Sepura Share Discussion Threads

[1gw] 09/2/2017 14:14

I suppose it's just about credible that they're trying to clear some or all the final regulatory hurdles before issuing the rns. i.e. if they've got the approval from Sepura shareholders today then perhaps Hytera thinks it can get the remaining Chinese approvals through quickly (tomorrow morning Chinese time) and the plan is to issue the rns at 7am UK time tomorrow once these approvals have been obtained.

All speculation, I know.

[tabhair] 09/2/2017 13:40

Let's not panic yet :) I have seen the results for EGM's come in just before market close, so plenty of time.

[1gw] 09/2/2017 13:31

I would have thought Sepura would have drafted RNS's for the different credible outcomes (given the then-current state of proxy voting) and cleared them with Hytera before the meetings, so they just had to pick the right one and issue it.

But then I also thought Sepura would have been able to negotiate a better takeover price in the first place.

[tabhair] 09/2/2017 13:10

I would have thought that a shareholder vote, something that is incredibly material to the business would have to be reported at the earliest possibly convenience.

[gregsc] 09/2/2017 12:51

It's late evening in Shenzhen at the moment, if Sepura have to contact Hytera they may wait a bit.

[tabhair] 09/2/2017 12:47

Perhaps the meeting has been adjourned after all.

[1gw] 09/2/2017 11:19

Having said that, I suppose if they had immediately adjourned the meetings then that presumably would have been obvious to anyone there. So the fairly quiet trading since 10:30 perhaps indicates that didn't happen, or if it did any shareholders there didn't know how to interpret it.

So I would guess that the votes went ahead, which I would have thought meant they were confident of them passing.

Shouldn't be long to wait now.

[1gw] 09/2/2017 10:36

I don't think they would have announced the results at the meetings though (at least that didn't happen when I went to the meetings for another company in a similar situation), so the first anyone knows for sure ought to be when the RNS comes out.

[tabhair] 09/2/2017 09:55

Share price will undoubtedly be indicative of how things have went.

[1gw] 09/2/2017 08:48

Today's the day then. Court Meeting at 10, General Meeting 10:15, so presumably some sort of RNS update around lunchtime. Pass, fail or meetings adjourned?

[1gw] 06/2/2017 21:53

Business as usual still going on. 2 contract wins (or 1 contract win and one successful installation perhaps) announced today on the "news" section of the Sepura site, the first of which (20,000 radios to one of the German states) is a real big one I think. Adds a certain something to speculation about what might happen in the shareholder vote on Thursday. Could this be enough to stiffen Henderson et al's resolve to try to renegotiate with Hytera ahead of the vote?

1. Thuringia places confidence in Sepura for state-wide contract

"Sepura has been awarded a significant contract for almost 20,000 radios by the Free State of Thuringia - the eleventh of the sixteen German states to opt for Sepura TETRA solutions. ..."

2. PowerTrunk announces first commercial TETRA system in US territory of Guam

"PowerTrunk, Inc., part of the Sepura Group, announces the first digital TETRA radio communications system for the U.S. Territory of Guam."

[gregsc] 02/2/2017 11:51

Good theory 1gw, but unfortunately just speculation.
Should know soon whether you are correct, still time for another bidder.

[1gw] 02/2/2017 09:36

Having said that, I think Hytera must have known when it couldn't get Henderson to sign the "irrevocable" commitment, that it might face a last minute renegotiation attempt even without a counter-bidder appearing. So I might hope that Hytera would be prepared to meet that eventuality with a small increase to the price just to close things out, so long as it still sees the deal as a good strategic move.

[1gw] 02/2/2017 09:30

Depends whether they try and then succeed, or try and just re-open in a way that allows Hytera to walk...

[l0ngshanks] 01/2/2017 23:08

Let's hope you are right

[gregsc] 01/2/2017 15:41

I'm still here, and still have my shares (>1M). Voting NO.
I suppose I can make a little bit if the deal goes through, or lose a lot if it goes pear-shaped.
C'est la vie

Interesting that most buyers of the shares recently are French controlled.

[loss-leader] 01/2/2017 14:07

The only reason for anyone to vote against would be if they were confident of an outcome better than 20p. So it feels like a win-win for someone in at the current price of 10p ll

[1gw] 01/2/2017 09:15

I was treating it as a low-cost option before the vote. But I think things change a bit if we get to the vote.

The risk is that shareholders try to finesse the situation by voting down the deal and that Hytera then uses that as an excuse to walk away because it has had second thoughts. Quite a low probability I think, but possible.

I'm not so worried about the main holders. I wouldn't be particularly surprised if, for example, Henderson, Jonathan Green and Michael Sherwood (with 23% between them) try it on and threaten to vote against the deal unless Hytera sweetens it. But I think they would flag that (to Hyteran and Sepura) very clearly ahead of the vote and any negotiation would be done before the vote, with a delay in the vote possible while things were settled. The risk I'm concerned about is that some of the smaller institutional players together with a good chunk of the private investors vote against and they manage to get the 25% needed to block it. This would only be a problem if Hytera really had changed its mind and wasn't prepared to sweeten the deal, but we have no idea how trading has gone over the last couple of months and things may have taken a turn for the worse.

So I think I'm happy to hold my original position through the vote and would expect to get 20p, but I might sell the other 1/2 of the shares I picked up on 16th December before the vote.

[1gw] 31/1/2017 11:32

Is anyone still here?

I've bitten the bullet and sold about 1/2 the ones I bought on 16th December at a small loss. I achieved just over 19.1p compared to the purchase price of 19.5p.

I bought them in the hope of a counter-bid before the shareholder vote. That looks increasingly unlikely to me now and so I am reducing my exposure as I don't want to carry such a big position into the vote.