Dyson Share Discussion Threads

[ansc] 08/1/2015 10:01

I e-mailed the company sec last week asking whether, now that DYS consists of just one subsidiary, us minority owners (sometimes referred to as shareholders!) might be getting our one piece of company news a lot earlier than last year. His reply was thus:

"Just before Christmas we decided to run with a time table similar to last year’s and are currently aiming to despatch accounts and put them on our website circa 2nd March. I appreciate that may not be as early as you would currently like but we do keep this under review each year."

Not much change there then. On that basis, fellow shareholders shouldn't hold their breath in anticipation of any good news!!

[jamrol] 22/9/2014 14:12

end of year report due next Tuesday

hxxp://www.dyson-group.com/investor-relations.html

[ansc] 10/6/2014 16:09

Riches are coming our way!!

Success for Dyson at the Metal & Metallurgy China 2014 Exhibition
hxxp://www.dysontc.com/article/success-for-dyson-at-the-metal-andamp-metallurgy-china-2014-exhibition/24/

[ansc] 16/5/2014 08:13

Anyone visiting China next week?

hxxp://www.dysontc.com/article/dysontc-will-be-exhibiting-at-the-metal-andamp-metallurgy-exhibition-china-2014/17/

[jamrol] 30/4/2014 12:19

hxxp://www.dysontc.com/article/dyson-technical-ceramics-seek-new-sales-partnersrepresentation-in-india/22/

[jamrol] 10/3/2014 12:19

is there any possibility of re-listing news on the 27th ?

[sharw] 04/3/2014 11:31

Exactly as last year - the report has landed on my mat on the first Tuesday of March. The best that can be said is that the company is now stable. The balance sheet shows assets of 6.6p per share with no intangibles and net cash. A pre-exceptional pre-tax loss of 132k is recorded for the continuing operations.

As others on this board, my main complaint is the continuing failure to communicate with small shareholders between annual reports. It would have cost very little to publish something about the sale of the Builders' Centre on the website for example. If I lived closer to Sheffield I would go to the AGM on March 27th and raise this. This is particularly annoying as they now propose to publish what little we do get on the website unless you opt out by filling in a card.

[ansc] 28/2/2014 12:15

Five months since DYS's year-end and still no sign of their annual results release; it doesn't bode well for shareholders when they're eventually published.

Pathetic (as as an adjective) doesn't come close to describing the ineffectiveness of management as far as I'm concerned but then, with the company de-listed, I don't suppose they've got any need to meet the regulatory time-limits of a listed company. Presumably, if and when the company reaches profitability, the minority shareholders (us!) will be offered and then coerced to accept some pittance of an offer for our forced (virtually) support over the last five years.

Ain't life grand being in a de-listed situation! But it could be so different under the right management. I was losing 80% of my investment in the company Reflec when it was de-listed under new, dedicated management. Within five years, the company had become profitable, started paying dividends and I was even able to exit showing a 5% profit! So it is possible but highly unlikely under this lot (imho of course!).

[ansc] 10/1/2014 14:39

I e-mailed the company secretary [[e-mail]] last week:

'With the Dyson Group now consisting of just the Technical Ceramics business, as a shareholder, I am hoping that the Annual Results can be published much earlier than last year. Has a date been fixed yet for their release?

It is very disappointing that the last 'News' entry in the company's website was way back on 3 May last year. As this is the only way for shareholders to attempt to monitor the recovery progress of the group since the recent disastrous episode, surely long suffering and supportive shareholders deserve better than this disdainful treatment? Private shareholders may only account for a fraction of the issued share capital now but, after all, they still own part of the company.'

This was his lame reply received yesterday:

'I have now had an opportunity to discuss the production date for our accounts with my CEO. We are on with their preparation at present and have the auditors working on them at present. We aim to finish that process by the end of January when they can be submitted for board approval so we are aiming for a mid February despatch date. The accounts remain relatively complex due to additional work following sales of businesses. This does not impinge too greatly this year as it did last, although we did sell the Builders Centre. I can appreciate your frustration but I hope you understand.'

If it takes them 4.5 months to prepare the company accounts for last year - I have no idea what was meant by 'The accounts remain relatively complex due to additional work following sales of businesses' - you can forget any thoughts of being relisted this year. At that rate, even when they ever decide to (highly unlikely in the immediate future imho), it will take them at least 18 months to get everything ready!

Note his complete disregard of my comment regarding the treatment of small, private investors. Until other agrieved shareholders air their feelings to the directors, they are not going to change this approach.

[jamrol] 03/1/2014 13:48

let's hope that 2014 sees the company relisted

[wakeland] 25/10/2013 16:52

15! no small wonder this co. went to the dogs

[ansc] 21/10/2013 15:29

Worth every penny, sorry £million!

Can anyone recall how many shares our saviour ended up with?

[mrbt] 21/10/2013 15:25

Doesn't mention the bonuses.

[ansc] 21/10/2013 14:31

Who's a clever boy then?!!!!

So all us shareholders need to do now then is sit back and wait for the share price to go soaring skywards! (lol)

[jamrol] 21/10/2013 13:07

from linkedIn headlined "Institute for Turnaround® Case Study Reference" !!!!!!

I like this part...."Shareholders in the Group will continue to benefit from dividend income, the proceeds of the property disposals and disposal proceeds from the remaining trading businesses."

Institute for Turnaround® Case Study Reference
Name of Applicant: Julian Cooper
Name of Applicant's Referee: Richard Obank, Partner DLA Piper
Dyson Group Plc (June 2009 - On-going)
Dyson Group was a LSE listed conglomerate focussed on the production of industrial refractory products. The Group comprised of Saffil, a manufacturer of thermal insulation products for the automotive industry, nine smaller businesses making temperature resistant products and a brown-field freehold property portfolio. The business turnover was around £60 million and employed some 400 staff. Dyson had operations in the UK, Japan, US, China and Indonesia and sold to customers in more than 30 countries.
Dyson was a complex restructuring which involved operational improvement, a de-listing, a debt for equity conversion, a resolution of pension deficit issues and the execution of a divestment strategy.
The Company was facing the following issues:
 The markets in which it was operating were severely depressed and had declined very sharply and quickly following the global financial crisis of 2008.
 The Company had invested into a failed US acquisition which cost the Company around £30 million.
 The Company had progressively over a period of several years increased its level of borrowing by £40m to partly fund this failed acquisition and to support a dividend payment policy.
 It had a very substantial pension deficit in its largest pension scheme (£45m on a buyout basis) and a further £10m deficit in the separate Saffil scheme.
Dyson's financial and operational position had declined significantly during the preceding 12 months. It had issued a series of profit warnings and the shared price had collapsed; Dyson had joined the "99% club", i.e. listed companies which had lost 99% of their market capitalisation. During 2009 Dyson entered a very severe cash crisis, its debt facilities of £47m were almost fully utilised, and the Company was at significant risk of being unable to continue to trade within its facilities. At this point Group EBITDA had fallen to below zero and the Group was haemorrhaging cash. The relationship between the Secured Lenders (LBG and Svenska Handelsbanken) and the Company had broken down. The Secured Lenders had reached a point where they were not prepared to maintain facilities unless a CRO was appointed, and a CRO was appointed during early 2009. However this CRO appointment failed to achieve the desired objectives of the Lenders.
In July 2009 Julian Cooper, a candidate suggested by PWC (adviser to the Secured Lenders), was appointed to replace the incumbent CRO. The Dyson Group CEO left the Group shortly thereafter, and Julian was appointed Group CEO in October 2009. Julian remained as Group CEO, and led the Company through a complex financial and operational restructuring which concluded in November 2010 with the execution of a debt/equity swap agreed with the Shareholders, the Secured Lenders and the Pension Fund Trustees/the Pension Regulator/the Pension Protection Fund. At this point the Chairman stepped down and Julian was appointed Executive Chairman and during the following year led the sale of Saffil to a US competitor which completed in November 2011. Since 2011 Julian has remained as Chairman and overseen a Court sanctioned capital reduction to facilitate the distribution of funds from the Saffil disposal, the progression of a property joint venture with St Modwen Properties Plc, the implementation of a strategic growth plan for Dyson Technical Ceramics (the last remaining refractory business), and the disposal of various noncore subsidiaries.
During this assignment my main skills and competencies that came most into play are listed below with supporting commentary and notes of my personal achievements:
Financial & Operational
 Devised and developed the recovery strategy with support from advisors and the Lenders.
 Presented the restructuring strategy to the Board, the Shareholders, the Secured Lenders, and the Pension Fund stakeholders, which was approved.
 Responsible for cash flow management and for stabilising it which provided the foundation for the operational and balance sheet restructure.
 Responsible for the cost reduction programme and identifying unprofitable areas including the disposal/closure of 8 of the noncore trading businesses (negotiated 3 MBO's including one in US), the last of which is about to complete.
 Was involved significantly in the drafting of documents to support the de-listing of the business, the financial restructuring and the disposal of Saffil.
 Liaised with the Banks to provide a new money requirement of £4.5m to allow the business cash headroom and capacity to pay professional fees relating to the restructuring.
 Was involved in the delisting of the Company from the stock exchange using an innovative technique
 Negotiated and agreed a debt equity swap with the Secured Lenders which saw the Secured Lenders taking 51% of the ordinary equity and £5m of preference shares, the Pension Fund/PPF taking £6m loan stock, £2.5m preference shares and 33% of the ordinary equity.
Change Management
 Identified that there were three core assets that needed to be retained and every other business/asset had to be exited.
 Led the international M&A process for Saffil process that concluded with its sale to a US buyer.
 Led the disposal of the joint venture business in Indonesia.
 Project managed the disposal of non-core trading subsidiaries – four sold from the Group and four wound down.
 Made management and personnel changes – appointed a new MD for Saffil, a new MD for Dyson Technical Ceramics and a new MD for the property business unit.
 Downsized head office and relocated from London to Sheffield.
Stakeholder Interface
 Complete leadership in dealing with the Banks, management team, key employees, professional advisors and the Media.
 Worked alongside the Chairman in liaising heavily with the stakeholders.
 Negotiated, together with the Secured Lenders, an agreement with the PPF regarding their equity interest and shareholder rights in the downsized Group.
 Prepared and reviewed weekly cash reports to the Banks. Initially I led that communication process but once the Bank became more familiar with the new process and the new FD (I had appointed), then increasingly he took over.
 Prepared all significant powerpoint presentations for key stakeholder meetings.
 Extensively involved in the consensual restructurings with the Pension Protection Fund & Trustees for the two Company schemes, including a revised deficit repair schedule for the Saffil scheme.
Technical
 Dealing with extremely complex legislation relating to Company law, merger clearance, onerous contracts, banking & loan security, listing rules and international trade/sanctions.
 Negotiated (with advisers) a complete set of new loan agreements, loan security agreements, a shareholders agreement, the restructuring agreement, and the PPF entry agreement in respect of the financial restructuring.
 Negotiated (with advisers) the sale agreement, warranty agreement and warranty insurance agreement for the sale of Saffil.
 Taking instruction (with advisers) from leading counsel on the application of the rule in Cherry v Boultbee as regards the competing loan securities of the Secured Lenders and the Pension Funds interests.
 Instructed leading US litigation lawyers to advise on the enforceability of an onerous evergreen contract that Saffil has entered into  subsequently negotiated the successful amendment of the contract and thereby removed a critical poison pill.
 Developed, with Peel Hunt/DLA, an innovative approach within the listing rules to the delisting of a financially distressed company.
 Instructed leading international trade lawyers to assist with the resolution of a potentially highly problematic trade relationship with Iran.
 Pursued a series of litigation actions in Indonesia against Dyson's joint venture partner for more than 3 years which ultimately led to the successful sale of Dyson's share to the partner. The sale was executed in Singapore using a complex escrow arrangement.
 Oversaw (for the Company) the European Competition clearance process relating to the acquisition of 84% of the ordinary equity by the Secured Lenders.
 Involved in three very complex and contentious merger clearance processes for the sale of Saffil (US, Germany and UK).
 Negotiated a series of highly complex executive service agreements including long term incentive schemes structured as jointly owned equity schemes.
 Negotiated a complex joint development agreement with St Modwen.
 Promoted (with St Modwen) five complex housing/retail commercial schemes through UK planning processes (in progress).
Outcome
Trading in the Group was stabilised and Group profit returned to a run-rate EBIDTA in excess of £9m.
In July 2011 Saffil was acquired by the US based Unifrax Group which is a leading supplier of insulation to industrial, automotive and fire protection markets. The sale price equated to 10x EBITDA and provided sufficient funds to repay all the Bank debt, secured loan notes and preference shares, and pay a shareholder dividend of £10m
At the time of writing Dyson comprises the property joint venture with St Modwen and Dyson Technical Ceramics. The first planning consent application under the St Modwen agreement has been lodged in February 2013. Dyson Technical Ceramics is trading very successfully; over the past three years its turnover has tripled and profitability has increased from break even to £3m. Dyson Group has no debt, £4m cash at bank, is trading profitably and has net assets of £18m.
The Group remains owned by the Secured Lenders (51%), the PPF (33%), the former register (12%) and an EBT (4%). Shareholders in the Group will continue to benefit from dividend income, the proceeds of the property disposals and disposal proceeds from the remaining trading businesses.
I remain involved with the business as Executive Chairman.
For my work with Dyson I was awarded the Turnaround Practitioner of the Year award 2012 by Insolvency rescue Awards. The project has also won various other awards.
Applicant's Signature: Date:
I confirm that the applicant's case study report fairly represents their involvement in this case.
Referee's Signature: Date:

[ansc] 07/8/2013 09:13

Last night I looked up an email received from the co sec and this is what he wrote just over twelve months ago:

"Dyson has decided it will not produce interims thereby saving significant costs. However, we will endeavour to communicate appropriately with shareholders whenever there is an event or news the Board believes requires prompt communication rather than waiting for the annual report and accounts. This is effectively what we did on the sale of the Saffil business and capital reduction exercise."

So we can deduce from the above that the directors considered the receipt of £1.6m from the sale of the Builders Centre as being insignificant. I suppose it is compared to their own bonus deliberations!

[clangor2] 06/8/2013 19:20

Thanks for your answer Ansc, disappointed as I was hoping the divi was a sign of confidence from ceramic trading profits.

Have banged off e-mail as you suggested. Website itself looks slick now with numerous updates in respect of business news so it shouldn't take much of an effort to add significant news for shareholders. Not expecting much give from the dictators, sorry directors, tho'.

[sharw] 06/8/2013 17:55

jamrol - same answer as before see:

[jamrol] 06/8/2013 16:25

could the company re-float and in this situation what would happen to existing shareholders? also could the company continue to sell parts of the business off and return the left-over change via more dividends?

[sharw] 06/8/2013 13:57

ansc - thanks for that post.

Agreed - it costs nothing to put an item on the news section of the website - and everyone else bar the shareholders seem to have been informed:

www.scci.org.uk/2013/03/dla-piper-advises-dyson-group-on-sale-of-the-builders-centre-sheffield/

www.business-sale.com/news/article/dyson-group-sells-the-builders-centre-37030.html

www.thebusinessdesk.com/yorkshire/news/443239-dyson-group-sells-the-builders-centre.html#

www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net/news/news.asp?id=9086&title=Frank+Key+buys+Builders+Centre+%28Sheffield%29

[ansc] 06/8/2013 13:37

I've been in touch with the company secretary [Richard Mcquinn - [e-mail]] today and the reason for this morning's dividend was because it's some of the proceeds from the sale of the Builders Centre (way back in January) for £1.6m. When I asked him why this news wasn't even posted on their website, he said that the directors have decided that, with the company now being de-listed, there was no obligation for them to do so and communication with shareholders will be restricted to the annual report and accounts.

I told him that I thought it was diabolical that the company co-owners (us!) were being kept in the dark for 12 months of the year especially where financial matters were concerned (i.e. the above sale) especially when it doesn't cost the company a penny to simply put such news on their website. I asked him to make my feelings known to DYS's directors.

I used to own shares in another de-listed company (Reflec) and, in comparison, their communication with shareholders was excellent with Interim reports, contract wins, etc. It is possible therefore and I would encourage other shareholders to email the directors (via Mr McQuinn) to express their dissatisfaction with this ridiculous decision and see whether we can get it changed.

[clangor2] 06/8/2013 11:33

Does anyone know the reason for the sudden generosity ?