Synthomer Share Discussion Threads

[wigwammer] 26/10/2023 23:14

I really meant the CEO and FD who were responsible for buying Eastman in 2022, consequently leveraging the balance sheet excessively, and also p1ssing away the hundreds of millions extra earned during covid... Caroline Johnstone has been chair since 2020 and presumably party to all these abysmal decisions - I have no idea why shareholders are still paying her £235k pa, and it is embarrassing that she has not been shown the door, imo.

[turvart] 26/10/2023 21:44

Hi Wigwammer,

Was that the reason for todays rise? where did you hear this information? as I can't see any RNS.

Regards.

[wigwammer] 26/10/2023 10:41

The CEO and FD have gone. But rather absurdly, the Chair Caroline Johnstone is still there. She even accepted a 20%+ pay increase last year. £235k for 40 meetings and a circa 90% fall in the shares since she got the role. Makes you weep :(

[montyhedge] 25/10/2023 14:29

Thought I look back in here, after selling out years ago, wtf has happened here. Don't forget shareholders own the company, directors just manage it for a very nice salary, are they still there ?

[1knocker] 20/10/2023 15:32

As a matter of curiosity, what did anyone get per share on letting the rights lapse?
I sold my rights, though not as quickly as in hindsight I should have done.

[tuftymatt] 20/10/2023 09:59

I got my little bit back in cash today.

Good luck all as we really need it here!!

[boystown] 19/10/2023 18:18

Thanks DeanForester; I deliberately let the nil paids lapse but thought my account would have been credited by now - but it doesn't seem to have been yet

[deanforester] 19/10/2023 17:51

Boystown, when a company has a rights issue, the nil paid rights usually have a value. At the end of the day the untaken rights are converted into fully paid up shares and sold. This normally realises a profit which is distributed to the shareholders who did not take up their rights. If you didn't want to take up the rights you could have sold the nil-paid shares in the market. That way you get the money quite a lot earlier.

DF

[boystown] 19/10/2023 12:05

Can anyone tell me; should my account have been credited with proceeds from the rights I didn't take up? My ii account doesn't show any credit for this

[meijiman] 18/10/2023 11:40

It is odd isn't it. There must be a back story to which we are are not privvy...there usually is. The main ways to oust an incompetent Chair is via a majority of the the other execs saying have no confidence (normally privately) or the fund managers who hold the shares informing the same...again normally privately. The FD will not rock the boat as happy to pick up the salary for as long as possible. Many of the non-execs are lightweights or token players well past their sell by date.
Grossly overpaying for acquisitions at the wrong time in the cycle for cash. It's like a mini Marconi!

[wigwammer] 18/10/2023 11:11

I agree totally, meijiman... I have no idea how that lady has kept her position, and even got a 20%+ salary increase last year. Beyond absurd, it is one of the strangest things I have seen in nearly 30 years of investing.

[blackhorse23] 18/10/2023 10:55

Buy GATC , APH & WJG

[tuftymatt] 17/10/2023 20:54

Wow Turvart, a total wipe out from Northern Rock must have been really painful and credit to you in making the recovery.

You are so right it's like snakes and ladders and that's why I think diversification is critical. This one is well under 1% of more portfolio as you just don't know what will blow up next!!

Good luck all 👍🏻

[turvart] 17/10/2023 20:25

1knocker,

Sorry to hear of your loss and anyone else in here for that matter, shares can be cruel, I lost my entire Sipps pension in 2006 with NRK (Northern Rock) and I rebuilt my portfolio to lose 30% of it to EVR (Evraz) last year, this game is like playing snakes and ladders unfortunately.

[hazl] 17/10/2023 20:19

Thanks for the reply Al.
Apologies to holders here.

[turvart] 17/10/2023 20:13

The stupid thing about all this is 18 months ago SYNT was trading at around 320p and I was trading it, I've had immense good luck with timing where I got back out and then starting buying again at around the 125p mark trading about 5-7% and taking the profit of which I did about 3 times and decided my luck is probably up and watched it retrace again. I'm back into it from last week but my holding is very tiny at 500 shares I purchased @ 215p. The madness that keeps going through my mind is the 500 I hold now would of been 10,000 shares and 18 months ago would of been worth around 32K, just utter madness.

Personally I honestly feel this will come good, I'm only betting small but I hope to see this get over 1000p at least, it could even 10 bag, if I'm wrong I've only lost just over a grand.

[meijiman] 17/10/2023 13:48

Incredible this bunch of clowns cling to their jobs after this debacle. There are plenty of other examples of disastrous acquisitions...think Avon Protection did something similar It's usually a US acquisition or being acquired from a US company) and blew up the balance sheet. The Chairwoman should have the word 'mug' tattooed on her forehead. The non execs have played a poor hand very badly by not carrying out proper due diligence. A grotesque loss of shareholder value caused by incompetence.

[al101uk] 17/10/2023 13:16

hazl,

2018... wow! Need to go back and have a look at what I said. I know I made a bit of money the first time I played with it and lost all of that profit the second... We're talking in the low hundreds of pounds here so I'm no expert.

I used a few different exchanges back in the day, I think I ended up on Kraken and Coinbase. If I remember correctly I also used some other site where you could just buy bitcoin at relatively low cost because Coinbase was horrendously expensive, probably still is.

I still have £35 of bitcoin sat in my Coinbase account and that's the only place I'd really trust to hold any money now. Offline wallet for any serious amount of money. No idea what Kraken is like (it's still alive so must have done something right), haven't messed around with any "meaningful" amount of crypto in years.

I do actually use crypto on occasion to pay for stuff online, so tend to have a few quid in there generally.

[my retirement fund] 17/10/2023 13:04

I wonder if the underwriter got shafted on that fundraising? I was astonished they managed to do it without undertakings to change the entire board with a credible team capable of turning it round

[hazl] 17/10/2023 12:01

Completely OT Apologies.


Al101kuk above just seen your 2018 posts about bitcoin.
If I wanted ripple just as a play money experiment....as you did with bitcoin...any recommendations about who to buy it through?

[al101uk] 17/10/2023 11:35

Turvart,

Synthomer paid 11x adjusted EBITDA for Eastmans, that EBITDA number was 31% down from H1 2022 to H1 2023.

They have this to say about that acquisition in the H1 results:

"The performance of AS in the period continues to reflect the lower volume environment as well as the previously disclosed operational reliability and supply chain challenges in the adhesive resins business, acquired from Eastman on 1 April 2022."

They made an statutory operating loss of £12.3 million in that division.

I don't know that the goodwill assigned to that acquisition has any future value.

Hvaing said that I'm not sure that a balance sheet valuation is the way to go with a company like Synthomer. As long as the balance sheet can support the debt, valuation should be focused on earnings adjusted for cyclicality.

I think most of the risk the company faces is still in the balance sheet and further strengthening could very well be required if the downturn continues in to 2024. I say this because they make the comment "with no material recovery in customer demand expected in 2023" and also talk of hitting their debt range by the end of 2024. I therefore assume that they expect to see some kind of recovery at the beginning of 2024.

IF they can get through this without losing too many assets or too much further dilution then you could make a good return here, but the risks are far too high. I haven't even seen the company admit to making a mistake yet, never mind addressing any realistic potential solution.

[my retirement fund] 17/10/2023 10:24

silly cow !