Manx Financial Share Discussion Threads

[tim000] 19/4/2024 21:15

You’ve confirmed that bank balance sheets are complicated! But I do think that the company quoting 52% growth of the Conister loan book is slightly misleading, when it’s not allowing for write-offs.

[smithie6] 19/4/2024 21:02

impaired loans and expensed losses

different numbers

I guess this is because some loans are "temporarily impaired', but not written off or 'expensed'

loans (installments ?) which are late in being paid fall in different categories depending imo on how late they are.
to read all the info in the AR about that one perhaps first needs 3-5 cups of coffee to try to stay awake !!

[smithie6] 19/4/2024 20:56

"But I can’t see any figures disaggregated by each lending company"

...some of that info can be seen by looking at the subsidiary accounts.

more fun than one can shake a stick at !!

[smithie6] 19/4/2024 20:53

...the subsidiaries all get their funds from Conister bank IoM I think

but I guess it depends on what numbers one looks at since loans from Conister to subsidiaries do not go out of the group & hence = 0 upon consolidation for the group accounts, but the group accounts will add up all the loans that go outside of the group, such as to clients on the IoM & from subsidiaries....&; to associate companies & to brokers/others.

[tim000] 19/4/2024 20:46

That’s not what Note 20 shows. But there are no doubt other factors at play, notably lending by subsidiaries other than Conister bank, which presumably declined in 2023 (ie your wholesale lending figures). But I can’t see any figures disaggregated by each lending company.

[smithie6] 19/4/2024 20:30

..I will take a look

but !!

overall the % for impairments was notably lower in '23 than in '22 despite a big increase in loans !!

(whether 24% or 53% increase in loans !)

in 2022 the impairments charge vs profits was £4.0m, while in 2023 it was £4.1m but for a much bigger loan book.

and hence that their lending appraisal process is working very well.

-----

btw
loans
from page 45 of the final AR for 2023

2023 (2022)

wholesale £71m (£79m). 0 impairment
to public. £292m, (£ 210m). expensed £4.1m (£4.0m)

impairment loss on goodwill. £0 (£0.2m. IoM wealth mnmgt co)

-----

chairman's statement on page 4 includes this text
" augmented with ...........and a lower charge for provisioning and impairments."

but !!
as usual !! it appears that the chairman is telling porkies !!
on my calculator £4.1m is an increase from £4.0m, not "lower".

[tim000] 19/4/2024 17:55

Note 20 is worth studying. Gross unsecured household loans increased by £39mn (about 80%) in 2023. But they had to write off nearly £11mn of the book in 2023, so the net carrying value of household loans increased by only £35mn. So the effective interest rate earned on unsecured loans was reduced by about 10pp due to write offs. I don’t know what is normal for UK banks, but that doesn’t suggest their credit appraisal systems are ideal!

[tim000] 19/4/2024 17:34

PS I’m not a shareholder but have the company on watch!

[tim000] 19/4/2024 17:28

The consolidated balance sheet shows a 24% increase in the net carrying value of loans. The subsidiary, Conister bank, increased gross lending by 52%. Note 20 to the accounts suggests that at least one reason for the discrepancy is an increase in loan impairments in 2023, suggesting the 52% increase in gross lending by Conister is misleading, ie before impairments are taken into consideration.

[smithie6] 19/4/2024 14:02

the Edison analysis

the writer has been busy, lots of numbers, although a lot taken from the accounts.

2 items I note, the high average interest rate paid out on deposited money. crazy high imo, as an average. crazy. (as I already thought)

and growth in loans, says it is 24%, whereas I thought it was about 50%, need to double check the AR for that.
=====

AR says "Conister Bank Limited ("Conister") set a new lending record of £352.5 million (2022: £231.4 million), an increase of 52.3%"

while the Edison analysis says " Net interest income (NII) increased 33% and...through 24% loan growth"


If anyone is clever enough to understand why source A says "lending....+ 52%" while source B says "+24% loan growth" perhaps they would be kind enough to post.

[tiswas] 19/4/2024 09:24

Interesting. Even paid for research only seems to be saying that they should be trading 19% above where they are now!

I have only had a brief read too.

[spangle93] 19/4/2024 07:57

Link to Edison review of MFX, as per today's RNS



Have only skimmed it thus far, but goodness knows where they get the average sector P/E from in Table 11

[smithie6] 18/4/2024 15:59

small reminder

if anyone wants to vote via their broker they need to do it very soon, since there are not many days before the AGM.

[smithie6] 18/4/2024 00:30

Thumbs up.

[stewy_18] 17/4/2024 14:08

I voted no for everything except the divis

[smithie6] 16/4/2024 20:47

Stewy_18
Did you vote against the 21% pay rise for the bod ?

(To do that you would need to vote against approving the AR for 2023 since there is surely no specific agenda vote for the 21% pay rise).

-----

I encourage everyone to vote for the shares they hold. As you see fit.

Give separate yes/no votes for the different agenda items. Or take the easy option, like me, and ask your broker to vote NO to everything. ;-)

[smithie6] 16/4/2024 20:20

Stewy_18
...imo the investor relations are arguably poor since Jim Mellon & Gregory Bailey between the 2 of them + conversion of loan notes perhaps have enough votes to win any vote (JM has 19% & GB has 15%, added = 34%
& in any vote that is surely enough to win if another holder of >3% voted with them to get 37-38% since many votes (except for accepting a takeover offer) only get < 76% of shares to be voted, sometimes only ~50% of shares are voted. (Many PIs never vote, & many brokers don't allow their clients to vote because of the extra work for the broker).
So perhaps the directors honestly give a damn about informing the PI shareholders. It takes time & effort & the exec dirs perhaps think they are already busy enough.

The PIs are imo along for the ride, without any voting power to change anything.
However the biggest shareholder holds about 20% (Aeternitas Imperium Privatstiftung. *1) and could push for changes if they wanted. (~1% more than JM who has 19%). Although they perhaps are not fussed enough to try to reduce the number of directors who have been on the bod for >17 years, or protest about the bod's 21% pay rise. Although maybe they might vote against it, we have to wait to see. (But then they perhaps couldn't get any private meetings with the bod to discuss progress/plans).

Personally I don't think a lot of the holders of >3% live on the IoM. But it is a tax haven, & JM is resident there for that reason so I guess there might be a few more rich people there like him. (But if it was me I would prefer Jersey or Monaco or .....since the IoM weather is not ideal & the sea water is surely freezing all year round).

*1. Biggest shareholder has an address in a tax haven if my memory is correct. One time it was I think in Lichtenstein & another time in British Virgin Islands or somewhere.
RNS on 20/3/2020 gives their office address as
Industriering 14, 9490 Ruggell, Liechtenstein.
Is it the holding of a fund or just 1 person ? no idea.
They went to 9-10% when Aaron Banks was selling shares in early 2020, & others were perhaps selling as the COVID crisis hit.

A lot of the big shareholders are linked to tax havens, IoM (JM (19% + CLNs, most of the bod dirs), Lichtenstein (Aeternitas Imperium Privatstiftung 20%) , British Virgin Islands (Zeno Capital >4% at one time, now ?)...
Do any of the people involved know each other at all ?

[smithie6] 16/4/2024 20:09

Spangle93
..'Denham Eke also been on the bod for 17 years'

!! :-(

So, at least 2 dirs have been on the bod for 17 years. :-(

(+ JM. But he would have >30% if he converted his conv. loans, which would be the biggest shareholding; which is perhaps sufficient argument to stay on the bod)

[stewy_18] 16/4/2024 13:03

People, I'm not sure who is invested here but you can vote for/against the re-appointment of Mr Eke by voting in the AGM agenda

TO RE-APPOINT MR DENHAM EKE, A DIRECTOR RETIRING BY ROTATION IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE COMPANY'S ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION

I have done so via my broker. Something has to change at board level IMO.

Very disappointed in last nights Mello. I found the opening 5-10 minutes completely unnecessary and very wooden and perfunctory. That left no time for questions which I guess was their goal? The have no need to state a disclaimer for 1 minute. No one is going to invest off the back of that presentation. Just a wasted opportunity to attract new investors.

Is it just the case that this is a jobs for the boys company?

I guess all the major investors in MFX are probably known to the board and live on the island, so they know they don't need to do anything in terms of investor relations? This is probably the grim reality of the situation.

If that is the case, then liquidity will be the killer here.

If you can't invest in size, why invest at all? I was hoping liquidity would improve as the story developed. I think the way they have reported their results and lack of forecasts have not helped at all.

So next news in 5 months time.

Nice.

[nakedmolerat] 16/4/2024 12:46

i think this is where i prefer time and they seem a bit more transparent

[spangle93] 16/4/2024 12:21

If they were bothered about anyone attending, they wouldn't hold it in the Isle of Man

Jim Mellon may be boss of Master Investor, but for his own bank he's not exactly retail investor friendly

Smithie - you could also point out that Eke has been on the board for 17 years - rather longer than expected under good governance

[davidosh] 15/4/2024 13:20

They should provide a zoom access for the Agm

[smithie6] 15/4/2024 11:24

Btw

Voting at the AGM.

If people communicate their voting intentions to their broker there is a good chance that your broker will submit those votes. My (low cost) broker has.

I am voting NO to all resolutions since I don't agree with
- false data presented by the chairman & the directors in the intro section of the accounts & in presentations
(The chairman states the PAT of PA Ltd is £2.1m while note 32 says it is £1.7m. The Chairman Jim Mellon needs to get his act together).
- the chairman appointing 2 related parties on the bod. (Denham Eke & Gregory Bailey). The chairman has too many votes/people/pawns on the bod imo)
- the senior non-exec, 73 years old, having been on the bod since 2007 !, reeks of chumminess imo, & breaks the good governance guidelines imo (which is for a max of 7 years I think)
- 21% pay rise for the bod, too high imo
- the high number of directors, too many imo.
- too many directors over 70 years old imo
- one non-exec receiving >£90k at this small cap company, too high imo
- the lack of transparency imo in the reporting (£7m for commissions !!, up £4m from £3m yet no explanation at all !)
- the large reduction in underlying performance of the company but with the directors pay increasing 21% !!

Each person to their own view.

[smithie6] 15/4/2024 11:18

Thanks for posting that.

[davidosh] 14/4/2024 23:22

So many posts on here thst you miss the key info...

melloteam 27 Mar '24 - 16:50 - 2093 of 2211

Just to let shareholders and prospective investors know that Manx Financial Group will presenting on the MelloMonday webinar, starting at 5pm on Monday 15th April 2024.

Use code MMTADVFN50 for 50% OFF.