Renovo Share Discussion Threads

[shaka198] 10/1/2014 17:52

82M shares shown as traded today, no announcement as yet?

[shaka198] 20/12/2013 11:32

A lot of activity today?

[shaka198] 12/12/2013 17:53

All been very soggy the last few weeks, let's hope for a brighter picture in the core business 2014 with all the extra funding support feeding through to higher profits? Management need to watch the level of overheads.

[alimo] 15/11/2013 11:18

At the very least there will be cross selling opportunities, and funds have to be invested.

[charlie] 13/11/2013 15:28

Octopus Investments is a fund management company. It's not in the same business as Renovo!

[alimo] 11/11/2013 01:26

And, there's more . . . .

And now, why are we promoting to Chairman, our own Deputy Chairman Matt Cooper. It's interesting that Matt Cooper was appointed to the Board of UFG as a Non-Executive Director on 23/11/2011, and became the Deputy Chairman of Renovo at the merger back around September. Well he's now Chairman of Renovo, and significantly he is Chairman of Octopus Investments which is probably in the same business as us, but maybe bigger, but as a private company. Two thoughts come to mind and both are wondering if we are being groomed for more M & A action (never a dull moment, eh?). Problem is, have our new Board the mind to take us private, or could Renovo be the vehicle to allow Octopus Investments to become a plc via an agreed and less costly merger. Maybe there is room for Renovo/UFG and Octopus to trade in competition with one another with the same Chairman, or there is a corporate brew in mind. Great opportunity to grow stronger with the latter, but we need to watch out if it's the former. Watch this space for a re-rating, with perhaps an share price surge, one way or the other.

[alimo] 11/11/2013 01:12

Hi, and yup it's still bonny! I wonder how much they actually spent in developing the IP during the years of the Phases. Always amazes me how the LSE and AIM don't appear to be interested in carrying out investigations into why the techy suddenly doesn't work at all, after the Prof and others were paid mega-bucks, and lauded so highly by their peers for all their 'excellent' research. Yes, the millions in residual cash is some compensation, but I'm sure it doesn't cover all the development costs. I was looking forward to being able to plaster the 'free yourself from wrinkles' creams that suddenly disappeared, just like the Alltracel debacle a few years ago. They sold Prevascar to a US outfit for $660K earlier this year, but there ought to be a whole lot more swilling about in expensive dustbins somewhere, no? Hope they didn't just give it all the heave - surely the Prof has some scruples to ensure that if one outfit wants our residue, then the work in progress of all the other products, plus all the other patented IP that hadn't even surfaced, still has value. Shouldn't there be items in the Accounts to say where all the IP is now? Prof Ferguson is still a shareholder isn't he? He must know what happened to it all, and whilst an 'embarrassing' climb down and 'sorry' statement was given to shareholders when Juvista melted away, surely he can't just crawl away and say nothing about the worthlessness of all the other work in progress from the years he headed teams of researchers that could actually have been producing nothing of real value, despite all the plaudits from the bioscientific media.

No secrets please - not after the debacles of the past, surely?

[danwaits] 08/11/2013 15:27

Hi Alimo,
How's bonny Scotland? In answer to your question, there appears to be no value whatsoever left in the much lauded biotech. Of course there's the cash pile left over from the Shire monies and Mr. Ferguson and his partner Ms. O'Kane still have plenty of skin in the game here along with the £M's they made when selling a large portion of their holdings at the top of the market. Hopefully, the old Renovo shareholders should get their money back in a few years if the new business stays on it's current track and the recent Chairman's statement seems quite assuring.

[alimo] 05/11/2013 00:28

Is there no value left in all the millions spent on developing the scarring/skin biotech?

[danwaits] 02/11/2013 16:15

Shaka, 'guess we'll have to wait until March or so for full year results to Dec. 2013 which will include a full six months of UFG trading.
I'm hoping that these will be a good growth story over the next five years or so. The portion of the RNVO cash hoard committed to UFG should generate increased revenues whilst the remaining cash on hand is safely tucked away and slowly increasing. Any expansion of UFG lending should generate greater profits as long as they stick to the current business model which restricts bad loans to less than 1% of total lending.

[shaka198] 01/11/2013 13:23

Anybody any news on how this merger/takeover is going, shares are just going sideways? Seems to be a few reasonable sized trades.

[danwaits] 20/8/2013 13:23

Ultimate Finance Group plc ("UFG" or the "Company")

UFG is pleased to announce that at the Court Meeting and General Meeting held today all resolutions to approve the proposed acquisition of the Company by Renovo Group PLC ("the Acquisition") by way of a scheme of arrangement ("the Scheme") were duly approved. The results of the proxies will be made available on the Company's website (www.ultimatefinance.co.uk) shortly.

The Scheme is conditional on the sanction of the Court and the confirmation of the Capital reduction which is expected to be given at a hearing on 9 September 2013. The Acquisition is conditional on approval of shareholders of Renovo Group PLC which is expected to be given at a general meeting to be held tomorrow on 21 August 2013 and to admission of the new ordinary shares in Renovo Group PLC to be issued as part consideration for the Acquisition to be admitted to AIM.

It is expected that New Renovo Shares will be admitted to trading on AIM on 10 September 2013.

[sbs] 15/8/2013 14:28

I've discussed the amount of text that prospectuses have with the government. They say it is to protect investors - but how can it if no one reads it?

[gnnmartin] 02/8/2013 15:30

281 pages to the prospectus! Why on earth does it need to be so long?

I haven't remotely read it all, just tried to pick out the bits that are worth reading, but with that caution, it looks like a good move to me. Alternative channels for lending to SME is a hot area and could well grow and profitably, especially with the extra cash backing that Renovo can supply.
Nigel Martin

PS. I guess the heading of this board "Renovo (RNVO) $20 billion per year market" is not very appropriate any more!

[alimo] 19/7/2013 18:52

You'd think that a merger with XEN would have more mileage than a complete change in direction to UFG. Are they saying that 20 years of skin/scar bio-research isn't worth anything - I've only heard of one fire sale of Prevescar; what about all the rest of the IP. If none of it has any residual value, then we have to start questioning the ability/motives/integrity of the Prof and other founders that led us all to believe with convincing pictorial evidence that the IP is and was sound through the Phase 1/2 trials. To throw it all away is surely irresponsible and smacks of what is unseemly. Are there no watchdogs to investigate what may become a "legal" ripoff? Ex-employees must have put in years of their skills and bio know how to produce even the IP that hadn't even surfaced prior to the number 1 candidate Juvista going down. Why did Prevescar have value and who is looking after all the patents? I'm thinking we only have accountants looking after the £20+ millions and others might just want us for our "free" money.

All the major shareholders have professional reputations to maintain and lets see them flex their muscle to ensure that the smallest private investor gets good value out of any takeover. There are still officials within our company that owe a high degree of fiduciary duty to shareholders to ensure the accountants don't just wash their hands of Renovo.

[kefta] 17/7/2013 21:45

The potential take over news not gone down too well. Maybe some holders would have preferred a winding up and a return of capital.

[alimo] 29/5/2013 10:55

Somebody seems to be hoovering up the sales but only after the share price has dropped a bit?

[alimo] 09/5/2013 16:46

Wakey, wakey!! Are we to get an Interim Report this year? It was given to us on 8th May 2012. zzz....

[danwaits] 08/4/2013 13:36

Just had a look at UFG, interms out the other day. share price now 25.75 - up from 18.5 purchase price with interm divi up to .45p, so looking like a very good investment so far. A few more like that and holders might get a few bob back.

[alimo] 14/2/2013 12:37

Amazing! Golden Cross back on 14th Jan. share price has grown since, but can we see the sharp rise these often bring?

[gnnmartin] 11/1/2013 13:41

They were a pharmaceutical company with two lines of business. They had products to assist in the early treatment of wounds, and they had treatments to limit undue scarring after surgery. The hope was that the first would produce the revenues necessary to bring the second into approved production, after which we would all be rich. But the wound treatment business barely covered its overheads, and the scar treatment did not show sufficiently convincing advantage in the phase 3 trials. Part of the problem was that there is no objective measure of how disfiguring is a scar, and the subjective measurements tended to be dismissed as .. subjective.

When they decided to get out of the pharmaceuticals business they still had a lot of cash from licence deals where the licensee had walked away. They sold everything they could and shut down what they couldn't, and looked for a new raison d'etre.

Nice to see them tick into new post-redirection high ground.
Nigel Martin

[andrbea] 10/1/2013 13:44

did they have assets or potential at 80p that they no longer have, going forward
or is it just massive debt?

[gnnmartin] 31/12/2012 15:52

None. The past is a different country ... I mean company.
Nigel Martin

[andrbea] 28/12/2012 11:26

is there any prospect of this dog regaining 80p next year?

[alimo] 23/12/2012 02:15

Hm.. We bought in UFG at 18.5p and today the share price is 19.88p so thats worth approx £126800 with an estimate of a full year divi of maybe £73,500 which is a return of approx 11.8%. Yup, interest from investing £27m hasn't been up to much, so this may show the prospect of higher returns if the Board can get a few more deals like this. Incidentally, we have participated in a really high %age of this placing so the guys who are left and running the show have friends in many places. No doubt scratching each others backs. I wonder how much of our cash is going to help finance the future growth of UFG. Is there a block on this at a certain level? Do we really want to be an investment bank in the present climate when the world is teetering on the edge of an abyss? Canny as you go and no sub-prime please.

The really interesting point though is I wonder how long our Board were considering this fairly big investment? Two or three months at least, maybe? If it is a good deal now, then it would have been a good deal back then. Why didn't they just buy 12,000,000 shares in the market back in September. OK, it's always easy to see with hindsight, but we might be sitting on a gain of £700,000 and a prospect of £96,000 divi. OK buying 12m shares at 14p might have been a problem but I'd have taken my hat off to them for making a good investment. Here's hoping our Board pull off better deals than this could have been. If the future growth at UFG depends on more placings then our board need to be more careful with our money. How much commission is involved in a deal such as this and who gets it?