth may have gone, but he is being replaced by two even bigger expenditures. The Hirst twins are each on £200k basic a year and guaranteed bonuses of another £200k. So that's £800k of costs between them. Stainforth was on a two year contract, so his severance package is likely to be north of £400k. Then there is the lovely Zoe...perhaps another £100k in serverance pay...and we mustn't forget all those forthcoming redundancies. The bottom line is Durlacher as of yesterday had c.£5m of cash on the balance sheet and very little revenue coming through. Today the cost base is still far too high and by the time the Hirst brothers have paid themselves to stay and everyone else to go the cash position will have dwindled to less than £4m by the end of year.

[mautstwo] 04/10/2004 14:18

mauTToo filthy con man and crook, pumper and dumper and liar- beware.

[maut too] 04/10/2004 14:17

market seems to like the news - now up over 10% on the day - still a punt but becomes a little more interesting

[adh0] 04/10/2004 14:15

Very good news. 1)The man was an arrogant prat (I have had phone converstions with him) 2)Poor results/Excessive greed will not be tolerated by the new large investors, should make the remaining board pull their fingers out.

Still a LONG way to go for any profit on this for me, we are talking 3 year minimum I recon. Where did my £20,000 go!

[maut too] 04/10/2004 13:32

SHARES ARE ALREADY MOVING UP


CAS Durlacher Corp : CEO resigns
04-Oct-2004 14:28

Durlacher Corporation today announced
that Chief Executive Officer
Christopher Stainforth has resigned as
a Director of the Company and of all of
its subsidiaries with immediate effect.
Simon Hirst, who is already a Director
on the Board and is Head of Corporate
Finance at Durlacher Limited, has been
appointed by the Board as Chief
Executive Officer of the Company with
immediate effect.
Julian Hirst, currently Managing
Director of Corporate Finance at
Durlacher Limited, will be appointed as
Head of Corporate Finance in Simon's
place.

ICV Edited News from Dow Jones
1328 GMT Oct 04 2004

[maut too] 04/10/2004 07:34

Well I still hold my modest number - my stop loss was set at 60p on a trailing basis - we have started to tick up over the last two or three trading days

[troutisout] 03/10/2004 19:06

It may be that with Stainforth gone and a serious effort to keep costs down the market may react positively?