Sdi Share Discussion Threads

[lawson27] 16/5/2024 13:15

breaching the monthly breakout, GLA

[kemche] 15/5/2024 16:18

In for a few.

[lawson27] 15/5/2024 10:59

Ticking up on small here, up to results, GLA

[rivaldo] 14/5/2024 11:06

SDI have actually confirmed on their web site that the trading update will be on the 20th - next Monday.

Which is I suppose mildly encouraging for the optimists here since Monday updates are on the whole more positive than (say) Friday updates!

[nchanning] 13/5/2024 08:27

Have to say , given the events of the last few months all shareholders would surely have appreciated a prompt trading update . David Cicurel is clearly a very thoughtful and respectful man , so I really don't believe for a second he would be making these kind of pejorative and idiotic comments about buying SDI for 1p . So maybe take with a pinch of salt everything this anonymous twitter user is saying !

[worldwidet] 10/5/2024 14:42

Found on X Twitter :

"Talked to $SDI.L new CEO. Was not impressed. He asked what price discipline means (?), had never even heard of $LIFCO and showed willingness to issue shares for a "transformational deal."

Management does not understand the basic economics of serial acquirers. Hard pass from me.

Absolutely. Furthermore, I asked David Cicurel (CEO of Judges $JDG.L) if he would buy $SDI.L. He said „maybe at 1 pence“ stating the bad underlying businesses they have bought are not worth his time or money."

Source:




(If the Twitter author is lying and spreading false information about an alleged conversation with the SDI CEO and JDG CEO, that would be highly criminal!
!!!Form your own opinion and check for yourself how credible the author is !!!)

[worldwidet] 08/4/2024 20:25

For more than a year now, all the warning lights have been on (The massive selling of executives and the fact that no executives are buying massively even though the share price has fallen 75%). I have shown them but the permabulls have consistently ignored them. Sp -75%. Congratulations bulls.
It is sad how SDI has developed. I had hoped for something different, but I recognized early on where the journey was heading.
Whether they achieve the reduced forecasts in the short term or not is irrelevant. SdI has massive structural problems.
1. managers who are not personally committed to the company in the long term with their own money. No executive DNA of long-term thinking managers who feel like owners.
2. no M&A competence and no M&A networks. SDI always relies on consultants and intermediaries. SDI has no network of its own and no experienced and globally networked M&A executives.
3. no high-quality existing business that produces stable FCF. Past acquisitions were too expensive and of questionable quality. This can be seen in the Monmouth disaster and the collapsing FCF
4. high debt / interest burden and thus an M&A wheel that has come to a standstill.
5. poor corporate communication and poor corporate governance.
The way the CEO's departure was communicated and forecasts that were massively cut a few weeks after the announcement.
7. the new CEO has no M&A expertise. A new COO/M&A manager has to be found and sdi has to fall back on external people because there are no capable managers in its own ranks.
8. the CEO currently seems to be concentrating on the existing business, probably for a given reason. There seem to be massive problems here.
9. the CEO seems to be concentrating on M&A in the USA. Why? UsA is expensive and complex DD is necessary. Risky.
A lot can happen here. I expect the next misstep in the foreseeable future. My opinion. Make your own DD.

[nchanning] 08/4/2024 16:50

Have to agree that the fact that the rest of the board were buying at 120p a few months ago and are now not interested at half price is concerning . On the other hand all that really needs to happen for the price to be 100p + again is to confirm that they are still on track to meet expectations for FY25 . (Can forgive a small miss on the current year )

[worldwidet] 05/4/2024 10:08

I think the management should take £100k or £200k and buy a lot of shares if they think 59p is a fair price. But they have no desire to make relevant purchases and will certainly know why.

20-30p share price ?

waiting ...

[rivaldo] 18/3/2024 14:01

News of yet more encouragingly boring institutional buying :o))

BGF Investments have now gone above 13% with 14.375m shares. So they've bought another 1.24m shares in the last week and almost 3m shares in the last three weeks:

[nchanning] 18/3/2024 10:01

David Cicurel is an absolute legend but SDI on 10 x forward earnings is surely better value than Judges on 30x , when SDI has the size advantage to make smaller acquisitions at better prices . As long as new CEO doesn't butcher the model by making expensive acquisitions, trying to integrate the businesses , or issuing equity at low valuations

[nchanning] 18/3/2024 09:02

They have a perfect model to copy in Judges , just buy the businesses on their own merits , don't integrate them , share best practices . SDI still small enough to make acquisitions at tiny multiples that wouldn't move the needle for Judges

[nchanning] 18/3/2024 08:53

Don't love the emphasis on cross-selling and strategic acquisitions

[nchanning] 18/3/2024 08:47

There's only 1 thing I really want to hear from the new CEO , that he's firmly committed to the strategy of buying niche scientific businesses at 4-6 x EBIT, funded from debt and cashflow . Acceptable if he wants to spend a year improving operational performance and repairing balance sheet first

[rivaldo] 18/3/2024 07:35

Good to see the CEO buying another 14,000 shares at 71.25p:

[worldwidet] 14/3/2024 13:54

A change from rivaldo's boring unimportant copy paste contributions...

A CEO without M&A expertise. Executives who don't buy shares because they supposedly have too low a salary to buy shares. Is this what SDI needs?I sticking with it... not investable (my personal opinion).


2 investors met with the new CEO and CFO and spoke at length.


Read and form your own opinion here.


From the report:

"...On Stephen Brown and Strategy: SDI Group's investment thesis changed from being a serial acquirer to a turnaround company. Right now the company is at an inflection point, and I leave the meeting not knowing what the business model of the "new SDI" is going to be. Are they going to go back to their past business model of serial acquirer (inorganic growth), or are they going to pivot to an industrial holding business model (organic growth)? I would like the answer to be the first option. However, the new CEO seems to have the right qualities for the second strategy (he has a background in operations and product development, and would make a great COO), but he does not have the qualities needed to lead a serial-acquirer (Mike was an expert in financial engineering). Everything will depend on the person they bring in to lead the M&A, his capabilities and, above all, how much they let him do and undo. We shall see..."

The original is in Spanish you have to translate it.

Here is the full length:

[rivaldo] 11/3/2024 08:59

BGF Investment Management are still buying. They now own 12.62%, or 13.134m shares - so they've bought another 1.66m shares in just the last two weeks:

[rivaldo] 08/3/2024 09:27

FYI Octopus AIM VCT2's results this morning had this to say:

"SDI Group disappointed a couple of times over the year due to the end of a contract with Atik cameras, which had been lucrative over the Covid period. However, we are encouraged by the recent change in the management team and the new CEO comes with a wealth of operational experience in the sector."

[dr biotech] 26/2/2024 11:55

LOL, why would he have heard of Lifco?

Might as well asked him whats the capital of Burkina Faso.

What's your definition of "heavily diluted"? 10%? 5%? 0.5%

If they can find a transformative deal then they should go for it. But I would attribute ZERO credence to a twitter poster who can apparently (and I doubt he did) chat with a CEO but asks such stupid questions.

Was it you? or one of your aliases? You have come up with similar guff

[worldwidet] 26/2/2024 11:24

SDI has no CASH for relevant acquisitions. The FCF is melting, the debt and thus the interest burden are exploding.
The companies subs to be losing value massively (see the Monmouth disaster) and takeovers are becoming increasingly expensive (high M&A multiples).

Shareholders are already being heavily diluted with executive bonus options.

I could well imagine that the new CEO (who has no solid M&A history) will be inclined to issue new shares to experiment with M&A.

On Twitter a comment from someone who spoke to the new CEO (I don't know how credible this user is, check for yourself)

"Talked to $SDI.L new CEO. Was not impressed. He asked what price discipline means (?), had never even heard of $LIFCO and showed willingness to issue shares for a "transformational deal." Management does not understand the basic economics of serial acquirers. Hard pass from me."

Source:

[death by donut] 23/2/2024 13:14

Enough of the irrelevant posts already Riv :-)Keep up the good work.DbD :-)

[rivaldo] 23/2/2024 11:47

BGF Investment Management continue to buy - they now own just over 11% with 11.47m shares:



Since early December they've bought just over 3m shares.

[rivaldo] 22/2/2024 11:48

Amusing that WorldwideT feels so desperately the need to have a dig at me when I'm merely acting as the messenger in factually posting others'/institutional buying, plus making just the one entirely balanced general summary of SDI's current status.

WorldwideT might do himself a favour by sticking to the facts rather than getting personal.

Almost all my shares were acquired in the 10p days, and like any sensible investor I've taken nice profits along the way. And I perceive that there may be good money to be made here from this point, whether or not there are short-term bumps in the road, so will continue to post here when there's something meaningful to say or something interesting happens.