Mothercare Share Discussion Threads

[fenners66] 24/11/2023 07:24

Crippling interest rate (19.2%) borrowings have increased and cash has declined £4.5m
They know they have to start shovelling cash into the pension deficit which gets worse over time
and not surprisingly since they are working for the lender they have had covenants waived.

Renegotiate the debt ?

LOL that one has been talked about for long enough now - lender will be happy where they are
and no one else has touched this...

Declining sales. Is this the definition of a zombie company ?

[fenners66] 24/11/2023 07:16

So there are interims .
Reading the words at the top you might think they have done something positive.....

But get to the " Condensed consolidated statement of comprehensive income
For the 26 weeks ended 23 September 2023 "

And there the spin begins to unravel

"Total comprehensive expense for
the period wholly attributable to
equity holders of the parent (11.6) "

Err that's a LOSS to you and me

Leaving the Balance sheet
Total equity (13.3) 1.2 (1.8)

Yes Negative 13.3m going deeper into the red from positive last year to small negative to deep sh*t !

Don't you just love how these directors portray everything is fine and ignore altogether the bad news ?

[applied1] 23/11/2023 16:30

Jimmy ,am I thinking that about this time last year we had "interim results ".

[jimmyloser] 23/11/2023 15:44

applied,
I figure that more than any of us, the mm's would be glad of some upbeat news here 😂

jl

[applied1] 22/11/2023 10:57

Morning ,got to be the tightest spread I've ever seen hear ,any thoughts ?

[applied1] 21/11/2023 10:36

3 things we need here newswise. 1 New CEO 2 Refinancing 3 New territories .

[applied1] 17/11/2023 14:49

Cheers all thanks for the sensible posts,have a good weekend .

[clocktower] 17/11/2023 14:42

I hope your correct jimmy but long may this thread have those that express various views in a sensible way.

Still, I am staying out until I see green shoots and debts being serviced at normal business rates.

[jimmyloser] 17/11/2023 13:40

I take a different view to clock on this. The debt rate will be in the budget. My take is that once they get that critical mass sorted and a credible CEO in place and with interest rates appearing to have peaked, they should negotiate from strength.
Fix the engine or we go nowhere.

I think that they are doing a decent job in an extremely challenging environment. I have plenty of skin in this to back up my views.

Time will see.

imho

[applied1] 17/11/2023 13:04

Thanks for that Clock ,well as isaid the chairman and other directors are the biggest looser here ,3 million given to one director in September.

[clocktower] 17/11/2023 12:57

That was in September applied1 - still paying 19.5% on multi millions and it seems unable to sort it out quickly. We will see about no dilution.

Still they draw their salaries.

[applied1] 17/11/2023 11:45

Surely gents,as in the last statement the chairman stated they were finalising financing without dilution and to tap in to new territories,otherwise we are doomed.

[clocktower] 17/11/2023 11:26

phh9 I appreciate your input, don't get me wrong, long may it continue.

jimmy, while retail sales are down, there are always those that buck the trend and take a larger slice of a smaller market, and I am not suggesting MTC is one of those, in fact, so far they have shown poor choices when it came to appointing an CFO and heaven knows what other mistakes they have made.

[jimmyloser] 17/11/2023 10:54

Just now BBC Business pages..........

Shoppers bought less fuel and food in October as they were hit by rising living costs and poor weather, according to official figures.

The volume of products sold last month fell by 0.3% to the lowest level since February 2021 when large parts of the UK were in Covid lockdowns.

Retail sales had widely been forecast to grow in October.

The worse-than-expected data emerged as recent figures showed the UK economy was failing to grow.

[pgh3] 17/11/2023 10:47

thanks guys and totally appreciate your comments and of course I am fully aware that we operate in a competitive market place blah blah blah.

As I have consistently said, I just give the facts as I see them and I have an insight into the business that you as shareholders don't have.

You are looking at historical information, even when RNS's are issued the information within the business is already generally old.

I work on forward orders, so am seeing from the retailers I work with how the have and are tracking into 2024 and 2025

Good luck all and as I keep saying I hope from my own personal perspective I hope MTC go from strength to strength

Time will tell

[jimmyloser] 17/11/2023 10:31

PGH3
The timescale you mention may just indicate that your products were popular in the Russian market and we are no longer operating there!
Or as Clock points out, sadly your products are no longer of relevance.

Whatever, Good luck.

[applied1] 17/11/2023 10:22

This is great to hear good honest discussions on here ,thank you all from a novice like me .

[clocktower] 17/11/2023 10:12

pgh3 Good to hear you have found other outlets for your production but maybe MTC found that selling volumes of your goods did not give the company a satisfactory return, so they may have concentrated on high margin products, hence the fall off in orders as you say they have not been buying the same type of products from other manufactures.

There could be all sorts of reasons but it does not follow that their business sales are dropping, as they like you may have found other avenues.

[pgh3] 17/11/2023 09:25

I am clearly just sating the facts, the share price doesn't affect me as I don't and have no intention of holding (that's not meant to be a negative..I just have more profitable ventures and earning streams)

I provide the majority or merch for one particular sector to MTC and my order volume for 2024 is down 75% from 2023 (AW23 was down 60% from 2022 - so down 90% from 2 years ago)and I know they are not buying if form another supplier.

I sincerely hope thy survive as I am trying to make the money back from when they went into administration last time

[clocktower] 17/11/2023 08:48

Due to the interest rate being paid I still think the situation is dire and until that is sorted, and the sooner the better will we have a better understanding of MTC.

Still out.

[jimmyloser] 17/11/2023 08:47

Yes, I am sure that you are correct about promotions and offers but they are everywhere you look as retailers fight to have their offerings noticed.I am open minded and will stay cautious though I personally don't see this failing after the Chairman's comments recently.Impo

[applied1] 17/11/2023 08:37

Well if it does go through, the biggest looser will be the chairman with millions of shares in his pension .!!