Shaft Sink Share Discussion Threads

[muckshifter] 27/6/2013 14:59

Hedgehog's posts 2099 & 2102:
"Muck-Idontreadinvestmentbooks-Shifter,
Thanks for raising the issue of SHFT director/PDMR share buying.
Here are the details of the SHFT director/PDMR share buying over about the last fourteen months:

5th December 2012
22nd, 23rd, 28th November 12
25th April 12"

My response:
Five purchases there Hedgehog, one just after the announcement that shft were going to terminate the contract, ie. they were unable to negotiate termination, which didn't go down well, and four just after the announcement of the huge arbitration claim - doesn't alter the fact that the two executive directors buying 0.21% of the company's shares as their total aggregate holdings spending £39,225 out of salaries totalling £2.43 million, just after the arbitration announcement, looks suspiciously like "comfort" buying to reassure investors.

Hedgehog 2102:
"Note that the sequence of the last four director/PDMR sharebuying announcements began on 22/11/2012 ... just two days after the sequence of the last three work/contract award announcements ended:

(Then lists two completely insignificant contract announcements and the significant Kibali Goldmine main works contract)

Understandably, insiders may not feel comfortable buying too close before an expected contract announcement ..."

My response:
Two of those three announced contracts are not of much consequence at £7m & £10m. The Kibali contract was well flagged on 20th September and would certainly not therefore have inhibited director share buying between that date and the 22nd November, not that it should do at any time anyway, with the nature of this business. But by 20th September, dispute notices would have landed, indicating arbitration was on its way. I suppose the directors may not have felt too comfortable with the idea of buying before that pending announcement, knowing that they might need to buy some after it, and the price would be much lower.

[hedgehog 100] 26/6/2013 21:32

buywell2 20 Jun'13 - 08:08 - 2076 of 2109 0 0
"HedgeHog has been slagging of Source BioScience (SBS) and Cyprotex (CRX) on my threads ... "


Buywell,

I have never posted on your CRX thread (although I can if you want me to).

I have made just one, and only one, post about CRX, on the_doctor's CRX thread: which was semi-humorous: comparing your call for a CRX P/E of 20 with its then historic P/E of over double that:


It's revealing though that just one post has made such a big impact on you: compared to your ceaseless trolling over over the years.
Including probably over a hundred on SHFT I would think - some deeply dishonest.


As regards technical analysis for SHFT:
A reminder of some recent expert technical anaylsis on SHFT, from ADVFN's respected chartist Melfaraj on his thread "Faraj List of Exploding Stocks 9.10 (FAR9)":


melfaraj 25 Apr'13 - 06:43 - 1376 of 1580 0 0

"hedgehog:shft

first i thought you were being plain rude or pulling my leg, but no. the company started life towards the very end of yr 10. it has not done well as the stock has crashed badly and now lain in the doldrum near the bottom at support level.
the chart is saying investors are keeping calm awaiting results. pretty nothing much is happening.
there are however expectant investors following the stock keenly as betold by the volume spikes here and then which have seen the stock propelled to new height, but nowhere to levels of its heydays.
i suggest you wait and see. but there is strong support at current levels. so i do not expect a disaster from current levels to happen."

[hedgehog 100] 26/6/2013 21:06

W.C.,

I've had a look at Cupid, as you suggested. (I'm always on the lookout for good investments.) Thanks for at least offering some positive alternative, instead of just ceaseless bashing, while being unwilling to actually buy anything yourself ...

I agree, the director buy there by Bill Dobbie on 7 March is huge: £987K.

However, the 865,000 shares he purchased (at 114.11p) is just 5.9% of his new holding of 14,676,053 shares, up from 13,811,053 shares.

And CUP's dividends from 2010-2013 (forecasts for 2013) amount to 9.2p/share, so he is in effect just reinvesting back the dividends he has received or expects to receive within the next year or two.

And with CUP currently at just 65.5p, it shows the danger of putting too much emphasis on director share buying without considering other factors.


In addition, Bill Dobbie's buy of £987K. is dwarfed by over £2.5M. of CUP director share selling over the last two years, albeit at higher prices -

CUP's Finance Director sold over £1.2M. of CUP shares last October:

24/10/2012 07:00 UKREG Cupid PLC Director/PDMR Shareholding
"Cupid plc received notification on 23 October 2012 that Mark Doughty, Finance Director of the Company, exercised on that date share options over 600,000 ordinary shares of 2.5p each ("Ordinary Shares") and sold 610,228 shares at an average selling price of 202.08p per share."


And previous to that sold £389K.:

13/09/2011 10:10 UKREG Director's Shareholding
"Cupid plc received notification on 13 September 2011 that Mark Doughty, Finance Director of the Company, exercised share options over 181,333 ordinary shares of 2.5p each ("Ordinary Shares") on 12 September 2011, at an exercise price of 16.25 pence per share, and has sold 161,333 Ordinary Shares at GBP2.41 per share. The options exercised represent share options granted prior to the Company's listing on AIM."


And shortly before that, another CUP director sold £641.78K. of CUP shares:

05/09/2011 15:11 UKREG Director/PDMR Shareholding
"Cupid plc received notification on 5 September 2011 that Martin Higginson, Non Executive Director of the Company, disposed of 261,182 ordinary shares of 2.5p each ("Ordinary Shares") on 2 September 2011, at a price of 245.338 pence per share."


And previous to that sold £325.68K.:

22/07/2011 17:15 UKREG Director/PDMR Shareholding
"Cupid plc received notification on 22 July 2011 that Martin Higginson, Non Executive Director of the Company, disposed of 137,418 ordinary shares of 2.5p each ("Ordinary Shares") on 8 July 2011, at a price of 237 pence per share."



Although CUP shares look cheap, I don't like the business here of online dating. With CUP I feel there's possible supernormal profit margins here, which could well be subject to erosion by competition - especially as 'fashion' can change quickly.

It doesn't have the substance of SHFT in my opinion.

Also, I have personally met SHFT's management and trust them in terms of both ability and integrity.

[buywell2] 26/6/2013 20:12

How can anyone with half a brain cell be bullish on SHFT with a chart like the one above

Please explain in 3 sentences of not more than 50 words each

PS

Keep up your posts on CRX and SBS

HH thanks

[hedgehog 100] 26/6/2013 18:39

W.C.,

On the contrary, it is you who is ignoring the very valid points I have made. Whereas I have fulsomely addressed the issue of SHFT director share buying.

You're also trying to have your cake and eat it. I.e. saying that the directors have "awarded themselves" an incentive, but then saying that they have little interest in the company. Well which is it?

The reality is, 48% of SHFT is owned by three oligarchs, and in effect the directors are awarded what those oligarchs feel is in their (i.e. the oligarchs) best interests. Which in view of their large shareholding in SHFT, means what is best for SHFT.

They would not give away their money if they did not feel that it is in their best interests. And it makes perfect sense that they should wish to incentivise the people they employ to run their company.

Not many people are capable of running an international organisation turning over nearly £200M., and employing about 7,500 people. You need top quality people, and in order to get that, you have to pay for it.

In this respect, the 2012 salaries, fees, & bonuses for the CEO & CFO were as follows:
Alon Davidov £199,616 salary & fees, £160,574 bonuses
Christopher Hall £164,583 salary & fees, £121,442 bonuses

Those don't look at all over-generous to me, and indeed I would be worried if they were paid much less, because it would suggest to me that they were not good enough.

And in order to get their full LTPI award for 2013, the CEO and CFO will have to both deliver good earnings growth and get the share price much higher.


As regards the bonus for the 2010 IPO: we're not buying in at the placing price of 124p are we, and nor is that bonus coming out of 2013 profits (though even if it was, it would be included in the forecasts).


P.S. From the thread "Supercart - on a roll? (SC.)":

The Drewster 9 Feb'12 - 13:51 - 638 of 677 0 0
"From the annual report deposited in November, isn't it good to see the prudent approach directors are taking to their own rewards?
In the 12 months ended December 2009, Michael Wolfe "earned" £533,000 ... but in the 18 months to June 2011, this was reduced to a mere £326,000 - I do hope he is managing ok on such a meagre package. ..."


In 2009, Supercart's turnover was just £7.35M., and they made a pre-tax loss of £2.17M.

[wylecoyote] 25/6/2013 22:18

HH, why do you completely disregard the valid comments about director buying.. I am with muckshifter on that point... Investing is about gathering evidence and hedging your bets against the valuation. .. Also, who is to say that they won't cash in their share options straight away? You also choose to ignore the massive IPO bonus that they awarded themselves. They clearly haven't aligned themselves with the shareholders. You want a director buy with conviction(recently).. take a look at cupid...now that is a buy. ..I studying that one

[hedgehog 100] 25/6/2013 21:35

Some extracts from SHFT's prospectus dated 20th. December 2010 about the shares that may be awarded to the directors, subject to meeting strict performance criteria:

"13. Employee Incentives
13.1 Long Term Incentive Plan (the ''LTIP'')
... The first set of Awards will be made to Alon Davidov, Chris Hall and Rob Schroder. It is proposed that these Directors will receive Awards over a total of 2,250,000 Ordinary Shares (out of a total of 2,500,000 Ordinary Shares subject to Awards under the LTIP) on Admission.
...The performance conditions to be applied to the first set of Awards to be awarded will be measured in stages over the vesting period and will be linked to:
• growth in earnings per share of the Company (''EPS''); and
• growth in the Company's share price. ... "

[N.B. Following the resignation of Robert Schroder in 2011, he has forfeited his rights to receive these LTIP shares.]


I think that this compares favourably with the situation at many companies, where directors are awarded share options without any performance conditions to meet for exercising them.

The directors are clearly very well incentivised to grow both eps and the share price.

And they could potentially earn shareholdings in the company which could be worth millions of pounds in the future.

[hedgehog 100] 25/6/2013 21:08

Note that the sequence of the last four director/PDMR sharebuying announcements began on 22/11/2012 ... just two days after the sequence of the last three work/contract award announcements ended:


20/11/2012 07:09 UKREG Shaft Sinkers Holdings Plc Additional Work Awarded - Afplats
"...The additional work commences immediately, is scheduled to be completed in May 2013, and has a total value of GBP7 million...."


12/11/2012 07:05 UKREG Shaft Sinkers Holdings Plc New Kibali Gold Mine Contract
"... The combined mobilisation and vertical shaft contracts have an estimated total value of GBP82.3 million...."


30/10/2012 15:18 UKREG Shaft Sinkers Holdings Plc Additional Work Awarded
"...At 17 Shaft the Company will carry out additional underground development work to increase the excavation size of the mining levels including additional support and construction requirements, these works combined with additional costs, add GBP10.35 million to the order book...."



Understandably, insiders may not feel comfortable buying too close before an expected contract announcement ...

[hedgehog 100] 25/6/2013 20:57

Whatever you call it, it's still a lot better than no buying at all, or indeed selling, which is what you get with many companies.

[muckshifter] 25/6/2013 20:49

Five purchases there Hedgehog, one just after the announcement that shft were going to terminate the contract, ie. they were unable to negotiate termination, which didn't go down well, and four just after the announcement of the huge arbitration claim - doesn't alter the fact that the two executive directors buying 0.21% of the company's shares as their total aggregate holdings spending £39,225 out of salaries totalling £2.43 million, just after the arbitration announcement, looks suspiciously like "comfort" buying to reassure investors.

[hedgehog 100] 25/6/2013 20:39

Muck-Idontreadinvestmentbooks-Shifter,

Thanks for raising the issue of SHFT director/PDMR share buying.

With SHFT at just 30.25p mid it's certainly worth revisiting this, especially as the buying concerned was all at prices significantly/substantially higher than at present.


Here are the details of the SHFT director/PDMR share buying over about the last fourteen months:

05/12/2012 15:10 UKREG Shaft Sinkers Holdings Plc Director/PDMR Shareholding
"Shaft Sinkers was informed that today, Mr Louis Germishuys, Chief Operating Officer of the Company,acquired 34,115 ordinary shares in the Company at a price of 43.75 pence per share. Louis Germishuys had not previously held any shares in the Company.
Accordingly, Louis Germishuys' resultant beneficial interest comprises 34,115 ordinary shares, representing 0.07 per cent. of the issued ordinary share capital of the Company."


28/11/2012 09:54 UKREG Shaft Sinkers Holdings Plc Director/PDMR Shareholding
"Shaft Sinkers was informed that today, Mr Christopher Hall, Chief Financial Officer of the Company, acquired 13,000 ordinary shares in the Company at a price of 42.5 pence per share.
Accordingly, Christopher Hall's resultant beneficial interest comprises 23,000 ordinary shares, representing 0.05 per cent. of the issued ordinary share capital of the Company."


23/11/2012 07:00 UKREG Shaft Sinkers Holdings Plc Director/PDMR Shareholding
"Shaft Sinkers was informed on 22 November 2012 that on that day, Mr Christopher Hall, Chief Financial Officer of the Company, had acquired 10,000 ordinary shares ("Shares") in the Company at a price of 38.5 pence per share. Christopher Hall had not previously held any Shares in the Company.
Accordingly, Christopher Hall's resultant beneficial interest comprises 10,000 ordinary shares, representing 0.02 per cent. of the issued ordinary share capital of the Company."


22/11/2012 11:11 UKREG Shaft Sinkers Holdings Plc Director/PDMR Shareholding
"Shaft Sinkers was informed on 21 November 2012 that on that day, Mr Alon Davidov, Chief Executive of the Company, had acquired 78,554 ordinary shares ("Shares") in the Company at a price of 38 pence per share. Alon Davidov had not previously held any Shares in the Company.
Accordingly, Alon Davidov's resultant beneficial interest comprises 78,554 ordinary shares, representing 0.17 per cent. of the issued ordinary share capital of the Company."


25/04/2012 14:56 UKREG Director/PDMR Shareholding
"The Company was informed today that Roger Williams, Non-executive Director, acquired 50,000 ordinary shares in the Company on 24 April 2012 at a price of 82 pence per share.
Accordingly, Roger Williams' resultant beneficial interest comprises 50,000 ordinary shares, representing 0.11 per cent. of the issued ordinary share capital of the Company."



Alon Davidov and Roger Williams clearly invested the most: £29.85K. and £41K. respectively.

To anyone worried that these were just 'token purchases' ... well, restrict yourself to just 'token buying yourself' ... i.e not more than about 132,000 shares, if you're paying about 31p!

[hedgehog 100] 25/6/2013 20:17

muckshifter 25 Jun'13 - 13:00 - 2097 of 2097 0 0
"Further to my earlier post 2090, which Hedgehog has as usual attempted to swamp with his repetitive rubbish and desperate attempts to discredit me, I think a more detailed look at our differences would be worthwhile. ... "


Fair enough.

From your Motley Fool 'questionnaire answers' post, with the relevant extract quoted verbatim:

Author: muckshifter
Number: 87214 of 141859
Subject: Re: Something for the long weekend....
Date: 26/08/2006 12:21

"11. "Name an investment or finance related book that will be a great read ?"
Don't read investment books."




Well Muck-Idontreadinvestmentbooks-Shifter,

I DO read investment books.

Here are a few that I're read that I would heartily recommend:

Peter Lynch: "On Up On Wall Street" and "Beating the Street".
Benjamin Graham: "The Intelligent Investor".
Philip Fisher: "Common Stocks & Uncommon Profits".
Kenneth Fisher: "Super Stocks".


Business and investment are two sides of the same coin.
Learning about one is very valuable for the other.
And ignorance of one is harmful to the other.

[buywell2] 25/6/2013 08:39

XEN is down since I closed the thread as requested by a poster ... not you

If you were a chartist which you are obviously not

You can see from the above that since the recent low end of 2012 the share price has broken through previous resistance levels earlier in that same yearto hit 7.5p on 4 occasions

With RNS news expected soon the chart is further poised to test the next chart resistance level

Re Cyprotex(CRX) and SourceBioScience (SBS) two other of my threads .... buying has improved since yourderamp posts ... amny thanks for that please continue

The_doc also did this untill he realized he had played right into my hands as you are



Anyone noticed that BUYING VOLUMES are way UP on both Cyprotex (CRX) and SourceBioScience in the last month ?

Buying Volume building





Ditto
































To any newbes I still have a SELL REC on SHFT

dyor

[hedgehog 100] 24/6/2013 18:40

Buywell2,

Happy fourth birthday for your LPX (now XEN) thread:


buywell2 24 Jun'09 - 16:46 - 1 of 1000

"I am a chartist , but I look at fundementals also before picking a share I like.

I have been looking for a few months since Tepnel Life (TED) was bought out by GenProbe for another company to take it's place ...

The 3yr chart shows recent upwards lifting of moving averages due to good news flow recently ... with the cash now raised , LPX looks set to move into profit in 2010.

NOTE also the bottom may well have been put in now as the share price put in a new high of over 22p

My belief is that the biggest gains are made in the year before profitability is attained PLUS the next two years after as long as profits keep rising. This has been the case in many companies I have looked at eg ATD ABC CRX TED AMS and now looking good for SBS.

The recent Singer note with a price of 41p for Lipoxen looks about right at this point with the share at 15p over a 18 month timescale I believe.

IF the recent purchase of LPX shares by Baxter has anything to do with the swine flu vaccine they will have out by JULY .... then that will be consigned to history."




03/06/2011 07:00 UKREG Final Results

"Final results for the year ended 31 December 2010"

"Losses before tax down 46.7% to GBP1.93m (2009: GBP3.63m"

[buywell2] 24/6/2013 17:21

I suggest double barelled pistols at 20 paces

I will be referee

HedgeHog ... you will fire third

[hedgehog 100] 23/6/2013 22:18

It's hardly surprising that commercial contracts are under discussion for selling the SightPower shaft scanning technology, bearing in mind the financial and safety benefits that it offers.

It should surely sell like hot cakes ... or on second thoughts like "frozen Daiquiris in hell", to quote Ernest Hemingway.

Especially as mining companies are looking to cut jobs and lower costs in the downturn.

And as shaft contractors, SHFT are in a perfect position to market it.


At their AGM earlier this month SHFT reported that they have engaged with a second broker, but that they hadn't started coverage yet.
I would anticipate that this new broker will start to promote the SHFT SightPower 'story' to its clients.

[hedgehog 100] 23/6/2013 21:11

This extracts from SHFT's recent final results (that I posted in the header of this thread) shows that SHFT has invested £1.7M. into the SightPower shaft scanning technology:

29/04/2013 07:01 UKREG Shaft Sinkers Holdings Plc Final Results

"Other intangibles

The Group has invested GBP1.7 million to date in a 75 per cent share of the development of technology for the automated inspection of mine shafts. The development is in the prototype phase and it is envisaged at this stage that the Group will not be required to invest any material amounts going forward."




Now for a bit of 'SHFT syncronicity' regarding this amount of £1.7M.


Apax Partners invested the same sum, i.e. £1.7M., into Cambridge Neurodynamics, later renamed Autonomy.

And their return on that investment?

A cool £1 billion!


"Autonomy stake nets Apax £1bn

By Jonathan Lambeth
12:00AM GMT 26 Feb 2001

APAX Partners, the venture capital firm, is understood to have made a total of around £1 billion on its original investment in software company Autonomy after it sold a final tranche of shares last week.

Apax was one of the original investors in 1994 when the company was called Cambridge Neurodynamics. For the princely sum of £1.7m that Apax invested in Neurodynamics, the VC received a 33pc stake in Autonomy when it was spun out of Neurodynamics in 1996. ..."

[hedgehog 100] 23/6/2013 20:31

The large stake in the SightPower technology held by Shaft Sinkers, a mining services company, can't but help remind me of oil services company Plexus and its oil services technology:


From the thread "Plexus: Developers of innovative oil & gas wellhead technology (POS)":

Masurenguy 21 Apr'08 - 12:57 0 0
"Plexus is an established oil & gas engineering and service business that has developed and patented a proprietary method of engineering for oil and gas field wellheads and connectors, designated POS-GRIP(TM), which involves deforming one tubular member against another to effect gripping and sealing. The company believes that this technology has particular advantages in High Pressure/High Temperature (HP/HT) oil and gas environments for which there is increasing demand throughout the world. The company is seeking to make POS-GRIP a new industry wellhead standard, recognised for its technical performance, safety benefits and time savings...."


And it would be nice if some of the rating and share price performance of Plexus could rub off on SHFT.

POS is a company that actually made less pre-tax profit in its last full year than SHFT did, and had revenues of barely a tenth of SHFT's, but whose current market cap. is over eleven times as high as SHFT's at present!
(SHFT currently 30.25p, market cap. £14.37M.)


Sector Turnover (m) Profit (m) EPS - Basic PE ratio Mkt Cap (m)
OIL EQUIPMENT SERVICES & DISTRIBUTION 19.7 2.4 2.99 66.221 163.9

Price Price Change [%] Bid Offer Open High Low Volume
198.00 0.0 [0.00] 190.00 206.00 - - - -
Market Cap. [m] Shares In Issue [m] Beta EPS DPS PE Ratio Yield 52-Wks-Range
163.88 82.77 0.58 2.99 0.89 66.22 0.45 298.00 - -

[muckshifter] 21/6/2013 20:03

Your usual regularly repeated rubbish I see Hedgehog, and more twisting (or more likely lying), you were caught lying two days ago, now you try to establish more new "facts" which are again lies, 2 of my best three investments were not 40 years ago, one of four was, in that I enjoyed it most.
Presumably, the idea of repeating yourself over and over and over again is that I don't bother to read it, and you "establish" a new lie by default?
I've invested, on and off ever since, and am happy with how my investments worked out.
Where do you get these ideas for each new pack of lies Hedgehog? Obsessed with the state of the industry 40 years ago????? Justify that!! Or is it just the latest attempt to make up lies.

Actually, I think it's just an attempt to annoy me, and make this board unreadable because you have nothing original or valuable to say.
And I have more business experience than you think, perhaps you should tell us what you do for a living, and what you think you know about civil engineering.

[hedgehog 100] 21/6/2013 18:44

THE FANTASY:

The following is an extract from a post which buywell2 (posting as biswell2) made on Interactive Investor four weeks ago today:

"...SHFT will have wage negotiations in june
Anyone thinks wages will not rise?
Which means margins which are already thin or none existent will become wafer thin or loss making..."


THE REALITY:

An extract from SHFT's prospectus dated 20th. December 2010:

"4.6.2 Recent developments
Following annual wage negotiations during July and August 2010, the Group and NUM have agreed an effective 9.9 per cent. increase in total cost to the Group for Category 3–8 employees and 6.1 per cent. for Category A employees. This is broadly in line with wage settlements negotiated in other South African industries. These increases will be passed through to the Group's customers in accordance with the terms of individual contracts."
hxxp://www.shaftsinkersgroup.com/presentations-reports-results.aspx

An extract from my 2013 SHFT AGM (7.6.13) report:

"4. EMPLOYEE PAY RISES

"Your prospectus suggests that your employee pay rises are passed on to your clients. Is that the case?"
That is still very much the case.
SHFT's contracts allow for costs escalation.
They agree pay rises with clients first, and make sure that they can pass them on."


Muckshifter supports the dishonest posting of "buywell2" by attacking me for objecting to such posting, while making no criticism of it himself.