Patisserie Share Discussion Threads

[smcni1968] 07/10/2019 16:46

Pizza Express not looking too good

[onjohn] 07/10/2019 07:16

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At the IPO, Mr Johnson sold 8.8m shares directly, with his wife selling a further 5.1m, generating a total of £23m at the issue price of £1.70 a share. The company also sold new shares, repaying the bank and shareholder loans with the proceeds.

The next year Mr Johnson sold a further 4m shares, raising £12.6m. Between late 2015 and mid-2018 the company paid out a total of 9.71p of dividends per share; on Mr Johnson’s stake that totals £3.75m, though he did not sell any more shares in that time.

After the accounting irregularities were discovered and it emerged that Patisserie Valerie’s cash position was very much weaker than the published accounts stated, Mr Johnson immediately extended £20m of emergency loans to the company. These comprised a three-year interest-free secured loan and a £10m bridging facility, which was paid off from the proceeds of a share placing at 50p a share. The shares were never admitted to trading, and are now likely to be worthless.

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Patisserie Valerie offers a bitter financial lesson
Depending on the outcome of the administration process, Mr Johnson may not receive any repayment on his three-year loan, or the £3m he has extended to ensure that this month’s wage bills were paid in full.

But based on publicly available information, he has put roughly £26m into the company and taken about £46m out, before taxes and professional fees. There is no suggestion of wrongdoing in either the loans or the share sales, but one investor said the numbers were nevertheless “pretty galling” given what has happened to the company.

Mr Johnson did not respond to a request for comment.

[bbmsionlypostafter] 03/9/2019 10:48

A month without a single comment on this fraud.

I remain surprised at the lack of anger & curiosity amongst shareholders.

[pvb] 02/8/2019 16:07

Not the only one then:

Goals Soccer Centres to stay suspended from stock market after 'improper behaviour' stretching back close to a decade identified

[topvest] 29/7/2019 11:35

To be fair at least they are trying to audit some riskier companies. The big-4 don’t seem interested in becoming the Sports Direct auditor for obvious reasons. This is quite a big issue actually. If GT resign then who will want to replace them? Beating up auditors all the time leads to a rather nasty end result.

[sandy133] 28/7/2019 16:02

Doubt they will last long enough to pay the damages!

[meijiman] 28/7/2019 15:55

Shocking goings on at Grant Thornton. The senior people must be made to pay.

[smcni1968] 27/7/2019 21:44

sports direct is another grant thornton client, as are the woodford funds

[bbmsionlypostafter] 21/7/2019 19:58

Has the Patisserie Valerie brand become too toxic to save?

[bbmsionlypostafter] 11/7/2019 11:12

Cheltenham....amongst others.



Patisserie Valerie trims the fat with another 14 closures

[lefrene] 11/7/2019 10:52

There seems to be a tendency in the big auditing firms to leave the donkey work to newly qualified beginners whilst the high and mighty give a brief look over. Quite likely with LJ's high profile and self publicity there was deference to the 'capabilities' of the great man, hence things passed on the nod. Given that LJ ran bakeries supplying Pat Val then he must have known that demand at Pat Val was less than it pretended to be, or will he claim that he was he being ill served by his employee's there too?

I notice the Pat Val outlet in Cheltenham High St has now been culled. Hardly surprising as I have never seen it doing much business, let alone the average £200 an hour, all hours, that the accounts would have required!

[onjohn] 10/7/2019 11:30

Can we get this case heard soon

Luke and the audit partner needs time being detained at her majesty”s pleasure

[meijiman] 10/7/2019 11:25

My feeling is/was that GT were trying to get into the big league and did so by cutting fees to attract bigger clients. This seems to have led to cutting corners. They say a fish rots from the head.

[konradpuss] 10/7/2019 11:09

I am afraid it is a long read. The nutshell is that a partner at Grant Thornton was negligent to the extreme and was struct off with a large fine as well.

The settlement of circa £30 million is at appeal to the Court of Appeal.

[meijiman] 10/7/2019 10:40

I will do..have to be later as off to Wimbledon today!

[konradpuss] 10/7/2019 09:58

meijimam - for some bed time reading look at Assetco Plc v Grant Thornton.

[bbmsionlypostafter] 10/7/2019 00:39

Patisserie Valerie trims the fat with another 14 closures

[bbmsionlypostafter] 10/7/2019 00:38

Is this LJ's get out of jail card? Nuthink to do wiv me Guv, it's them rogue auditors what done it.



Watchdog finds work of Patisserie Valerie auditor unacceptable

[bbmsionlypostafter] 01/7/2019 14:41

Private Eye 1499.

[pvb] 26/6/2019 18:03

...AFAIK his dad is or was a writer and popular historian. An increasingly anti-left, conservative one from the 1970s.

[millennial] 26/6/2019 15:25

Why not a fraudster, his dad was a politician lol

[diku] 25/6/2019 22:46

When one is well off does reputation really matters...more about who you know not what you know...aren't they all in the same boat...




topvest25 Jun '19 - 17:58 - 3201 of 3205
0 1 2
Agreed on giving LJ a wide birth. He stitched me and others up on Signature Restaurants. I think he is in category 2: reputation seriously damaged, but not a fraudster.

[konradpuss] 25/6/2019 22:32

PUGUGLY, I think Peter Boizot was a great man. I never met him, however I know a few people who had and they spoke very highly of him.

I on the other hand knew L.J. in his early days as well as his 'partner in crime' Hugh Osmond. When they reversed Pizza Express into Star Computers Plc it (Pizza Express) was not in great shape. They had some franchise units which were not good and generally it was just pedestrian - not the food or unit design mind.

I think they did a good job in expanding the company and shrinking the pizzas!

L.J. got too far away from the coal face with Patisserie Valerie.

He is very vain and full of himself, oh! and he does not drink!

[topvest] 25/6/2019 20:39

I have a resident troll who is a Woodford fan.